French Foreign Legion
Page 101
65. Azan, Légion, 523.
66. Azan, Légion, 323.
67. V. Doublet, Vie de Don Carlos V de Bourbon, roi d'Espagne (Bourges: Pornin, 1842), 103.
68. Azan, Légion, 373. See also SHAT Xb 776, 1838, which gives the number of those eligible for repatriation at seventy-two officers and 199 men.
69. Germain Bapst, Le Maréchal Canrobert, Vol. 1, 356-7.
70. Galant, Précis.
CHAPTER 3
1. Grisot and Coulombon, La Légion étrangère de 1831 à 1887, 51.
2. Charles-André Julien, Histoire de l'Algérie contemporaine, 140.
3. “1837, Passaut de Constantine,” Vert et rouge, no. 20 (1949): 17-18.
4. SHAT 1H 52, Valée report, 26 October 1837.
5. SHAT, 1H 52, Valée report, 26 October 1837.
6. Jean Brunon, “Le centenaire de la prise de Constantine et la mort du colonel Combe,” Vert et rouge, no. 3 (August 1937): 5.
7. SHAT, 1H 52, Valée report.
8. SHAT, 1H 52, Valée report.
9. SHAT, 1H 52, Valée report.
10. Saint-Arnaud, Achille, Lettres du Maréchal de Saint-Arnaud, 1832-1854, 2 vols. (Paris: Calmann-Lévy, 1864), 136.
11. Louis de Charbonnières, Une grande figure. Saint-Arnaud, Maréchal de France (Paris: Nouvelles editions latines, 1960), 30.
12. Saint-Arnaud, Lettres, 152.
13. Saint-Arnaud, Lettres, 138, 155-6.
14. SHAT, 1H 52, Valée report.
15. Saint-Arnaud, Lettres, 138-9.
16. Saint-Arnaud, Lettres, 139.
17. Saint-Arnaud, Lettres, 140-1.
18. Saint-Arnaud, Lettres, 141-42.
19. Saint-Arnaud, Lettres, 145.
20. Saint-Arnaud, Lettres, 142.
21. Saint-Arnaud, Lettres, 147-48.
22. Saint-Arnaud, Lettres, 147.
23. Saint-Arnaud, Lettres, 147.
24. Saint-Arnaud, Lettres, 131.
25. Saint-Arnaud, Lettres, 143.
26. Lady Duff Gordon, The French in Algiers (London: John Murray, 1855), 23.
27. Saint-Arnaud, Lettres, 125.
28. SHAT, Xb 727, 1841.
29. I thank Colonel Henri Dutailly for this information.
30. SHAT, Xb 727, 1841.
31. SHAT, Xb 726, 10 November 1838.
32. SHAT, Xb 726, 1837.
33. H. Dutailly, “Chronique de Pancienne Légion,” July 1970, 280.
34. SHAT, Xb 727, 18 November 1843.
35. SHAT, Xb 726, 10 November 1838.
36. SHAT, Xb 726, October 1840.
37. SHAT, Xb 727, 18 November 1845.
38. SHAT, Xb 727. See, for instance, the inspection reports of the 1st regiment for 1843: 1,280 literate for 2,482 men; 2nd regiment, 20 September 1844: 1,113 literate for 2,726 men; November 1845: 1,307 literate for 3,285 men.
39. Gordon, The French, 76-7.
40. Germain Bapst, Le maréchal Canrobert, Vol. 1, 361.
41. Guy de Miribel, Mémoires du maréchal de Mac-Mahon, due de Magenta: Souvenirs d'Algérie (Paris: Plon, 1932), 173.
42. SHAT, Xb 727, 19 November 1844.
43. SHAT, Xb 727, 1842.
44. Saint-Arnaud, Lettres, 224.
45. Miribel, Mac-Mahon, 172-3.
46. SHAT, H86 Alger, 22 October 1842. The letter is a copy of Soult's letter sent to General de Négrier, commander of the Constantine division, upon whose territory the abuses took place.
47. P. Christian, L'Afrique française, l'empire du Maroc et les déserts du Sahara (Paris: Barbier, nd [1846]), 446.
48. SHAT, Xb 727, October 1840.
49. Bapst, Canrobert, Vol 1,358. See also Maréchal Boniface de Castellane, Journal du Maréchal de Castellane, 1804-1862 (Paris: Plon, 1896), Vol. III, 223-27.
50. Saint-Arnaud, Lettres, 223-24.
51. Captain Blanc, Types militaires d'antan. Généraux et soldats d'Afrique (Paris: Plon, 1885), 208-9.
52. SHAT, Xb 726, 1836.
53. Statistics derived from SHAT, Xb 726 & 727.
54. Hew Strachan, Wellington's Legacy. The Reform of the British Army, 1830-1854 (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1984), 89.
55. SHAT, Xb 696, inspection reports for the 2e régiment d'infanterie légère.
56. SHAT, Xb 723 zouaves.
57. SHAT, H 86 Alger, 22 October 1842.
58. P. de Castellane, Souvenirs de la vie militaire en Afrique (Paris: Calmann-Lévy, 1879), 149.
59. Miribel, MacMahon, 173.
60. SHAT, Xb 727, 20 September 1844.
61. Captain Forey, Campagnes d'Afrique, 1835-1848: Lettres adressées au maréchal de Castellane par le captaine Forey (Paris: Plon, 1898), 103. This was a fate that Captain Forey of the 2nd Light Infantry Regiment wished for one of his superiors: “We all however await with anxiety the promotion to lieutenant colonel for a certain M. de la Torre, who had the talent to make himself abhorred by everyone,” he wrote on August 11,1837. “They are at this moment organizing two battalions of the Foreign Legion. That is just the place for him.”
62. Bapst, Canrobert, Vol. I, 359.
63. Figures compiled by the author from inspection reports in SHAT:
Hospital Died Desertions
1836 284/39.4% 134/18.6% 105/14.6%
1837 — 286/13.6% 226/10.7%
1838 (Nov) 221/8% 102/3.7% 221/8%
1839 (Oct) 427/14.9% 256/8.9% 232/8.1%
0(Oct) 1,016/24.4% 136/3.2% 283/6.8%
1841 639/22.9% 204/7.3% 292/10.5%
1842 (Nov) 1st reg. 273/11.2% 177/7.2% 291/11.9%
1843 (Nov) 1st reg. 347/13.9% 156/6.2% 292/11.7%
1st reg. 245/8.8% — 287/10.3%
1844 (Sept) 2nd reg. 294/10.7% (1,482 fever) — 151/5.5%
1845 (Sept) 1st reg. 290/9.2% — 199/6.3%
1845 (Nov) 2nd reg. 261/7.9% (2,046 fever) — 184/5.6%
64. Julien, L'Algérie contemporaine, 272.
65. Saint-Arnaud, Lettres, 190. See also Lady Duff Gordon, “The Prisoner of Abd el-Kader,” The French in Algiers, 93-176.
66. P. de Castellane, Souvenirs de la vie militaire en Afrique, 3e édition, 92-3.
67. Bapst, Canrobert, Vol. 1, 360-1. The date of the massacre was, in fact, November 8, 1836. I thank Mr. Richard Mahaud for this information.
68. SHAT, Xb 726, October 1840.
69. Captain Emile Froelicher, he siége de Milianah, ses ravitaillements (Paris: Charles-Lavauzelle, 1889), 9-34.
70. Gordon, The French, 23.
71. Bapst, Canrobert, Vol. 1, 257.
72. See SHAT, Xb 726, 10 November 1838 and October 1840.
73. General Paul Azan, Conquête et pacification de l'Algérie (Paris: Librairie de France, 1929), 503-4.
74. SHAT, Xb 726, October 1840.
75. SHAT, Xb 727, 20 September 1844.
76. SHAT, Xb 727, 15 November 1842. See also SHAT, Xb 726, 1837 and 10 November 1838.
77. SHAT, Xb 727, October 1840. In 1837, General Rullière found that the weapons of the Legion were “generally badly maintained” and that the overcoats of the NCOs and soldiers “are not in good repair” (Xb 726). “The training of légionnaires needs to start again at the beginning,” wrote General Dampierre in November 1838. “The Legion is weak in evolutions and maneuvers because it is rarely exercised.” It had neither a drill field nor a firing range, while its frequent service in the “avants postes” was not only “very difficult” and the cause of the high sickness rates in the Légion, but also further undermined training (10 November 1838 and October 1839, Xb 727). General de Négrier also criticized the inadequate preparation of légionnaires in 1842 (Xb 727, 1842).
78. Gordon, The French, 18.
CHAPTER 4
1. Julien, l'Algérie contemporaine, 173.
2. Gordon, The French, 36.
3. Anthony Thrall Sullivan, Thomas-Robert Bugeaud: France and Algeria, 1784-1849: Power, Politics and the Good Society (Hamden, Conn.: Archon Books, 1983), 69-70.
4. For more details on Bugeaud's life, see H. d'Idevill
e, Le maréchal Bugeaud, d'après sa correspondance intime et des documents inédits, 1784-1882 (Paris: Firmin-Didot, 1881-82).
5. Bapst, Le maréchal Canrobert, I, 258-9.
6. Julien, L'Algérie contemporaine, 171.
7. T-R Bugeaud, Par l'épée et par la charrue: Ecrits et discours de Bugeaud (Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 1948), 289-91.
8. Bapst, Canrobert, I, 264-70.
9. Bapst, Canrobert, I, 264-70.
10. Lamborelle, Cinq ans en Afrique, 47.
11. Gordon, The French, 25.
12. Gordon, The French, 43-4. In fact, the number of legionnaires ambushed was forty-five.
13. Archives d'outre-mer, Aix-en-Provence, 18 mi 1, 28 December 1840 and 19 January 1841.
14. Gordon, The French, 78.
15. Archives d'outre-mer, 18 June 1842.
16. I thank Richard Mahaud for this information.
17. Archives d'outre-mer, 18 June 1842.
18. Bapst, Canrobert, 1, 255.
19. Paul Azan, Conquête et pacification, 375.
20. Jacques de la Faye, Souvenirs du général Lacretelle (Paris: Emilc Paul, 1907), 2-3.
21. Lamborelle, Cinq ans, 109-10.
22. Lamborelle, Cinq ans, 115.
23. Lamborelle, Cinq ans, 111-12.
24. Gordon, French, 52.
25. Lamborelle, Cinq ans, 118-19.
26. Gordon, French, 52.
27. Lamborelle, Cinq ans, 120.
28. Gordon, French, 51.
29. Lamborelle, Cinq ans, 122.
30. de la Faye, Lacretelle, 3.
31. SHAT, Xb 727, 21 January & 15 November 1842.
32. SHAT, Xb 727, 18 November 1845.
33. de la Faye, Lacretelle, 2.
34. Lamborelle, Cinq ans, 258.
35. Miribel, MacMahon, 176.
36. Gordon, The French, 54, 60, 69
37. Letter of September 29, 1843, in the private collection of M. Raymond Guyader.
38. Gordon, French, 53.
39. A. K. Koch, “Relation de l'expédition dans le sud de la province d'Oran en 1849,” Spectateur militaire, 1949: 662.
40. Lamborelle, Cinq ans, 262.
41. Lamborelle, Cinq ans, 198.
42. Gordon, French, 26.
43. Lamborelle, Cinq ans, 199.
44. Gordon, French, 26.
45. Lamborelle, Cinq ans, 151.
46. Gordon, French, 26.
47. Lamborelle, Cinq ans, 151.
48. Gordon, French, 62-3.
49. Blanc, Types militaires d'antan, 234-36.
50. Gordon, French, 84.
51. Lamborelle, Cinq ans, 157.
52. Lamborelle, Cinq ans, 82-3.
53. Lamborelle, Cinq ans, 85.
54. Lamborelle, Cinq ans, 194.
55. de la Faye, Lacretelle, 4.
56. Archives d'outre mer, 18 mi 1, 28 February 1841.
57. SHAT, Xb 727, 15 November 1842.
58. de la Faye, Lacretelle, 1-2.
59. SHAT, Xb 727, 20 September 1844.
60. SHAT, Xb 727, 19 September 1845.
61. SHAT, Xb 727, 20 September 1844.
62. SHAT, Xb 727, 1843.
63. Julien, L'Algérie contemporaine, 272.
64. Lamborelle, Cinq ans, 42.
65. SHAT, Xb 726, October 1840.
66. Lamborelle, Cinq ans, 42.
67. Miribel, MacMahon, 177-78.
68. Jean Brunon et al., Le livre d'or de la Légion étrangère, 1831-1976 (Paris: Charles-Lavauzelle, 1981), 423.
69. SHAT, Xb 726, October 1840.
70. Lamborelle, Cinq ans, 188, 262.
71. SHAT, Xb 727, 18 November 1845.
72. General F. C. du Barail, Mes souvenirs (Paris: Plon, 1894-96), Vol. I, 226.
73. Miribel, MacMahon, 183-84.
74. SHAT, Xb 727, 18 November 1845.
75. Miribel, MacMahon, 183-84.
76. Lamborelle, Cinq ans, 37.
77. Lamborelle, Cinq ans, 85.
CHAPTER 5
1. Douglas Porch, The Conquest of the Sahara (New York: Knopf, 1984).
2. Emile Herbillon, Quelques pages d'un vieux cahier: Souvenirs du général Herbillon, 1794-1866 (Paris: Berger-Levrault, 1928), 128.
3. Edouard Collineau, “Un soldat de fortune. Notes et souvenirs du général Collineau,” Carnet de la Sabretache, no. 288 (March-April 1924), 140-41.
4. Julien, L'Algérie contemporaine, 383-84.
5. Bapst, Canrobert, I, 461.
6. P-N Bonaparte, Un mois en Afrique (Paris: Pagnerrre, 1850), 22.
7. Bonaparte, Un mois, 21-28; E. Herbillon, Relation du siège de Zaatcha (Paris: J. Dumaine, 1863), 15. For a view more favorable to the French see Charles Boucher, “Le siège de Zaatcha,” Revue des Deux Mondes, 1 April, 1851: 70-100; Felix Mornaud, “La guerre dans les oasis,” L'Illustration, nos. 350, 351, 352 & 354 (10, 17, 24 November and 8 December 1849). Reports on how much taxes were raised by Saint-Germain vary, but all agree that they were substantial.
8. Herbillon, Relation, 17-18. A second version of these events, provided by L'll-lustration reporter Félix Mornaud, held that Bouzian mounted his mule and was riding out of Zaatcha with Sekora when some of the spahis began joking that, “If he had seen the Prophet in a dream, he would soon see him in person as the intention of the commander was to split open his head as soon as he dismounted.” Bouzian took fright and attempted to flee. The spahis began to beat him with the flats of their swords, his rosary broke, one of his sons began to fire upon the spahis, and a general melee ensued (“La guerre,” no. 351, 17 November 1849, 190).
9. Herbillon, Relation, 18-19. See also SHAT, H 211, “Histoire de la campagne du Ziban. Siège et prise de Zaatcha, 1849,” manuscript, no author, nd, no pp.
10. Herbillon, Relation, 20.
11. Herbillon, Relation, 27.
12. Herbillon, Relation, 28-32.
13. Herbillon, Relation, 31-2.
14. Herbillon, Relation, 28.
15. Bônaparte, Un mois, 20,
16. SHAT, H 263, “Carnet de correspondance du ministre de la guerre relative a l'Algérie. 12 juin 1848 à 7 juin 1850,” 22 August 1849.
17. Grisot and Coulombon, La Légion étrangère, 109, 145.
18. Bônaparte, Un mois, 19.
19. du Barail, Mes souvenirs, I, 367-8.
20. Camille Rousset, La conquête de l'Algérie (Paris: Plon, 1889), II, 244.
21. Herbillon, Relation, 33-4. Grisot, Légion, 149-50, lists sixty-two of the Ouled-Sahnoun killed to two attackers, with 1,400 camels and 5,000 sheep captured.
22. SHAT, H 263, “Carnet,” 10 August 1849.
23. Herbillon, Relation, 34.
24. “L'insurrection des Zibans, 1849,” Légion étrangère, no. 12 (December 1931) gives the date as 1833. This is also the date favored by Collineau, “Un soldat de fortune,” 152, who says that the attack was carried out by the Bey of Tunis. However, Herbillon, Relation, insists that this occurred in 1831.
25. SHAT, H 263, “Carnet,” 10 August 1849.
26. SHAT, H 211, “Histoire,”
27. SHAT, H 211, “Colonne expéditionnaire du Hodna et du Sahara. Journal de marche du chef d'état-major,” 16 July 1849.
28. Herbillon, Relation, 35.
29. SHAT, H 211, “Colonne.”
30. SHAT, H 263, “Carnet,” 10 August 1849.
31. SHAT, H 263, 4 & 7 September 1849.
32. Grisot, Légion, 151.
33. Collineau, “Un soldat de fortune,” 151.
34. See SHAT, H 263, “Correspondance du Général Herbillon,” 25 September 1849, for the most complete description of Seriana. See also Herbillon, Pages, 133.
35. Herbillon, Relation, 47.
36. SHAT, H 263, “Carnet,” 4 & 22 September 1849.
37. SHAT, H 263, “Carnet,” 4 September.
38. Miribel, MacMahon, 175.
39. SHAT, H 263, “Carnet,” 30 September.
40. SHAT, H 263, “Carnet,” 4 September.
41. SHAT, H 263, “Car
net,” 22 September.
42. SHAT, H 263, “Carnet,” 5 November.
43. SHAT, H 263, “Carnet.” On August 10 Rullière wrote to the governor-general following the failure of Carbuccia's July attack, “It is up to you, General, to control the ardor of this colonel whose excessive ambition has sometimes got the better of his judgment and his intelligence.”
44. Jean-Jacques Pélissier, Aspects de la vie politique et militaire en Prance à travers la correspondance reçue par le maréchal Pélissier (1828-1864) (Paris: Bibliothèque national, 1968), 290-1.
45. SHAT, H 263, “Carnet,” 4 & 22 September, 5 November.
46. Herbillon, Relation, 55.
47. Herbillon, Relation, 57.
48. Herbillon, Relation, 57-8.
49. Charles Boucher, Lettres et récits militaires (Paris: Calmann-Lévy, 1897), 11-12.
50. Herbillon, Relation, 70.
51. Herbillon, Relation, 63.
52. Herbillon, Relation, 70.
53. Pélissier, Aspects de la vie politique et militaire, 148.
54. Herbillon, Relation, 75. Other sources say five killed and twenty-five wounded.
55. Herbillon, Relation, 73-4.
56. SHAT, H 263, “Camet,” 10 November 1849.
57. Herbillon, Relation, 74.
58. Herbillon, Relation, 77-8.
59. Herbillon, Relation, 80-1.
60. Herbillon, Relation, 81.
61. SHAT, H 263, “Carnet,” 27-29 September.
62. Herbillon, Pages, 138.
63. Herbillon, Relation, 97-8.
64. Grisot, Légion, 153.
65. Herbillon, Relation, 101-2.
66. Herbillon, Pages, 140. SHAT, H 211, “Journal,” two companies of légionnaires and a battalion of the 43rd.
67. Herbillon, Relation, 103; SHAT, H 211, “Journal,” 20 October. In his Souvenirs, however, Herbillon wrote that “At first sight, I realized that it was not prudent to attempt a new assault” (139).
68. Herbillon, Relation, 107; SHAT, H 211, “Journal,” obviously incomplete, gives thirty-five dead, 137 wounded and ten “concussed.”
69. SHAT, H 263, “Carnet,” 22 September & 10 November.
70. Herbillon, Relation, 108-10; Bonaparte, Un mois, 72.
71. Herbillon, Pages, 141.
72. Bonaparte, Un mois, 44, 67; Jean de la Rocca, Pierre-Napoléon Bonaparte. Sa vie et ses oeuvres, 3e édition éditée par le journal L'Avenir de la Corse (Paris: nd [1867]).
73. Bonaparte, Un mois, 46-8.