Jean-Jacques Uhrich

Jean-Jacques-Alexis Uhrich (born February 15, 1802 in Phalsbourg , † October 9, 1886 in Paris ) was a French officer and general . He was a great-uncle of the French general Maurice Gamelin .

Life

Uhrich joined the French army in 1820 and was a member of the first year of the Saint-Cyr military school (1818-1820). As early as 1823 he took part in the French invasion of Spain and was stationed in Algeria from 1834 . In 1855 Uhrich commanded a brigade of the French guard during the siege of Sevastopol during the Crimean War and four years later he was in command of an infantry division during the Sardinian War . For the Franco-Prussian War he was called back into service from his retirement and appointed in command of the fortress of Strasbourg , which he defended against the Germans during the siege from August 15 to September 28, 1870 and handed over after the further resistance became pointless to avoid a storm and further damage and death. Initially celebrated as a hero for his tough resistance (today's Avenue Foch in Paris was named after him from 1870 to 1872), Uhrich received a reprimand for his behavior from a military commission in 1872 and then published the book Documents relatifs au siége de Strasbourg . His grave is in the Père Lachaise (50th Division) cemetery in Paris.

Awards

• Grand Cross of the French Legion of Honor
• Companion of the British Order of the Bath

swell

• Entry in Meyer's Großes Konversations-Lexikon at Zeno.org, p. 201553 (cf. Meyer vol. 19, p. 874)

literature

• Fischbach, Gustav: The siege and bombardment of Strasbourg 1870 , Strasbourg 1871
• Documents relatifs au siége de Strasbourg , Dentu, Paris 1872