Mower County transcript., 1890-07-09
!. NAPoLEoN's GRAND ARMY.
Its Oldest Living Rellc ON His Journey
n Through Italy, E

NATO16ON0E = EAUNN0 AHMYs #
Its Oldest Living Relic ON His Journey
Ia Through Italv. ~
The Italian papers report the recent
arrival at the railroad station Of Barrett
to, near Reggio, Central Italy, OF >
strange-looking parsonage that was the
object of considerable curiosity. He
was tall and noble.looking man with
long white beard, who presented to
the mayor .teuiAe de route, signed by
Baron Marocchetti, the Italian Ambas-
sador at St. Petersburg, inviting the
italian authorities to take good care OF
the bearer, Michel Linovich, Of Oron-
burg, Russia. .-s.
In reality this mysterious old man
was an Italian named Limo, born at
Baretto 105 years ago, and perhaps the
last living relic of the Grando Armee
of 1912. Belonging to q family
of farmers, Limo, formed part of the
CONSUMPTION of the kingdom Of Italy in
1906, and was enrolled in the Imperial
Guard. With his regiment he went
through the campaign of 1907 in Prus-
sia, and fought at jena and at Fried
land. Later on he was sent with his
battalion to Dalmatia. and thence to
Spain with the division OF General
Lecchi, where he passed two years of
continual fighting. Wounded in IN as.
sault, he returned to his native coun-
try, where he remained for two years,
working on his fathers farm.
On the outbreak of the terrible storm,
which was destined to carry oil to Rus
sia the flower of the Franco-Italian
youth, Napoleon called under his VIC
torious eagles his old soldiers. Limo
rejoined the service as sergent of the
Grenadier Guards, and with the rest of
the cis-Alpine army, under the COM
mand of Eugene Beauharnais, formed
part OF the Grand Armee. Limo fought
against the Russians at Smolensk and
at Moskova, whore he lifted from the
field OF battle tho mortally wounded
General Plangonne. After that he en-
tered Moscow with Napoleon, and
finally in the bloody battle Of the oath
N October, while fighting under the
orders of General Pine, he was taken
prisoner, after having been severely
wounded by the cossacks at Platow.
Transported with large convoy of.
French prisoners to Orenburg, he was
sent with few of his companions to
distant village situated at the foot of
the Caucasus, whore, although kindly
treated by the Russians, he had to suf-
fer cruel privations during ten years.
Tired at last of such q miserable ex-
istence, he asked and obtained permis-
sion to join the Russian army as a pri-
vate soldier. In this capacity he passed
through the campaign of the Caucasus
in 1929.
At the close of the war he obtained as
the reward for his services little piece
of ground, which he cultivated. When
he was forty-tive years old he married
young Polish girl named Nerawska,
who died in 1856. The three sons that
he had by this woman also died, leav-
ing the old soldier alone in the world.
Then Limo returned to Orenbourg,
where the people Russianized his name
into Linovich. He lived there in COM
parative comfort for many years. Gifted
with an extraordinary energy of mind
and body, he was still strong enough to
catch nostalgia. When more than a
hundred years old, the old veteran at
last became homesick, after seventy
eight years of exile. He resolved at all
hazards to return to his native land and
there pass the remainder of his event.
full career. Through the influence of
the Italian Ambassador at st. Peters,
burg he was sent home to Italy at the
expense OF the italian Government.
Limo is now in an asylum at Heggio,
where he is cared for with particular
attention. AS he was born in 1855, he
is now los years old, the glorious sur
vivor of hundred battles, and proba-
bly, the last of the heroes who fought at
Jena, Friedland and Borodino. Courier
des Etats Unis.