Charles Rigault de Genouilly
Charles Rigault de Genouilly | |
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Cochinchina Campaign |
Admiral Pierre-Louis-Charles Rigault de Genouilly (French pronunciation: [ʃaʁl ʁiɡo də ʒənuji], 12 April 1807 – 4 May 1873) was a French naval officer. He fought with distinction in the Crimean War and the Second Opium War, but is chiefly remembered today for his command of French and Spanish forces during the opening phase of the Cochinchina campaign (1858–62), which inaugurated the French conquest of Vietnam.
Early career
Charles Rigault de Genouilly was born and raised in
Rigault de Genouilly entered the
Promoted enseigne de vaisseau in 1830, he participated in the
In 1843, he assumed command of the corvette Victorieuse on the China and India Seas station, and took part in an expedition to explore the Yellow Sea. On 25 April 1847 Victorieuse and Gloire (capitaine de vaisseau Augustin de Lapierre), which had been sent to Da Nang (Tourane) to negotiate for the release of two French Catholic missionaries, were attacked without warning by several Vietnamese vessels, in an incident known as the Bombardment of Tourane. The two French ships fought back, and with their superior armament rapidly destroyed their attackers.[3] In August 1847 Victorieuse ran aground on the coast of Korea, but Rigault de Genouilly was exonerated from blame by a court of enquiry.
He was promoted captaine de vaisseau in July 1848, and served on a commission charged with studying the defences of Havre. He then became chef de cabinet of the
Crimean War
In 1853 he was appointed flag-captain of the ship of the line
Second Opium War
In 1857 Rigault de Genouilly sailed aboard the frigate Némésis to join the naval armada assembled by Admiral Léonard Charner for the Second Opium War, and was placed in command of the French naval division. During the campaign he took part in the blockade of Macau and captured the capture of Canton.[2] After this success he served at the capture of the Hai River forts and accompanied the Anglo-French expedition to Tianjin.
War in Vietnam
In November 1857, in response to the execution of two Spanish missionaries by the Vietnamese emperor Tự Đức and the failure of a diplomatic mission to Huế led by Charles de Montigny, Rigault de Genouilly was authorised by the French emperor Napoleon III to launch a punitive expedition against Vietnam. In September 1858 a joint French and Spanish expedition under his command landed at Da Nang and captured the city.[4]
The allies expected an easy victory, but the war did not at first go as planned. Vietnamese resistance was more stubborn than had been expected, and the French and Spanish found themselves besieged in Da Nang by a Vietnamese army under the command of Nguyen Tri Phuong. The
Shortly after his capture of Da Nang, Rigault de Genouilly cast around for somewhere else to strike the Vietnamese. In January 1859 he proposed to the navy ministry an expedition against Saigon in Cochinchina, a city of considerable strategic significance as a source of food for the Vietnamese army. The expedition was approved, and in early February, leaving capitaine de vaisseau Thoyon at Da Nang with a small French garrison, Rigault de Genouilly sailed south for Saigon with a powerful naval flotilla and a Franco-Spanish landing force. On 17 February 1859, after forcing the river defences and destroying a series of forts and stockades along the Saigon river, Rigault de Genouilly captured Saigon. The allies were not strong enough to hold the enormous Citadel of Saigon, and on 8 March 1859 blew it up and set fire to its rice magazines. In April Rigault de Genouilly returned to Da Nang with the bulk of his forces to reinforce Thoyon's hard-pressed garrison. On 8 May 1859 he personally led a French attack on the Vietnamese siege lines at Da Nang. The attack achieved limited success, but the French were unable to break the siege.[6]
In October 1859 Rigault de Genouilly, whose actions in Cochinchina had been severely criticised in France, was replaced by Admiral François Page, who was instructed to obtain a treaty protecting the Catholic faith in Vietnam but not to seek any territorial gains.[7]
Later career
Between 1862 and 1864, following his return to France, Rigault de Genouilly served first aboard Bretagne and then aboard Ville de Paris as commander of the French squadron of evolutions (escadre d’évolutions) in the Mediterranean. He was
Rigault de Genouilly turned down the offer of command of one of the French fleets during the Franco-Prussian War and resigned as navy minister on the fall of the Second Empire after the battle of Sedan. One of his last acts as navy minister was to order naval personnel and gunboats to take part in the Siege of Paris. After his resignation he retired to Spain to live out his last years. He died in Barcelona in 1873.
Commemoration
The square next to Saigon River in Saigon was named after him, and his statue was also erected there. However, in 1945 the statue was abducted and then in 1955, the square was also renamed Mê Linh Square.
The French Navy aviso Rigault de Genouilly was named for Charles Rigault de Genouilly.
Notes
References
- Encyclopædia Britannica Online "Charles Rigault de Genouilly"
- Granier, Hubert, Histoire des marins français, 1815–1870 (Nantes: Marines éditions, 2002)
- Randier, J., La Royale (Editions Babouji, 2006) ISBN 2-35261-022-2
- Robert, Adolphe; Bourloton, Edgar; Cougny, Gaston, Dictionnaire des parlementaires français (1789-1891), vol. 5, p. 147
- Taboulet, G., La geste française en Indochine (Paris, 1956)
- Taillemite, Etienne (2004), "Un amiral-ministre polytechnicien, Rigault de Genouilly", Bulletin de la Société des amis de la Bibliothèque de l'École Polytechnique, 35
- Thomazi, A., Histoire militaire de l'Indochine française (Hanoi, 1931)
- Thomazi, A., La conquête de l'Indochine (Paris, 1934)
- Tucker, S. C., Vietnam (University Press of Kentucky, 1999) ISBN 0-8131-0966-3
