ACADEMIE FRANCAISE - Charles COSTA de BEAUREGARD (1835-1909, - Lot 186

ACADEMIE FRANCAISE - Charles COSTA de BEAUREGARD (1835-1909, historian of the Académie française) / Signed autograph manuscript, 12 p in-4, with erasures and corrections, cut into 34 strips and pasted back together for printing, of an account of the War of '70: "It was in 1870, December 8 or 10, the precise date escapes me, Orleans had just been retaken by Prince Frédéric-Charles, and we were retreating, alas! at great speed. Our twelve- or fifteen-hour gallops through snow-covered Sologne had brought us to La Motte-Beuvron, then to Salbris, where a desperate, starving, breathless stampede finally came to a halt..." (Costa took part in the '70s War as commander of the 1st Battalion of Savoy Mobiles, and was wounded and taken prisoner in January 1871 at the battle of La Lizaine at Bethoncourt.