Mass Graves Found in Jaffa Date to Invasion by Napoleon
"We do not know if Napoleon slaughtered all 3,000 Turkish prisoners at Jaffa or only men who resumed fighting him after their release, as he tells us. There is no archaeological evidence to support the mass slaughter described in the memoirs of Napoleons secretary, Louis Antoine Fauvelet de Bourrienne, who never missed an opportunity to stain the Corsican's reputation."
"...there remained only one way that answered on all the problems created, it was abominable, yet one believed that he (Napoleon) was obliged to take it." Miot 1814, 145
"It was necessary to be on the spot in order to understand the horrible necessity... I have a perfect conviction that he could not do otherwise...." Bourienne 1836, 182
https://www.napoleon-series.org/ins/scholarship98/c_jaffa.html
you are confusing topics, the French or Nabulieone? The French officers were quite shocked when their madman general ordered those prisoners who were granted parole had to be slaughtered by the bayonet.
So because Gourgaud called out Segur for a duel, his version of the Russian Campaign is more accurate???
The factual errors of Nabulieone's memoires must demand at least a work of 10 volumes to refute them.
I am not engaging further in a useless discussion about Jaffa, the facts are evident, it is not even proven, and how could it be, that those who surrendered in good faith of granted pardon - were the identical soldiers who capitulated before. In case you study this incident you will learn that old people as well as women and children were murdered as well, also parole brakers ??
For Nabulieone - excuses, excuses, excuses acting in the identical fashion as the Ottomans.
Over and out.
Regarding Bourrienne, his memoirs were ghost-written, he was fired twice for dishonesty by Napoleon (who actually believed in second chances and Bourrienne was a former classmate-both had attended Brienne and the Ecole Militaire).
Bourrienne's alleged memoirs should not be used as source material for their general unreliability. Maxime de Villemarest was the ghost-writer, an admirer of Talleyrand and wrote a Life of the sacked diplomat. Bourrienne died in an insane asylum in 1834.
A book was published in 1830 which was written by the Comte Boulay de La Meurthe and a group of authors who pointed out the factual errors in Bourrienne's books in a book of 720 pages entitled Bourrienne et ses erreurs which was published in Brussels in 1830.
Volume I:
Volume II:
The contributors to the book(s) included Generals Belliard and Gourgaud, as well as Meneval and Cambaceres.
As an aside, Gourgaud wrote a history of the Russian campaign, and when de Segur came out with his inaccurate version, Gourgaud called him out in a duel and shot him.
Just a general question:
What were the French supposed to do with prisoners that they could not hold or send back to Egypt or feed and that had already broken their parole at least once?
The penalty during the period for breaking parole was death...
And just for comparison, Turkish treatment of prisoners was execrable. They were routinely tortured, abused, and murdered...
Memoirs describe the ice incident at Austerlitz, yet it's argued there,s no archeological evidence, so I guess it just be true, using your logic. The article doesn't argue prisoners were killed, but suggests the numbers might not match the Black Legend.
the author should do his homework, the massacre of the POWs who surrendered in good faith - is well documented not only in one memoir, Nabulieones excuses are just lies - which stick like mud - despite overwhelming evidence otherwise.