Memorial

I've finally managed to get a 1914 edition of Edward Fraser's Napoleon the Gaoler which is one of the first histories to summarise the experiences of British prisoners during the Napoleonic Wars, and to present their own accounts of their captivity. Writing of the feared penal depot of Bitche, Fraser adds a little detail that I have never come across before:

According to an English visitor to Bitche a few years ago - the fortress, it may be mentioned, is now in German posession, being within the Alsatian territory ceded at the close of the Franco-German war of 1870 - the names, with ships and regiments, of many of the British prisoners are still to be seen, deeply cut or scored on the outer stone walls of the barracks, more than one name belonging to well-known English, Scottish or Irish families.

The fortress of Bitche survived the two great wars if the 20th century and it still stands, much as it has always done, on its impregnable rock at the foot of the Vosges. I have no idea how many of the buldings of the early 19th century are still extant, but I believe many are still there. I wonder if the names of those sailors and their ships are still carved on the walls?



Citadel of Bitche