François Achille Bazaine
French general (1811-1888)
François Achille Bazaine (French pronunciation: [frɑ̃swa aʃil bazɛn]; 13 February 1811 – 23 September 1888) was an officer of the French army. Bazaine rose through the ranks over four decades of distinguished service (including 35 years on campaign) under Louis Philippe and then Napoleon III, having held every rank in the army from fusilier to Marshal of France, the latter in 1863. Under the Second Empire, he was made a senator.
Early life
Bazaine came from a family established in Scy-Chazelles, near Metz. His grandfather was a winemaker who, after the revolution, moved to Paris and eventually became known as a mathematician. Bazaine’s father, Dominique was an engineer; after graduation from the École polytechnique, he moved to Russia to establish the Institute of Engineers for Roads and Communications. He became a Russian lieutenant general, and was imprisoned in Siberia during the campaigns of Napoleon I. After the fall of the empire, he regained his rank and returned to France in 1835.
Beginning in 1807 Dominique Bazaine had been in a relationship with Marie-Madeleine Vasseur, known as 'Melanie', a Versailles haberdasher. While Dominique hid the relationship from his family, the couple had three illegitimate children: Pierre-Dominique Bazaine, who became a renowned engineer, and Mélanie Bazaine, who went on to marry the engineer Émile Clapeyron.
François Achille Bazaine, the youngest child, was born at Versailles on 13 February 1811.
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The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 26, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q81518. VIAF identifies the subject as 24780794. The Library of Congress control number is n94019757. 2 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1811, 1888, 1863 and 1835.
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This entry incorporates text from “François Achille Bazaine” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.