Imagine Napoleon’s army, already ravaged by hunger and the biting cold during their disastrous retreat from Russia in 1812. As if the elements weren’t enough, they faced an unseen enemy: deadly bacterial infections.
French researchers embarked on a quest to uncover the invisible threats that decimated these troops. Their only clues? Just 13 teeth, painstakingly recovered from a mass grave in Vilnius, Lithuania. These fragments were all that remained of soldiers who were part of Napoleon’s formidable half-million-strong army, now tragically reduced to a desperate retreat.
Remarkably, each ancient tooth held a microscopic secret: tiny fragments of microbial DNA nestled within tissue and blood. Employing cutting-edge scientific techniques, the researchers unearthed compelling evidence of two previously unsuspected bacterial scourges that plagued these ill-fated soldiers.
The first culprit identified was relapsing fever, a nasty infection spread by lice, much like typhus. Its symptoms were brutal: soaring fevers, aching joints, excruciating headaches, relentless nausea and vomiting, and an overwhelming, debilitating fatigue.
The second devastating disease was paratyphoid fever, typically contracted from tainted food or water. This infection brought with it high fevers, persistent headaches, profound weakness, and severe abdominal pain.
This groundbreaking discovery was detailed in a paper published recently in the scientific journal Current Biology.
While historical records suggest other infectious diseases were rampant, this study unequivocally adds two more formidable killers to the grim list.
“This is truly exceptional work,” remarked Kyle Harper, a historian from the University of Oklahoma, who, despite not being directly involved in the study, recognized its significance.
He further described the findings as an “interesting historical case study,” illuminating what he termed “an extraordinary episode of human suffering.”
However, Mary Fissell, a respected medical historian at Johns Hopkins University, who was not part of the research team, wisely cautioned against drawing overly broad conclusions from a sample size of just 13 teeth.
The lead researchers themselves concurred with this important caveat.
Nicolas Rascovan, a leading expert in ancient DNA at the Institut Pasteur in Paris and the primary author of this new study, emphasized that his team never considered these two pathogens to be the sole reason for the catastrophic loss of life among the troops.
Far more critical, he explained, were the extreme conditions: rampant starvation, severe dehydration, and relentless, deadly cold.
These soldiers, Rascovan vividly described, were teetering precariously on the very brink of survival.
“Under such horrific conditions,” he concluded, “even a seemingly minor infectious disease could easily become a death sentence.”
The tragic saga of Napoleon’s doomed Russian campaign famously inspired Leo Tolstoy’s epic novel “War and Peace,” and continues to captivate—and horrify—historians to this day.
Upon reaching Moscow, Napoleon’s army found their hopes dashed. The city lay in ruins, deliberately torched by its own inhabitants. With no food or vital supplies to be found, the French soldiers were soon “begging for a piece of bread, for linen or sheepskin, and, above all, for shoes,” as one historical account vividly describes.
That October, Napoleon reluctantly commanded a retreat. However, for his already weakened forces, the true nightmare was just beginning. A brutal, frigid winter descended, compounded by a desperate lack of food. These unbearable conditions turned what might have been mild illnesses into deadly foes. Soldiers, weakened and freezing, succumbed one by one, their bodies littering the unforgiving, frozen landscape.
Dr. J.R.L. de Kirckhoff, a French physician who endured the campaign firsthand, offered a haunting description of the scene:
Soldiers, utterly spent, collapsed and surrendered to death. Their despair was profound, born from a complete depletion of both spirit and body, intensified by the grim sight of their comrades lying lifeless on the snow. In such a hasty and deadly retreat, through a land stripped bare, amidst utter chaos, the helpless physician could only watch, astonished, at the suffering he was powerless to stop or remedy.
Regarding the specific ailments that plagued the men, Dr. de Kirckhoff meticulously documented a range of diseases including typhus, debilitating diarrhea, dysentery, various fevers, severe pneumonia, and jaundice.
Back in 2006, an earlier research effort sought to understand the soldiers’ illnesses. That team reported discovering segments of body lice within the soil of the same Vilnius mass grave, with three lice testing positive for trench fever bacteria. They also claimed to find evidence of typhus bacteria in three men’s teeth and trench fever in seven. However, this study predated significant advancements in ancient DNA analysis, rendering its conclusions less conclusive.
Ultimately, both Dr. de Kirckhoff’s historical accounts and modern scientific findings converge on a sobering conclusion: the majority of these soldiers did not perish from battle wounds. Instead, rampant starvation and the brutal, frigid temperatures created a perfect storm, paving the way for infectious diseases to claim countless lives.
“The sheer rate of attrition in this army is astounding,” Dr. Harper observed, “and powerfully illustrates how, before the 20th century, what we often perceive as military conflicts were, in fact, predominantly medical crises.”
These infections, he added grimly, “are diseases that ruthlessly exploit human suffering.”