It was the defeat that spelled the beginning of the end for Napoleon.
The French emperor’s failed invasion of Russia in 1812 left more than 500,000 troops dead, with many long believed to have died from a mixture of the cold, starvation and disease.
Now, experts who studied teeth of soldiers found in a mass grave have identified the exact pathogens that likely contributed to the army’s downfall.
Although historical accounts point to typhus having killed thousands of men, scientists at France‘s Institut Pasteur found no trace of it in the remains of 13 men buried in Vilnius in what is now Lithuania.
Instead, the team of scientists discovered a bacterium that causes the similar paratyphoid fever and another that can cause relapsing fever, an infection transmitted by lice.
Both diseases can give sufferers a high fever, fatigue and digestive problems.
The study authors believe their simultaneous presence contributed to the French troops’s worsening state, especially as they were already weakened by cold, hunger and a lack of sanitation.
Lice are known to have ravaged the French troops throughout the failed invasion.
Experts who studied teeth of soldiers found in a mass grave have identified the exact pathogens that likely contributed to the downfall of Napoleon Bonaparte’s army after the failed invasion of Russia
Napoleon’s failed invasion of Russia left more than 500,000 troops dead. Above: A depiction of Napoleon at the head of the French army as it retreats from Moscow
Of the 13 exhumed soldiers, the teeth of four tested positive for Salmonella enterica, the bacterium that causes paratyphoid fever.
And the teeth of a further two were found to contain Borrelia recurrentis, the bacterium responsible for relapsing fever.
The new study provides the first genetic evidence of two causes of the deaths of French troops that were previously unsuspected.
The exact number of deaths they were responsible for remains a mystery.
And the scientists did only use a limited sample size. The 13 bodies examined came from a grave containing more than 3,000 soldiers’ remains.
However, the study does reveal a correlation between historical descriptions of the symptoms suffered by Napoleon’s army and those that are typical of paratyphoid and relapsing fever.
Lead author Nicolas Rascovan said: ‘It’s very exciting to use a technology we have today to detect and diagnose something that was buried for 200 years.’
The study is published today in the journal Current Biology.
A button found amid French soldiers’ remains during the excavation of the mass grave in Vilnius in what is now Lithuania
When the Russians refused to surrender, Napoleon and his starving men were forced to retreat West amidst the country’s fierce winter
Joaquin Phoenix as Napoleon in Ridley Scott’s 2023 film, riding through the Kremlin
Napoleon’s men made it to Moscow but were forced to retreat when the Russians refused to surrender.
They were faced by plummeting temperatures as winter set in.
By the time they made it back to France, only 110,000 of the original contingent of 650,000 men were still alive.
Napoleon began his invasion of Russia after defeat against Britain, Spain and Portugal in the Peninsular War.
In that conflict, up to half a million of Napoleon’s men had been killed or wounded.
The assault into Russia began in late June 1812. But by the time the French reached Moscow, thousands were starving or freezing to death, as others succumbed to disease or dehydration.
The Russian forces – fighting under the banner of Tsar Alexander I – adopted a scorched earth policy in the hope of driving the French out.
When the Russian surrender failed to materialise, Napoleon ordered his troops to retreat.
As they fled Russia, the French forces were repeatedly attacked by native troops and also beset by lack of fresh supplies and the horrendous weather.
Soon after arriving back in France, Napoleon’s former allies turned on him. At the Battle of Leipzig in 1813, a coalition of forces that included Russian, British and Prussian troops, Napoleon’s forces were defeated.
A further 100,000 men were killed or wounded on the French side.
The French emperor was forced to abdicate a year later when Russians, Austrians and Prussians captured Paris.
He was exiled to Elba but escaped from the Mediterranean island in February 1815, after less than a year away from power.
Having sailed back to France to reclaim the throne, he dared the French army to arrest him.
After they rallied behind him, he went on to lead his forces against the Duke of Wellington’s army at the Battle of Waterloo.
That fight ended in defeat too for the French leader, and he returned to Paris a defeated man.
Having surrendered, he was sent away to exile a second time, this time to the island of Saint Helena in the South Atlantic.
He spent six years there before dying from is believed to have been stomach cancer in 1821.
