Napoleon vs. the Rabbits: History’s Strangest Ambush

Napoleon vs. the Rabbits: History’s Strangest Ambush

📅 Date: July 1807

Story Summary:

In July 1807, shortly after signing the Treaties of Tilsit to end the War of the Fourth Coalition, Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte decided to celebrate the diplomatic victory with a grand outdoor event. One of the unusual highlights planned was a mass rabbit hunt for his officers and dignitaries.

Napoleon tasked his trusted chief of staff, Alexandre Berthier, with organizing the hunt. Berthier arranged for hundreds (possibly up to 3,000) rabbits to be gathered for release on the day of the event. However, instead of sourcing wild rabbits, Berthier's men acquired tame, farm-raised bunnies, accustomed to humans as food providers—not predators.

When the cages were opened for the grand hunt, the rabbits did not scatter in fear as expected. Instead, they saw Napoleon and his entourage, mistook them for food-bearers, and charged en masse.

What started as an amusing scene quickly turned chaotic. According to several contemporary accounts, the rabbits swarmed Napoleon’s party, climbing over boots, gnawing at uniforms, and leaping into carriages. Napoleon himself was said to have fled to his carriage, laughing yet thoroughly overwhelmed by the adorable onslaught.

While no one was injured, the “Bunny Attack on Napoleon” became a peculiar anecdote—highlighting that even history’s greatest military minds can be undone, if only briefly, by a miscalculated choice of livestock.

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👤 Key Characters:

Napoleon Bonaparte – Emperor of France
Alexandre Berthier – Chief of Staff to Napoleon
Hundreds of Domesticated Rabbits

📚 Reference:

Mark Urban, Napoleon’s Rabbits: When Fluffy Went Ferocious, BBC Archives (Anecdotal references traced to 19th-century memoirs)
David Chandler, The Campaigns of Napoleon (Appendix anecdotes)
National Geographic: Strangest Events in Military History