Charles Rigault de Genouilly

Charles Rigault de Genouilly (born on April 12th 1807 with Rochefort, (Charente-Lower) - died on May 4th 1873 with Paris), was Admiral of France and Minister for the navy under the Second Empire.

Biography

Charles Rigault de Genouilly was the son of a maritime Engineer, Jean-Charles Rigault de Genouilly, and the great nephew of the admiral Claude Mithon de Genouilly. He enters the navy like candidate after having made his studies with the Polytechnic school. Passed Captain at the relatively early age of forty and one years, it is distinguished by ordering the first mixed vessel, the Charlemagne , during its tests, in 1851.
Lors of the bombardment of Sébastopol, in 1855, it orders the batteries of the marine unloaded with ground: its action is worth to him a certain celebrity near the general public, stars of Rear-admiral, and a seat with the Conseil of admiralty. In 1857, it has been named with the command of a forwarding in China, projected for several years, but delayed by the events of the Crimea. Its action, concerted with the British , will be limited to some peripheral takeovers by force, for lack of sufficient means. After the bombardment of the forts of EIB He and the entry of combined with Tianjin, a peace treaty is finally signed, on June 27th 1858, without however settling truly the question. However, on August 8th 1858, Rigault de Genouilly is promoted vice-admiral, and is named commander-in-chief of the task force in the China Seas. It then decides to go towards the Annam. August 30th, its squadron wets in front of Tourane; two days later, an ultimatum is addressed to the emperor You-Duke, but remains unanswered. Rigault tries an unloading, seizes Tourane easily, but, for lack of adapted material and men, it must give up attacking the capital, Huê, and it is even constrained to be withdrawn. It then decides to change strategy and to attack Low the Cochinchine, attic with rice of the kingdom. February 17th, he manages to take Saigon. But the news of the mécomptes of Europeans in China comes from to the court of Huê, and reinforces the resolution of the Annamite S. Epuisé by the climate, Rigault gives up its command with the rear-admiral Page; this last is constrained to evacuate Tourane and to take refuge with Saigon where, during nearly one year, it will undergo the repeated attacks of the army annamite, until the arrival of forwarding Charner.

It does not matter the relativity of military successes of Rigault de Genouilly. The character, ambitious and proud, can turn the things to his advantage: " I must maintain and I maintenances which I took Saigon, that I did not give up it, which it was not to be begun again, and which it is me which gave Saigon to France" , writes it, in 1862, in a personal letter with the Minister for the navy to complain about some of its detractors. Rigault de Genouilly has also its defenders, among whom the admiral Hamelin, the marshals Pélissier and Canrobert; one reads his bulletins with the Tuileries, one says it very near to the empress…

January 27th, 1864, Rigault de Genouilly is high with the dignity of Admiral de France. January 20th, 1867, it is named Minister for the marine to replace Chasseloup-Laubat. Thanks to the personal confidence of Napoleon III, he manages to overcome all the storms of the end of the Empire (Emile Ollivier would have liked to replace it by the admiral Jurien of the Gravel pit). When the Guerre free-Prussian bursts, Rigault de Genouilly paralyzes its administration by its hesitations: he wants to order in person the fleet expeditionary in Germany. After the first French defeats in Alsace and Lorraine (August 7th), he seeks to take the command of the defense of Paris. But, on September 3rd, 1870, when the news of the defeat comes from to him, it gives up purely and simply the ministry and flees in Barcelona.

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