François-Achille Bazaine
François-Achille Bazaine (born February 13, 1811 in Versailles , † September 23, 1888 in Madrid ) was a Marshal of France .
Life
Achille Bazaine was born in 1811. He joined the army in 1831, went to Africa in 1832 and earned the Legion of Honor Cross on the battlefield. In 1837 he embarked with the Foreign Legion for Spain and took part in two arduous campaigns against the Carlist guerrillas. In 1839, back in Algiers , he took part in the expeditions to Milianah , Morocco and Kabylia . In 1850 he became head of the first regiment of the Foreign Legion. In 1854 he became a brigadier general .
In this position he took part in the siege of Sevastopol during the Crimean War, where he distinguished himself through organizational talent and the leadership of the two Foreign Legion regiments. After taking the fortress , he became divisional commander and commander of Sevastopol. Around this time he commanded the expeditionary force against the fortress Kinburn with care and success .
In 1859 he took part in the Sardinian War in the storming of Melegnano (June 8th) and the battle of Solferino (June 24th). Upon his return, he was given the task of inspecting several infantry divisions.
In 1863 he went as a division commander to Mexico , where he after the departure of Marshal Élie-Frédéric Forey the supreme command over the concentrated there French army took over. Puebla ( May 18 ) and Mexico City were taken and the Empire of Maximilian I was proclaimed in 1864 . On September 5, 1864, Bazaine was appointed Marshal of France .
After increasing Mexican and international protests (especially the USA ) about foreign rule (see History of Mexico , detailed French intervention in Mexico and the Mexican Empire ), Bazaine withdrew from Mexico with the French army in 1866.
At the beginning of the Franco-Prussian War , Bazaine reluctantly contributed to the fact that French troops lost the Battle of Spichern (August 6, 1870). The 2nd French Corps under General Charles Auguste Frossard withdrew to the heights of Spichern on August 3rd to 5th and fortified positions there. Frossard was in contact with Bazaine in Sankt Avold from his quarters in the Forbach town hall .
On August 6, German troops attacked these positions without authorization. Other German troops accelerated their advance and from 3 p.m. intervened in the fight, which soon turned in favor of the Prussians. In the early afternoon in his quarters in Forbach, Frossard was informed of the arrival of the Prussian reinforcements and urgently asked his superior Bazaine for help (he had previously refused the reinforcements offered). Bazaine had units in Sankt Avold (only 30 train miles to the west) but was reluctant to deploy them. With the victory at Spichern, the way to Metz was clear for the Germans; they could continue their brisk advance.
As commander of the French Rhine Army, Bazaine surrendered on October 27, 1870 with around 170,000 men in the enclosed fortress of Metz , after the food supplies had been used up.
The capitulation of Metz aroused the greatest bitterness in France against Bazaine, in whom so great hopes had been placed. He was accused not only of incompetence and cowardice, but also of treason . In 1872 he was arrested at his request to be tried on a court martial . The same met in October 1873 under the chairmanship of the Duke of Aumale in Trianon Castle , and under the pressure of public opinion , which demanded a scapegoat , and under the influence of his political and personal opponents in the army, he unanimously declared negligence on December 10th guilty and sentenced to death after previous demotion .
Marshal Patrice de Mac-Mahon transformed the death penalty into twenty years imprisonment at a court martial . Bazaine was brought to the island of Sainte-Marguerite near Cannes . From there he escaped on August 10, 1874 with the help of his wife and probably with secret permission from the officials. He lived in complete seclusion in Madrid until his death in 1888 .
Roger Vitrac takes up the story of Bazaine and the related French trauma in his surrealist drama " Victor or The Children in Power ".
Works
- Report du maréchal Bazaine: Bataille de Rezonville. Le 16 août 1870 . - Brussels: Auguste Decq, 1870
- La capitulation de Metz: Report officiel du maréchal Bazaine . - Lyon: Lapierre glasses, 1871
- L'armée du Rhin depuis le 12 août jusqu'au 29 octobre 1870 . - Paris: Henri Plon, 1872
- Episodes de la guerre de 1870 et le blocus de Metz par l'ex-maréchal Bazaine - Madrid: Gaspar, 1883 (immediately banned in France)
literature
- Biography (until 1870) taken verbatim from the volume: Theodor Fontane - The war against France 1870–1871, Berlin 1873–1876.
- Henri d'Orléans, duc d'Aumale : Procès Bazaine, affaire de la capitulation de Metz, seul compte rendu sténographique in extenso des séances du 1st conseil de guerre de la 1st division militaire ayant siégé à Versailles (Trianon), on 6 octobre au 10 December 1873 / sous la présidence de M. le Général de division Duc d'Aumale. Librairie du Moniteur Universel, Paris 1873
- Amédée Le Faure: Procès du Maréchal Bazaine. Rapport. Audiences du premier conseil de guerre. Compte rendu rédigé avec l'adjonction de notes explicatives. Garnier, Paris 1874
- F. de La Brugère (d. I. Arthème Fayard ): L 'Affaire Bazaine: Compte-rendu officiel et in extenso des débats, avec de nombreuses biographies. Fayard, Paris 1874
- The Bazaine trial. In: Supplement to the Militair-Wochenblatt (Berlin) 1874, no. 2, pp. 6–124
- Robert [Bazaine] -Christophe: Bazaine innocent. Nantal, Paris 1938
- Robert Burnand: Bazaine. Librairie Floury, Paris 1939
- Jean Cahen-Salvador: Le procès du maréchal Bazaine. La Guilde du Livre, Lausanne 1946
- Robert Christophe: La vie tragique du maréchal Bazaine. Editions Jacques Vautrin, Paris 1947
- Edmond Ruby and Jean Regnault: Bazaine coupable ou victime? A la lumière de documents nouveaux. J. Peyronnet & Cie, Paris 1960
- Walther Skaupy: Great Trials in World History, Has Marshal Bazaine betrayed France or illegally surrendered? P. 168 ff., Magnus Verlag, Essen 1976, ISBN 978-3-88851-277-3
- Maurice Baumont: Bazaine: les secrets d'un maréchal (1811–1888). Imprimerie Nationale, Paris 1978, ISBN 2-11-080717-2
- François-Christian Semur: L'affaire Bazaine, un maréchal devant ses juges. Editions Cheminements, 2006, ISBN 978-2-84478-782-8
Web links
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Bazaine, François-Achille |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Marshal of France |
| DATE OF BIRTH | February 13, 1811 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Versailles |
| DATE OF DEATH | September 23, 1888 |
| Place of death | Madrid |