Men of the Time, eleventh edition/Bazaine, François Achille
BAZAINE, François Achille, a Marshal of France, was born Feb. 13, 1811. Having finished his studies in the École Polytechnique, he entered the army in 1831, served in Africa in 1832, was promoted to the grade of lieutenant in 1836, and received the Cross of the Legion of Honour on the field of battle. In 1837 he was engaged in the campaigns in Spain against the Carlists, and returned to Algeria with the rank of captain in 1839. He took part in the expeditions of Milianah, Kabylia, and Morocco; was chosen, in 1853, at the outbreak of the war in the East, to command a brigade of infantry; and during the siege of Sebastopol was honourably mentioned in the despatches of Marshals Canrobert and Pelissier. He subsequently was made a general of division, and commanded the French portion of the expedition which reduced Kinburn. In 1856 he was appointed inspector of several divisions of infantry. In 1862 he accepted a command in the French expedition to Mexico, where he greatly distinguished himself, succeeding Marshal Forey in the supreme command in 1863. He was created a Marshal of France, Sept. 5, 1864, having been previously nominated Commander of the Legion of Honour, Aug. 16, 1856, and Grand Cross, July 2, 1863. While holding the supreme command in Mexico he drove back President Juarez to the furthermost frontiers of the country (1864); made himself master of the fortified city of Oajaca, the garrison of which, consisting of 7,000 men, surrendered to him unconditionally (Feb. 8, 1865); and organised against the partisans of the Republic a system of guerilla warfare, which was carried into effect with much bravery and barbarity, under the direction of the notorious Colonel Dupin. Fatal misunderstandings arose, however, between the Emperor Maximilian and the leader of the French expedition, who was also greatly embarrassed by the obstinate resistance of the natives and the policy pursued by the United States. At length, in Sept. 1866, Marshal Bazaine, finding the maintenance of the empire impossible, commenced preparations for conducting his troops back to France. He concentrated them on Vera Cruz, and prepared for a general embarkation, while vigorously repelling to the last the attacks of the natives. On March 12, 1867, he quitted Vera Cruz with the whole of the expeditionary forces. The same year he was appointed to the command of the Third Army Corps stationed at Nancy, and on Oct. 15, 1869, he was nominated Commander-in-Chief of the Imperial Guard. During the earlier stages of the disastrous war between France and Germany, Marshal Bazaine acted a most conspicuous part. On the capitulation of Sedan he retired to the fortress of Metz, which was immediately invested by the German forces under Prince Frederick Charles. After a siege of seven weeks the place capitulated, on which memorable occasion three marshals, 50 generals, over 6,000 officers, and 173,000 men, laid down their arms. Marshal Bazaine left Metz on the day of the capitulation, on account of his unpopularity and the insecurity of his life. After staying in England for some months, he was, in August, 1871, summoned to Versailles by the Military Commission of the National Assembly. The Commissioners appointed to inquire into the capitulations made during the war brought serious charges against Marshal Bazaine. In consequence of their report, he was handed over to a Council of War organized by a special law, and was imprisoned at Versailles during the preliminary examination in May, 1872. He was afterwards tried at the Grand Trianon of Versailles by a court-martial of general officers, presided over by General the Duc d'Aumale. He was charged not only with military incapacity in allowing himself to be blockaded by a nearly equal force in Metz, and in his ultimate capitulation, but also with a treasonable design of making himself, by the aid of his army, and with the connivance of the enemy, independent of the Government of National Defence, which had been universally acknowledged by France. The trial commenced on Oct. 6, and ended on Dec. 10, 1873. On the charge of political bad faith the court returned no direct verdict; but on the issue whether the Marshal had done all that was required by duty and honour, he was, by a unanimous vote, found guilty. The court condemned the prisoner to degradation and to death, but at the same time recommended him to mercy. Two days afterwards, President MacMahon commuted the punishment of death to confinement for twenty years in a fortress, and remitted the ceremony which, according to law, accompanies the sentence of degradation. He was, however, deprived of all his dignities, dismissed from the army, and sent to undergo his sentence at the Ile Sainte Marguerite, a small island just off Cannes, on the Mediterranean coast. Here Bazaine lived for nine months, enjoying a good deal of freedom, and constantly in the society of his wife and children and of his old aide-de-camp, Colonel Villette. On the plea that the health of the children was affected, Madame Bazaine left the island and sought an interview with Marshal MacMahon, the President of the Republic, in the hope that he might be induced to allow her husband to pass the rest of his days an exile but not a prisoner. But the President declined to interfere; and it is believed that the coldness of his refusal induced Bazaine to try the chance of flight. On Sunday, Aug. 9, 1874, he passed the evening in conversation with Colonel Villette, and on the following morning a rope was hanging down from the parapet of the fortress, and the prisoner was gone. It afterwards appeared that Madame Bazaine and her cousin had been waiting for him in a boat at the base of the rock. They took him on board a ship which was lying near, and he succeeded in escaping to Italy. He afterwards proceeded to Cologne (Aug. 14), spent a short time in England, and ultimately took up his residence in Madrid, where he arrived Nov. 17, 1874. In Sept. 1874, he addressed to the New York Herald an extended and elaborate apology for his conduct when in command of the French army within Metz. In April, 1883, he published a book, dedicated to Queen Isabella II., in which he describes the share he took in the Franco-German war.