PELISSIER, AMIABLE JEAN JACQUES, Marshal of France, Due de Malakoff, b. in 1794 at Maromme, near Rouen. His father was a small farmer, little above the degree of a peasant. Pelissier was first sent to the lyceum at Brussels. At twenty he gained admission to the celebrated French artillery college of La Fleche, and was soon trans ferred to the special school of St. Cyr. He entered the artillery of the royal guard as _ sub-lieut. in 1814, and being transferred to the 57th regiment of the line, which was not called upon to do-duty after the return of Napoleon from Elba, he escaped the dilemma of declaring either for or against the emperor. He served on the staff in Spain in 1823; made the campaign of the Morea in 1828; joined the first expedition to Algiers iu 1830 as maj. of cavalry; and in 1839 returned to Algeria with the rank of lieut-col. Ile commanded the left wing of the French army at the battle of lsly. In 1845 he acquired an unenviable notoriety by suffocating more than :300 Arabs who took refnim in the caves of Ouled-Riah in the Habra. Marshal Soult, then minister of war, did not venture to approve this atrocity, but marshal Bugeaud, commander-in-chief in Algeria. declared
that Pelissier only carried out his positive orders. By 1850 he had attained the rank of gun of division. When the news of the coup d'etat reached Algiers, lie espoused the cause of the emperor, and placed the province of Algiers under martial law until order was restored. In the war with Russia, he obtained in 1855 the command of the first corps of the Crimean army, and soon succeeded marshal Canrobert in the chief com mand, when a change came over the fortunes of the campaign. The Russians were defeated on the Tchernaya, and on Sept. 8 the Malakoff, the key of Sepastopol, carts carried. After the fall of Sebastopol, Pelissier received a marshal's baton. and on his return to France, was created due de Malakoff and a senator, and received a dota flint of 100,000 francs. He also received the order of G.C.B. from queen Victoria. In 1858 he came to London as the French ambassador, but resigned his post. for which he had little relish, in the following year. lie was then named gov.gen. of Algiers, where he died (May, 1804) of congestion of the lungs.