• Joseph Bonaparte, the older brother of Napoleon, spent part of his exile living in the town near Natural Bridge. Small Lake Bonaparte is named after him....this lake was a stones throw from where our hermit friend Moses Follensby lived.

​

Now lets looks at the evidence found to support this theory:

1.  French Legion of Honor medal was found in the cabin along with the papers for it.​

2.  Blazed with scarlet and gold-lace, the complete uniform of a officer of exalted rank - a magnificent court-dress

3.  A sword of Damascus steel with richly jeweled handle, in a golden scabbard

4.  From several of his letters, it was conjectured that he was of noble birth

5.  A brace of pistols with rich stocks inlaid with pearls and a coat of arms

6.  A fancy chapeau also laced with gold

7. When found and in a delusional state he was heard saying and doing the following:​​

   1. He seemed to be addressing Lords and generals and a woman named Georgiana​

   2. Shouting military orders to an imagined troop formation in battle whirling his hand above his head as if waving a sword.

   3. His bearing during these times denoted a bold majesty suggestive of a high ranking office.

   4. Blood was mentioned quite frequently

8.  His cabin was strongly built with a massive door usually locked with an intricate device.

​

​

• Napoleon had once escaped capture from an island:  Napoleon Bonaparte escapes from Elba. On this day February 26, 1815 Napoleon Bonaparte escaped from the Tyrrhenian Sea island of Elba. Following the close of the War of the Sixth Coalition, and the Treaty of Fontainebleau in 1814, Napoleon had abdicated and had been exiled to Elba.

​

• In October 1815, Napoleon was exiled to the remote, British-held island of Saint Helena, in the South Atlantic Ocean. He died there on May 5, 1821.

  • an intercepted 1816 letter describes a “boat that will drift to the back of the Island…in the shape of an olde (sic) cask but so constructed that by pulling at both ends to be sea worthy and both boat and sails which will be found inside will be painted to correspond with the colour of the sea.” Napoleon was expected to slide down a cliff on a rope to get to this vessel, the ultimate destination being the United States.

  •  General Charles Montholon, refers in his memoirs to several schemes, including an 1820 proposal from a naval captain: His vessel was returning from the Indies; he had arranged everything so as to be able to receive the Emperor in a boat at a point of the coast previously designated and convey him to his vessel without running the slightest risk of being stopped. He asked no reward for himself, but demanded a million of francs for the person whose concurrence was necessary, in order that the Emperor might safely pass from Longwood to the coast. This million was not to be payable until the Emperor had reached America, and even landed; another condition was, that the Emperor should only be accompanied by two persons…. Another project of a similar nature was conceived; it was to be carried out by means of submarine vessels; five or six thousand louis were expended on this project by a friend of O’Meara’s [an Irish surgeon who had earlier been Napoleon’s doctor on St. Helena].

    • Though a submarine plot sounds far-fetched, an Irish adventurer named Tom Johnson claimed he had been offered £40,000 to attempt such a rescue. There is evidence Johnson was involved in such a plot and may even have possessed a primitive submarine, as detailed in couple of excellent articles–one by Emilio Ocampo in Napoleonica. La Revue, available at cairn.info; the other by Mike Dash in the Past Imperfect blog at the Smithsonian.com website.​

  • Over the years conspiracy theorists have contended that Napoleon did escape from St. Helena, winding up either in Europe or the United States; and that it was not Napoleon who was buried on St. Helena in 1821 and removed to Paris in 1840, but an alleged double (candidates for this role vary, depending on the theory). (7) This is the basis of the films The Emperor’s New Clothes (2001) and Monsieur N (2003).​

  • Franceschi Cipriani, was put in his place. That guy had died suddenly in 1818 and there are some theories that he, too, was assassinated. Now it would be hard to re-dress a body that was dead for several years, so some variants even claim he was still alive in 1821 and either sacrificed himself (so that the emperor could flee the island) or was killed by some other sinister plot at that moment. Given that the island was under control by the British and Napoleon was extremely well guarded (especially at the end), that seems unlikely. However, it doesn't help that Cipriani's tomb could not be located in 1840 in order to repatriate him. So this constitutes "proof," according to Rétif (and some historians after him), that it is the body of his majordomo that is interred in Les Invalides, and not Napoleon himself.

  • ​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​