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A tomb discovered in Russia could prove to be that of a general of Napoleon I. A team of archaeologists claims to have found the remains of General Gudin, cut by a cannonball during the Russian campaign in 1812. Everything seems to match, but it will be necessary to await the results of DNA analysis to confirm the discovery.
With our correspondent in Moscow, Daniel Vallot
It was in Smolensk, 400 kilometers west of Moscow, that the discovery took place. This is a skeleton in the debris of a wooden casket. Perhaps that of General Gudin, who died in action during the Russian campaign.
For Alexander Kholkov, archaeologist and member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, all the elements agree.
" The soldiers of the Grand Army had decided to build a memorial on his grave, with bronze cannons. These guns were then recovered by the local population, but during our research, we discovered six large holes that were certainly used to place these guns, "he says.
On August 18, 1812, during the Battle of Valoutina Gora, César Charles Étienne Gudin was fatally wounded. The Grand Army has seized Smolensk, and is preparing to march on Moscow, but the 44-year-old general is mown by a Russian army bullet. He died three days later, swept away by gangrene.
" According to several sources, the cannonball had torn off one of his legs. He was evacuated to Smolensk and amputated. However, the skeleton that we found corresponds to this description, since it lacks the left leg , "explains Alexander Kholkov.
Everything seems to agree but a DNA expertise will still be necessary. It remains to find the descendants of the Empire General to do this and prove definitively that it is indeed the remains of the French general who were discovered more than two centuries after his death.
► See also: Haiti, the defeat of Napoleon