Overall: 27cm (10.5in) x 37.5cm (14.5in)
Engraved St Helena award document, no. 39190, to a veteran serviceman Jean Baptiste Petitot of the 93e Regiment de Ligne, together with a bronze St. Helena Medal. Framed and glazed.
The St. Helena medal was available to veterans of the the French Revolutionary armies and the Grande Armée and was issued under the direction of Napoleon III. The obverse shows the bust of Emperor Napoleon I. The reverse inscribed ‘Campagnes de 1792 a 1815. A Ses Compagnons de Gloire sa Derniere Pensee Ste. Helene 5 Mai 1821’. The designer was Albert-Désiré Barre, and his mark (an anchor) is below the bust.
Elements of the 93e Regiment de Ligne particpated in the fight for Hougomont at the Battle of Waterloo. Its record of service extended all the way back to the beginning of the Napoleonic era.
Between 1803-1806, it was in naval service and fought at Trafalgar as marines. In 1807, it was with the Grande Armée at the siege of Colberg; in 1808, Armée d’Espagne; 1809, in Maréchal Massena’s 4e Corps; Eckmühl, Essling and Wagram; 1810, part of the Corps d’Observation de la Hollande; 1811, with the Armée de Catalogne; 1812, with Maréchal Ney’s 3e Corps; Smolensk, Moskowa, Krasnoe, Berezina and in 1813-1814, with Marshal Victor’s 2e Corps d’armée; Dresden, Leipzig, Magdebourg.