Napoleon's Campaign in Russia Anno 1812 by Achilles Rose
page 83 of 207 (40%)
page 83 of 207 (40%)
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captivity.
Many more cases resembling these two were observed by von Scherer, and other army surgeons reported instances of the like effect of cold. Surgeon General von Schmetter had remained with the Crown Prince of Wuerttemberg in Wilna, while the army marched to Moscow. He reported many cases of unfortunates whom he had received in the hospital in Wilna, who by cold and misery of all kinds had been reduced to a pitiful state--men formerly of a vigorous constitution presented a puerile appearance and had become demented. A cavalryman of the regiment Duke Louis, who, during February, 1813, had been admitted into the hospital of Wilna, suffering from quiet mania without being feverish, was constantly searching for something. Hands and feet had been frozen. He became ill with typhus and was more or less delirious for two weeks. After the severity of the sickness had abated he again began to search anxiously for something, and after the fever had left him he explained that thirty thousand florins, which he had brought with him to the hospital, had been taken away. It was learned that this cavalryman had been sent, together with other comrades, with dispatches to Murat; that these men had defended Murat with great bravery when he was in danger in the battle of Borodino. Murat, in recognition of their bravery, which had saved him, had given them |
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