Atsma's and Napoleon

Grandma (Beppe) Trijntje from my father’s side of the family was able to tell us the most fascinating stories, I remember the one about her great grandfather who served under the command of Napoleon in the French army and was sent to Russia for service.
He deserted the army and started to walk back home where he arrived after some years. I had heard from various uncles over the years that it must have been Willem Geerts Atsma, who lived from 1791 till 1874.
Funny but I found a book about the history of Toppenhuzen and Twellegea (two small villages in Friesland) where the story by Oepke Santema (an author) was documented.
I have retyped it and it is now placed in this part of my website. (Translated from Frisian to English by Johan W. de Boer)
Beppe Trijntje also told me in connection with this story about another member of the family who was an excellent violin player. I don’t know if that was Willem Geerts or his brother Wouter Geerts, who did not survive the trip to Russia, or someone else, I just don’t remember. In the story the name of the brothers name is Ane.

Taken from: “History of Toppenhuzen and Twellega”
Author: Oepke Santema, 1939.

Napoleon is recruiting soldiers from this immediate area.

I don’t know how life was in Toppenhuzen and Twellegea during the French occupation . What I did find was that young male citizens of Toppenhuzen and Twellegea were required to sign up for Napoleons army, who was the Ruler at the time.

In the Frisian newspaper “The Leeuwarder Newspaper” of May 1, 1874 the following advertisement was placed:

“In the late evening, in his eighty third year our dear father, father in law

Willem Geerts Atsma,

peacefully died.
Willem Geerts Atsma: The passing away of our dear fathermeansthe end of an era and it makes all of us very sad. We are however thankful to God, who left him on earth for such a long time. We are especially thankful with the memory that during the prime of his life he served as a soldier in Napoleon’s army.
During his service he was exposed to many exercises in the field into Germany, endured life-threatening battles while in the army. There where many hardships and lack of food and supplies in this period. Eventually he deserted the army while he was in East Prussia which than was part of Poland and returned back to his homeland.
Once back, he was blessed with temporary supplies that he accepted with thankfulness in his own shy way, like his personality he maintained a quiet, calm life style, which he continued to enjoy to the extended age of almost eighty-three years.

Uitwellingerga, April 24,1874.

On behalf of Children and Inlaws.
F.W. Atsma”

From Mr. A.L. Atsma who lives at the South-end of the village, a detailed story of this individual and his adventures weretold. I found it so very interesting it would be a shame if it should not be documented for future generations to be enjoyed.Willem Geerts Atsma, had a twin brother, his name was Ane, they meant a lot to each other. It was not only that Willem loved his brother very much; it was equal the other way around.

Willem and Ane in the French army.

When in the year 1811, Willem was assigned to serve in Napoleon’s army, the world, it seemed, almost came to an end. As a volunteer, Ane decided to also join the army, just to be alongside his brother. As soon they arrived with their company in Germany, it was decided for them that the brothers must serve in different divisions of the army, with the unexpected result that they would still be separated from each other.
Only once since the separation did they see one and other for the last time. Ane was just going to the front lines of the war, when the others returned. At that time, Willem had more than enough of the fighting and considered seriously deserting. He did realize however if he continued to execute this plan, the consequences for him would be the death penalty.
He was not the only one in his company with the idea of desertion; there were many soldiers with the same train of thought. One evening Willem said to himself: “What difference will it make whether they shoot me here in the field or if I live a little longer with eventually the same end result.”

Willem decides to quit.

On of the Germans in the army followed him when he deserted, and it did not take long for tough times to come along for both deserters. It was too scary for traveling by daylight, so they found cover underneath leafs or in a covered ditch. Most of the evenings or through the night they tried to make progress through forests, ditches and other protected areas. It did not take very long for hunger to set in, but it was impossible to ask any of the citizens for supplies, any of the travelers they ran into in the villages or the fields, could be an associate or friendly with the French. The consequence was to steal the things they needed.
Yet there was no other way!
One evening they thought they were caught. On the topside of a door, they noticed somebody was looking in their direction; did he see them? It felt that a goose walked over their grave; that’s how scared they were, they almost dropped dead.
Lady luck was with them, they noticed that the man was hanging over the door and was observing the weather. Needless to say that this experience stayed with them for the rest of their lives.

In Russia.

Fleeing their way in front of the French army, they ended up through Polish Prussia, in Russia. Here they got a little more nerve and traveled a bit more by daylight because the Russians are the enemy of the French.
To be asking or begging for food was not much to their liking either, therefore they decided to look for employment. One day they approached a Russian farmer, stopped and talked to him. Luck was with them, he told them to meet him at his farm where they could cut wood for his family. He gave them his name, which would be the password for his family to let the strangers access his property.
In the meanwhile, Napoleons army continued their way to Moscow to capture the city.
But the deserters were not out of danger, an order came that all deserters must be turned over to the army command or the citizens would suffer the consequence.

Running out of Russia.

All farmers were told to chase them out of the country behind the French and Russian army so the two deserters continued in the direction of home. It was a slow journey; they had to go by foot all the way through Germany to get back home.
Finally after being away from home a long time, one day Willem Geerts stood in front of the door at the Noord- End of the village at the home of his family. He was greeted by all of the family, as he was a person “Resurrected from the Death”.
In around 1831, he became a member of the church; later in 1837he was elected as a church elder.
He did not wish to talk about his experience about his trip to Russia, so the story goes. Every time someone brought the subject of the French army into a discussion, he broke out in tears.
Eventually one of his daughters was able to get bits and pieces of information from him as time went on and continued to tell the story to her children. The memory of this man will stay with all the citizens of Toppenhuzen and Twellegeasters forever in his honor.

Ane stayed behind in Eastern Prussia?

The final days of Ane are not known. But strange enough, a brother of Ane Lammerts Atsma, (he is the one who assisted me so very much in telling the story hereby documented) met in the city Patterson, USA, an older lady, her name was Mrs. Gerardus Atsma, she was a widow and was originally from Eastern Prussia!
The question was did Ane settle in that area, (Eastern Prussia) because he was under the impression that Willem had died in the war? Maybe he named his son after his father whose name was Geert in Frisian, which in German translates to Gerardus. Questions for which there were no answers initially, but must be worthwhile to find out.
To end this interesting history we mention that Willem and Ane were step (half) brothers from Ate Geerts, the famous speed skater from Tersoal, and that some of the family also came from that area.

The following information was found in 'Tresoar', the provincial library:

Soldiers Napoleon army

# 68. Name: Willem Geerts, Occupation: Farmer
Specific Data: Not given. City of entry: Jorwerd 1811.
Date of Birth: 22-10-1791, Village Beers.
Parents: Geerts Atzes Atsma and Sietske Wouters.
Figures of Interest: Drafted; 07-12-1812, soldier, general infantry, Line # 5047, fifth’ battalion, second company; 12-03-1813, 134th regiment infantry.
Declared missing: 17-10-1813, classified as deserter.
Returned to Friesland; in 24-04-1874
died as widower, at Uitwellingerga
Information obtained from: RAF Coll.Visser.

# 69. Wouter Geert Atsma, Farm laborer.
Place of birth: Terzool 25-6-1790, living in Jorwerd, Friesland.
Parents: Geert Ates Atsma amd Sietske Wouters.
Specific date of interst: Replacement for Andries Andries Nieuwland (1791)
at Marssum; December 7, 1812. Assigned to: 125th regiment of the infantry registration # 5131, 2nd company 5th battalion; 12-03-1813. 134th regiment of the infantry.
Returned: 07-02-1814. Died in a military hospital at Maagdenburg.
Search information from: RAF Coll. Visser, Entry: 8 info # 4062 # 306.

English version: de Boer

Willem and Wouter didn't go to Moskow but took part of "The Battle of Nations" at Leipzig, 1813. After the first day of the battle on the 16the he deserted on the 17the.