Marshal Ney - Did He Fake his Execution?

There have been some claims floating around that Marshal Ney, who was supposedly executed in 1815 for being a turncoat and joining Napoleon during the 100 days did not really die as we use to read but rather faked his own execution and was able to escape to America where he changed his name, living until 1846. There are brief expositions here and here.

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One of more colorful legends of Ney that have grown up after the Marshal’s execution was that Ney had managed to escape. To disprove the unwanted rumor, the Royalists published a detailed account of the execution. Shortly after, there came out the memoirs penned by Ney’s mistress Ida Saint-Elm. The woman claimed that the Marshal had agreed to secret abduction and that the firing squad shot with blanks and Ney used a bag of red dye to imitate the wounds. That Ney’s friends were waiting for him in the hospital and there was someone else’s body placed in the grave. When they opened the Marshal’s grave in 1903 only to find the casket empty. Next day’s issue of Le Figaro said, “This draws a final line under the discussion that’s been going on for more than half a century now. Michel Ney was not executed in 1815 and spent the next 31 years living under a different name in America.”

In 1819 an impeccably attired and well-mannered redhead Frenchman settled down in North Carolina. His name was Peter Stuart Ney. The name of Marshal Ney’s father was Pierre, while his mother was a Stuart. The French emigres, many of them Bonapartists, gave the newcomer a hero’s welcome immediately recognizing in him the legendary Napoleonic Marshal. Lechmanowsky, a Polish immigrant, embraced his onetime commander. Peter Stuart kept insisting they were wrong, that he did not know a thing about his namesake. He started teaching at local schools, was widely admired by his neighbors. Well informed about everything that was happening in Europe, Peter Stuart was a perfect shot and horse rider, played the flute (just like Marshal Ney did), was writing poems and was an avid reader of books about Napoleon making occasional corrections. He eventually started taking to the bottle though and when drunk, wowed his friends and students with tales of military glory and claimed to be the executed Napoleonic Marshal. And, moreover, the man could draw extremely vivid descriptions of Marshal Ney’s wife Aglaya…

Ney died in December 1846 and many say he told several people on his deathbed that he was in fact Marshal Michel Ney. And that he had assumed the name of Peter Stuart to mislead the Royalist spies. It wasn’t before the doctors examining the dead man’s body said the two men shared identical wounds, that people finally believed his words. When, years later, a leading New York criminologist, David Carvajo, examined writing samples by the Marshal and the deceased schoolteacher, he concluded it to be of the same hand. Skeptics still wonder why the Marshal did not reveal his true identity in 1830 when the Bonapartists were fully exonerated, given handsome pensions and his own son had wed the daughter of the French Prime Minister.

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The question is, does that mean more than a mere conspiracy theory or does research really confirm that Marshal Ney did not die in 1815?

I think He survived:D

Here's also a good read, from a Masonic website. I'm starting to seriously believe in this story...

Hell I dident knew he was executet havent read that part....
But your story sounds interesting, but what ever its true, or not
I Dont know

Didn't Wellington try to prevent his execution after the war?

I've also read of this, and I don't know what to believe. Chris

France's 2pac! :laughter: