Jean Joseph Farre

General Farre

Jean Joseph Frédéric Albert Farre (born May 5, 1816 in Valence , Département Drôme , †  March 24, 1887 in Paris ) was a French general and politician.

Farre joined the French army as an officer after successfully completing his studies at the École polytechnique . He distinguished himself in the expeditions against the Kabyle and in 1859 became commander of the engineering troops ( pioneers ) of the occupying army in Rome .

When the Franco-Prussian War broke out in 1870, Farre was director of the fortifications at Arras . After the fall of the Empire, the government of the national defense entrusted him with the task of organizing the armed forces in the northern departments. For this he was appointed brigadier general. General Bourbaki received the supreme command of these troops, and Farre was appointed chief of staff. As Bourbaki in Southern on November 19, France was called Farre received the command of the three weak divisions existing northern army . He moved south of the Somme between Villers-Bretonneux and the forest of Hangard a defensive position too extensive for his army, from which General Manteuffel drove him in the battle of Amiens on November 27th. The French army withdrew as far as Arras and entered on December 3rd under the command of General Faidherbe , with whom Farre remained as chief of staff until the end of the war.

In 1875 he was appointed division general and on December 29, 1879 he was entrusted with the management of the War Ministry . In this position he removed all officers known as Legitimists or Bonapartists from the influential positions. He had no luck in filling the vacant positions, for the new forces proved incapable of successfully organizing the campaign against Tunis . Farre resigned on November 13, 1881 from his office. Twelve days later he was made a senator .

predecessor	Office	successor
Henri François Xavier Gresley	Minister of War of France December 28, 1879 - November 14, 1881	Jean-Baptiste Campenon