After the battle, some 15,000 French soldiers were posted as missing. Does anyone know what happened to them?
2007-10-28 00:05:39 · 5 answers · asked by Anonymous in Politics & Government ➔ Military
With regards the missing French being deserters, while possible for a very small amount, there was a very good system in place with regards peoples movements being controlled, behind the battle lines.
Military deserters were a priority for the Police to control and catch, (movement around France even when there was no war was carefully controlled and all people would have had to present their papers upon request.)
Any deserting soldier who was picked up by the enemy forces faced the possibility of being executed out of hand as a spy".
I would say that most of them were either destroyed by artillery fire on the battlefield.
The bodies found with no identification after the battle and buried.
Poor records kept on the total casualties killed Wounded and Missing.
Seriously wounded on the field of battle and died later of wounds in nearby field hospitals or in local villages or towns, remember the battlefield was immense.
Possibly some surrendered to the British and Allied Armies.
Even in Modern warfare people go missing, and back then record keeping would have been far from perfect.
2007-10-28 02:53:25 · answer #1 · answered by conranger1 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I would go with the first answer. The Guillotine was still fashionable and most soldiers in this days where pressed, that means had no choice, but to join the army. They jumped ship, as soon as the risk to be caught was lesser then the risk to be killed in battle.
2007-10-28 07:19:52 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
I imagine a lot of them would have deserted. It was not far back to France, and their future would have been uncertain if they had made it obvious that they were loyal to the defeated Napoleon. Napoleon had only re-siezed power in France a few months earlier after his escape from Elba.
2007-10-28 07:11:59 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
Apart from desertion, being taken as prisoners of war and never survived, a lot of them disappeared when they where hit by British, Prussian and Austrian ordnance in the battle.
BOOM
2007-10-28 08:30:38 · answer #4 · answered by l1011graham 2 · 1⤊ 0⤋
They ran.
Gave up and went home,burned their uniforms.
2007-10-28 09:45:14 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋