Antoine Eugene Alfred Chanzy (18 March 1823-4 January 1883) was a French General de Division who fought in the Italian Wars of Independence and the Franco-Prussian War.
Biography[]
Antoine Eugene Alfred Chanzy was born in Nouart, France in 1823, and he attended the Saint Cyr military academy and enlisted in the Zouaves in 1843. He served in the French conquest of Algeria, being promoted to lieutenant in 1848 and captain in 1851. Chanzy also served at the Battle of Magenta and the Battle of Solferino during the Italian Wars of Independence, and he served as a colonel in the Syrian campaign of 1860-61, as a Brigadier-General during the suppression of an Algerian insurrection, and as commandant of Tlemcen in 1868.
Chanzy was refused a brigade command at the start of the Franco-Prussian War, as he was distrusted for allegedly being in touch with the press, but the Government of National Defense made him a General de Division and gave him a corps command within the Army of the Loire. He was victorious over the Prussians at the Battle of Coulmiers, the greatest French victory of the war, and he was also victorious at Patay. While he won several victories, his army of badly-armed conscripts was greatly defeated at the Battle of Le Mans in January 1871.
After the war, he served in the National Assembly as a Moderate Republican, and he was captured by the Communards at the start of the Paris Commune Revolt in 1871, before he was paroled and ransomed for £40,000. He served as Governor of Algeria from 1873 to 1879, and he was elected a Senator-for-Life in 1875 and was nominated for the presidency in 1879, winning a third of the vote. He went on to serve as Ambassador to Russia from 1879 to 1882, and he died only a few days after Leon Gambetta, in January 1883, while commanding a corps along the German frontier.