Ernest Courtot de Cissey

Ernest Louis Courtot de Cissey

Ernest Louis Courtot de Cissey (born December 23, 1810 in Paris , † June 15, 1882 ibid) was a French Général de division and statesman .

Life

Courtot de Cissey, scion of a Burgundian noble family, graduated from 1830 to 1835, the Military School of Saint-Cyr and trained staff to Major. After graduation, he was accepted into the army as a lieutenant. Then de Cissey served in Algeria and was later promoted to Général de brigade in the Crimean War because of his bravery demonstrated before Inkerman in 1854 . In 1863 he was given command of the 16th  Division in Rennes as General de Division .

In the Franco-Prussian War of 1870/71, Courtot de Cissey commanded the 1st Division of the 4th  Army Corps and participated in the battles for the fortress of Metz (August 14, 16 and 18) as well as at Noisseville (August 31) and fell into German captivity after the siege of Metz as a result of the surrender on October 28th.

After completing the peace preliminaries, de Cissey returned to France and was given command of the 2nd Army at Versailles . On May 2, 1871, he and his troops penetrated Paris and soon seized the entire left bank of the Seine . Already elected to the National Assembly on February 8th, Courtot de Cissey received the Ministry of War on June 5th from Adolphe Thiers . In this position he played an outstanding role in the reorganization of the French army. After Thiers' fall on May 24, 1873, Courtot de Cissey also resigned. With the new division of the French army into 18 corps, he received supreme command of the IX. Corps in Tours .

After the Broglie cabinet had also been overthrown on May 22, 1874, the President instructed Mac-Mahon de Cissey to reorganize the cabinet ( Courtot de Cissey cabinet ), in which the latter took over the chairmanship and the war ministry. De Cissey also took over the War Ministry in the following ministries from Buffet and Dufaure , but resigned on August 16, 1876, after he had been elected lifelong senator in December 1875 ; his mandate ended in 1882.

In 1878 Courtot de Cissey took command of the XI. Army Corps in Nantes . In the course of a trial against the French Lieutenant-Colonel Henri Félix Théodore Jung (1833-1896) de Cissey was accused of having had a relationship with Jung's wife, the German Baroness Lucie von Kaulla (1840-1891?). This in turn was accused of spying for the German Reich . Thereupon de Cissey was dismissed from active service by the generals in 1880 and went into retirement. The parliamentary commission, which was set up to investigate the allegations of treason and extortion , later acquitted him. The judgment was upheld by the Chamber in April 1881.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} E. C. de Cissey - Detailed biographical information with terms of office in state institutions (French), accessed on September 9, 2016.

predecessor	Office	successor
Adolphe Le Flô François Claude du Barail	Minister of War of France June 5, 1871-25. May 1873 May 22, 1874-15. August 1876	François Claude du Barail Jean Auguste Berthaud