Gustave Paul Cluseret
Born: June 13, 1823
Birthplace: Sursnes, France
Education:
Attended Saint – Cyr Military Academy
Occupation before War:
1843 – 1848: Served in the French Army
1848 – 1849: Captain in the French Army
1848: Participated in the June Days Uprising
1849: Supporter of Anti – Bonapartist Demonstration
1851: Fled to London England after Louis Napoleon Bonaparte’s Coup
1853 – 1858: Served in the French Army
1853: Served in the Expeditions to Algeria
Served with the French Army during the Crimean War
Wounded during the Siege of Sevastopol
1858: Resigned from the French Army
1858 – 1860: Traveled in Algeria and New York City New York
1860: Participated in the Foundation of De Flotte Legion
Civil War Career:
1862: Colonel and Aide to Major General George McClellan
1862: Lobbied for his own promotion to Brigadier General
1862: Served in the Battle of Cross Keys Virginia
1862 – 1863: Brigadier General of Union Army Volunteers
Co – Founder of New Nation Newspaper
Supporter of Radical Republican Party of the Republican Party
Criticized President Lincoln on his stand on Slavery
Occupation after War:
1866 – 1867: Participated in Finnian Insurrection
1867: Escaped arrest on the collapse of the movement
Proposed to start a civil war in England
His call for Civil War was rejected by the Reform League in England
Served two months at Sainte – Pelagie French Prison
Attempted Unsuccessfully to gain a commission in French Army
1871: Aptd. Delegate of War by Commune’s Executive Commission
1871: He was arrested by the Commune on a false charge of betrayal
1887 – 1888: Publisher of his Memoies of the Commune in Paris
Some in Paris France thought him to be a spy for the Prussian Govt.
1877: Departed from the Ottoman Empire
Recruiter of Volunteers to found a Republic of Turkey
Socialist in France Chamber of Deputies
Sided with the Anti – Dreyfusards during the Dreyfus Affair
Engaged in Anti – Semitic Diatribes
Died: August 22, 1900
Place of Death: Toulon, France
Cause of Death: Unknown
Age at time of Death: 77 years old
Burial Place: Suresnes Old Cemetery, Suresnes, France
Article: Biography Except from The National Cyclopedia of American Biography, J. T. White, 1902.
CLUSERET, Gustave Paul, soldier, was born in Paris, France, June 13, 1823.
He entered the military school of St. Cyr in 1841, became lieutenant in January 1848, and was made a chevalier of the Legion of honor, for gallantry in suppressing the insurrection of June 1848. A few months later political exigencies caused his retirement, and he took up painting for a while, but he was soon replaced in the army, and served creditably in Algeria and the Crimean war, being promoted captain in 1855. He resigned his commission in 1858, joined Garibaldi in 1860, commanded the French legion in his army, and was brevetted colonel in November of that year for gallantry at the siege of Capua, where he was wounded.
He came to the United States in January 1862, offered his services to the Federal cause, and was appointed aide de camp to Gen. McClellan, with the rank of colonel. Subsequently, he served under Gen. Frémont, and commanded the advance guard. For conspicuous gallantry at Cross Keys, he was brevetted brigadier general of volunteers Oct. 14, 1862, and after continued service in the Shenandoah valley, he resigned from the army, March 2, 1863.
In 1864, establishing himself in New York City, he assumed the editorship of the "New Nation", a weekly journal advocating Frémont for the presidency, and strongly opposed to the renomination of Lincoln. Gen. Cluseret returned to France in 1867, took part in the Fenian agitation of that year, and wrote a series of articles for the "Courrier Français" on "The Situation in the United States". In 1868, he was imprisoned for two months on account of an obnoxious article in "L' Art" a journal with which he had become identified, and in 1869 he was again imprisoned because of public attacks on the organization of the French army, but as a naturalized American citizen was finally handed over to Minister Washburne, who sent him out of the country.
On the fall of the second empire, which he had predicted, he returned to Paris, began to assail the provisional government, and shortly afterward attempted to start insurrection in Lyons and Marseilles. In the ensuing spring, he became minister of war under the commune. On May 1, 1871, he was arrested for alleged treachery, but escaped to England, and after a brief visit to America, settled near Geneva, Switzerland in 1872. On Aug 30th of that year, he was condemned to death in his absence by a council of war, but the sentence could not be carried into effect. Gen. Cluweret has published a pamphlet on "Mexico, and the Solidarity of Nations" (1866) and "L' Armée et la Democratie" (1869).
Last edited by a moderator: