Napoleon’s retreat by Vasily VereshchaginThe bodies of some 200 soldiers from the Napoleonic army have been unearthed from a mass grave found near the German city of Frankfurt. The discovery was made during a construction project in Frankfurt, which turned the site into a massive excavation project led by the Frankfurt’s heritage and historic monuments.
According to the director of Heritage and Historic Monuments of Frankfurt, Andrea Hampel said that all the evidence indicates that these soldiers belong the Napoleon army that invaded Russia in 1812. She also added that the fact that coffins were buried in a non traditional orientation i.e. facing north-south instead of east-west, suggests that the graves were dig in great hurry.
This discovery is very significant for the historians since the invasion of Russia by Napoleon is of great importance for European historians. Napoleon rise to power was no less than a miracle, and after he took to the reigns of the vast French Empire it was only natural for a ruler like him to think of expansion at any cost. With Napoleon’s rise to power came the great unrest for other empires and little federations in the European continent. Napoleon was not only ruthless dictator, he was also a great general and strategist. During a conversation with one of his adversaries Napoleon had famously made the comment that he measured the victory and superiority of an empire with its ability to lose lives in the battlefield.
Historians pretty much agree upon the fact that Napoleon’s ill prepared and hasty invasion of Russia was actually the start point of his eventual downfall, which was sealed in the famous Battle of Waterloo in 1815 at the hands of Britain, Prussia and the Dutch.
