Alphonse Lecointe
Senator | |
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In office 26 February 1882 – 23 December 1890 | |
Personal details | |
Born | Évreux, France | 12 July 1817
Died | 23 December 1890 Paris, France | (aged 73)
Alma mater | École spéciale militaire de Saint-Cyr |
Profession | Soldier |
Military service | |
Allegiance | Kingdom of France French Second Republic Second French Empire French Third Republic |
Branch/service | French Army |
Years of service | 1837–1871, 1873–1890 |
Rank | Major general |
Commands |
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Battles/wars | |
Awards |
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Alphonse-Théodore Lecointe (12 July 1817, Évreux – 23 December 1890, Paris) was a French general and politician.
Biography
Early life and career
Lecointe was the son of Jacques-Pierre Lecointe, a major of infantry. He entered the French military academy at Saint-Cyr in 1837 and successively was promoted to sous-lieutenant (second lieutenant) of infantry in 1839, lieutenant in 1842, capitaine (captain) in 1848, and major in 1854.
Crimean War
Lecointe took part in the Crimean War (1854–1856) as a battalion commander attached to the army of Général de division Pierre Bosquet and participated in the Battle of the Alma on 20 September 1854 and the Battle of Malakoff on 8 September 1855. In 1857 he took part in the Algeria in the Campaign of Kabylie in Algeria during the pacification of Algeria and seized Borj Mawlay Hasan (known to the French as Fort l'Empereur).
Second Italian War of Independence
Lecointe returned to France in 1859 at the time of the
Franco-Prussian War
In 1866, Lecointe took command of the 2nd Grenadier Regiment of the Imperial Guard Corps. With the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian War in July 1870, he led the regiment as part of the Army of the Rhine. He was wounded during the Battle of Mars-la-Tour on 16 August 1870 and was surrounded in Metz with the rest of the Army of the Rhine on 19 August 1870, beginning the 70-day Siege of Metz.
When Metz capitulated in October 1870, Lecointe escaped and joined the Army of the North, led first by Général de division Charles-Denis Bourbaki and then provisionally by Général de brigade Jean-Joseph Farre. On 14 November 1870, he was given command of a brigade of the 22nd Corps. After the defeat of the Army of the North in the Battle of Amiens on 27 November 1870, its retirement from Amiens, and the appointment of Général de division Louis Faidherbe as its new commander, Lecointe took part under Faidherbe in the Battle of Hallue on 23–24 December 1870, the Battle of Bapaume on 3 January 1871, and the Battle of St. Quentin on 19 January 1871. German forces having cut off all communications between the Army of the North and the rest of France, the 22nd Corps, which still had 18,000 men and 60 guns, received orders to embark at Dunkirk to rally at Cherbourg-en-Cotentin for operations in Normandy.
Later military career
Promoted to
Political career
After
As a reward for his combat service, Lecointe was kept on active duty, without age limit, when he reached the French Army's mandatory retirement age of 65 in 1882.
Awards and honors
- Grand Officer of the Legion of Honour
- Commemorative medal of the 1859 Italian Campaign
Sources
- "Alphonse Lecointe," in Adolphe Robert and Gaston Cougny, Dictionnaire des parlementaires français, Edgar Bourloton, 1889-1891 (in French)