Gustave Paul Cluseret

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General Gustave Paul Cluseret, during the American Civil War

Gustave Paul Cluseret (1823-1900), French soldier and politician, was born at Paris. He was an officer in the garde mobile during the revolution of 1848. He took part in several expeditions in Algeria, joined Giuseppe Garibaldi's volunteers in 1860, and in 1861 resigned his commission to take part in the Civil War in America. He served under Fremont and McClellan, and rose to the rank of general. Then, joining a band of Irish adventurers, he went secretly to Ireland, and participated in the Fenian insurrection (1866-67). He escaped arrest on the collapse of the movement, but was condemned to death in his absence.

On his return to France he proclaimed himself a Socialist, opposed militarism, and became a member of the Association Internationale des travailleurs, a cosmopolitan Socialist organization, known as the "Internationale." On the proclamation of the Third Republic in 1871 he set to work to organize the social revolution, first at Lyon and afterwards at Marseilles. His energy, his oratorical gifts, and his military experience gave him great influence among the working classes. On the news of the communist rising of the March 18, 1871 he hastened to Paris, and on the April 16 was elected a member of the commune. Disagreements with the other communist leaders led to his arrest on the May 1, on a false charge of betraying the cause. On May 24 the occupation of Paris by the Versailles troops restored him to liberty, and he succeeded in escaping from France. He did not return to the country till 1884. In 1888 and 1889 he was returned as a deputy to the chamber by Toulon. He died in 1900. Cluseret published his Mêmoires (of the Commune) at Paris in 1887-1888.