François de Négrier
Encyclopedia
General François Oscar de Négrier (2 October 1839 – 22 August 1913) was one of the most charismatic French generals of the Third Republic
, winning fame in Algeria
in the Sud-Oranais campaign (1881) and in Tonkin
during the Sino-French War
(August 1884–April 1885).
, France
on October 2, 1839, De Négrier served with Marshal François Achille Bazaine
's Army of the Rhine during the Franco-Prussian War
, and was among the thousands of French officers who laid down their arms when Bazaine surrendered his army at Metz
. He subsequently escaped from Prussian captivity and joined the armies of national defence for the rest of the war.
De Négrier arrived in Tonkin in February 1884, and was given command of the 2nd Brigade of the Tonkin Expeditionary Corps
. During the period of undeclared hostilities that preceded the Sino-French War he took part in the Bac Ninh campaign
(March 1884) and the subsequent campaign to capture Hung Hoa
(April 1884). In June 1884 he was sent by General Charles-Théodore Millot
, the general-in-chief of the Tonkin Expeditionary Corps
, to the aid of Colonel Alphonse Dugenne with a relief column when the news of the Bac Le ambush
reached Hanoi
.
During the Sino-French War he commanded the three French columns involved in the Kep Campaign
(October 1884). The largest of these columns, under his personal command, defeated the right wing of the Cinese Guangxi Army at the Battle of Kep
(8 October). De Négrier was wounded in the leg in this battle, and fell from his horse. His troops, believing that he had been killed, gave no quarter to the Chinese defenders when they stormed the village of Kep. In January 1885 de Négrier won the battle of Nui Bop
, often considered his professional masterpiece. In February 1885 he commanded the 2nd Brigade in the Lang Son Campaign
, in which the Tonkin Expeditionary Corps
drove the Chinese from their entrenched camps at Dong Song and Bac Vie and captured Lang Son
.
Immediately after the French capture of Lang Son, General Louis Brière de l'Isle returned to Hanoi with Lieutenant-Colonel Giovanninelli's 1st Brigade to relieve the siege of Tuyen Quang
, leaving de Négrier at Lang Son with the 2nd Brigade. On 23 February 1885 de Négrier advanced from Lang Son and defeated the demoralised Guangxi Army at Dong Dang
, close to the Chinese border, driving the Chinese out of Tonkin altogether. De Négrier briefly crossed into Guangxi province and blew up the Gate of China, an elaborate ceremonial gate erected by the Chinese at Zhennan Pass to mark the border between China and Annam
.
The Chinese reinforced the Guangxi Army in March 1885, and on 22 March a detachment of Chinese troops from the command of Feng Zicai
crossed into Tonkin and raided the French forward positions at Dong Dang. To discourage further incursions by the Chinese, de Négrier decided to pursue the raiders across the frontier with the bulk of the 2nd Brigade and attack the Chinese in their entrenched camp at Bang Bo near Zhennan Pass, hoping that the element of surprise would make up for his lack of numbers. On 23 March the French took the outworks of the Chinese camp at Bang Bo, but on 24 March 1885 further attacks on the Chinese miscarried, and de Négrier was forced to make a fighting retreat. The Battle of Bang Bo was the only defeat he suffered in his entire military career.
The Guangxi Army cautiously pursued the French, and four days later launched a disastrous frontal attack on the defences of Lang Son. The battle of Ky Lua, on 28 March 1885, was a walkover victory for the French, but de Négrier was shot in the chest and seriously wounded while scouting the Chinese positions in preparation for a French counterattack, and was forced to hand over command to Lieutenant-Colonel Paul Gustave Herbinger, one of his two regimental commanders. Herbinger, a theoretical soldier with little experience of command in the field, lost his head. More than a thousand Chinese corpses lay in front of the 2nd Brigade's positions, and the Chinese could be seen falling back in disorder towards the frontier, leaving only a small rearguard at Ky Lua to protect their retreat. Herbinger was unimpressed. Ignoring all the evidence that the Guangxi Army had been decisively defeated, and convinced that the 2nd Brigade would be encircled if it remained where it was, he took the controversial decision to abandon Lang Son
and fall back to stronger defensive positions at Kep and Chu. This misjudgement transformed de Négrier's tactical victory at Ky Lua into a strategic defeat.
in de Négrier's column were heavy. The exasperated French bayoneted any prisoners they took and de Négrier, a traditional soldier who found it difficult to adapt to the tactics of guerilla warfare, did nothing to stop them. The net result of this brutal campaign was probably to win more recruits and increase sympathy for the insurgents.
De Négrier was attached to the Imperial Japanese Army
as an official French observer
during the Russo-Japanese War
, and published an account of the war, Lessons from the Russo-Japanese War (London, 1905), immediately after its close.
the soldiers of the Tonkin Expeditionary Corps
devised sardonic Vietnamese nicknames for General Charles-Théodore Millot
and his two brigade commanders. De Négrier, admired for his driving energy, became Maolen (mau lên, 'Quick!'). Louis Brière de l'Isle
, whose troops had been beaten to the punch at Bac Ninh by de Négrier's, was Mann Mann (màn màn, 'Slow!'). Millot, who had halted de Négrier's pursuit of the beaten Chinese army at Kep and, in the eyes of the soldiers, prevented him from going all the way to Lang Son, became Toi Toi (thôi thôi, 'Stop!').
De Négrier had a way with words that endeared him to most French soldiers. His most famous mot was made in December 1883 in Algeria, during a review of the 2nd Battalion of the French Foreign Legion
on the eve of its departure for Tonkin to take part in the Bac Ninh campaign
: Vous, légionnaires, vous êtes soldats pour mourir, et je vous envoie où l’on meurt! ('Legionnaires, you became soldiers in order to die, and I'm taking you to a place where you can die!')
De Négrier possessed to a high degree the quality known to the French as coup d'oeil, the ability to make an instant assessment of the battlefield and make the appropriate response. Sergeant Maury of the 2nd Legion Battalion witnessed de Négrier in action at the Battle of Pho Vy (10 February 1885), one of the many confused engagements against the Chinese during the Lang Son Campaign
:
De Négrier had a hasty temper, but it was redeemed by a ready sense of humour, and his troops relished his occasional volcanic eruptions. Second Lieutenant René Normand of the 111th Line Battalion (killed in action a month later in the Battle of Bang Bo) recalled a typical incident during the Lang Son Campaign
in February 1885:
Third Republic
Third Republic may refer to:* French Third Republic * Third Republic of South Korea * Third and current Democratic Republic of the Congo * Third and current Hellenic Republic of Greece...
, winning fame in Algeria
Algeria
Algeria , officially the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria , also formally referred to as the Democratic and Popular Republic of Algeria, is a country in the Maghreb region of Northwest Africa with Algiers as its capital.In terms of land area, it is the largest country in Africa and the Arab...
in the Sud-Oranais campaign (1881) and in Tonkin
Tonkin
Tonkin , also spelled Tongkin, Tonquin or Tongking, is the northernmost part of Vietnam, south of China's Yunnan and Guangxi Provinces, east of northern Laos, and west of the Gulf of Tonkin. Locally, it is known as Bắc Kỳ, meaning "Northern Region"...
during the Sino-French War
Sino-French War
The Sino–French War was a limited conflict fought between August 1884 and April 1885 to decide whether France should replace China in control of Tonkin . As the French achieved their war aims, they are usually considered to have won the war...
(August 1884–April 1885).
Early career
Born in BelfortBelfort
Belfort is a commune in the Territoire de Belfort department in Franche-Comté in northeastern France and is the prefecture of the department. It is located on the Savoureuse, on the strategically important natural route between the Rhine and the Rhône – the Belfort Gap or Burgundian Gate .-...
, France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
on October 2, 1839, De Négrier served with Marshal François Achille Bazaine
François Achille Bazaine
François Achille Bazaine was a French General and from 1864, a Marshal of France, who surrendered the last organized French army to the Prussians during the Franco-Prussian war. He was the first Marshal who had started as a legionnaire and like the great Marshals of the First Empire, he had risen...
's Army of the Rhine during the Franco-Prussian War
Franco-Prussian War
The Franco-Prussian War or Franco-German War, often referred to in France as the 1870 War was a conflict between the Second French Empire and the Kingdom of Prussia. Prussia was aided by the North German Confederation, of which it was a member, and the South German states of Baden, Württemberg and...
, and was among the thousands of French officers who laid down their arms when Bazaine surrendered his army at Metz
Metz
Metz is a city in the northeast of France located at the confluence of the Moselle and the Seille rivers.Metz is the capital of the Lorraine region and prefecture of the Moselle department. Located near the tripoint along the junction of France, Germany, and Luxembourg, Metz forms a central place...
. He subsequently escaped from Prussian captivity and joined the armies of national defence for the rest of the war.
Sino-French War
Tonkin Expeditionary Corps
The Tonkin Expeditionary Corps was an important French military command based in northern Vietnam from June 1883 to April 1886. The expeditionary corps fought the Tonkin campaign taking part in campaigns against the Black Flag Army and the Chinese Yunnan and Guangxi Armies during the...
. During the period of undeclared hostilities that preceded the Sino-French War he took part in the Bac Ninh campaign
Bac Ninh campaign
The Bac Ninh Campaign was one of a series of clashes between French and Chinese forces in northern Vietnam during the Tonkin campaign...
(March 1884) and the subsequent campaign to capture Hung Hoa
Capture of Hung Hoa
The Capture of Hung Hoa was an important French victory in the Tonkin campaign .- Background :Hung Hoa was captured by the French a month to the day after the capture of Bac Ninh...
(April 1884). In June 1884 he was sent by General Charles-Théodore Millot
Charles-Théodore Millot
Charles-Théodore Millot was a French general who distinguished himself in the Franco-Prussian War and the Tonkin campaign...
, the general-in-chief of the Tonkin Expeditionary Corps
Tonkin Expeditionary Corps
The Tonkin Expeditionary Corps was an important French military command based in northern Vietnam from June 1883 to April 1886. The expeditionary corps fought the Tonkin campaign taking part in campaigns against the Black Flag Army and the Chinese Yunnan and Guangxi Armies during the...
, to the aid of Colonel Alphonse Dugenne with a relief column when the news of the Bac Le ambush
Bac Le ambush
The Bac Le ambush was a clash during the Tonkin campaign in June 1884 between Chinese troops of the Guangxi Army and a French column sent to occupy Lang Son and other towns near the Chinese border. The French claimed that their troops had been ambushed by the Chinese...
reached Hanoi
Hanoi
Hanoi , is the capital of Vietnam and the country's second largest city. Its population in 2009 was estimated at 2.6 million for urban districts, 6.5 million for the metropolitan jurisdiction. From 1010 until 1802, it was the most important political centre of Vietnam...
.
During the Sino-French War he commanded the three French columns involved in the Kep Campaign
Kep Campaign
The Kep Campaign was an important campaign in northern Vietnam during the opening months of the Sino-French War...
(October 1884). The largest of these columns, under his personal command, defeated the right wing of the Cinese Guangxi Army at the Battle of Kep
Kep Campaign
The Kep Campaign was an important campaign in northern Vietnam during the opening months of the Sino-French War...
(8 October). De Négrier was wounded in the leg in this battle, and fell from his horse. His troops, believing that he had been killed, gave no quarter to the Chinese defenders when they stormed the village of Kep. In January 1885 de Négrier won the battle of Nui Bop
Battle of Nui Bop
The Battle of Nui Bop was a French victory during the Sino-French War. The battle was fought to clear Chinese forces away from the French forward base at Chu, and was an essential preliminary to the Lang Son Campaign in February 1885....
, often considered his professional masterpiece. In February 1885 he commanded the 2nd Brigade in the Lang Son Campaign
Lang Son Campaign
The Lang Son Campaign was a major French offensive in Tonkin during the Sino-French War...
, in which the Tonkin Expeditionary Corps
Tonkin Expeditionary Corps
The Tonkin Expeditionary Corps was an important French military command based in northern Vietnam from June 1883 to April 1886. The expeditionary corps fought the Tonkin campaign taking part in campaigns against the Black Flag Army and the Chinese Yunnan and Guangxi Armies during the...
drove the Chinese from their entrenched camps at Dong Song and Bac Vie and captured Lang Son
Lang Son
Lạng Sơn , sometimes Langson, is a city in far northern Vietnam, is the capital of Lang Son province. It is accessible by road and rail from Hanoi, the Vietnamese capital, and it is the northernmost point on National Road 1A.-History:...
.
Immediately after the French capture of Lang Son, General Louis Brière de l'Isle returned to Hanoi with Lieutenant-Colonel Giovanninelli's 1st Brigade to relieve the siege of Tuyen Quang
Siege of Tuyen Quang
The Siege of Tuyen Quang was an important confrontation between the French and the Chinese armies in Tonkin during the Sino-French War...
, leaving de Négrier at Lang Son with the 2nd Brigade. On 23 February 1885 de Négrier advanced from Lang Son and defeated the demoralised Guangxi Army at Dong Dang
Battle of Dong Dang
The Battle of Dong Dang was an important French victory during the Sino-French War.- Background :The battle was fought as a pendant to the Lang Son Campaign , in which the French captured the Guangxi Army's base at Lang Son.On 16 February General Louis Brière de l'Isle, the commander of the Tonkin...
, close to the Chinese border, driving the Chinese out of Tonkin altogether. De Négrier briefly crossed into Guangxi province and blew up the Gate of China, an elaborate ceremonial gate erected by the Chinese at Zhennan Pass to mark the border between China and Annam
Annam
Annam may refer to:* A name of Vietnam used prior to 1945.* Annam , a former subdivision of French Indochina, now the central region of Vietnam*Annam , a female given name of Arabic origin...
.
Feng Zicai
Feng Zicai was a bandit from Qinzhou, Guangxi, China who later became a general in the Imperial Army during the Qing dynasty. His ancestry is Bobai, Guangxi.-The Taiping Rebellion:...
crossed into Tonkin and raided the French forward positions at Dong Dang. To discourage further incursions by the Chinese, de Négrier decided to pursue the raiders across the frontier with the bulk of the 2nd Brigade and attack the Chinese in their entrenched camp at Bang Bo near Zhennan Pass, hoping that the element of surprise would make up for his lack of numbers. On 23 March the French took the outworks of the Chinese camp at Bang Bo, but on 24 March 1885 further attacks on the Chinese miscarried, and de Négrier was forced to make a fighting retreat. The Battle of Bang Bo was the only defeat he suffered in his entire military career.
The Guangxi Army cautiously pursued the French, and four days later launched a disastrous frontal attack on the defences of Lang Son. The battle of Ky Lua, on 28 March 1885, was a walkover victory for the French, but de Négrier was shot in the chest and seriously wounded while scouting the Chinese positions in preparation for a French counterattack, and was forced to hand over command to Lieutenant-Colonel Paul Gustave Herbinger, one of his two regimental commanders. Herbinger, a theoretical soldier with little experience of command in the field, lost his head. More than a thousand Chinese corpses lay in front of the 2nd Brigade's positions, and the Chinese could be seen falling back in disorder towards the frontier, leaving only a small rearguard at Ky Lua to protect their retreat. Herbinger was unimpressed. Ignoring all the evidence that the Guangxi Army had been decisively defeated, and convinced that the 2nd Brigade would be encircled if it remained where it was, he took the controversial decision to abandon Lang Son
Retreat from Lang Son
The Retreat from Lang Son was a controversial, and almost certainly unnecessary, French strategic withdrawal in Tonkin at the end of March 1885 that brought down the government of the French premier Jules Ferry and brought the Sino-French War to an end in circumstances of considerable...
and fall back to stronger defensive positions at Kep and Chu. This misjudgement transformed de Négrier's tactical victory at Ky Lua into a strategic defeat.
Later career
De Négrier quickly recovered from his Ky Lua wound, and in May 1885, shortly after the end of the Sino-French War, was appointed to the command of the 2nd Division of the expanded Tonkin Expeditionary Corps. General Brière de l'Isle had been offered command of the 1st Division, and made it a condition of his acceptance that de Négrier got the 2nd Division. De Négrier was not at his best serving under General Roussel de Courcy. Instead of fighting set-piece battles against Chinese regular troops in which his tactical abilities had every opportunity to shine, he was required to conduct punitive sweeps against elusive Vietnamese guerilla concentrations. In December 1885 he swept the Bai Sai region near Hanoi with a column of 3,000 men. The sweep netted few guerillas, and French casualties from choleraCholera
Cholera is an infection of the small intestine that is caused by the bacterium Vibrio cholerae. The main symptoms are profuse watery diarrhea and vomiting. Transmission occurs primarily by drinking or eating water or food that has been contaminated by the diarrhea of an infected person or the feces...
in de Négrier's column were heavy. The exasperated French bayoneted any prisoners they took and de Négrier, a traditional soldier who found it difficult to adapt to the tactics of guerilla warfare, did nothing to stop them. The net result of this brutal campaign was probably to win more recruits and increase sympathy for the insurgents.
De Négrier was attached to the Imperial Japanese Army
Imperial Japanese Army
-Foundation:During the Meiji Restoration, the military forces loyal to the Emperor were samurai drawn primarily from the loyalist feudal domains of Satsuma and Chōshū...
as an official French observer
Military attaché
A military attaché is a military expert who is attached to a diplomatic mission . This post is normally filled by a high-ranking military officer who retains the commission while serving in an embassy...
during the Russo-Japanese War
Russo-Japanese War
The Russo-Japanese War was "the first great war of the 20th century." It grew out of rival imperial ambitions of the Russian Empire and Japanese Empire over Manchuria and Korea...
, and published an account of the war, Lessons from the Russo-Japanese War (London, 1905), immediately after its close.
De Négrier's leadership
De Négrier was by far the most popular French commander in Tonkin during the Sino-French War. After the Bac Ninh campaignBac Ninh campaign
The Bac Ninh Campaign was one of a series of clashes between French and Chinese forces in northern Vietnam during the Tonkin campaign...
the soldiers of the Tonkin Expeditionary Corps
Tonkin Expeditionary Corps
The Tonkin Expeditionary Corps was an important French military command based in northern Vietnam from June 1883 to April 1886. The expeditionary corps fought the Tonkin campaign taking part in campaigns against the Black Flag Army and the Chinese Yunnan and Guangxi Armies during the...
devised sardonic Vietnamese nicknames for General Charles-Théodore Millot
Charles-Théodore Millot
Charles-Théodore Millot was a French general who distinguished himself in the Franco-Prussian War and the Tonkin campaign...
and his two brigade commanders. De Négrier, admired for his driving energy, became Maolen (mau lên, 'Quick!'). Louis Brière de l'Isle
Louis Brière de l'Isle
Louis Alexandre Esprit Gaston Brière de l'Isle was a French Army general who achieved distinction firstly as Governor of Senegal , and then as general-in-chief of the Tonkin Expeditionary Corps during the Sino-French War .-Military career to 1871:Louis Briere de l'Isle was born on 4 June 1827 in...
, whose troops had been beaten to the punch at Bac Ninh by de Négrier's, was Mann Mann (màn màn, 'Slow!'). Millot, who had halted de Négrier's pursuit of the beaten Chinese army at Kep and, in the eyes of the soldiers, prevented him from going all the way to Lang Son, became Toi Toi (thôi thôi, 'Stop!').
De Négrier had a way with words that endeared him to most French soldiers. His most famous mot was made in December 1883 in Algeria, during a review of the 2nd Battalion of the French Foreign Legion
French Foreign Legion
The French Foreign Legion is a unique military service wing of the French Army established in 1831. The foreign legion was exclusively created for foreign nationals willing to serve in the French Armed Forces...
on the eve of its departure for Tonkin to take part in the Bac Ninh campaign
Bac Ninh campaign
The Bac Ninh Campaign was one of a series of clashes between French and Chinese forces in northern Vietnam during the Tonkin campaign...
: Vous, légionnaires, vous êtes soldats pour mourir, et je vous envoie où l’on meurt! ('Legionnaires, you became soldiers in order to die, and I'm taking you to a place where you can die!')
De Négrier possessed to a high degree the quality known to the French as coup d'oeil, the ability to make an instant assessment of the battlefield and make the appropriate response. Sergeant Maury of the 2nd Legion Battalion witnessed de Négrier in action at the Battle of Pho Vy (10 February 1885), one of the many confused engagements against the Chinese during the Lang Son Campaign
Lang Son Campaign
The Lang Son Campaign was a major French offensive in Tonkin during the Sino-French War...
:
Suddenly we stopped being spectators, and took a part in the action ourselves. General de Négrier rode over to give some orders to de Saxcé's battery, which we were still guarding, and called out to our captain, 'Cotter, have you got your whole company up?' 'Sir.' He turned to the battery captain. 'Your battery’s not in any danger, is it, de Saxcé?' 'Sir.' 'Right! Cotter, take your company and capture that hill. Those damned Chinese don't seem to want to be pushed off it.' Then he turned to us. 'Let's go, lads! Chins up, forward march! Show them you don’t use your knives just to eat your rations!'
De Négrier had a hasty temper, but it was redeemed by a ready sense of humour, and his troops relished his occasional volcanic eruptions. Second Lieutenant René Normand of the 111th Line Battalion (killed in action a month later in the Battle of Bang Bo) recalled a typical incident during the Lang Son Campaign
Lang Son Campaign
The Lang Son Campaign was a major French offensive in Tonkin during the Sino-French War...
in February 1885:
General de Négrier began to concentrate his brigade. The column was moving forward slowly, in single file, and as he watched it he remarked to us, 'The thing about warfare is that you have to learn to be patient.' No sooner were the words out of his mouth than a cannon bogged down. He spurred towards the wretched gun section. 'Oh, for God's sake! Keep the damned thing moving!' Then he burst out laughing, and that set us all off.