Hello everybody, I am an italian lad interested in history and I want to share with you what I know, after sending an Email to The Waterloo Association and receiving no answer.
It's a personal discovery thanks to a nun who told me that the damaged statues of several Saints and Jesus in the San Francesco di Paola convent in Vibonati (Salerno) were attacked by French troops with sabres and they chopped off heads, feet and hands.
I think this was linked to the 1806 invasion in Southern Italy. By the way nuns in the convent left it in 2017 and I do not know if there are still those statues, important proof of that historical event.
Furthermore, in central Italy, is widely known that two French soldiers were hanged by Italians at Ferentillo (Terni) and their bodies did not decompose and their mummies are displayed there. The date of death would be 1799
The following link is a bit macabre but I wonder if somebody can identify them, and I do not think nobody reported their graves to the French Embassy
https://sangeminitravelhub.com/come-organizzare-una-visita-al-museo-delle-mummie-di-ferentillo/
Other 230 French soldiers are buried in South Tyrol: they were killed on 17th-22nd November 1809 and they rest in St. Leonhard in Passeier. Further 10 killed fallen in November-December 1809 are buried at Teodone.
https://www.sentres.com/it/poi/cimitero/cimitero-dei-francesi-a-s.-leonardo/61323553/
The French Ministry of Defence in 2013 decided to dig those mass graves and authorities found bones and French Army buttons.
I have taken a look to Austrian units too in Italy, but nothing is left, and after 202 years I found out that an Austrian officer's grave is lost.
If there is somebody who is researching interesting facts on the French Italian campaign of Napoleon, here a post on what is left of the Grand Armée after two centuries😉 .
I want remember also all the brave officers and soldiers of Napoleonic wars who were the true protagonists of history.
Kind regards
Matteo D'Angella
There is an ossuary at Marengo. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/258340883_Bone_lesions_from_the_ossuary_of_the_Napoleonic_battle_of_Marengo_Northern_Italy_14th_June_1800