Autograph note signed. Single sheet on printed Armée de Saint-Dominique stationery, Paris: 29 Thermidor, year 10 (i.e. 16 August, 1801), addressed to General Rochambeau. 8 3/4 x 7 5/8 inches (22.5 x 19.5 cm); six lines plus greeting and signature. Fine condition.

Leclerc, Napoleon's brother-in-law, was appointed by him to command the French expedition against Toussaint Louverture. He landed at Cap-Français on Saint-Dominique in February 1802, with 40,000 troops and a promise from Napoleon (who had already privately repudiated it) not to reimpose slavery. It was under Leclerc that Louverture was defeated and surrendered, and (after a period of house arrest) was seized and deported to France, where he died imprisoned in 1803. Rochambeau, the recipient of this note (which instructs him to promote an officer), succeeded Leclerc in command upon the latter's death from yellow fever the following year and was defeated in turn by the rebel general Jean-Jacques Dessalines; on his return voyage, he was captured and interned for nine years by the British.