In the surroundings of the village of Pszczew, on the border between the Greater Poland and Lubusz voivodeships, Napoleonic soldiers were massacred in February by the cavalry of the Don Cossacks, led by General Matvei Platov, and were buried in a mass grave by the local inhabitants. A small commemorative chapel made of bricks covered with plaster was built near the burial site.
In 2009, at the close of the annual open-air wood-carving competition, two wooden statues of Napoleonic soldiers carved by Mr Juliusz Wojciechowski were erected on the mound, together with a rough-stone headstone whose plaque bears the following inscription, in Polish: "Grave of Napoleonic soldiers who died in 1813". The Association of the Friends of Pszczew, which initiated the placing of this stone, now maintains it. In 2010, a third statue, carved by Mr Henryk Grudni and representing Napoleon, was added to it.
At the end of 2014, the Council for the Protection of the Memory of Combat and Martyrdom, at the request of the municipality of Pszczew, launched a call for tenders to carry out the exhumation of the fallen soldiers in order to determine their exact number; the work, carried out by the archaeology company "Bard" Bożena Marczyk – Chojnacka, took place from 22 to 23 June 2015. It brought to light nine separate cavities, buried at a depth of 1.2 metres. The results of the analyses will be exhibited at the commune's Regional Museum.