Émile Driant Émile Augustin Cyprien Driant ( 11 September 1855 – 22 February 1916 ) was a French nationalist writer , politician , and army officer . He was the first high ranking casualty of the Battle of Verdun during World War I . Biography . Born at Neufchâtel - sur - Aisne in the Picardy region , Driant graduated from the Saint - Cyr military academy and became an Army officer in 1877 . Appointed to infantry , he joined the 4th Regiment of Zouaves in North Africa as a Captain in 1886 . In 1888 Driant married the daughter of nationalist General Boulanger . He spent the years 1892 – 1896 as an instructor at the Saint - Cyr military academy , and from 1899 – 1905 commanded the 1st Battalion of Chasseurs . He resigned his commission in 1906 , as he was banned from achieving higher rank due to his controversial father - in - law and by his strong nationalist and Catholic sentiments . He devoted his time to journalism and politics and was elected to the Chamber of Deputies as a representative for Nancy in 1910 . Driant devoted his efforts to strengthening France ' s defenses . Writing . In 1888 Driant began writing his first " guerre imaginaire " ( " imaginary war " ) novel , which he was to publish using the pseudonym " Capitaine Danrit " . This was " La Guerre de demain " ( " The War of Tomorrow " ) , comprising three stories which told the tale of : " La Guerre en forteresse " ( " Fortress Warfare " ) , " La Guerre en rase campagne " ( " War in Open Country " ) , and " La Guerre en ballon " ( " Balloon Warfare " ) . The action begins with " La Guerre en fortresse " , as reports arrive of a surprise German attack upon France . Driant gave his readers heroic episodes , great victories over the Germans , and in the 1192 pages of his " Guerre fatale : France - Angleterre " ( " The Fatal War : France - England " , 1902 ) , the total defeat of the British by the French . Driant possibly wrote more future - war novels than any other writer before 1914 . He published so much fiction , and his stories were so long , that half a century later Pierre Versins said in his " Encyclopédie de l ' utopie et de la science fiction " ( 1972 ) that the hundred pages of Chesney ' s " Battle of Dorking " were much more important and revealing " than the thousands of white pages soiled day after day by a national hero of France " ( Driant had a postage stamp dedicated to him in 1956 , Scott # 788 , Yvert et Tellier # 1052 ) . World War I . Soon after the beginning of World War I in 1914 Driant was recalled to the Army as a captain . He was promoted to lieutenant colonel and given command of two infantry battalions , the 56th and 59th chasseur s reservists battalions . He still kept his seat in Parliament and was , among other things , involved in the drafting of the legislation to create the Croix de Guerre . In December 1915 he criticised Joseph Joffre for removing artillery guns and infantry from fortresses around Toul and Verdun in order to strengthen other areas of the now - deadlocked Western Front . Despite the support of the Minister for War Joseph Gallieni , no troops or guns were returned . What were supposed to be formidable defences were reduced to a small number of guns and soldiers to man them . Driant claimed that the area was threatened ; Joffre denied this . Driant was proved right on 21 February 1916 , when the German Army initiated a massive attack on French forces in the Verdun sector . As the French defences crumbled all around them , Driant ' s two battalions – 1 , 200 men in total – began a desperate defence of the Bois des Caures in Flabas . Under his command , the battalions managed to resist the German onslaught until the afternoon of the next day , helping to gain the time that the French High Command needed to rush troops to the threatened sector . When his battalions were outflanked and the position was untenable , Driant ordered the survivors to withdraw . During the withdrawal , he was killed . He was regarded as a hero among the French at the time , and he and his men are still commemorated at a ceremony on 21 February every year . He was buried initially by the Germans , who also wrote to his widow ( via Switzerland ) to assure her that he had been accorded full military honours . He was re - interred by the French where he fell in the Bois des Caures , where a memorial now stands to him and his men . Bibliography . A selection of books by the author :