To Benjamin Franklin from Barthélémy-Louis-Joseph Schérer de Jouchery, 16 September 1777
From Barthélémy-Louis-Joseph Schérer de Jouchery6
ALS: American Philosophical Society
Paris ce 16 7bre 1777
de l’hotel de Provence rue St. Severin
Monsieur
J’eus l’honneur il y a quelque temps de vous etre Recommandé de la part de Monsieur Le Comte de Maillebois,7 et de vous presenter un ouvrage Militaire intitulé Nouveau traité de La Colonne. Oserois-je vous supplier Monsieur, de vouloir bien m’indiquer un jour ou je pourrai avoir l’honneur de vous presenter mes respects. J’espere aussi que vous voudrez bien me communiquer vos réflexions sur mon ouvrage; votre suffrage ne pouvant qu’y ajouter une grande Consideration. Je suis, en attendant l’honneur de vous voir, avec le plus profond respect Monsieur votre trés humble et trés obeissant serviteur
Scherer DE Jouchery
officier au service de S.M. Imperiale
Notation: de Jouchery, Paris 16. 7b. 17778
6. We cannot identify the treatise about which he is writing, and assume that it was not published. The way he signs himself (even though he had left the Austrian army in 1775) convinces us that he is the Schérer who subsequently rose to prominence. After resigning from the Austrian army he received a French commission in 1780, served from 1785 to 1790 with Maillebois in the Netherlands, and under the Directory was a controversial minister of war and an unsuccessful commander in chief in Italy: Six, Dictionnaire biographique.
7. Who had already, we believe, sent the commissioners a memoir of his own on military organization: above, XXIII, 287 n.
8. On the back of the sheet BF jotted the mileage from Philadelphia to various points on his route to Montreal in 1776, with the addition of the distance from Montreal to Quebec. He never in fact got beyond Montreal.