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Auction: 25066 - Historical Documents, Autographs and Ephemera
Lot: 139

French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars
Admiral Horatio Lord Nelson, The Siege of Bastia
1794 (18 March) Autograph letter signed from "Agamemnon off Bastia" written over two pages with integral address panel reading "William Suckling Esquire, Custom House London".

Contents report that "We are still blocking up Bastia the attack of which has been given up in a most extraordinary manner. What might if it had not been deem'd a most impertinent observation, Viz that Bastia from a place I had found on much closer examination than our General Dundas, could be attack'd to our great advantage. I wrote to Lord Hood requesting an Engineer & Artillery Officer might be sent to examine, to day I have been with them and their report is most favourable for an Attack ... I have so close block’d up the place that one pound of Coarse bread sells for 3 Livres. If the Army will not take it We must by some way or other. General Dundas has quitted the Command differing in opinion with Lord Hood ...". Signed "Your most affectionate Horatio Nelson".

Some fading to paper where exposed within old frame, though perfectly legible and otherwise fine. A rare letter from a thirty-six year old Nelson


provenance:

The John Goddard Collection, November 2015
Bonhams, July 2005

Notes: Then Captain, Horatio Nelson and Lord Hood approached the matter of Bastia with a degree of arrogance that is now famous, expecting to take the town in ten days. Instead the siege lasted six weeks, and a war of attrition ended only when the French Garrison ran out of food and provisions. By August of the same year though, Calvi had surrendered and the French forces had been pushed back from Corsica which was claimed as a self-governing subject of the British Empire.

An interesting early insight into the stubbornness and ambition of the young Nelson.

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Estimate
£4,000 to £6,000

Starting price
£3200