CDV of Robert Philippe Louis Eugène Ferdinand of Orléans Aid to Gen McClellan

CDV of Robert Philippe Louis Eugène Ferdinand of Orléans, Duke of Chartres Aid to General McClellan. CDV is marked by Mathew Brady. Possibly signed by Robert, unfortunatley I was unable to find any verified signatures.
 
Robert was born in Paris on 9 November 1840. In 1848, his family went into exile when the Second French Republic was proclaimed. Sent to Turin, Italy, for military training in the late 1850s, the Duke of Chartres became an officer in the Piedmontese dragoons and fought in the Wars of Italian Unification on the side of France and the House of Savoy from 1859 onwards.

He and his older brother were commissioned captains in the Union Army during the American Civil War. He served as an assistant adjutant general on the staff of Maj. Gen. George B. McClellan. He resigned from the Union Army on 15 July 1862. Although eligible, Chartres did not join the Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States.

Returning to Europe, in 1870 on the declaration of the Franco-Prussian War, the Duke of Chartres immediately requested Napoleon III’s government for authorization to fight in the conflict. However, his application was rejected and wasn’t able to fight until the fall of the French Empire. He then fought under the pseudonym Robert Le Fort and was made head of a squadron in the Armée de la Loire, fighting with such distinction he was made a Chevalier of the Légion d’honneur once the war was over. The provisional government kept him at that rank and in 1871 sent him to Algeria to put down a native revolt.

In 1881, the Republican regime removed him from his post as colonel of the 19th Mounted Chasseur Regiment. Then in 1886, he was exiled. He eventually was allowed to return and died on 5 December 1910 in Saint Firmin, France.