Croix de guerre

The Louisiana Fighting Tigers were made up of the 5th – 9th Louisiana infantry regiments. They were commanded by Brigadier General Harry T. Hays which were under the division commanded by General Jubal Early and in General Richard Ewell’s Corps, which was all part of the Northern Virginia Army under the command of Gen. Robert E. Lee at the Battle of Gettysburg. The Tiger Brigade earned its name from a Louisiana infantry company, Company B. 1st Louisiana Special Battalion and was one of the five infantry companies formed in New Orleans in 1861. The Tigers were mainly Irish immigrant dockworkers, “who were just as tough and resolute as their commander, Major Roberdeau Wheat” (Schreckengost, 2010, para 2). They were violent and rowdy soldiers who happened to be excellent fighters. They earned their nickname “The Tiger Rifles” after fierce fighting at the First Battle of Manassas in July 1861 and later became known as “Wheat’s Tigers”. They served under Wheat until his death at Gains Mill on June 27, 1862. After Wheat’s death, they were disbanded and absorbed into Hay’s Brigade (Schreckengost, 2010). On June 23, 1863, Gen. Robert E Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia began to cross the Pennsylvania state line and Gen. Jubal Early’s division led the way and among Early’s units were 1,600 Louisiana Tigers from Gen. Hay’s Brigade. Gen. Lee’s intent was to take the fighting away from Virginia, take Harrisburg and convince the Union Army that the fight wasn’t worth it anymore. On…

The story of Martin Guerre has traversed centuries and borders. The Return of Martin Guerre (Daniel Vigne, 1982) is an adaptation of a true story of a southern sixteenth-century French village. This film has received attention from historical scholars, mainly because a well-established historian, Natalie Zemon Davis, was a “conseiller historique for the film” (Benson 49). Davis also generated her own academic history of the story after her experience as a consultant. She claims the film had…

This paper will consist of an analysis of the treatments of Martin Guerre in the film The Return of Martin Guerre by Vigne, and On the Lame by Natalie Davis. These two articles may be about the same case however they are significantly different in various ways. The key point of this essay is to make efforts to differentiate the two and show how a chain of historic events can be converted into a movie and also transformed into a book. Both the film and the book have the same name. Strikingly a…

The story of Martin Guerre has traversed centuries and borders. Daniel Vigne told this story with the modern film “The Return of Martin Guerre.” This film has received attention from historical scholars mainly because a well-established historian, Natalie Zamon Davis, was a consultant in the development of this film. Davis also generated her own academic history of the same story after her experience as a consultant. She claimed that after the film gave little consideration to historical facts…

Davis calls her piety into question, even claiming that it is extremely possible that she may have turned toward Protestantism in light of the situation. She has very little support for this opinion, and it is most likely a biased conclusion she drew in order to support her claims. Her questionable reasoning for this thought is that Bertrande may have used the differences between the Catholic and Protestant Churches regarding the institution of marriage to her benefit in The Return of Martin…

The story, The Return of Martin Guerre, by Natalie Zemon Davis is an interesting tale of impersonation and deception. In the story, Bertrande de Rols thoughtfully uses the stereotypes of women to her advantage. Women in the time of this story were thought of the lesser gender; Bertrande benefitted from this idea as she tried to create the life and the marriage that she desired in a world where a woman’s opinion was not often considered. In the very beginning of The Return of Martin Guerre,…

One of the foremost controversial arguments that Davis constructs regarding Bertrand de Rols is that she did, in fact, know that Arnauld du Tilh was not her genuine husband. Davis draws this conclusion from principally circumstantial evidence and crafty inference on her part. One of the chief historical documents, Coras’ Arrest Memorable, that she cites actually states the precisely opposite conclusion. Coras draws the reasonable conclusion that Bertrande knew nothing of the ingenious…

The Return of Martin Guerre depicts the crafty scheme of a clever man in a historic case of identity theft. The Return of Martin Guerre serves as one of the most complete and full accounts of this vivid tale from 16th century rural France. Through deep research and analysis, Davis is able to accurately produce a historical reconstruction of Arnaud De Tilh: the peasant who became Martin Guerre. Natalie Zemon Davis is a leading European historian. She graduated from Smith College, earned a…

The Return of Martin Guerre by Natalie Zemon Davis is a historical tale about sixteenth century identity fraud and the authors who wrote about the Martin Guerre trial. As a historian, Davis uses several forms of writing as her resources including “letter and diaries, autobiographies, memoirs, family histories…plays, lyric poems, and stories.” Davis realizes that these types of resources come with over-exaggerations, gaps, and contradicting perspectives, subsequently she supplements these with…

The film The Return of Martin Guerre details the story of Martin Guerre, a peasant living in 16th century France, who disappears after being accused of stealing sacks of grain by his father. After leaving his wife, Bertrande, and son, Sanxi, for eight years he returns from fighting in the Hundred Years' War. However, doubts arise on whether he is truly Martin or not when three men wandering into the village identify him as Arnaud du Tilh who fought alongside Martin in the war. Martin's uncle…