General Gudin: The Russian-French hunt for Napoleon’s brother-in-arms - RT International

On 24 June 1812, Napoleon I’s Great Army crossed the River Neman, invading the Russian Empire. Numbering in all around 680,000 men, two-thirds of them French, it was the largest army the world had ever known.

Its mission: to defeat the Russian Army in decisive battle and thus force Russian Emperor Alexander I to fall back in line with the French emperor’s grand plans for Europe.

However, the decisive battle proved elusive as the outnumbered Russian forces kept retreating and the French penetrated ever further into Russian territory.

On 17 August, they took the city of Smolensk. Two days later, the Russians evaded encirclement by fighting a rear-guard action near Valutina Gora. Losses were heavy on both sides.

One casualty was Napoleon Bonaparte’s schoolmate, General Charles-Etienne Gudin. After his childhood friend’s death in hospital in Smolensk, Napoleon had him buried in an elaborate ceremony.

After that, the mystery thickens. The location of the burial was disputed and Gudin’s remains were never found.

That is, until a joint French and Russian archaeological expedition set out to find the lost general in the spring of 2019.