Edgard de Trentinian Louis Edgard de Trentinian ( 25 August 1851 - 24 May 1942 ) was a French soldier during the colonial era before World War I . He fought in French Indochina , and later was governor of the French Sudan . He commanded troops in the early part of World War I . Early years . Louis Edgard de Trentinian was born in Brest , France on 25 August 1851 , His family was hereditary nobility of Breton origin , with a military tradition . His father Louis - Arthur - Ernest ( 1822 - 1885 ) , Count of Trentinian , was a brigadier - general . His grandfather was a commander in the American Revolutionary War . Louis Edgard de Trentinian was raised in Martinique . He fought in the Franco - Prussian War ( 1870 - 1871 ) , and was made chevalier de la Légion d ’ Honneur at the age of nineteen for his valor in the field . He then attended the Ecole Spéciale Militaire de Saint - Cyr , graduating in 1872 . Indochina . On 9 October 1873 , second lieutenant Trentinian was in charge of a detachment of marine infantry with two sergeants and twenty eight corporals and soldiers that was dispatched to Tonkin . He served under Francis Garnier , and participated in the successful attack on the Hanoi Citadel , which he entered at Garnier ' s side . Using steam - powered gunboats for transport , he was involved in various military actions as the French attempted to consolidate their control in Tonkin . These efforts were temporarily abandoned after the death of Garnier on 21 December 1873 . On 3 January he was ordered to evacuate the town of Hai Duong , despite his protests against abandoning the French allies to the Vietnamese . He was acting lieutenant governor of Cochinchina from 4 March 1881 to 4 November 1881 . He left Indochina in 1892 . In 1893 he was appointed colonel . Africa . On 1 July 1895 Trentinian was made the military and administrative head of the French Sudan ( modern Mali ) . During his term of office he had to deal with attacks by the Tuaregs from the north . The French occupied Ouagadougou and defeated Samori Ture , founder of the founder of the Wassoulou Empire . Samori was taken prisoner , and in September 1898 Trentinian announced that due to the clemency of the French government he would be deported to Gabon . The French forces went on to take Timbuktu and suppressed a revolt in Macina . Trentinian also oversaw establishment of regional structures , construction of a railway linking Sudan to Senegal , and development of agriculture and rural crafts . The reporter and traveler Félix Dubois obtained his support to establish a commercial trucking service in the colony . Trentinian agreed that the colony would improve the road between Toukoto and Bamako at its own expense . On 16 December 1898 the first truck was landed at Kayes in a ceremony attended by Trentinian . Later career . In 1898 Trentinian was made Brigadier and transferred to Madagascar . He left Africa in 1899 . In World War I he helped repel the German advance on Paris , leading troops to the front in taxis . He was dismissed due to the number of his soldiers that died at Ethe . He died in Paris on 24 May 1942 . The Place des Généraux - de - Trentinian in Paris ' quartier de la Porte - Dauphine , was renamed 1994 in honor of father and son . References . Citations Sources