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Napoleonic Doubles Part 2Isn't it amazing what you can learn on the Internet? Astounding, isn't it. You hang around for ages waiting for a fake-death mystery, and then two come along at once. This month it's another one of the French lot. It is widely reported that Napoleon's "Bravest of the Brave", Marshal Michel Ney, was executed in 1815. Indeed the legend has evolved that he commanded his own firing squad. Consider now the strange case of one Peter Stuart Ney who appeared in South Carolina in 1819. He was by all accounts an excellent horseman and fencer who carried himself with a military bearing, was multi-lingual and was "possessed of many scars, as of those suffered in battle". On his deathbed, Peter Stuart claimed to be none other than Marshal Ney and his last words were reportedly "Bessieres is dead, and the Old Guard is defeated; now let me die". Since his death, historians have found a marked similarity between Peter Stuart Ney's handwriting and those of the Marshal. Also, there are contemporary accounts of travellers in America, soldiers late of the French army, recognising their old commander. Peter Stuart Ney died in North Carolina on 15th November 1846, a respected schoolmaster. An inscription on his tombstone reads, in part: "...a native of France and a soldier of the French Revolution under Napoleon Bonaparte..." Right. Any more out there? (Apart from Hitler and his entire staff of course). |