The New Suspects 

When Napoleon’s Grand Armée limped out of Russia in late 1812 – frozen, starving, and decimated – it was already one of history’s most infamous military disasters. 

More than 300,000 soldiers died during the retreat because of the cold of the bitter winter, starvation, and disease – largely attributed to typhus. 

Now, a new DNA study found that other pathogens played a role. 

An international research team analyzed DNA from the teeth of 13 soldiers buried in a mass grave in Vilnius, Lithuania. The site, uncovered in 2001, holds the remains of at least 3,200 individuals who died during the retreat between October and December 1812.  

Many were buried in uniform, often alongside their horses, but with no signs of battle injuries – pointing to disease and other causes rather than combat as the primary killer. 

In their paper, lead author Rémi Barbieri and team found no authenticated DNA from Rickettsia prowazekii, the bacterium behind typhus.  

Instead, they detected genetic traces of Salmonella enterica lineage Paratyphi C and Borrelia recurrentis. 

The first pathogen is responsible for paratyphoid fever, a foodborne illness causing prolonged fever, diarrhea, and dehydration. The other is spread by body lice and characterized by recurring high fevers, headaches, and weakness. 

“While not necessarily fatal, the louse-borne relapsing fever could significantly weaken an already exhausted individual,” the authors wrote, according to ScienceAlert. 

Combined with paratyphoid – a serious foodborne illness – these infections could have devastated troops already crippled by cold and hunger. 

But the study doesn’t entirely rule out typhus or other pathogens: Historians and physicians at the time described widespread typhus, dysentery, pneumonia, and jaundice, according to Phys.org. 

The studied sample was also very small, with researchers insisting that analysis of other skeletons can shed more light on the deadly retreat. 

“The analysis of a larger number of samples will be necessary to fully understand the spectrum of epidemic diseases that impacted the Napoleonic army during the Russian retreat,” they said.