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Jacques Leroy de Saint Arnaud | |
|---|---|
 Saint-Arnaud, byPierre-Louis Piersonc. 1850s | |
| Born | (1798-08-20)20 August 1798 Paris,France |
| Died | 29 September 1854(1854-09-29) (aged 56) Black Sea |
| Buried | |
| Allegiance |  Bourbon Restoration July Monarchy French Second Republic Second French Empire |
| Service | French Army |
| Years of service | 1821–1854 |
| Rank | Maréchal de France |
| Battles / wars | Conquest of Algeria Crimean War |
| Awards | Legion of Honour (Grand Croix) |
| Signature |  |
Armand-Jacques Leroy de Saint-Arnaud (20 August 1798[1] – 29 September 1854) was a French soldier andMarshal of France. He served as FrenchMinister of War until theCrimean War when he became Commander-in-chief of the army of the East.
He was a key conspirator in the1851 French coup d'état which dissolved theNational Assembly, granted dictatorial powers toNapoleon III and caused the dissolution of theFrench Second Republic.[2]
Born inParis, he entered the army in 1817, but after ten years of garrison service he still held only the lowest commissioned grade. He then resigned, led a life of adventure in several lands and returned to the army at the age of thirty as a sub-lieutenant. He took part in the suppression of theVendée émeute [fr] (1832), and served for a time on the staff ofGeneral (Marshal) Bugeaud. However, his debts and the scandals of his private life compelled him to go toAlgeria as a captain in theFrench Foreign Legion. There he distinguished himself on numerous occasions, and after twelve years had risen to the rank ofmaréchal de camp (major general).[3]
Following the example of MarshalAimable Pélissier, Saint Arnaud suffocated 500 Arab tribesmen (8 August 1845), in a cave between Tenes and Mostaganem, in the Sbeah area. Three days later he wrote "I hermetically sealed all exits and made a vast cemetery. The earth will cover the corpses of these fanatics for ever. No one went down to the caverns; no one but me knows that there are 500 brigands under here who will not cut the throats of the French any more. A confidential report related everything to the Marshal simply, without terrible poetry and without images. Brother, no one is good by taste and by nature like me. From the 8th to the 12th, I was sick, but my conscience does not blame me for anything. I did my duty"[1]. These massacres were regarded with absolute horror in the French press, as an article in The Times relates.[4]
He also burnt 200 villages in 1846, including rich arable fields."I left in my wake a vast conflagration. All the villages, some 200 in number, were burned down, all the gardens destroyed, all the olive trees cut down."[5]
In 1848 Saint Arnaud commanded a brigade during therevolution in Paris. On his return to Africa, possibly becauseLouis Napoleon considered him a suitable military head of a potentialcoup d'état, an expedition took place into LittleKabylie in northern Algeria, in which Saint Arnaud showed his prowess as a commander-in-chief and provided his superiors with the pretext for bringing him home as a general of division (July 1851).
He succeeded MarshalMagnan as minister of war and superintended the military operations of thecoup d'état of 2 December 1851, which placed Louis Napoleon on the throne as EmperorNapoleon III. A year later he became aMarshal of France and a senator, remaining at the head of the war office until 1854, when he set out to command the French forces in theCrimean War, alongside his British colleagueLord Raglan. Ill with stomach cancer, he died on board ship just over a week after commanding troops at theBattle of the Alma on 20 September 1854. His body was returned to France, and lies buried inLes Invalides.[3]
After his death Saint Arnaud was regarded as a military hero, by both the French state and army. However, inVictor Hugo's long poem "Saint Arnaud",[6] he is described as a criminal ‘jackal’ who had orchestrated the bloody massacres that followed Louis-Napoleon’s coup d’état.Algernon Charles Swinburne later described the poem of Saint Arnaud as an example of Hugo's 'poetic genius'. Swinburne said 'Then... came the great and terrible poem on the life and death of the miscreant marshal who gave the watchword of massacre in the streets of Paris'.[7]
The town ofSt Arnaud, Victoria, Australia was named after Jacques and has a commemorative statue of him in the town's botanical gardens on Napier Street. Another town, located in Algeria, was called Saint Arnaud underFrench rule; currently, its name isEl Eulma. TheSaint Arnaud Range and the nearby locality ofSaint Arnaud inNew Zealand both derive their name from him.
Second French Empire: Baton ofMaréchal de France Second French Empire: Grand Croix of theLegion of Honour Second French Empire:Médaille militaire
Kingdom of Sardinia: Grand Croix of theOrder of Saints Maurice and Lazarus
Two Sicilies: Grand Croix of theOrder of Saint George and Reunion
Papal States: Grand Croix of theOrder of Pope Pius IX Papal States: Grand Croix of theOrder of St. Gregory the Great
Belgium: Commander of theOrder of Leopold
Ottoman Empire: First Class of theOrder of the Medjidie
Tunisia: First Class of theOrder of Glory
One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Saint Arnaud, Jacques Leroy de".Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 23 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 1016.| Preceded by | Minister of War, 26 October 1851 – 11 March 1854 | Succeeded by |
Last cabinet of the French Second Republic (26 October 1851 – 2 December 1851) | ||
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Under the Presidency ofLouis Napoleon | ||
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Third cabinet of Napoleon III (2 December 1852 - 17 July 1869) | ||
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Preceded bySecond cabinet of Louis Napoleon • Followed byFourth cabinet of Napoleon III | ||
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