I hate when people, and also microbes, are super self-involved. Like, don't tell me you gotta take a day off to go to your mom's birthday party, Stan. That's not imagining me complexly. I've got needs over here. Best wishes, John Green. So continued defeat and the death of his troops eventually convinced Napoleon to give up his dreams of an American empire and cut his losses. He recalled all his surviving troops of the 40,000 who left, only 8,000 made it back, and then he sold Thomas Jefferson, Louisiana.