Charles-Arthur Gonse (19 September 1838-18 December 1917) was a French Army general who served as Deputy Chief of Staff under General Raoul Le Mouton de Boisdeffre at the time of the Dreyfus affair of the 1890s.
Biography[]
Charles-Arthur Gonse was born in Paris, France on 19 September 1838, and he graduated from Saint-Cyr in 1856 before serving with the French Army in Algeria from 1868 to 1870 and in the Franco-Prussian War, during which he fought in the Siege of Paris. He transferred to the artillery in 1880 and became a Lieutenant-Colonel in 1885, chief of staff of the XIX Corps in 1887, colonel in 1888, Brigadier-General in 1893, and then deputy chief of staff under General Raoul Le Mouton de Boisdeffre. During the Dreyfus affair of the 1890s, he was convinced from the start of Captain Alfred Dreyfus' guilt, and he warned his subordinate Georges Picquart against attempting to prove Dreyfus' innocence. After Dreyfus' innocence was revealed, Gonse was gradually stripped of his functions and transferred to the reserves in 1903, dying in 1917.