The New International Encyclopædia/Clinchant, Justin

CLINCHANT, klăN′shäN′, Justin (1820-81). A French general, born at Thiaucourt (Meurthe). He studied at the military college of Saint Cyr, entered the infantry service in 1841, and fought in the Crimea, in the Italian campaign of 1859, and in Mexico. As commander of a brigade of the Third Army Corps, he participated in the battles before Metz. Having escaped from imprisonment after the capitulation, he was appointed to the command of the Twentieth Army Corps of the Army of the East, with the rank of a general of division. He succeeded Bourbaki (q.v.) as commander of the Army of the East, and, intercepted by the Germans under Von Manteuffel in an attempt at retreat, was compelled, with his 84,600 troops, to withdraw into Switzerland. He subsequently commanded the Fifth Army Corps of the Army of Versailles against the forces of the Commune, and in 1879 was appointed Military Governor of Paris.