M.\i MAI K)N, MAKIK KD.MK PATRICE MAURICE. 



46'J 



toward Napoleon 1 1 1, though ho act-opted his net 



.cecity for tin- restoration of order; n..r 

 was the Emperor ever friendly to tlic blunt sol- 

 dier, who would not dissimulate his opinions and 

 likings; and therefore he was banished to Al- 

 geria, unless the service of the most popular 

 fern-nil in tin- iinny was reouired in tho field, 

 le was promoieil general of division in 1852. 



MacMahon went to the Crimea toward the 

 close of the war, and led tho assault on the Mal- 



MAHIE EDME PATRICE MAURICE MACMAHON. 



akoff. When Gen. Kiel sent an order cautioning 

 him not to expose his division so recklessly, and 

 advising retreat, he had carried the outer works, 

 and, standing on the parapet, he sent back the 

 famous word, " J'y suis, j'y reste " he was there 

 to stay. For his conspicuous part in the victory 

 he was nominated a Senator. In 1858 he was 

 appointed commander in chief of the troops in 

 Algeria, after leading in the previous year the 

 force that suppressed a revolt of the Kabyles. 

 As at the siege of Sebastopol MacMahon per- 

 formed the crucial feat on which final success 

 depended, so in the Italian campaign of 1859 it 

 was his fortune to crown French arms with vic- 

 tory by saving the day at Magenta. While the 

 army was converging on Magenta in three col- 

 umns, the flank columns were engaged by the 

 enemy, and Magenta, the center, was undefended 

 because MacMahon's column was far in the rear. 

 On hearing the cannonade he sent an aid to take 

 observations, and when he learned the situation 

 he hurried forward, overcoming every obstacle, 

 and reached Magenta in time to turn the tide of 

 battle. He was created a marshal and Due de 

 Mairenta by the Emperor on the battlefield. He 

 took a prominent part also in the battle of Sol- 

 ferino. After the war he was commander at 

 Lille and in 1861 he represented the Emperor 

 at the coronation of King Wilhelm of Prussia 

 at Konigsberg. Later he was charged with tin- 

 organization of Algeria, of which he was made 



in 1804, on the death of Mar- 

 shal 1'elissicr. He was instructed by the Km- 

 peror to introduce tin- system of Arab bureaux, 

 which did not put an end to native uprisings, 

 and was abandoned after six years of triul. 



When the Franco-Prussian War broke out. 

 Marshal MacMahon was placed in command of 

 the First Army and sent into Alsace, lacking defi- 

 nite information of the enemy's line of march, 

 and mystified and balked by a succession of in- 

 comprehensible and contradictory orders from 

 the quarters-general. The Germans broke into 

 Alsace before he had his army together, and his 

 advance guard was driven back at Weissenburg 

 on Aug. 4, 1870. Compelled to act on the de- 

 fensive, he took up a strong position at Worth. 

 There the army of the Crown Prince of Prussia 

 fell upon him in overwhelming numbers on Aug. 

 6, and put his force to rout, capturing thou- 

 sands of men and most of the artillery. His 

 men retreated in disorder through the passes of 

 the Vosges mountains, and when he had suc- 

 ceeded with difficulty in rallying them he retired 

 to Chalons. Napoleon, whose dispatch telling 

 that Marshal MacMahon had lost a battle cast 

 such gloom as the reassuring words "Tout 

 peut se retablir " scarcely dispelled from the 

 usually buoyant and confident French mind, re- 

 tired from Metz to the camp at Chalons, where 

 MaeMahon had 120,000 men. The marshal 

 planned to retire under the walls of Paris, but 

 the Empress Regent, bent rather on saving the 

 dynasty than on resisting the invasion, ordered 

 him to march round by the Belgian frontier 

 with his raw, disorganized troops, in order to 

 strike the Prussians on the Sank and join hands 

 with Bazaine, who with admirable defensive 

 strategy was holding the encircling German host 

 at bay, but by his caution and delay compromis- 

 ing the fate of the country in the hope 01 saving 

 his master's throne. MacMahon's ill-fed regi- 

 ments were rolled back upon Sedan after the 

 defeat of Gen. Failly's corps at Beaumont, on 

 Aug. 30. At the battle of Sedan MacMahon 

 was disabled by a fragment of a shell, which tore 

 his thigh, at 7 o'clock in the morning, and be 

 handed over the command to Gen. Wimpffen, 

 thus escaping the humiliation of signing the 

 capitulation. He remained on parole in a Bel- 

 gian village while his wound was being treated, 

 and then was taken to Wiesbaden, where he re- 

 mained a prisoner of war till after the prelimi- 

 nary treaty of peace was signed. MacMahon's 

 proverbial good fortune followed him even 

 through this disastrous campaign. His honor 

 and truth were never questioned by the public, 

 and the military commission that investigated 

 the causes of the defeat absolved him from 

 blame, although he assumed personal responsi- 

 bility for the march upon Sedan and the catas- 

 trophe that followed. 



In April, 1871, Thiers called upon MacMahon 

 to take command of the army of Versailles and 

 suppress the Commune of P\iris. This he ac- 

 complished in a ruthless military fashion, and 

 even this created little resentment against Mac- 

 Mahon, who was regarded by the Parisians as a 

 simple-minded soldier, faithful to duty and dis- 

 cipline, who had blindly obeyed orders without 

 understanding the political rights or principles 

 involved. He could not at first be tempted by 



