The Illustrious Dead: The Terrifying Story of How Typhus Killed Napoleon's Greatest Army

This is the story of an army and a microbe. The microbe wins. That's a bit of an understatement, like saying that Napoleon was somewhat short, or that Moscow gets a bit cold in the winter, or that book reviewers tend to be too fond of lame similes. The microbe went up against Napoleon's Grand Army --- the greatest assemblage of military might since antiquity --- and beat the living whey out of it, all the way to Moscow and all the way back. On the surface, it looks like such a mismatch. Napoleon had put together nearly half a million front-line troopers, many of them hard-bitten veterans of his victorious Italian and Austrian campaigns, and had significant cavalry and artillery to boot. They had the best training of their times, and some of the best generalship, and were impressively well-organized for the pre-microchip era. And yet, the army, as grand as it was, was beaten overwhelmingly, thoroughly and comprehensively by something it couldn't even see, something without a brain, nothing more than a collection of a few strands of DNA, designed to do little more than survive --- and kill. To be sure, the microbe had powerful allies in its campaign to stop the French in their drive into Russia, such as the Russian army (or at least the rank and file of that army, considering its poor leadership). Then there was the scorched-earth tactics that denied provender to Napoleon's polyglot army. There was Napoleon's own imperial hubris in starting the conflict in the first place, and his failure to plan for the Russian winter or the possibility of infectious disease. There were even other microbes in the mix --- dysentery and the like. All of these factors combined to bog down Napoleon's advance to Moscow and complicate his retreat. Stephan Talty makes the convincing argument that it was typhus, not the winter or the tactics or any other factor, that was the primary agent that doomed Napoleon to defeat and eventual exile. To do this, he has to master two difficult disciplines --- military history and epidemiology --- and combine them, showing how one impacts the other. For fans of military history, THE ILLUSTRIOUS DEAD contains plenty of tactical analysis, an in-depth discussion of the battles at Smolensk and Borodino (complete with lovely maps), stories from the diaries of the participants, and all the attendant blood and guts. For those on the medical side, there is a detailed treatise on the origins and history of typhus, a fascinating account of how the disease moves through populations, and an enlightening discourse on what Napoleonic doctors knew (or thought they knew) about typhus. The combination of these two disciplines, in and of itself, would be reason enough to read and recommend the book. But the quality and depth of Talty's research serve primarily to complement the excellence of his writing. He manages the formidable job of exposition with relative ease, but his real strength is in the near-lyrical quality of his prose. Most good wri

As other reviewers have pointed out, "The Illustrious Dead" is hard to put down. At one level, the book tells the military history of Napoleon's ill-fated invasion of Russia in 1812, from the June day when the Grand Armee crossed the Nieman River into Russia until the end of its catastrophic retreat from Moscow in December of the same year. But Talty's book also tells the history of a disease that has been plaguing soldiers and civilians for thousands of years. Napoleon's deadliest enemy. Talty claims, was not "General Winter," or Tsar Alexander, or the Cossacks--it was the microbe Rickettsia prowazekii, which causes typhus, aided by the body louse. In Talty's version of events, Rickettsia began to kill before the Grand Armee even crossed the border, passing with body lice among the densely packed, unwashed body of men. By the time Napoleon began to engage Russian forces in earnest, his army was so depleted by the disease that he was no longer able to make the decisive maneuvers that might have forced the Russians to sue for peace. As it was, the Russians held on, suffering huge casulaties but denying Napoleon the knock out blow that might have changed history, ultimately forcing Napoleon to retreat. After Napoleon returned to Paris, it was only a matter of time before his enemies took advantage of the fact that typhus had deprived France of its most experienced and effective soldiers. "The Illustrious Dead" is a gripping mix of narrative military history, science and detective story. Talty does an excellent job of weaving the broad story of the campaign with the words of the men who fought the battles and endured the hardships. He singles out Captain Franz Roeder, drawing often from Roeder's diaries and correspondence to personalize the experience of the invasion from beginning to bitter end. I suspect that historians of the Napoleonic era may fault Talty for his focus on typhus, arguing that other factors, such as Tsar Alexander's "scorched earth" defense and the weather, were more important causes of Napoleon's defeat. Perhaps, but Talty's book is still well worth reading for its fresh perspective on an old story--it's a page turner and every bit as harrowing as its subtitle suggests.

This book totally grabbed me. Started reading it before bed and the next thing I knew it was 3 am. The way the story weaves in this killer microbe with Napoleon's invasion of Russia is incredibly intense. Couldn't put it down!

Loved this book. It tells the story of how an epidemic devastated Napoleon's army just as he rose to the height of his powers. The author slowly reveals the true killer that was waiting for the French on the road to Moscow - and it was epidemic typhus, not winter or the Russian army. Great characters, intense battle scenes, beautifully paced.

If you enjoy well written military history you will enjoy this book. The writer does a superb job of putting you into Napoleon's (or Alexander's) army during the campaign into Russia. The information on typhus is also very interesting and delivered in a way that grabs the reader's attention. I would highly recommend this book to anyone.