Gustave Paul Cluseret Gustave Paul Cluseret ( 13 June 1823 – 1900 ) was a French soldier and politician who served as a general in the Union Army during the American Civil War . Biography . Cluseret was born in Suresnes , Hauts - de - Seine . He was commissioned in the French Army in 1843 , and was an officer in the " garde mobile " during the revolution of 1848 . He took part in several expeditions in Algeria , served in the Crimean War , joined Giuseppe Garibaldi ' s volunteers in 1860 , and in 1861 resigned his commission to take part in the Civil War in America . He served under Fremont and McClellan , and rose to the rank of brigadier general , but resigned in March 1863 . Then , joining a band of Irish adventurers , he went secretly to Ireland , and participated in the Fenian insurrection ( 1866 – 67 ) . He escaped arrest on the collapse of the movement , but was condemned to death in his absence . He arrived in London just after the Reform League ' s Hyde Park demonstration in 1867 . He met a dozen members of the Reform League , including John Bedford Leno , in a private room of the " White Horse " in Rathbone Place . He proposed that they create civil war in England and offered the service of two thousand sworn members of the Fenian body , and that he would act as their leader . John Bedford Leno was the first to reply and denounced the proposal , stating that it would surely lead to their " discomfiture and transportation " , and added that the government would surely hear of the plot . During subsequent speeches Leno noticed that only a matchboard partition divided the room they occupied with another adjoining room , and that voices could be heard the other side . Leno declared his intention to leave at once ; the others agreed and the room was soon cleared . The next day the meeting was fully reported in " The Times " , although Leno ' s speech had been attributed to George Odgers , who had in fact been the only person to support Cluserat ' s proposal . John Bedford Leno was fully satisfied with the success the Reform League had met and , being opposed to unnecessary violence , bitterly opposed the interference of Cluseret , as did most of the other members of the Reform League . Cluseret ' s " call to arms " was rejected and he left England for Paris to start his War of the Commune . On his return to France he proclaimed himself a Socialist , opposed militarism , and became a member of the " Association Internationale des travailleurs " , a cosmopolitan Socialist organization , known as the " " Internationale " . " On the proclamation of the Third Republic in 1871 he set to work to organize the social revolution , first at Lyon and afterwards at Marseilles . His energy , his oratorical gifts , and his military experience gave him great influence among the working classes . On the news of the Communard rising of 18 March 1871 he hastened to Paris , and on the April 16 was elected a member of the commune . Disagreements with the other leaders of the Commune led to his arrest on the May 1 , on a false charge of betraying the cause . On May 24 the occupation of Paris by the Versailles troops restored him to liberty , and he succeeded in escaping from France . He did not return to the country till 1884 . In 1888 and 1889 he was returned as a deputy to the chamber by Toulon . He died in 1900 . Cluseret published his " Mémoires " ( of the Commune ) at Paris in 1887 - 1888 .