Bourbaki, CHARLES DENIS SAUTER

Bourbaki, CHARLES DENIS SAUTER, French general, born at Pau, 22d April 1816, entered the army in 1836, and fought in the Crimea and Italy. In 1870 he commanded the Imperial Guard at Metz, from whence he was sent to England, on a secret mission to the empress. Under Gambetta he organised the Army of the North, and commanded the Army of the Loire. His attempt to break the Prussian line at Belfort, though ably conceived, ended in disastrous failure; in a series of desultory attacks on a much inferior force, January 15-17, 1871, he lost 10,000 men. In the wretched retreat to Switzerland that followed on the 27th, reduced to despair by the ill-success of his plans, he attempted to commit suicide. From 1873 to 1879 he commanded the 14th Army Corps at Lyons, and in 1881 he retired from active service.