{
  "schema": "https://archive.neruda-archives.org/files/context/public-context-v1.schema.json",
  "identifier": "NRA-L-000042",
  "language": "en",
  "status": "published",
  "title": "A soldier's loss while crossing the Rhine",
  "deck": "Mainz under French administration and a request for emergency money",
  "reviewed_on": "2026-07-29",
  "version": "1.0",
  "sections": [
    {
      "heading": "Mainz in 1811",
      "paragraphs": [
        {
          "text": "Devise wrote from Mainz on 14 July 1811. At that date the city formed part of the French Empire and served as the capital of the département of Mont-Tonnerre, a status it held during the period of French administration from 1798 to 1814.",
          "sources": [
            1,
            2
          ]
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "heading": "The accident described in the letter",
      "paragraphs": [
        {
          "text": "Devise says that he had been transferred from the fourth to the sixth battalion on 1 July. While crossing the Rhine in a small boat on 8 July, a surge of water nearly caused a fatal accident. He credits the boatman with saving him and reports the loss of his bag, belongings, musket, giberne and other equipment, leaving him with only the shirt he was wearing.",
          "sources": [
            1
          ]
        },
        {
          "text": "A giberne was a leather-covered cartridge box or pouch used to carry ammunition and related equipment. The term helps identify one item in the reported loss without establishing the soldier's regiment, arm or unit.",
          "sources": [
            1,
            3
          ]
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "heading": "A request to a notary",
      "paragraphs": [
        {
          "text": "The letter asks the notary Jean Baptiste Erard at Hauteville in the Marne for 200 francs. Devise adds that he had borrowed 12 francs from a corporal, presenting the request as immediate relief after the accident.",
          "sources": [
            1
          ]
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "evidence_limits": [
    {
      "text": "The accident, losses and transfer are known from Devise's own account and have not been matched to a military register. No regiment, branch of service or precise battalion organization is inferred. Devise, the corporal and other named persons have not yet been independently identified.",
      "sources": [
        1,
        2,
        3
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sources": [
    {
      "id": "source-1",
      "kind": "Primary source · manuscript",
      "citation": "Neruda Archives, NRA-L-000042, digital images, reviewed transcript and English translation of Devise's letter dated 14 July 1811.",
      "url": "https://archive.neruda-archives.org/NRA-L-000042",
      "link_text": "View the archive record",
      "support": "Supports the transfer, accident, losses, loan and request for 200 francs."
    },
    {
      "id": "source-2",
      "kind": "Municipal historical publication",
      "citation": "Landeshauptstadt Mainz, Forum Regierungsviertel: historische Entwicklung des Regierungsviertels, p. 14.",
      "url": "https://www.mainz.de/medien/internet/downloads/Forum-Regierungsviertel_Broschuere.pdf",
      "link_text": "View the municipal publication",
      "support": "Supports Mainz's administrative status during the French period."
    },
    {
      "id": "source-3",
      "kind": "Historical dictionary",
      "citation": "Dictionnaire de l'Académie française, 9th edition, entry 'giberne'.",
      "url": "https://www.dictionnaire-academie.fr/article/A9G0680",
      "link_text": "Read the dictionary entry",
      "support": "Supports the meaning of giberne as a cartridge box or pouch."
    }
  ],
  "claims": [
    {
      "id": "NRA-L-000042-claim-01",
      "statement": "Mainz was under French administration and capital of Mont-Tonnerre in July 1811.",
      "evidence_type": "independently_confirmed",
      "certainty": "confirmed",
      "source_ids": [
        "source-2"
      ]
    },
    {
      "id": "NRA-L-000042-claim-02",
      "statement": "Devise reports an accident while crossing the Rhine and the loss of his equipment.",
      "evidence_type": "stated_in_document",
      "certainty": "documentary",
      "source_ids": [
        "source-1"
      ]
    },
    {
      "id": "NRA-L-000042-claim-03",
      "statement": "The letter requests 200 francs and records a 12-franc loan from a corporal.",
      "evidence_type": "stated_in_document",
      "certainty": "documentary",
      "source_ids": [
        "source-1"
      ]
    },
    {
      "id": "NRA-L-000042-claim-04",
      "statement": "The writer's regiment and precise unit have not been established.",
      "evidence_type": "unresolved",
      "certainty": "open",
      "source_ids": [
        "source-1"
      ]
    }
  ]
}