page_title: François Achille Bazaine
section_title: Mexico
hierarchical_section_title: François Achille Bazaine / Mexico
caption_attribution_description: Français&#160;: François Achille Bazaine (1811-1888), alors Maréchal de France, Général en Chef de l'Armée du Rhin, capitula à Metz en 1870.English: François Achille Bazaine (1811-1888), was marshal of France, and General in Chief of the Armée du Rhin, when he surrendered with all his army in Metz in 1870.
context_page_description: François Achille Bazaine was an officer of the French army. Rising from the ranks, during four decades of distinguished service under Louis-Philippe and then Napoleon III, he held every rank in the army from Fusilier to Marshal of France. He became renowned for his determination to lead from the front, for his impassive bearing under fire and for personal bravery verging on the foolhardy, which resulted in him being wounded on numerous occasions and having his horse shot from under him twice. From 1863 he was a Marshal of France, and it was in this role that he surrendered the last organized French army to Prussia during the Franco-Prussian war, during the siege of Metz.
  Sentenced to death by the government of the Third Republic following the war, his sentence was commuted to 20 years imprisonment in exile, from which he subsequently escaped. He eventually settled in Spain where aged 77, he died alone and impoverished in 1888. To the Foreign Legion he remains a hero and to this day is honoured as one of their bravest soldiers.
context_section_description: Returned to Paris, he was designated as the general inspector of the 4th and 5th infantry arrondissements. The souvenir of Spain made him suggest to Napoleon III to lend the French Foreign Legion to the new emperor in Mexico. This idea would become that of the Emperor.
  Bazaine was later designated to be part of the expedition to Mexico (French: expédition du Mexique).
  Commandant of the 1st Infantry Division of expeditionary corps to Mexico on 1 July 1862, his action was decisive during the siege of Puebla in 1863. He commanded with great distinction the First Division under General (afterwards Marshal) Forey in the Mexican expedition in 1862, where he pursued the war with great vigour and success, driving President Benito Juárez to the frontier. His decisive action was instrumental in the taking of the city of Puebla in 1863. As a consequence, he was cited and designated at the head of the expeditionary corps by replacing Élie Frédéric Forey. He received a citation at the battle of San Lorenzo and the insignias of the Grand-Croix of the Légion d'honneur, on 2 July 1863. He was elevated to the dignity of Marshal of France and Senator (French: Senator of the Second Empire) of the Second French Empire by Imperial decree on 5 September 1864, the first Marshal who had started as a Legionnaire. He commanded in person the siege of Oaxaca in February 1865, following which, the Emperor complimented him while decorating him with the Médaille militaire, on 28 April 1865.
  Here as in 1870, two of Bazaine's nephews, Adolphe and Albert Bazaine-Hayter served with their uncle as his aide-de-camp. The Marshal's African experience as a soldier and as an administrator stood him in good stead in dealing with the guerrilleros of the Juárez party, but he was less successful in his relations with Maximilian, with whose court the French headquarters was in constant strife.
  His first wife died while he was in Mexico. While he was in Mexico, Bazaine got engaged then to Maria-Josefa Pedraza de la Peña y Barragán on 28 May 1865, then married her. Maximilian I of Mexico offered him the palace of Buena Vista.
  His enemies whispered that he aimed to depose Maximilian and get the throne of Mexico for himself, or that he aspired to play the part of a Bernadotte. His marriage to a rich Mexican lady (Pepita de la Peña y Azcarate), whose family were supporters of Juárez, still further complicated his relations with the unfortunate emperor, and when at the close of the American Civil War the United States sent a powerful war-trained army to the Mexican frontier, Napoleon III commanded Bazaine to withdraw French forces and return to France. Bazaine skillfully conducted the retreat and embarkation at Veracruz (1867).
  Consequently, his relations with Emperor Maximilian became tense. He was accused of dragging the expedition against the will of Napoleon III, a situation which provoked his repatriation. On 12 November 1867, he obtained the commandment of the 3rd Army Corps (French: 3ᵉ Corps d'Armée) at Nancy, and the following year, he commanded the camp of Châlons then replaced Auguste Regnaud de Saint-Jean d'Angély at the head of the Imperial Guard.
caption: Francois Achille Bazaine in 1860.
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