Camille Alphonse Trézel Camille Alphonse Trézel ( 5 January 1780 , Paris – 11 April 1860 , Paris ) was a French général de division , Minister for War and peer of France during the July Monarchy . He was Assistant Chief of the General Staff on the Morea expedition , and served in the 1830s in the French conquest of Algeria , where he suffered a disastrous defeat at the Battle of Macta . Life . In 1801 , Alphonse Camille Trezel entered as a draftsman in the office of the war and obtained in 1803 the rank of lieutenant in the body of topographical engineers . Posted in 1804 to Army of Holland , he was promoted the following year to assistant engineer geographer . After the Polish campaign , as a lieutenant , he was appointed acting aide to General Gardanne , in the embassy of France to Persia ( 1807 – 1808 ) ; aide to General Armand Charles Guilleminot on his return in 1809 ; he was secretary of the Committee on Delimitation of Illyria , was promoted to captain ( 1810 ) , and transferred to the Spanish army . Recalled to Germany in late 1811 , he worked at the surveying Hanseatic department , on the campaign to Rome , became lieutenant - commander ( 1813 ) , Chief of Staff of the 13 ( ( e ) ) Division , and worked with the defense of Mainz . For Hundred Days , he was called to the Grand Army , and showed such bravery in the Battle of Ligny , where a shot he took the left eye , he was promoted to brigadier general by the decree of July 5 , 1815 . This appointment was canceled the following month by the Bourbons , and he resumed his place in the headquarters in 1818 as a colonel , and was attached to the commission of delimitation of the East ( 1816 – 1818 ) , then the filing of war ( 1822 ) . He distinguished himself again in the Spanish Civil War of 1820 – 1823 , and was a member of the advisory committee of staff and secretary of the committee reorganization . He joined the Morea expedition as Deputy Chief of Staff ( 1828 ) , and was promoted to field marshal in 1829 . Algerian campaign . In 1831 , he went to Africa . He commanded the expedition of Bougie and was wounded in the leg while taking possession of the city on September 29 , 1833 . Called to replace Louis Alexis Desmichels , in the province of Oran , he won several victories against the Zmalas and Douairs , commanded by Agha Mustapha Ben Ismail , Chief of the Douairs , Agha Kadour Ben El Morsly , chief of the Beni Amer ( Mobile , and Agha Benaouda Mazari , chief of the Zmal . At the June 16 , 1835 camp of " Valmy Figuiers " ( El Karma ) , a treaty was concluded between the Chief and General Trezel , whereby Zmal Douairs and recognized each subject , tributaries and soldiers of France . These tribes refused to pay the zakat ( Ashura ) was the Emir Abd el - Kader . The general saw himself obliged to demonstrate against Abd - el - Kader for the protection of these tribes that wanted to punish the emir . This demonstration led to the disaster of the Battle of Macta on June 28 , following another defeat the day before in the forest of Muley Ismail . In both attacks , Trezel was attacked by ten thousand men , when he had only 1 , 700 men and 600 horses . In his report to the governor , Trezel still calling for him solely responsible for the disaster , it says : " I submit without complaint and blame any severity that the royal government deems necessary to exercise to me , " and He adds that antithesis . . . " Hoping he will not refuse to reward the brave who have distinguished themselves in these two fights . Count Erlon , who was governor , withdrew his command . Recalled to France , he returned to Algeria the following year to take part in the Constantine Expedition of 1836 , during which he was seriously wounded and recalled to France . In 1837 , during the Constantine Expedition of 1837 on the same city , he was given command of the 2 ( ( e ) ) Brigade . He was promoted to lieutenant general on November 11 , 1837 , and became the staff director of the Department of War ( May 15 , 1839 ) and committee member of staff . He was raised in the dignity of Peer of France on July 21 , 1846 . He became war minister under Jean - de - Dieu Soult on May 9 , 1847 , instead of Alexandre Pierre Chevalier Moline de Saint - Yon . He held these positions in the government of François Guizot until the fall of the July Monarchy on February 24 , 1848 . Automatically set to retire on June 8 , 1848 , in 1853 , he was called by Philippe d ' Orleans and Robert d ' Orléans to become military governor and retained this office until the majority of the Comte de Paris in 1856 .