Achille Francois Bazaine

BAZAINE, ACHILLE FRANCOIS mar shal of France, was born at Versailles on Feb. 13, 1811. He entered the army as a private soldier in 1831, with a view to service in Algeria, and received a commission in 1833. He served with great distinction in Algeria, in the Crimean war, in Lombardy (1859) and in Mexico (1862-67). He was promoted marshal in 1864, and skilfully conducted the retreat of the French troops from Mexico City and their embarkation at Vera Cruz in 1867.

At the outbreak of the Franco-German War

(q.v.) Marshal Bazaine was placed in command of the III. corps of the Army of the Rhine. How far his inaction was the cause of the disaster of Spicheren is a matter of dispute. Bazaine, indeed, when called upon for help by Frossard, who was in command of the army corps posted at Spicheren, moved part of his corps forward, but only to "take up strong positions," not to strike a blow on the battlefield. A few days later he took up the chief command, and his tenure of it is the central act in the tragedy of 187o. He found the army in retreat, ill-equipped and numerically at a great disadvantage, and the generals and staffs discouraged and dis trustful of one another. The question was one of extricating the army and the government from a disastrous adventure, and Bazaine's solution of it was to bring back his army to Metz. For the events which led up to the battles before Metz and the invest ment of Bazaine's whole army in the fortress, see FRANCO-GERMAN WAR and METZ : Battles.

It seems clearly established that the charges of treason to which later events gave so strong a colour had, as yet, no founda tion in fact. The resolution to stay in the neighbourhood of Metz was based on the knowledge that if the slow-moving French army ventured far out it would infallibly be headed off and brought to battle in the open by superior numbers. In "strong positions" close to his stronghold, however, Bazaine hoped to inflict damaging repulses and heavy slaughter on the Germans, and in the main the result justified the expectation. When, before he had finally decided to stay in Metz, Bazaine attempted half heartedly to begin a retreat on Verdun, the staff work and organ ization of the movement over the Moselle was so ineffective that when the German staff calculated that Bazaine was nearing Ver dun, the French had in reality barely got their artillery and bag gage trains through the town of Metz. After the army had passed through Metz it encountered an isolated corps of the enemy, commanded by Constantin von Alvensleben, which promptly attacked the French. At almost every moment of the day victory was in Bazaine's hands. Two corps of the Germans fought all day for bare existence. But Bazaine contented himself with inflicting severe losses on the most aggressive portions of the German army. Two days later, while the French actually retreated on Metz—taking seven hours to cover 5 to 6m.—the masses of the Germans gathered in front of him, intercepting his commu nication with the interior of France. Bazaine, feeling certain that the Germans would sooner or later attack him in his chosen posi tion, made no attempt to interfere with their concentration. The great battle was fought, and having inflicted severe punishment on his assailants, Bazaine fell back within the entrenched camp of Metz. But although he made no appeals for help, public opinion, alarmed and excited, condemned the only remaining army of France, Marshal MacMahon's "Army of Chalons," to rescue Bazaine at all costs. The adventure ended at Sedan, and with Sedan the Third Empire collapsed.

In Metz, as commander of the only organized army of France, Bazaine conceived himself to be the ruler of the country's destiny. Accordingly he engaged in a series of diplomatic intrigues. Nego tiations passed between the outer world and the besieged com mander, the purport of which remains still to some extent obscure, but it is beyond question that he proposed with the permission of the Germans to employ his army in "saving France from her self." The scheme, however, collapsed, and the army of the Rhine became prisoners of war to the number of 140,000. At the moment of the surrender a week's further resistance would have enabled the levies of the National Defence Government to crush the weak forces of the Germans on the Loire and to relieve Paris. But the army of Prince Frederick Charles, set free by the sur render, hurried up in time to check and to defeat the great effort at Orleans (q.v.). The responsibility for this crushing blow was naturally enough, and justly enough, placed on Bazaine's shoul ders, and although, when he returned from captivity, the marshal enjoyed a brief immunity, he was in 1873 brought to trial before a military court. He was found guilty of negotiating with and capitulating to the enemy before doing all that was prescribed by duty and honour, and sentenced to degradation and death, but very strongly recommended to mercy. His sentence was com muted to 20 years' seclusion, and the humiliating ceremonies attending degradation were dispensed with. He was incarcerated in Ile Sainte-Marguerite and treated rather as an exile than as a convict; thence he escaped in 1874 to Italy. He finally took up his abode in Madrid, where he was treated with marked respect by the Government of Alfonso XII. He died there on Sept. 23, 1888. He published Episodes de la guerre de 187o (Madrid, 1883). He also wrote L'Armee du Rhin (Paris, 1872).

See the bibliography appended to the article FRANCO-GERMAN WAR; also memoir by C. Pelletan in La Grande Encyclopedic; for Bazaine's conduct see Bazaine et l'armee du Rhin (1873) ; J. Valfrey, Le Marechal et l'armee du Rhin (1873) ; Count A. de la Guerroniere, L'Homme de Metz (1871) ; Rossel, Les Derniers Jours de Metz (1871) . See also the article BOURBAKI for the curious Regnier episode con nected with the surrender of Metz.