Napoleon's doomed retreat: DNA from Vilnius mass grave reveals signs of foodborne and lice-borne fever by Justin Jackson, Phys.org ...

What Killed Napoleon’s Soldiers As They Retreated From Moscow in 1812? Scientists Use DNA Analysis to Solve Mystery Napoleon Bonaparte is undoubtedly an illustrious and intriguing figure of history.

In the winter of 1812, Napoleon’s once-mighty army left Russia battered, frostbitten, and starving. The infamous retreat claimed hundreds of thousands of lives, but until recently, no one could ...

When Napoleon’s half-million-strong army retreated from Russia in 1812, around half the men were wiped out by disease, starvation and the extreme cold. Now, state-of-the-art DNA analysis has ...

Historians have long blamed the French general’s disastrous retreat through the Russian winter, as the cold, starvation, and disease caused immeasurable loss of life.

In 1812 an Italian soldier in Napoleon's multinational Grand Armee---the largest fighting force Europe had ever seen---wrote this letter home from Prussia during the army's retreat from Russia.