Remains of Napoleonic general brought back to France from Russia after more than 200 years
- Charles Etienne Gudin de la Sablonniere lost a leg during a battle near the western Russian city of Smolensk in 1812 and died several days later
- After a lengthy hunt for the grave by archaeologists in Russia, the remains were welcomed back at the Bourget airport north of Paris
The remains of a French general killed during Napoleon’s disastrous Russia campaign returned to France on Monday more than 200 years after his death, the result of a lengthy hunt for his grave by archaeologists.
Charles Etienne Gudin de la Sablonniere lost a leg during a battle near the western Russian city of Smolensk in August 1812 and died of gangrene several days later.
The 44-year-old was highly regarded by Napoleon and his name figures on the Arc de Triomphe war memorial in Paris, but the location of his grave remained a mystery until a breakthrough in 2019.
Using descriptions from the period of witnesses and other military figures who attended his funeral, archaeologists located a wooden coffin in a cemetery in Smolensk containing a skeleton with a missing leg.
The remains were welcomed back by French Veterans Minister Genevieve Darrieussecq at the Bourget airport north of Paris, where an honour guard including volunteers wearing uniforms from the period carried the ornate white coffin.
