Trochu, Louis Jules
TROCHU, LOUIS JULES (1815-1896), French general, was born at Palais (Belle-Ile-en-Mer) on the 12th of March 1815. Educated at St Cyr he received 'a commission in the Staff Corps in 1837, was promoted lieutenant in 1840, and captain in 1843. He served as a captain in Algeria under Marshal Bugeaud, who, in recognition of his gallantry in the battles of Sidi Yussuf and Isly, made him his aide-de-camp and entrusted him with important commissions. He was promoted major in 1845, and colonel in 1853. He served with distinction throughout the Crimean campaign, first as aide-de-camp to Marshal St Arnaud, and then as general of brigade, and was made a commander of the Legion of Honour and general of division. He again distinguished himself in command of a division in the Italian campaign of 1859, where he won the grand cross of the Legion of Honour. In 1866 he was employed at the ministry of war in the preparation of army reorganization schemes, and he published anonymously in the following year L'Armee frangaise en 1867, a work inspired with Orleanist sentiment, which ran through ten editions in a few months and reached a twentieth in 1870. This brochure brought him into bad odour at court, and he left the war office on half -pay, and was 'refused a command in the field at the outbreak of the Franco-German War. After the earlier disasters in 1870, he was appointed by the emperor first commandant of the troops of Chalons camp, and soon afterwards (Aug. 17) governor of Paris and commander- inchief of all the forces destined for the defence of the capital, including some 120,000 regular troops, 80,000 mobiles, and 330,000 National Guards. He worked energetically to put Paris in a state of defence and throughout the siege showed himself a master of the passive defensive. At the revolution of the 4th of September he became president of the government of national defence, in addition to his other offices. His " plan " for defending the city raised expectations doomed to disappointment; the successive sorties made under pressure of public opinion were unsuccessful, and having declared in one of his proclamations that the governor of Paris would never capitulate, when capitulation became inevitable he resigned the governorship of Paris on the 22nd of January 1871 to General Vinoy, retaining the presidency of the government until after the armistice in February. He was elected to the National Assembly by eight departments, and sat for Morbihan. In October he was elected president of the council general for Morbihan. In July 1872 he retired from political life, and in 1873 from the army. He published in 1873 Pour la verite el pour la justife, in justification of the government of national defence, and in 1879 L' Armee francaise en iSjg, par un qfficier en relraiie, a sort of supplement to his former work of 1867. He died at Tours on the 7th of October 1896.
Note - this article incorporates content from Encyclopaedia Britannica, Eleventh Edition, (1910-1911)
