Faidberbe

Faidberbe, Louis Leon Cesar, born at Lille in 1818, entered the French engineers, and served with distinction in Algeria, Guadeloupe, and Senegal, of which latter colony he was governor from 1854 to 1870. The Provisional Government recalled him after the fall of the Empire to take command of the Army of the North in its gallant but futile struggle against the German invader. He won a victory over Manteuffel at Bapaume towards the close of the year, but early in 1871 sustained a crushing defeat at St. Quentin. When peace ensued he was sent on a mission of a nominally scientific character to Egypt and the Soudan. Le Soudan Francois was the result of this expedition, and several other works of interest on the languages, antiquities, and natural features of North Africa have come from his pen, besides an account of his campaign in France. He died in September, 1889.