page_title: Legion of Honour
section_title: Third Republic
hierarchical_section_title: Legion of Honour / History / Third Republic
caption_attribution_description: English: Group of Commanders and Officers after dinner with Gen. John J. Pershing. Front row: McCoy, Hunter Liggett, Philippe Pétain, John J. Pershing, James William McAndrew, Lucius Roy Holbrook
context_page_description: The Legion of Honour is the highest French order of merit for military and civil merits, established in 1802 by Napoleon Bonaparte and retained by all later French governments and régimes.
  The order's motto is Honneur et Patrie, and its seat is the Palais de la Légion d'Honneur next to the Musée d'Orsay, on the left bank of the Seine in Paris.
  The order is divided into five degrees of increasing distinction: Chevalier, Officier, Commandeur, Grand officier, and Grand-croix.
context_section_description: In 1870, the defeat of the French Imperial Army in the Franco-Prussian War brought the end of the Empire and the creation of the Third Republic (1871–1940). As France changed, the Légion d'honneur changed as well. The crown was replaced by a laurel and oak wreath. In 1871, during the Paris Commune uprising, the Hôtel de Salm, headquarters of the Légion d'honneur, was burned to the ground in fierce street combats; the archives of the order were lost.
  In the second term of President Jules Grévy, which started in 1885, newspaper journalists brought to light the trafficking of Grévy's son-in-law, Daniel Wilson, in the awarding of decorations of the Légion d'honneur. Grévy was not accused of personal participation in this scandal, but he was slow to accept his indirect political responsibility, which caused his eventual resignation on 2 December 1887.
  During World War I, some 55,000 decorations were conferred, 20,000 of which went to foreigners. The large number of decorations resulted from the new posthumous awards authorised in 1918. Traditionally, membership in the Légion d'honneur could not be awarded posthumously.
caption: Philippe Pétain and John J. Pershing were decorated with the Grand-croix of the Legion of Honor, as were several US generals with the Commandeur and Chevalier medal shortly after World War I in 1919.
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