"Bringing Out the Dead – Who Cleared the Corpses...." Topic

…. from Napoleonic Battlefields?

"SOMEWHERE IN THE range of 3.5 million to 6 million people died as a result of the Napoleonic Wars, which lasted from 1803 to 1815. This includes both military and civilian casualties, and encompasses death from war-related diseases and other causes. Estimates of the number of soldiers killed in battle vary from 500,000 to almost 2 million. But what happened to all of those bodies? What did cleaning up the battlefields of the Napoleonic Wars entail?

The depiction of post-battle scavenging in my novel Napoleon in America is based on fact. Soldiers were typically the first to pick through the dead and wounded, taking weapons, clothing and valuables. There was little sentimentality involved. The victors looted from the fallen of both sides. It was a matter of survival, or profit. Camp followers – civilians and women who accompanied the men on campaign – also stole and salvaged from the battlefield. So did the local inhabitants, who had to deal with the mess the armies left behind. British General Robert Wilson described the scene after the Battle of Heilsberg (1807):…."
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Amicalement
Armand

I found this extremely interesting. When you look at how clean the fields were picked and cleared you'd be lucky to dig anything up decades later.

Glad you like it my friend!.(smile)

Amicalement
Armand