Pélassier

Pélassier, AMABLE JEAN JACQUES, Duc de Malakhoff, Marshal of France, was born 6th November 1794, at Maromme, near Rouen, and, having passed successfully through the colleges of La Flèche and St Cyr, entered the army. He served on the staff in Spain in 1823, made the campaign of the Morea in 1828, joined the first expedition to Algiers in 1830 as major of cavalry, and in 1839 returned to Algeria with the rank of lieutenant-colonel. In 1845 he acquired an unenviable notoriety by suffocating more than 500 Arabs who took refuge in caves in the Dahra. By 1850 he had attained the rank of General of Division. On the outbreak of the Crimean war in 1855 he was given the command of the first corps, and soon succeeded Marshal Canrobert in the chief command before Sebastopol. On 8th September he stormed the Malakhoff, the key of Sebastopol, for which exploit he was rewarded with a marshal's baton, and on his return to France was created Duc de Malakhoff and a senator, and received a grant of 100,000 francs. In 1858 he came to London as the French ambassador, but resigned his post in the following year, and was named governor of Algeria, where he died on 22d May 1864. See Sir E. Hamley, The War in the Crimea (1891).