Updated 2005-07-20

January 1812: Wolgast, Stralsund in Pomerania
At the beginning of 1812 Napoleon was marching towards Russia. French troops were passing through Swedish Pomerania (at that time the Swedish part of present northern Germany). 
Napoleon had earlier forced Sweden to declare war against his enemy England, in order to stop the English income of trade. Suddenly the French troops occupied the country. Napoleon's reason for this was, that he believed that Sweden, in spite of the declaring of war, was trading with England.
92 Swedish officers, including the commander in Stralsund Ludvig Bartholomé Peyron, colonels, majors, captains and lieutenants, were taken as prisoners of war in Wolgast and Stralsund.

July-August: Stettin
On 5 July the officers and 300 men were sent to Stettin and on 3 August they were ordered by the French commander to march to Magdeburg.
The officers later had to march to Blois, south of Paris.
Other officers of  lower military degrees were sent to Chartres in France.

September - October: Magdeburg
They were staying in Magdeburg on 2 September, according to a letter, from the officers' commander colonel Carl Axel Normann to His Majesty, King Karl XIII of Sweden. (The king's field-marshal and crown prince was the Frenchman Jean Baptiste Bernadotte, who later in 1818 became king of Sweden and was called Karl XIV Johan.)  
On 1 October the officers were ordered to march to Blois in France .

Passing Naumburg, Frankfurt, Kaiserslautern, Metz and Orleans
During October they passed the following cities or villages: Naumburg, Erfurt, Gotha, Vach, Schlüchtern, Gelnhausen, Hanau, Frankfurt, Mayenie, Kaiserslautern, Saarbrücken, Metz, Mars la Tour, Verdun, Ste Menehould, Auve, Châlons-s-Marne, Sommesous, Arcis-s-Aube, Villeneuve-s-Árchevêque, Grisellles, Ladon, Châteauneuf-s-Loire, Orléans and Ménars.

November 1812 - October 1813: Blois in France
On 3 November, after 33 days and more than 1100 km of marching, they arrived at Blois, about 40 km southeast of Orléans. Here the officers (colonels, majors, captains and lieutenants) would be staying as prisoners of war for a hole year.
However as being "prisoners" they seem to have been renting rooms from the inhabitants of Blois!!! *See below!
At the end of every month they had a call at the old castle which was held by the French commander in Blois "monsieur Richier". He seems to be very pleased with the Swedish officers. Some later became heroes when they helped the inhabitants with a big fire.

Non-commissioned officers to Chartres
All the way from Stralsund also some hundred non-commissioned officers had been marching towards France. They were sent to Chartres north of Orléans.    

Prisoner of war - sentenced to death - in Sweden
The prisoner, and formerly commander of Stralsund, colonel Ludvig Bartholomé Peyron was, during his time in Blois, court-martialled in Sweden. He was accused of not having defended Swedish Pomerania sufficiently. (His army consisted of just 1200 men - the French troops of 20 000 men!) The trial of him was carried through, without his presence, and he was sentenced, by the military court, to death!
While staying in Blois he was informed about the verdict, and as he considered himself, as beeing not guilty to the accusion, he applied at Napoleon to go to Stockholm and defend himself.
Interesting is that Peyron was French-speaking and born in Stockholm, and both his parents Barhélemi Toussaint Peyron and Angelique Charlotte Denise Bourgoin were born in France. If his ancestry meant anything we don't know, but he was, even as being a prisoner of war, allowed by Napoleon to leave France!
In April 1813 he received Napoleon's permission to go to the trial in Sweden and left Blois accompanied by French officers. He passed Paris and at the end of May he reached Stralsund, where he was sent to Stockholm. 

October 1813 - March 1814: Amboise
At the end of 1813, 87 officers were sent to Amboise, about 35 km southeast of Blois.  Later 3 more officers arrived. 4 officers were some time in the local hospital, the old monastry. 
The officers were treated very kindly by the French commander Ferrant and they stayed in Amboise for more than 4 months. As in Blois they were renting rooms from the inhabitants of the town. 

March -April 1814: Chinon (Richelieu Poitiers, Aurillac?), Brussels 
At the beginning of March they have been moved to Chinon, via Tours and Azay-le-Rideau. Maybe they also were at Richelieu about 20 km south of this town. They are also said to have been at Poitiers, and maybe also in April to Aurrilac before going to Paris.
From there they marched on to Brussels were they finally were released at the end of April.

May: Tirlemont (=Tienen), Belgium
Some officers, including their commander general lieutenant baron  Gustaf Reinhold von Boije, were staying in Tirlemont from 8 to 19 May.
The same month the officers were released. But were? In Brussels or at Tirlemont?

June: Stralsund, Pomerania
At the end of June, probably on 26, the officers were back in Stralsund as free men.

Do you have any information about these officers , please mail me!
 
 *- Where, at what adresses, and with which families in Blois and Amboise did they live?

- In what more places did they live? Poitiers, Richelieu, Tirlemont (Tienen) and Brussels?

Painting
The miniature-painting to the left was painted and produced probably at Blois, or Amboise in 1812-14 or in Magdeburg 1812.
Do you know anything about the painter or goldsmith?

Continous information
I will increase the information about this subject continously.

SOURCES:

Archives:
Archives municipales de Blois, France
Bibliothèque Abbé Grégoire, Blois, France
Bibliothèque municipale de Blois, France
Conseil Général de Loir-et-Cher, Hôtel du Département, Blois, France
Conseil Géneral d'Indre-et-Loire, Archives départementales, Tour, France
Service Historique de L'Armée de Terre, France
Stedelijk Museum, Archief, Tienen, Belgium
The Military Archives of Sweden (Krigsarkivet), Stockholm, Sweden
The National Archives of Sweden (Riksarkivet), Stockholm, Sweden

Literature:
Bergevin.L - Dupré.A: Histoire de Blois, Blois 1846-47, France
Elgenstierna, Gustaf: Svenska Adelns Ättartavlor, Stockholm 1998, Sweden
Trouessart, Arthur: Ephémérides de Loir-et-Cher, Blois, France
Peyron, Ludwig Bartholomé: Souvenirs et memoires, VII, January 1812- May 1813, Krigsarkivet, Stockholm, Sweden.  
Van Gramberen, Arthur: Merkweerdige gebeurtenissen, Thienen aangaande, binnen de jaren 1813-15, Hagelandse Gedenkschriften, 1908