Skeletal remains of 18 of Napoleon Bonaparte’s defeated warriors who died during his unsuccessful invasion of Russia 200 years ago were buried in Lithuania on Monday.
The remains were found last year by workmen outside Lithuania’s capital city, Vilnius. The 18 were discovered at a different place than the remains of the 3,500 Grand Army members who had been found in 2003.
Napoleon’s army numbered as many as 500,000 in 1812 when it entered Lithuania, which at that time belonged to czarist Russia, but after the failed invasion, most soldiers died from illness, frigid temperatures, and starvation leaving only 40,000 survivors.
Russian troops had to throw thousands of corpses into trenches because the ground was frozen, and graves could not be dug.
The troops of the French emperor are finally “buried properly”, said Vytautas Umbrasas, deputy Defense minister of Lithuania, at the funeral ceremony in Vilnius, according to The Associated Press.
The ceremony was attended by the French ambassador in Lithuania, François Laumonier, and by French and Lithuanian officials, soldiers, and diplomats.
The remains were found last year by workmen outside Lithuania’s capital city, Vilnius. The 18 were discovered at a different place than the remains of the 3,500 Grand Army members who had been found in 2003.
Napoleon’s army numbered as many as 500,000 in 1812 when it entered Lithuania, which at that time belonged to czarist Russia, but after the failed invasion, most soldiers died from illness, frigid temperatures, and starvation leaving only 40,000 survivors.
Russian troops had to throw thousands of corpses into trenches because the ground was frozen, and graves could not be dug.
The troops of the French emperor are finally “buried properly”, said Vytautas Umbrasas, deputy Defense minister of Lithuania, at the funeral ceremony in Vilnius, according to The Associated Press.
The ceremony was attended by the French ambassador in Lithuania, François Laumonier, and by French and Lithuanian officials, soldiers, and diplomats.
