François Achille Bazaine
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| François Achille Bazaine | |
|---|---|
| 13 February 1811–23 September 1888 | |
 François Achille Bazaine on campaign in Mexico by Jean-Adolphe Beauce. |
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| Place of birth | Versailles, France |
| Place of death | Madrid, Spain |
| Allegiance |  France |
| Service/branch | French Army |
| Years of service | 1831-1873 |
| Rank | Général de Division |
| Battles/wars | First Carlist War Crimean War Franco-Austrian War French intervention in Mexico Franco-Prussian War |
| Awards | Marshal of France Grand Cross of the Légion d'honneur Companion of the Order of the Bath Order of St.Ferdinand Order of Charles III of Spain Order of Isabel the Catholic |
François Achille Bazaine (13 February 1811 - 23 September 1888) was a French General and from 1864, a Marshal of France. After distinguished service (39 years of which 35 were in campaigns) during the Second French Empire under Napoleon III, was sentenced to death for his surrender of the fortress city of Metz and his army of 140,000 men to the Prussians on 27 October 1870, during the Franco-Prussian War. This sentence was commuted to 20 years imprisonment in exile, from which he subsequently escaped. He eventually settled in Spain where he died aged 77 in 1888.
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[edit] Early life
François Achille Bazaine was born at Versailles, second son of Pierre Dominique Bazaine, a Mathematician and bridge architect and engineer who was responsible for, amongst others, the building of several bridges in St. Petersburg at the request of Czar Alexander III. His father abandoned his family just prior to the birth of François, leaving it without financial support. He failed the entrance examination to the École Polytechnique.
Instead he enlisted in the French Army as a private soldier in 1831 with a view to service in Algeria, where in 1833 he received a commission as sub-lieutenant in the Foreign Legion, it having been formed by Louis Philippe (King of France 1830-1848) in 1831. He rose rapidly through the ranks (Lieutenant 1835, Captain 1837), through successful actions during the Foreign Legion campaign in Algeria and against the Carlists in Spain (1835-1839), where in 1835 he was cited for bravery and gallantry in action on several occasions and rewarded with the cross (Chevalier) of the Légion d'honneur after only four years in the Army. After serving a second campaign with the Foreign Legion in Spain in 1837-38 (wounded: bullet in the right leg, Battle of Barbastro, 1837), Bazaine returned to Algeria in 1839 and took part in the expeditions to Milianah, Tlemcen, Morocco and Sahara. He was mentioned as instrumental in the surrender of Abd-el-Kader. In 1844 he was promoted to Major (wounded: bullet in the right wrist during action at Macta, 1845) and then to Lieutenant Colonel in 1848 after 9 years service in Algeria and Morocco, including several years as the Governor of Tlemcen. In 1850, he was promoted to full Colonel and given command of the 1st Regiment of the Foreign Legion, based in North Africa. He married his first wife Maria Juana de la Soledad, on 12 June 1852 at Versailles.
[edit] Crimea and Italy
He was promoted to Brigadier General at Gallipoli in 1854, en route to the Crimea and led a Brigade (the combined 1st and 2nd Regiments of the Foreign Legion) in the Crimean War. He fought several decisive actions at the Battle of the Alma in 1854 and during the siege of Sebastopol (1854/55) where he maintained his reputation and for which he was mentioned in dispatches on several occasions. The way in which he conducted the left wing of the French forces in the final Allied assault on Sebastopol on 8 September 1855 (wounded, shell fragment in left hip), received acclaim of the highest order from the Allied Command and he was subsequently promoted to Major General (General de Division) on 22 September 1855 and selected from all the Allied Generals to assume the Governorship of Sebastopol. At 44, this made him the youngest General in the French Army. In October 1855, he led a daring attack on the remaining Russian forces to the North of Sebastopol and captured Kin-burn, an action for which he received particular praise: "General Bazaine who commands that portion of the French Army now operating at the mouth of the Dnieper may be cited as presenting one of the most brilliant examples of the achievement of military distinction in the modern day".[1] At Sebastopol, on 25 June 1856 he was invested by the British Commander in Chief, Lord Gough, with the Order of the Bath, for his conspicuous contribution to the Allied campaign during the Crimean War. On his return to France in 1857, he was appointed Inspector General of the Army.
In 1859, he commanded a Division in the Franco-Sardinian campaign against Austrian forces in Lombardy. He was wounded by a shell splinter in the head on 8 June, during the action at the Battle of Melegnano. He recovered to play a conspicuous part in the Battle of Solferino, which he captured on 24 June 1859, despite being wounded again (bullet to the upper thigh) and having his horse shot from under him. For his services in the campaign he received the Grand Cross of the Légion d'honneur, of which he was already (1855) a Commander.
[edit] Mexico
He commanded with great distinction the First Division under General (afterwards Marshal) Forey in the Mexican expedition in 1862, succeeded him in supreme command in 1863, and became marshal and senator of France in the following year. He at first pursued the war with great vigour and success, entering Mexico in 1863 and driving President Benito Juárez to the frontier. The Marshal's African experience as a soldier and as an administrator stood him in good stead in dealing with the guerrilleros of the Juárez party, but he was less successful in his relations with Maximilian, with whose court the French headquarters was in constant strife. Here, as later in his own country, Bazaine's policy seems to have been directed, at least in part, to his own establishment in the role of a mayor of the palace.
His own army thought that he aspired to play the part of a Bernadotte. His marriage to a rich Mexican lady (Pepita de la Peña y Azcarate), whose family were supporters of Juárez, still further complicated his relations with the unfortunate emperor, and when at the close of the American Civil War the United States sent a powerful war-trained army to the Mexican frontier, the French forces were withdrawn. Bazaine skillfully conducted the retreat and embarkation at Veracruz (1867). On his return to Paris he was feted by the public. Bazaine took his seat in the Senate as a Marshal of France and was appointed Commander-in-Chief of the Imperial Guard in Paris.
[edit] Franco-Prussian War
At the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian War in 1870, Bazaine took field command of the French front line forces of III Corps of the Army of the Rhine near Metz. However, it is clear even at this early stage that Bazaine was acutely aware of his Army's shortcomings against the well known speed and menacing efficiency of the Prussian military machine, evidenced by his remark to a friend whilst boarding the train from Paris to Metz: "Nous marchons à un désastre". He took no part in the earlier battles, but after the defeats of Marshal MacMahon’s French Forces at Worth and Marshal Canrobert’s at Forbach, Napoleon III (who was increasingly unwell), was swift to hand over to Bazaine as Commander-in-Chief of the French Army on 13 August 1870. Napoleon’s choice was at the time, considered to be a wise one. It was widely believed by French politicians and soldiers alike, that if any one was capable of saving France from the Prussian onslaught, “notre glorieux Bazaine” was (Gambetta). He was also the only remaining Marshal of France not to have suffered defeat at the hands of Prussian forces in the early weeks of the war. However, being the youngest of the French Marshals, Napoleon’s choice was met with suspicion and jealousy by the older, socially superior Marshals.
It was reluctantly therefore, that he took up the chief command, and his tenure of it is the central act in the tragedy of 1870. He found the army in retreat, ill-equipped and numerically at a great disadvantage, and the generals and staffs discouraged and distrustful of one another. There was practically no chance of success. The question was one of extricating the army and the government from a disastrous adventure, and Bazaine's solution of it was to bring back his army to Metz. The day after assuming command of the Army, on 14th August at Borny, he was badly wounded by a shell on the left shoulder (a fact which was to be excluded from his service roll presented at his Court Martial in 1873, there was to be no room for sympathy.)
How far his inaction was the cause of the disaster of Spicheren is a matter of dispute. The best that can be said of his conduct is that the evil traditions of warfare on a small scale and the mania for taking up "strong positions," common to the French generals of 1870, were in Bazaine's own case emphasized by his personal dislike for the "schoolmaster" Frossard, lately the Prince Imperial's tutor and now commander of the army corps posted at Spicheren. Frossard himself, the leader of the "strong positions" school, could only blame his own theories for the paralysis of the rest of the army, which left the corps at Spicheren to fight unsupported. Bazaine, indeed, when called upon for help, moved part of his corps forward, but only to "take up strong positions," not to strike a blow on the battlefield.
It seems to be clearly established that the charges of treason to which later events gave so strong a colour had, as yet, no foundation in fact. Nor, indeed, can his unwillingness to leave the Moselle region, while there was yet time to slip past the advancing enemy, be considered even as proof of special incompetence. The resolution to stay in the neighbourhood of Metz was based on the knowledge that if the slow-moving French army ventured far out it would infallibly be headed off and brought to battle in the open by superior numbers. In "strong positions" close to his stronghold, however, Bazaine hoped that he could inflict damaging repulses and heavy slaughter on the ardent Germans, and in the main the result justified the expectation. The scheme was creditable, and even heroic, but the execution throughout all ranks, from the Marshal to the battalion commanders, fell far short of the idea. The minutely cautious methods of movement, which Algerian experience had evolved suitable enough for small African desert columns, which were liable to surprise rushes and ambushes, reduced the mobility of a large army, which had favourable marching conditions, to 5 miles a day as against the enemy's rate of 15. When, before he had finally decided to stay in Metz, Bazaine attempted halfheartedly to begin a retreat on Verdun, the staff work and organization of the movement over the Moselle was so ineffective that when the German staff calculated that Bazaine was nearing Verdun, the French had in reality barely got their artillery and baggage trains through the town of Metz. Even on the battlefield the Marshal forbade the general staff to appear, and conducted the fighting by means of his personal orderly officers.
After the cumbrous army had passed through Metz it encountered an isolated corps of the enemy, which was commanded by the brilliant leader Constantin von Alvensleben, and promptly attacked the French. At almost every moment of the day victory was in Bazaine's hands. Two corps of the Germans fought all day for bare existence. But Bazaine had no confidence in his generals or his troops, and contented himself with inflicting severe losses on the most aggressive portions of the German army. Two days later, while the French actually retreated on Metz (taking seven hours to cover 5 to 6 miles) the masses of the Germans gathered in front of him, intercepting his communication with the interior of France. This Bazaine expected, and feeling certain that the Germans would sooner or later attack him in his chosen position, he made no attempt to interfere with their concentration. The great battle was fought, and having inflicted severe punishment on his assailants, Bazaine fell back within the entrenched camp of Metz. But although he made no appeals for help, public opinion, alarmed and excited,' condemned the only remaining army of France, Marshal Mac-Mahon's "Army of Châlons", to rescue Bazaine at all costs. The adventure ended at Sedan, and with Sedan the Second Empire collapsed, Napoleon III being taken as a prisoner of war.
Up to this point Bazaine had served his country perhaps as well as circumstances allowed, and certainly with enough skill and a sufficient measure of success to justify his appointment. His experience, wide as it was, had not fitted him for the command of a large army in a delicate position. Since the start of the war, Bazaine appeared to lack the appetite for the fight which had been his trademark in his military career to date, and although imperceptible on the field of battle, because his reputation for impassive bearing under fire was beyond question, was only too obvious in the staff offices, where the work of manoeuvring the army and framing plans and orders was chiefly done. In spite of this, it cannot be asserted that anyone of Bazaine's subordinates would have done better.
Bazaine, therefore, in the main justified his reputation for ability. He was now to justify his reputation for intriguing and underhand diplomacy. If in Mexico he aspired to the role of mayor of the palace, it was far more so in Metz, where, as commander of the only organized army of France, he conceived himself to be the ruler of the country's destiny. Accordingly he engaged in a series of diplomatic intrigues, some of which to this day have never been properly cleared up. Negotiations passed between the outer world and the besieged commander, the purport of which remains still to some extent obscure, but it is beyond question that he proposed with the permission of the Germans to employ his army in "saving France from herself". When considered in light of the fact that Bazaine had long been known as a staunchly loyal Bonapartist, his actions were clearly designed to forge a way to restore the Monarchy.
The scheme, however, collapsed, and the Army of the Rhine became prisoners of war to the number of 140,000. At the moment of the surrender a week's further resistance would have enabled the levies of the National Defence government to crush the weak forces of the Germans on the Loire and to relieve Paris. But the army of Prince Frederick Charles, set free by the surrender, hurried up in time to check and to defeat the great effort at Orléans.
[edit] Tried for Treason and Sentenced to Death
The French Nation could not rest with the thought that their military supremacy had been broken by the superiority of the Prusso-German arms; their defeats could have proceeded only from the treachery or incapacity of their leaders. To this national prejudice the new Government decided to bow, and to offer a sacrifice to the popular passion. And thus the world beheld the lamentable spectacle of the commanders who had surrendered the French fortresses to the enemy being subjected to a trial by court-martial under the presidency of Marshal Baraguay d'Hilliers, and the majority of them, on account of their proved incapacity or weakness, deprived of their military honors, at a moment when all had cause to reproach themselves and endeavor to raise up a new structure on the ruins of the past. Even Ulrich, the once celebrated commander of Strasbourg, whose name had been given to a street in Paris, was brought under the censure of the court-martial. But the chief blow fell upon the Commander-in-Chief, Marshal Bazaine, to whose "treachery" the whole misfortune of France was to be attributed.
When Bazaine returned from captivity, aware that in his absence he had been put forward as a scapegoat by the new government of the Third Republic, for France's defeat at the hands of the Prussians, was keen to be given an opportunity to clear his name and put his version of events to the public. In 1872, Bazaine requested and was granted a trial before a military court. For months he was retained a prisoner at Trianon Palace, Versailles with his wife and two youngest children, while preparations were made for the great court-martial spectacle, which, in the following year, took place under the presidency of the Duc D'Aumale in the Gallery of Trianon Palace.
For some time the Duke and his colleagues had been looking for a way out of their difficulty, by which they could save themselves, satisfy public clamor and yet avoid responsibility before history. Despite a vigorous defence of Bazaine's actions by Lachaud, and the presentation of a number of strong witness statements from his staff including Colonel Willette, the court found Bazaine guilty of negotiating with and capitulating to the enemy before doing all that was prescribed by duty and honour. It was clear even to the most partial observer, that the verdict bore very little relation to the evidence. For example, the Marshal surrendered only after receiving letters recommending him to do so from his Generals, but the presentation of these at the trial was ignored. "I have read every word of the evidence [against Bazaine] and believe it to be the most malicious casuistry" (New York Times Correspondent)(2). A letter which Prince Frederick Charles wrote in Bazaine's favor only added to the wrath of the people, who cried aloud for his execution. The court sentenced Bazaine to 'degradation and death', and to pay the costs of the enormous trial (300,000 Francs), which was to leave the Marshal's young family penniless. Bazaine's reaction on being read the sentence of the court was "It is my life you want, take it at once, let me be shot immediately, but preserve my family". Since the Revolution, only two French Marshals have been condemned to death - Ney, by a Bourbon, and Bazaine, by an Orleans. But, as though the judges themselves felt a twinge of conscience at the sentence, they immediately and unanimously signed a petition for 'Executive Clemency' to the President of the Third Republic, Marshal MacMahon, although Bazaine refused to sign this petition himself.
MacMahon, who was a fellow Foreign Legion Officer and had served in many campaigns alongside Bazaine, was visibly disgusted when he received the news of the Court's decision and was incensed by their attempt to pass responsibility to him[2]. He thereupon commuted the punishment of death to twenty years' imprisonment and remitted the disgrace of the formalities of a military degradation. Bazaine was incarcerated on the Île Sainte-Marguerite and treated rather as an exile than as a convict. Accompanied by his wife he escaped by boat in 1874 to Genoa Italy, with the help of Angelo Hayter, son of the Court Painter Sir George Hayter. Bazaine then came to London with his young family where he stayed with his Hayter relations. He finally took up his abode in Madrid, where he was treated with marked respect by the government of Alfonso XII, who were grateful for Bazaine's conspicuous bravery as a young Foreign Legion Officer in the Carlist War. He published Episodes de la guerre de 1870 (Madrid, 1883) in which he records his defence against the 1873 accusation of treason. He also wrote L'Armée du Rhin (Paris, 1872). With his own means stripped of him, he had his eldest son’s pay to depend upon besides the assistance of some well-known army men who were charitable to the old soldier[3].
[edit] Later Life
As his years progressed, the numerous wounds Bazaine had received while serving France during his 40 year Army career caused the ex-marshal's health to deteriorate further each winter. He never recovered from a disease he contracted during the harsh Madrid winter of 1887/8. Bazaine’s remains were interred on 24th September 1888 in the San Justo Cemetery in Madrid, his sons and Marshal Campos attending the funeral, his sword and epaulettes resting on his coffin [4]. The officiating priest was a relative of his wife. French newspapers remained vitriolic in their reporting of the Marshal’s passing “Let his corpse be flung in to the first ditch. As for his memory, it is nailed forever to the pillory” [5]. German papers refer to Bazaine kindly and repeat that he was wronged by his own people.
In the same year as Bazaine’s death, Count d’Herrison published an account[6] in defence of the Marshal’s decisions during the Franco-Prussian war, which cast significant, verifiable doubt upon the characters and motivations of witnesses whose testimonies were key to the finding of the court that Bazaine was guilty of treason. However, this is the only independent defence of Bazaine to be published, then, or since.
Bazaine was quickly forgotten by France, except in the French Foreign Legion where to this day, they annually honour the memory of one of their bravest Generals.
[edit] References
- ^ Illustrated London News: 1855
- ^ New York Times: 12 December 1873
- ^ New York Times: 30 September 1888
- ^ New York Times: 25 September 1888
- ^ La Paris: 25 September 1888
- ^ Comte d'Hérisson, La Légende de Metz (Paris, 1888)
- This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.
(1) Illustrated London News: 1855
(2) New York Times: 12 December 1873
(3) New York Times: 30 September 1888
(4) New York Times: 25 September 1888
(5) La Paris: 25 September 1888
(6) Comte d'Hérisson, La Légende de Metz (Paris, 1888)
See memoir by Camille Pelletan in La Grande Encyclopédie; for Bazaine's conduct see Bazaine et l'armée du Rhin (1873); J Valfrey, Le Maréchal et l'armée du Rhin (1873); Count A de la Guerronière, L'Homme de Metz (1871); Rossel, Les Derniers fours de Metz (1871), La Brugère, L'Affaire Bazaine (Paris, 1874), Comte d'Hérisson, La légende de Metz (Paris, 1888).
