Louis Faidherbe

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Louis Léon César Faidherbe.

French stamp honoring Louis Faidherbe.

Louis Léon César Faidherbe (June 3, 1818 – September 29, 1889) was a French general and colonial administrator.

He was born in Lille. He received his military education at the École Polytechnique and at Metz, and entered the engineers in 1840. From 1844 to 1847 he served in Algeria, then two years in the West Indies, and again in Algeria, taking part in many expeditions against the Arabs. In 1852 he was transferred to Senegal as sub-director of engineers, and in 1854 was promoted chef de bataillon and appointed governor of the colony on December 16. He held this post with one brief interval (1861-1863) until July 1865.

The work he accomplished in West Africa constitutes his most enduring monument. At that time France possessed in Senegal little else than the town of Saint-Louis and a strip of coast. Explorers had, however, made known the riches and possibilities of the Niger regions, and Faidherbe formed the design of adding those countries to the French dominions. He even dreamed of creating a French African empire stretching from Senegal to the Red Sea.

To accomplish even the first part of his design, he had very inadequate resources, especially in view of the aggressive action of El Hadj Umar Tall, the Muslim ruler of the countries of the middle Niger. By boldly advancing the French outposts on the upper Senegal, and particularly by breaking Umar Tall's siege of Medina Fort, Faidherbe stemmed the Muslim advance. Striking an advantageous treaty with Umar in 1860, Faidherbe brought the French possessions into touch with the Niger. He also brought into subjection the country lying between the Senegal and Gambia.

When he resigned his post French rule had been firmly established over a very considerable and fertile area and the foundation laid upon which his successors built up the predominant position occupied now by France in West Africa. In 1863 he became general of brigade. From 1867 to the early part of 1870, he commanded the subdivision of Bona in Algeria, and was commanding the Constantine division at the commencement of the Franco-Prussian War.

After France's early defeats by Prussian forces in the summer of 1870, colonial officers such as Faidherbe were recalled to France and increasingly promoted to higher ranks to command new units and replace generals killed or captured in battle. Faidherbe was promoted to general of division in November 1870, and on 3rd December he was appointed commander-in-chief of the Army of the North by the Government of National Defence. Faidherbe quickly proved himself to be the most able of the generals fighting Prussian forces in the French provinces, and won several small victories against the Prussian First Army at the towns of Ham, La Hallue, Pont-Noyelles, and Bapaume. Despite his military skills, Faidherbe was never able to form an army strong enough to seriously worry the Prussians, as his army, composed of raw recruits, suffered immense supply difficulties and low morale in the freezing winter of 1870/71. The Army of the North performed remarkably well by being able to strike isolated German forces and then retreat behind the belt of fortresses protecting the Pas-de-Calais, but the army was ultimately destroyed at St Quentin when, ordered by Minister of War Leon Gambetta, Faidherbe rushed his army into an open battle with Prussian forces, which shattered Faidherbe's forces.

After the war, Faidherbe was elected to the National Assembly for the département of the Nord, he resigned his seat in consequence of its reactionary proceedings. For his services he was decorated with the grand cross, and made chancellor of the order of the Legion of Honor. In 1872 he went on a scientific mission to Upper Egypt, where he studied the monuments and inscriptions. An enthusiastic geographer, philologist and archaeologist, he wrote numerous works, among which may be mentioned Collection des inscriptions numidiques (1870), Epigraphie phenicienne (1873), Essai sur la langue poul (1875), and Le Znaga des tribes sénégalaises (1877), the last a study of the Berber language. He also wrote on the geography and history of Senegal and the Sahara, and La Campagne de l'armée du Nord (1872).

He was elected a senator in 1879, and, in spite of failing health, continued to the last a close student of his favorite subjects. He died on 29 September 1889, and received a public funeral. Statues and monuments to his memory were erected at Lille, Bapaume, Saint-Quentin and Saint-Louis, Senegal.