Faidherbe, LOUIS LÉON CÉSAR

Faidherbe, LOUIS LÉON CÉSAR, French general, was born at Lille on 3d June 1818. His apprenticeship as a soldier was passed in Algiers and Guadeloupe. His activity as a seasoned soldier connects him with the history of the French colony of Senegal, and with the Franco-German war of 1870-71. Proceeding to Senegal in 1852, he became two years later governor of the colony, and in that capacity not only reduced to complete submission several more or less tributary tribes, but also extended the frontiers of the colony by the subjugation of the Moorish Tarza in 1858, and of the country of Cayor in 1861. Under the dictatorship of Gambetta, Faidherbe was summoned to France in December 1870, and given command of the army of the North. After successfully withstanding Manteuffel's attack near the river Hallue, 23d December, he was severely beaten near St Quentin on 19th January 1871. After the conclusion of peace, he was despatched by the French government to Upper Egypt to study the monuments. He died at Paris, 28th September 1889. Faidherbe published useful books on the language, geography, and archaeology of northern Africa, chief amongst which are two collections of Numidian Inscriptions (1870-72), Anthropology of Algiers (1874), Épigraphie Phénicienne (1873), Le Soudan Français (1884), a work on Sénégal (1889), and treatises on the Poul Language (1875) and the Berber Language (1877). His Campagne de l'Armée du Nord appeared at Paris in 1871.