{[London,] 17 September [1857] 
Dear Engels, 

‘Bernadotte’ is a difficult subject. The French generals who wrote 
under Louis Philippe are mostly his unqualified partisans, just as 

a The source quoted below has not been found. - > See J. Bem, ‘Ueber die 
Vertheidigung Warschau’s am 6 und 7 Sept. 1831’, Allgemeine Zeitung, Nos. 470-75, 
3-6 December 1831.-¢ A reference to the material for Engels’ article ‘Bridge, 
Military’ which Marx promised to look up for him in the British Museum 
Library. - ¢ April in the original 

the present writers under Boustrapa“’ are his unqualified oppo- 
nents. The main points at issue upon which I should appreciate 
information from you are: 

1. His part in the battle of Austerlitz?* as a consequence of the 
manoeuvres he executed before the same. 

2. His conduct at the battle of Jena**; and before the battle of 
Eylau.'” 

3. His conduct at the battle of Wagram.?* 

As regards his embassy in Vienna, things were not quite as you 
present them.’ It has been shown (by inter alia Schlosser, Zur 
Beurtheilung Napoleons) that the Bonapartist journals in Paris 
denounced Bernadotte as a royalist because he did not hang out 
the French flag. They drove him into taking the step which 
Bonaparte subsequently disavowed. 

All in all, Bonaparte sensed that Bernadotte was the ‘statesman’ 
amongst his generals and one intent on pursuing his ‘own plans’. 
He, and more notably his brothers, by their base and petty 
intrigues against Bernadotte, gave him greater prominence than 
he could otherwise have laid claim to. 

Napoleon was, in general, beastly to anyone he suspected of 
‘self-seeking’. 

Your 
K. M. 

Blücher. Yd like you to write something about his principal 
battles, his military qualities generally and, finally, the tactical 
merits upon which Griesheim lays so much stress.” 

Bessiéres, Brune, Brown, Bugeaud, ditto. 

Bosquet in the Crimean campaign. 

Let me have Dana’s list of B’s as I have lost my copy. 

Your 
K. M.