DNA Analysis Rewrites History of Napoleon’s Army Collapse
Revolutionary DNA analysis of Napoleon’s fallen soldiers has overturned two centuries of historical consensus about what destroyed the French army during its 1812 retreat from Russia. Instead of typhus, researchers identified pathogens causing enteric fever and relapsing fever as the likely culprits. The findings demonstrate how modern genomic technology can rewrite medical history.
Historical Assumptions Overturned
For more than two centuries, historians and medical experts largely agreed that typhus delivered the final blow to Napoleon Bonaparte’s devastated army during its catastrophic retreat from Russia in 1812. Contemporary accounts from army doctors, the discovery of body lice on remains, and earlier DNA analysis all pointed toward this conclusion. But according to a groundbreaking study published in Current Biology, that long-standing narrative appears to be wrong.