BRIALMONT, HENRI ALEXIS Belgian general and military engineer, son of General Laurent Mathieu Brialmont (d. 1885), was born at Venlo, Limburg, on May 25 1821. Educated at the Brussels military school, he entered the army as sub-lieutenant of engineers in 1843, and became lieuten ant in 1847. From 1847 to 1850 he was private secretary to the war minister, General Baron Chazal. In 1855 he entered the staff corps, and became major-general in 1874. He was then made director of fortifications in the Antwerp district and in 1875 he became inspector-general of fortifications and of the corps of engineers. In 1883 he went to Rumania to advise on fortifications and at the request of the Hellenic Government prepared a scheme for the defence of Greece. He retired in 1886, but continued to supervise the Rumanian defences. He died on Sept. 21, 1903.
At first Brialmont's plans followed with but slight modification the ideas of Vauban, and his original scheme for fortifying Ant werp provided for both enceinte and forts being on a bastioned trace. But in 18S9, when the great entrenched camp at Antwerp was finally taken in hand, he had already gone over to the school of polygonal fortification and the ideas of Montalembert. About 20 years later Brialmont's own types and plans began to stand out amidst the general confusion of ideas on fortification which natu rally resulted from the introduction of long-range guns and from the events of 1870-71. The extreme detached forts of the Ant werp region and the fortifications on the Meuse at Liege and Namur were constructed in accordance with Brialmont's final principles, viz., the lavish use of armour to protect the artillery inside the forts, the suppression of all artillery positions open to overhead fire, and the multiplication of intermediate batteries (see FORTIFICATION AND SIEGECRAFT). In his capacity of inspec tor-general Brialmont drafted and carried out the whole scheme for the defences of Belgium.
His most important publications were La Fortification du temps present (1885); Influence du tir plongeant et des obus-torpilles sur la fortification (1888) ; Les Regions f orti fiees (189o) ; La Defense des etats et la fortification a la fin du XIXe siecle (1895) ; Progres de la defense des etats et de la fortification permanence depuis Vauban (1898).