Napoleon's troops buried

Under French tricolor flags, the remains of 3,000 French soldiers who froze or starved to death two centuries ago during Napoleon's catastrophic invasion of Russia were laid to rest Sunday in Lithuania. . .

Priests blessed a granite, wall-like monument to the soldiers, among the last remnants of a French force that had numbered over 500,000 men. . .

Since Napoleon's soldiers came from all over his empire including Italy, Germany, Poland and Lithuania there was never a question of returning the remains to France, officials said. . .

Napoleon's army that marched into Lithuania bound for Moscow was one of the largest forces ever assembled. Six months later, the remaining 40,000 men retreated to Vilnius in bitter winter weather. . .

Archeologists said there should be at least 20,000 other skeletons of French troops buried in and around Vilnius and they intend to keep searching for them.

Posted by David on June 2, 2003 11:36 AM