CLUSERET, GUSTAVE PAUL (1823-190o), delegate for war of the Paris Commune, was born in Paris, on June 13, 1823. He was an officer of the garde mobile during the second republic (1848), joined Garibaldi's volunteers in 186o and in 1861 went to the United States to take part in the Civil War. After this cam paign he assumed the title of General, which he said had been granted to him personally by Abraham Lincoln. He also took part in the Fenian insurrection in Ireland of 1866-67. On his return to France he became a member of the International Working Men's Association (see INTERNATIONAL, FIRST), and on the news of the Communard revolt of March 18, 1871, hurried to Paris. His military title, his advanced opinions, and his presumed talents gave him great influence among the Paris workers; he was not, however, elected a member of the Commune till the supplemen tary elections of April 16. After the disastrous failures of Lullier and Bergeret, the Commune appointed him to the charge of the Department of War, trusting to his record and his own assertions. But, brave though he was personally, Cluseret was hopelessly unfit to organize any military operation. He failed to introduce order into his department, to prevent the continual meddling and contradiction by the central committee of the National Guard, to organize a park of artillery, or even to relieve the men in the trenches. Under his direction, with a nominal force of ioo,000 guards, the defence of Paris was maintained by no more than about i o,000, usually the same i o,000. When the Commune real ized the extent of his incompetence and arrested him, on May 1, the fate of the insurrection was already decided. Cluseret had been charged with treason, but his crime was inefficiency. On May 24 the entry of the Versailles troops into Paris saved him from con demnation by the Communard courts and he escaped from France. He returned in sat as deputy for Toulon in 1888-89, and died on Aug. 21, 1900. (See COMMUNE.) See M emoires du General Cluseret : le deuxieme siege de Paris, la fin de l'empire (1887-88) ; P. Lissagaray, History of the Commune of 1871 (1902) ; G. da Costa, La Commune V ecue (19o3) ; R. W. Post gate, Revolution from 1789 to 1906 (192o). (R. W. P.)