Alphonse Dugenne
Alphonse Jules Alexandre Dugenne was a French colonel who was known for leading the Bắc Lệ ambush during the Tonkin Campaign. His efforts earned the decorations of officer and knight of the Legion of Honour. Biography. Alphonse was born on February 10, 1841, in the Basses-Pyrénées department as the son of Alexandre-Louis Dugenne, the editor of the Mémorial des Pyrénées, and great-grandson of Elie-François Dugenne. He entered the École spéciale militaire de Saint-Cyr in 1859 and began his military career. Dugenne was successively appointed corporal in October 1860, second lieutenant in October 1861  in the 2nd Foreign Regiment, lieutenant in October 1866, and he moved on April 10, 1867 to the . He was promoted to captain in March 1870 and served from November 20, 1870 in the . On December 18, he became senior battalion commander of the "Garde mobile de la Haute-Loire", moved to the 21st Provisional Regiment on April 13, 1871, and was laid off by redundancy on May 29, 1871. Appointed Captain on November 31, 1871, he served from April 23, 1872 at and then from February 17, 1873 as part of the 1st Foreign Regiment. He was promoted to  Battalion commander on November 28, 1878 in the , then moved to the on June 14, 1879, and was appointed Battalion Commander of the on August 22, 1882 . He was then appointed on May 22, 1884, to the 2nd African Light Infantry Battalion, arriving in Tonkin in 1884. At the beginning of June, he caused bloody losses to the bands of pirates around the Dong Trien. He received four wounds in Hong-Hoa. On March 29, 1885, he became Lieutenant Colonel in the 107th Infantry Regiment, then on February 6, 1886, in the and on February 10, 1886, in the . On  February 10, 1886, he served in the 11th Infantry Regiment then on July 1, 1887 he was appointed Colonel in the 17th Infantry Regiment then again in the . Bắc Lệ Ambush. On June 23, at the head of a column of 800 French troops, Dugenne headed for Langson, which he was ordered to occupy, according to the Convention of Tientsin of June 3, 1884. He then encountered several thousand Chinese who opposed his passage. Dugenne sends a parliamentarian bearing a letter announcing that, having no order, he asks the commander of the French column to have one given to him  by Peking. Dugenne, who was described as an energetic character, very hot-tempered, tall, thin, sanguine and bilious, unfit for the slightest diplomacy but capable of breaking everything at the risk of breaking himself, reveals that he has orders to go to Langson and that, in three hours, he will continue on his way . At the appointed time, he crossed the Song Thuong. The French then received on the opposite bank by a hail of Chinese bullets. Obliged to beat a retreat, he called Captain Maillard: When night came, on an improvised table, by the light of a lantern, under  a hail of Chinese bullets, Dugenne wrote a dispatch to the general-in-chief; the despatch finished and the meal taken, the colonel takes the lantern and places it under his seat, saying: "You have been shooting at the head long enough, brigands, so shoot now." It was Lieutenant of the Marine Infantry Bailly, in charge of optical telegraphy, who was instructed to try, from a hill on the left bank, to warn Hanoi of the situation of the column. The light caught the attention of the Chinese who rained a hail of bullets down the hill, but salvo fires  made them believe that it is occupied by important forces and so, they did not attack, which enabled the audacious volunteers to regain the bulk of the column safe and sound, and could continue their retreat without being disturbed too much. The forces then arrived at Cau-son on June 30. Final Years. Dugenne was later recalled to France in September. He was sent to Formosa at the beginning of 1885 and returned to Tonkin. He was appointed colonel in July 1887, he commanded the marching regiment of the French Foreign Legion and the circle of the 11th military region . He returned to France in May 1887, passing his command to Commander Diguet. He then returned again to Tonkin after a brief visit to France and he died during a column of operations between the Song Thuong and the Song Cau against the caï Kinh le December 20, 1887. His name in the region was formidable to bands of Chinese irregulars and Annamese rebels. He died in a column, from the rupture of an aneurysm, a few kilometers north of Tin-Dao in the territory of Monkay on December 20, 1887. He was buried in Phu Lang Thuong . Alphonse Dugenne