PELISSIER, p3'16'syht', AIMABLE JEAN JACQ UES, Duke of Malakoff (1794-1864). A marshal of France, born at Maronone, near Rouen. He studied at the artillery school of La Eleehe and at Saint-Cyr, from which_ he entered the artillery of the Royal Guard in 1815. He served in Spain in 1823, made the campaign of the Morea in 1828, joined the first expedition to Algiers in 1830, and in 1839 returned to Al geria with the rank of lieutenant-colonel. He commanded the left wing of the French army at the battle of Isly (1844). In 1845 lie acquired an unenviable notoriety by putting to death by suffocation some six hundred Arabs who took refuge in the eaves of the Dahra and refused to surrender. Marshal Soult, then Minister of War, did not venture to approve this atrocity, but Marshal Bugeand, commander-in chief in Algeria, declared that Pfflissier only carried out his positive orders, and so saved his subordinate from disgrace. By 1850 P(Ilissier had
attained the rank of general of division. When the news of the coup (=Mat of December 2, 1851, reached Algeria, he espoused the cause of the Emperor, and placed the province under martial law until order was restored. In the Crimean War he was given command of the First Army Corps, and early in 1855 he succeeded Marshal Canrobert in the chief command. After the fall of Sebastopol Pfflissier received a mar shal's baton, and on his return to France was created Duke of Malakoff and a Senator. He was also made a member of the Order of the Bath by Queen Victoria. In 1858 he went to London as French Ambassador, but resigned in the following year a post for which he had little relish. He was then named Governor-General of Algeria, and died at Algiers May 22, 1864.