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108-803: The expeditionary corps was established in June 1883 in the wake of Henri Rivière 's defeat and death at the Battle of Paper Bridge , to entrench the French protectorate in Tonkin. Its first commander was général de brigade Alexandre-Eugène Bouët (1833–87), the most senior marine infantry officer available in the French colony of Cochinchina . Bouët introduced a lightweight black pyjama summer uniform for French troops in Tonkin, and also ordered them to cover their white pith helmets with black cloth to make themselves less conspicuous. These were sensible innovations, which were appreciated by

216-456: A battalion of chasseurs à pied . The division's 1st Brigade (General de Pereira) consisted of the 47th Infantry Regiment (from Saint-Malo), the 62nd Infantry Regiment (from Lorient) and the 22nd Battalion, chasseurs à pied (from Morlaix). The 2nd Brigade (General de Sermensan) consisted of the 63rd Infantry Regiment (from Limoges), the 123rd Infantry Regiment (from La Rochelle) and the 28th Battalion, chasseurs à pied (from Bayonne). The division

324-709: A battery of canons-revolvers served by sailors. A cavalry detachment of 50 chasseurs d'Afrique under the command of Captain Laperrine was also sent to give the expeditionary corps a capability for scouting and pursuit, plus a number of specialist units, including a balloon detachment (Lieutenant Jullien). A draft of nearly 200 men was also despatched to bring Donnier's Legion battalion, which had suffered heavy casualties at Sơn Tây, back up to its paper strength of 800 men. The reinforcements sailed from France and North Africa in December 1883 and January 1884 in two convoys. On 23 December

432-563: A division of occupation. Some colour was given to this claim by Warnet's decision to secure the line of the Red River all the way up to the Yunnan border. In March 1886 Lieutenant-Colonel de Maussion advanced up the Red River, meeting almost no resistance, and occupied the town of Lào Cai on the Chinese border. In April 1886 the expeditionary corps was reduced to a three-brigade division of occupation under

540-583: A force to attack Bubakar, forcing him to submit to a French protectorate over the provinces of Toro, Lao and Irlabé. To the south (in what is today Guinea ), he began a series of offensives in Rivières du Sud occupying positions near Benty in 1879 and seizing the islands of Kakoutlaye and Matakong . This, with the expansion in Fouta Djallon, laid the basis for the formal creation of Rivières du Sud colony in 1882. In 1878 he sent another French force against

648-560: A free hand in what is now Senegal. Brière de l'Isle's tenure marked not only the consolidation of French control of Senegal, but the next push to the east. This same commitment to military expansion led to Brière de l'Isle dismissal when the political winds in Paris changed. Admiral Georges Charles Cloué was named Minister of the Navy in 1881, and the Governor was warned that expansion of the rail line to

756-631: A funeral service was said over them by Paul-François Puginier, the French apostolic vicar of Western Tonkin. Ten years earlier Puginier had performed a similar office over the body of Francis Garnier , who had died in remarkably similar circumstances. The remains were subsequently returned to France at the request of Rivière's family. They were finally buried in the Cimetière de Montmartre , in Paris . Louis Bri%C3%A8re de l%27Isle Louis Alexandre Esprit Gaston Brière de l'Isle (24 June 1827 – 19 June 1896)

864-650: A major Chinese invasion of the Tonkin Delta in the Kep Campaign . In January 1885 he was promoted divisional general ( général de division ). In February 1885 he commanded both brigades of the Tonkin Expeditionary Corps in the Lạng Sơn Campaign , defeating China's Guangxi Army and capturing the strategically important border town of Lạng Sơn . This campaign, which required months of patient preparation,

972-455: A small party of Chinese skirmishers at Pho Cam. In April 1885 the French government responded to the news of the Retreat from Lạng Sơn by arranging for reinforcements of just under 8,000 men to be dispatched to Tonkin. It decided to bring the three depleted French line battalions up to their proper strength of just over 3,000 men by calling for volunteers from the classes of 1881 and 1882 from all

1080-545: A so-called 'Annam column' under the command of Lieutenant-Colonel Mignot set off from Ninh Bình in southern Tonkin and marched down the narrow spine of Vietnam as far as Huế, scattering any insurgent bands that attempted to dispute its progress. In Tonkin, the expeditionary corps undertook a large-scale campaign in October 1885 to capture the Yunnan Army's old base at Thanh May on the Red River, occupied by Vietnamese insurgents under

1188-515: A sour note. In poor health, and dismayed at the way the French government used the Bắc Lệ ambush as a pretext for war with China, he submitted his resignation in September 1884. In his last order of the day, he described himself as 'a sick and disappointed man'. Millot was replaced as general-in-chief by his senior brigade commander, Louis Brière de l'Isle . Brière de l'Isle appointed Colonel Dujardin to

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1296-516: A strong signal to the French that China would not allow Tonkin to fall under French control. In the summer of 1882 troops of the Chinese Yunnan and Guangxi armies crossed the border into Tonkin, occupying Lang Son, Bac Ninh, Hung Hoa and other towns. The French minister to China, Frédéric Bourée, was so alarmed by the prospect of war with China that in November and December 1882 he negotiated a deal with

1404-453: A third Algerian Tirailleur battalion, an army artillery battery (Captain Gradoz), and two squadrons of spahis (Captains Pfeiffer and Marochetti). Mignot's zouave battalion was defeated at the Battle of Phu Lam Tao on 23 March. Pfeiffer's spahi squadron joined the 2nd Brigade during the retreat from Lạng Sơn, and was forbidden by the acting brigade commander, Lieutenant-Colonel Herbinger, to charge

1512-446: A two-battalion regiment of Algerian tirailleurs (Turcos), a battalion of Tonkinese tirailleurs and three artillery batteries. De Négrier's 2nd Brigade consisted of a 'French' regiment of three line infantry battalions from the metropolitan army, an 'Algerian' regiment of two Foreign Legion battalions and one battalion of African Light Infantry, a battalion of Tonkinese tirailleurs and three artillery batteries: The artillery complements of

1620-489: The Revue des deux mondes . At the end of 1881 Rivière was sent with a small French military force to Hanoi to investigate Vietnamese complaints against the activities of French merchants. In defiance of the instructions of his superiors, he stormed the citadel of Hanoi on 25 April 1882 in a few hours, with the governor Hoàng Diệu committing suicide having sent a note of apology to the emperor. Although Rivière subsequently returned

1728-485: The Battle of Paper Bridge (19 May 1883) and whose mutilated body had been buried close to the battlefield, in the village of Kien Mai. Upon the arrival of substantial French reinforcements in Tonkin in November and December 1883, the French government placed Admiral Amédée Courbet , the commander of the Tonkin Coasts naval division, in command of the expeditionary corps. Courbet commanded the expeditionary corps during

1836-476: The Battle of Phủ Hoài (15 August 1883), Bouët fielded three marine infantry battalions ( chefs de bataillon Chevallier, Lafont and Roux), three marine artillery batteries (Captains Isoir, Dupont and Roussel), five companies of Cochinchinese tirailleurs (riflemen) and around 450 Yellow Flag auxiliaries. The battle of Palan (1 September 1883), a smaller affair, was fought by two marine infantry battalions ( chefs de bataillon Berger and Roux), Roussel's battery and

1944-533: The Berlin conference of 1884, beginning the so-called " Scramble for Africa ". In April 1873 Brière de l'Isle, had sent Paul Soleillet to Ségou (now central Mali ) to open negotiations with the ruler Ahmadu Tall , beginning French expansion into the Middle Niger River valley. In March 1880, he again sent envoys to Ségou, this time led by the future governor Joseph Gallieni to establish regular trade. In

2052-635: The Black Flag Army from the town before his men were cut off. Brière de l'Isle's flank march at Hưng Hóa enabled the French to occupy the most heavily fortified Black Flag stronghold in Tonkin without losing a man. In September 1884, shortly after the outbreak of the Sino-French War (August 1884 to April 1885), he replaced General Charles-Théodore Millot as general-in-chief of the Tonkin Expeditionary Corps . In October 1884 he defeated

2160-576: The Bắc Ninh campaign he won a spectacular walkover victory against Xu Yanxu's Guangxi Army. In the Hưng Hóa campaign he flanked Liu Yongfu out of a formidable defensive system without losing a man. Having argued strenuously against sending a column to occupy Lạng Sơn in the heat of the Tonkin summer, he emerged unscathed from the official enquiry into the circumstances of the Bắc Lệ Ambush (June 1884). Millot

2268-563: The Cochin China naval division. The posting was generally regarded as a backwater that offered few opportunities for distinction. Rivière himself saw it as an opportunity to write a literary masterpiece that would procure him membership of the Académie française . Although Rivière spent most of his adult life as a naval officer, he was also ambitious for literary distinction. He was a journalist for La Liberté , and also had articles published in

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2376-638: The French colonial campaign in French Indochina , he was served as adjudant major du régiment de marine (1859–1860). Stationed in Cochinchina from 1861 to 1866. In 1861 he received a citation in the ordre de l'armée for combat at the February Battle of Kỳ Hòa , just west of Saigon . Briere de l'Isle was made Chef d'escadron in 1862, and inspecteur des affaires indigènes at Tây Ninh in 1863. At

2484-733: The Kaarta Toucouleur vassal state along the north bank of the Senegal River . Again blocked by the colonial minister in Paris, he argued that they were a threat to the Senegalese kingdom of Futa Tooro (then a French client state) with which the British were poised to interfere. The Ministry, under Jauréguiberry , gave in and on 7 July 1878, a French force destroyed the Tokolor fort at Sabouciré , killing their leader, Almany Niamody . This portion of

2592-522: The Kep Campaign , Brière de l'Isle defeated a major Chinese invasion of the Tonkin Delta, skilfully exploiting the mobility of the French gunboats to concentrate his forces successively against both wings of the Guangxi Army. In the first fortnight of February 1885, in the Lạng Sơn Campaign , he took the expeditionary corps in triumph to Lạng Sơn. The success of the campaign owed as much to Brière de l'Isle's meticulous planning and organisation as it did to

2700-416: The Lạng Sơn Campaign (February 1885) and the campaigns of March 1885 around Tuyên Quang and Lạng Sơn, both brigades of the expeditionary corps contained two marching regiments ( régiments de marche ), each of two or three battalions, with supporting artillery, Tonkinese skirmishers and field hospital and engineering detachments. Giovanninelli's 1st Brigade consisted of a two-battalion marine infantry regiment,

2808-465: The Sơn Tây Campaign (December 1883). Among his many other talents, Courbet was a first-class administrator, and was deeply respected by the men of the expeditionary corps for the pains he took to ensure that military life ran as smoothly as possible for them. Long after his departure, this aspect of his command was remembered. If the mail went astray, or if a unit lost its way during a route march,

2916-484: The Sơn Tây Campaign , and Millot 12,000 troops in the Bắc Ninh campaign . De Négrier commanded slightly fewer than 3,000 men during the Kep Campaign of October 1884, and Brière de l'Isle was only with difficulty able to put 7,200 men into the field in the February 1885 Lạng Sơn Campaign . De Courcy, using a sledgehammer to crack a nut, concentrated 6,000 infantry, seven artillery batteries and three squadrons of cavalry for

3024-518: The institutional conditions, just as Brière de l'Isle's flouting of government restrictions stoked the martial culture, for independent action and imperial expansion by officers in the field. One historian has written that the creation of Haut-Sénégal : ...marks the real beginning of the phase of French expansion in Africa christened "military imperialism" by Kanya-Forstner. For the next twenty years marine commanders, not government ministers, would determine

3132-482: The marsouins and bigors were supported by native auxiliaries and naval detachments. The Sơn Tây column included a Fusiliers Marins battalion ( capitaine de frégate Laguerre), 800 Tonkinese tirailleurs ( chef de bataillon Bertaux-Levillain), four companies of Cochinchinese tirailleurs and a 65-millimetre naval battery ( lieutenant de vaisseau Amelot). But the column also included two recently arrived Turco battalions ( chefs de bataillon Jouneau and Letellier) and

3240-576: The 1880s. Rivière's seizure of the citadel of Hanoi in April 1882 inaugurated a period of undeclared hostilities between France and Dai Nam (as Vietnam was known then) that culminated one year later in the Tonkin campaign (1883–1886). Born in Paris on 12 July 1827, Rivière entered the École Navale in October 1842. He passed out as a midshipman (second class) in August 1845, and saw his first naval service in

3348-407: The 1st Division of the expanded expeditionary corps, and accepted only on condition that General François de Négrier was given command of the 2nd Division. The army ministry granted this request, and Brière de l'Isle served under de Courcy's command for several months. De Courcy was an arrogant and obtuse commander, unwilling to listen to advice from his more experienced juniors, and relations between

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3456-501: The 1st Division of the expanded expeditionary corps. De Négrier, who had recovered from the wound he sustained at the Battle of Ky Lua (28 March 1885), was given command of the 2nd Division. De Courcy's command was marked by growing resistance to French rule in Tonkin and by outright insurrection in Annam. It was also memorable for a cholera epidemic which swept through the expeditionary corps in

3564-408: The 1st Foreign Legion Battalion (Lieutenant-Colonel Donnier), and the presence of Legion and Turco units at Sơn Tây was a portent of things to come. The army ministry insisted that the Tonkin campaign should be run by a general from the regular army, and Courbet was relieved of the command of the expeditionary corps on 16 December 1883 (ironically, the very day on which he captured Sơn Tây). Thereafter,

3672-485: The 2nd Marine Infantry Regiment were detached from the Tonkin expeditionary corps in September 1884 to take part in the Keelung Campaign in northern Formosa. Officers killed in action are marked (†). Henri Rivi%C3%A8re (naval officer) Henri Laurent Rivière (1827–1883) was a French naval officer and a writer who is chiefly remembered today for advancing the French conquest of Tonkin ( northern Vietnam ) in

3780-467: The Black Flag stronghold of Phu Hoai. On 18 September 1883, acting on information received from Vietnamese informants, the French scouted the area with two battalions of marine infantry. Rivière's severed head and hands, buried in a lacquered box, were discovered in the village of Kien Mai, and three weeks later the mutilated body of a European, dressed in naval uniform, was found close to Paper Bridge, near

3888-461: The Chinese statesman Li Hongzhang to divide Tonkin into French and Chinese spheres of influence. The Vietnamese were not consulted by either party to these negotiations. Rivière was disgusted at the deal cut by Bourée, and in early 1883 decided to force the issue. He had recently been sent a battalion of marine infantry from France, giving him just enough men to venture beyond Hanoi. On 27 March 1883, to secure his line of communications from Hanoi to

3996-593: The Crimean campaign (1854–56), serving on the vessels Uranie , Suffren , Bourrasque and Montebello . Promoted to the rank of lieutenant de vaisseau in November 1856, he served aboard Reine Hortense during the Franco-Austrian War (1859). In 1866 he took part in the Mexican campaign aboard Rhône and Brandon . He was promoted to the rank of capitaine de frégate in June 1870 and served as second officer on

4104-567: The Day River, he took the field in August 1883, despite the heat and humidity of the Tonkin summer. Bouët twice attacked the entrenchments held by Liu Yongfu 's Black Flag army, at the Battle of Phủ Hoài (15 August 1883) and the Battle of Palan (1 September 1883). Both battles were disappointing for the French, and Bouët's command was also dogged by disagreements with Jules Harmand over French strategy in Tonkin. In early September 1883 Bouët resigned. Shortly before his resignation he recommended to

4212-492: The Delta: 1st Division (General Brière de l'Isle), at Hanoi 2nd Division (General de Négrier), at Haiphong A reserve 3rd Division of 9,000 men was assembled at Pas de Lanciers near Marseilles in April 1885, in case the Chinese showed any reluctance to implement the provisions of the recently signed peace protocol. The 3rd Division, under the command of General Coiffé, consisted of two brigades, each of two line infantry regiments and

4320-406: The French commander who had captured Lạng Sơn and relieved Tuyên Quang but as the man who had lost his head and sent the notorious telegram that had brought down Ferry's administration. In May 1885, in consequence of its expansion into a two-division army corps, Brière de l'Isle was replaced in command of the Tonkin Expeditionary Corps by General Henri Roussel de Courcy . He was offered command of

4428-598: The French expedition to Tonkin (now northern Vietnam ). In March 1884 he drove the Chinese from the Trung Son heights and routed the right wing of the Guangxi Army in the Bắc Ninh campaign . In recognition of his services at Bắc Ninh, he was appointed a Grand Officier de la Légion d'honneur in April. In April 1884 he outflanked the defences of Hưng Hóa with the 1st Brigade while General François de Négrier 's 2nd Brigade fixed them frontally, forcing Liu Yongfu to withdraw

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4536-479: The French government that the Tonkin Expeditionary Corps should be constituted as a regular two-brigade army division with the normal complement of artillery and ancillary support. This recommendation was accepted by the army ministry and implemented in February 1884. In the wake of Bouët's unexpected resignation, command of the expeditionary corps fell briefly to Lieutenant-Colonel Anicet-Edmond-Justin Bichot (1835–1908),

4644-455: The French governments of the late 1870s were more willing to sanction (or accept) direct conquest of territory. Ironically the merchant houses based in Saint-Louis were in this period still hesitant about direct control of the hinterlands, preferring to work through their own trade networks and the series of French military trading posts. In this way as well, Brière de l'Isle was representative of

4752-455: The French rearguard. Several French officers were wounded at this critical moment, and in the confusion of the retreat Rivière's body was abandoned on the battlefield. He was immediately presumed dead by his fellow officers. If he had not already died from the effects of his wound, he would have been killed as soon as the Black Flags discovered who he was. Although the Battle of Paper Bridge

4860-515: The French to battle in a taunting message on placards that were widely distributed on the walls of Hanoi. On 19 May Rivière marched out of Hanoi to attack the Black Flags. His small force (around 450 men) advanced without proper precautions, and blundered into a well-prepared Black Flag ambush at Paper Bridge (Pont de Papier), a few miles to the west of Hanoi. In the Battle of Paper Bridge the French were enveloped on both wings, and were only with difficulty able to regroup and fall back to Hanoi. Towards

4968-728: The Kaarta vassal state was then incorporated into the Khasso Wolof protectorate kingdom. This marked the beginning of the conquest of the Toucouleur Empire by the French. While the Siege of Medina Fort in 1857 had helped persuade the empire's founder El Hadj Umar Tall to turn his attentions east of the Senegal River valley, the French had had little contact with the conquest state since then. This allowed first Faidherbe and then Brière de l'Isle

5076-580: The Niger River was a low priority, to be pressed by civilian (business) interests only, removing the Marine involvement in its construction. Cloué ordered the governor to cease military operations pushing east of Kita . Within weeks Brière de l'Isle ordered his military protege Lieutenant Colonel Gustave Borgnis-Desbordes to launch a punitive expedition to the Niger and seize the small town at Bamako . Brière de l'Isle

5184-488: The October 1885 Thanh May campaign. During Bouët and Courbet's tenures of command, the bulk of the expeditionary corps was drawn from the troupes de marine , as befitted a traditional colonial campaign, and the campaign was overseen by the navy ministry. During June and July 1883 the handful of marine infantry companies in Tonkin that had fought under Rivière's command at Nam Định and Paper Bridge were reinforced by an influx of marine infantry from France and New Caledonia. At

5292-687: The Pacific Ocean on Brillante . In February 1847 he was posted to the South Seas naval division , to Virginie . He was promoted to midshipman (first class) in September 1847 and to enseigne de vaisseau in September 1849. During the next five years he served in the Mediterranean squadron aboard Iéna (1850), Labrador (1851) and Jupiter (1852–54). Significantly, his confidential reports from this period mentioned that he seemed to be unduly interested in poetry and literature. Rivière took part in

5400-620: The Tonkin Coasts naval division, and for the next six months played a most unwelcome subordinate role, hunting down bands of Vietnamese pirates in the Gulf of Tonkin while Millot was winning glory in the Bắc Ninh campaign . In early 1884 the arrival of substantial reinforcements from France and the African colonies raised the strength of the expeditionary corps to over 10,000 men. Its new commander, général de division Charles-Théodore Millot (1829–1889), organised this force into two brigades. The 1st Brigade

5508-535: The Vietnamese government, and ended a remarkable series of French victories against the Vietnamese by defeating Garnier's small French force beneath the walls of Hanoi. Garnier was killed in this battle, and the French government later disavowed his expedition. The Vietnamese also bid for Chinese support. Vietnam had long been a tributary of China, and China agreed to arm and support the Black Flags and to covertly oppose French operations in Tonkin. The Qing court also sent

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5616-751: The Yellow Flags. The Yellow Flag auxiliaries plundered a peaceful Vietnamese village shortly after the battle, and Bouët was forced to disband them. Many of the discharged Yellow Flags promptly joined Liu Yongfu's Black Flag Army at Sơn Tây. Three months later they would be fighting against their former paymasters. The commitment of marine infantry and marine artillery units reached a peak in the Sơn Tây Campaign (December 1883). Courbet's column included four marine infantry battalions ( chefs de bataillon Roux, Chevallier, Dulieu and Reygasse) and six marine artillery batteries (Captains Isoir, Dupont, Roussel, Roperh, Péricaud and Dudraille). As often in French colonial warfare,

5724-631: The army in Algeria would supply most of the formations sent to Tonkin, and the war on land against the Black Flags and China would be run by the army ministry. In November 1883 the Chamber of Deputies approved the despatch of a further 6,500 troops to Tonkin. This was the largest single troop movement of its kind during the conflict with China. The newcomers included six fresh infantry battalions, which were grouped into two marching regiments. The first regiment, which included three line infantry battalions from France,

5832-616: The battalions of the marine infantry, the armée d'Afrique and the metropolitan army ( armée de terre ), and he was obliged to create one regiment of marine infantry, two 'Algerian' regiments of troops from the armée d'Afrique , and one French regiment. One of the 'Algerian' regiments contained the three Turco battalions then in Tonkin, the other the white formations of the Foreign Legion and African Light Infantry. These four marching regiments were commanded respectively by Lieutenant-Colonels Bertaux-Levillain, Belin, Duchesne and Defoy. During

5940-449: The battlefield of Paper Bridge. Liu Yongfu had offered a substantial bounty for the heads of French officers, graded according to their rank, and it seems likely that a Black Flag soldier had killed the wounded French commander and then decapitated him in order to claim the bounty, cutting off his hands so that his rank could be verified by the number of bands ( galons ) on his tunic cuffs. Rivière's remains were brought back to Hanoi, where

6048-406: The beleaguered French post in triumph on 3 March. These battlefield successes underscored the failure of concurrent diplomatic attempts to resolve the conflict between France and China, and evoked a heartfelt tribute from the French premier Jules Ferry : 'It seems that the only negotiator China will respect is General Brière de l'Isle.' Brière de l'Isle's record of substantial military achievement

6156-624: The citadel to Vietnamese control, his recourse to force was greeted with alarm in both Vietnam and China. The Vietnamese government, unable to confront Rivière with its own ramshackle army, enlisted the help of Liu Yongfu , whose well-trained and seasoned Black Flag soldiers were to prove a thorn in the side of the French. The Black Flags had already inflicted one humiliating defeat on a French force commanded by lieutenant de vaisseau Francis Garnier in 1873. Like Rivière in 1882, Garnier had exceeded his instructions and attempted to intervene militarily in northern Vietnam. Liu Yongfu had been called in by

6264-462: The coast, Rivière captured the citadel of Nam Dinh with a force of 520 French soldiers under his personal command. During his absence at Nam Dinh the Black Flags and Vietnamese made an attack on Hanoi, but they were repulsed by chef de bataillon Berthe de Villers in the Battle of Gia Cuc on 28 March. Rivière was jubilant: 'This will force them to take forward their Tonkin Question!' Rivière's timing

6372-592: The colony into a quasi-military dictatorship". Finding the colony in dire financial straits, he increased taxes on imported cloth from other countries, which went some way to placating the large French commercial houses while alienating local interests in Saint-Louis and Dakar . Militarily, the Senegal colony had recently faced both uprisings in the Wolof states which now make up the coastal heart of Senegal, and powerful states in

6480-1014: The command of Nguyễn Quang Bích since the end of the Sino-French War. De Négrier also conducted a major sweep of the Bai Sai region near Hanoi. De Courcy was warned by his senior medical officers not to mix units in which cholera had already broken out with uninfected units. He ignored this advice, with the result that there were appalling fatalities from cholera in both the Thanh May and Bai Sai columns. In December 1885, disgusted with de Courcy's obtuseness, General Briere de l'Isle submitted his resignation and returned to France. Shortly afterwards de Courcy's chief of staff General Charles-Auguste-Louis Warnet (1828–1913) also asked to return to France. The army ministry belatedly realised that things were very wrong in Tonkin. It refused Warnet's resignation and instead recalled de Courcy to France on 16 January 1886. De Courcy

6588-405: The command of chef de bataillon Hubert Metzinger to Tonkin, and to provide a squadron of spahis and a half-squadron of chasseurs d'Afrique to swell the meagre cavalry contingent of the expeditionary corps. Five army artillery batteries and one marine artillery battery (around 30 guns and 1,400 men) were also earmarked for Tonkin. With the arrival of these reinforcements from France in June 1885,

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6696-458: The command of General Édouard-Ferdinand Jamont (1831–1918). Although the Tonkin expeditionary corps eventually reached a strength of 35,000 men, it was never able to put more than a fraction of its troops into the field against the Chinese armies. Most of its men were tied down in garrison duty and in sweeps against concentrations of Vietnamese resistance fighters ('bandits' or 'pirates', as the French called them). Courbet fielded 9,000 troops during

6804-469: The common soldiers. Bouët's first task was to secure the French posts in Hanoi, Nam Định and Haiphong against Black Flag and Vietnamese attacks. In July 1883 he prepared to go over to the offensive, recruiting a force of 800 Yellow Flag soldiers to augment the French forces at his disposal. Pressured by the civil commissioner-general Jules Harmand to attack the Black Flags as soon as possible in their positions on

6912-516: The construction of the Dakar-Saint-Louis railway through the rich groundnut cultivating regions of central Senegal. This provided transport, security, and access to a rich export crop that would be channeled through French merchant ports. In October 1877 Brière de l'Isle's began a campaign east and south along the Senegal River aimed at Abdul Bubakar 's state in the northern Fouta Djallon highlands. Ignoring direct orders from Paris, he sent

7020-565: The courage and professionalism of the troops he led. In mid-February, pausing only a few days at Lạng Sơn to resupply his troops, Brière de l'Isle marched personally with Giovanninelli's 1st Brigade from Lạng Sơn back to Hanoi, and then up the Red and Clear Rivers to relieve the Siege of Tuyên Quang . Although the French suffered heavy casualties in the Battle of Hòa Mộc (2 March 1885), they captured Liu Yongfu's blocking position and broke through to Tuyên Quang. The relief of Tuyên Quang, on 3 March 1885,

7128-403: The despatch of a strong expeditionary corps to Tonkin. Rivière's adventure in Tonkin set in train a course of events that, within a few years, saw French rule extended beyond Cochinchina to the whole of Indochina. The French had been forced to leave Rivière's body on the battlefield of Paper Bridge, and for several months were unsure of the precise circumstances of his death. After being shot in

7236-403: The disastrous decision by Lieutenant-Colonel Paul-Gustave Herbinger to retreat from Lạng Sơn transformed a French tactical victory into a strategic defeat. Although Brière de l'Isle soon stabilised the situation, the French had lost the hard-won gains of the February campaign. Meanwhile, Brière de l'Isle knew that he would now go down in history not as the victor of Lạng Sơn and Tuyên Quang but as

7344-423: The end of the battle a French cannon overturned with the shock of its recoil, and Rivière and his officers rushed forward to help the gunners to right it. The Black Flags fired a volley into this struggling mass of men, killing one French officer and seriously wounding Rivière in the shoulder. Several seconds later, Rivière collapsed. Seeing the French line in confusion, the Black Flags surged forward and drove back

7452-407: The expanded expeditionary corps was a formidable force on paper. Four Turco battalions, three zouave battalions, two marine infantry battalions, four Foreign Legion battalions, three line infantry battalions, two zéphyr battalions and seven Tonkinese Tirailleur battalions, plus supporting artillery, cavalry and engineer units, were grouped into four brigades deployed around the strategic locations in

7560-408: The general who had sent the notorious 'Lạng Sơn telegram' that brought down the government of Jules Ferry . In later years, whenever asked about his experiences during the Sino-French War, he would reply 'Let's talk about something else. That campaign left a bitter taste in everybody's mouth!' Strong reinforcements were sent to Tonkin in the wake of the Retreat from Lạng Sơn (March 1885), bringing

7668-473: The hapless French minister. They also made it clear to the Chinese that they were determined to place Tonkin under French protection. In April 1883, realising that the Vietnamese were incapable of resisting the French effectively, the Chinese civil mandarin Tang Jingsong ( Tang Jingsong , 唐景崧) persuaded Liu Yongfu to take the field against Rivière with the Black Flag Army . On 10 May 1883 Liu Yongfu challenged

7776-523: The interim command of the 1st Brigade during the autumn and winter of 1884. In January 1885, on the eve of the Lạng Sơn Campaign, Colonel Ange-Laurent Giovanninelli (1839–1903) arrived in Tonkin and assumed command of the 1st Brigade. General de Négrier remained in command of the 2nd Brigade. Brière de l'Isle was a natural leader of men, and under his command the expeditionary corps achieved a high standard of professional excellence. In October 1884, in

7884-479: The interior. The Minister of the Navy issued orders to Governor Brière de l'Isle that no new territory was to be annexed. Despite this he began a series of expansions through protectorates and direct military control, unprecedented since the highpoint of expansion under the governorship of Louis Faidherbe (1854–1865). Brière de l'Isle oversaw the conquest of French territory in West Africa which would be formalised at

7992-580: The ironclad corvette Thétis with the French Baltic Squadron during the Franco-Prussian War . He saw no active service in any of these campaigns. Rivière's role in the suppression of a revolt in the French colony of New Caledonia in the late 1870s won him promotion to the coveted rank of capitaine de vaisseau in January 1880. In November 1881 Rivière was posted to Saigon , as commander of

8100-400: The line regiments in the metropolitan army. This appeal produced just under 1,700 officers and soldiers, more than doubling the existing strength of the French marching regiment. Meanwhile, the armée d'Afrique was asked to furnish just under 4,000 men in fresh drafts from its zouave, Turco, Legion and African light infantry battalions. It was also asked to send a third zouave battalion under

8208-512: The next stage in French colonialism. In 1876 and 1877, Brière de l'Isle saw to it that the last remaining Wolof leader who could offer a threat to the French, the already isolated Lat Dior , was blocked from any attempt to retake his lost territory, and consolidated French control over northwest Senegal. When Dior and his Cayor kingdom again rose in 1879, the French crushed them for the final time. This enabled Brière de l'Isle's government to go ahead with what had been Faidherbe's grand project:

8316-499: The outbreak of the Franco-Prussian War he was made Colonel, led the 1st Marine Infantry Regiment at the Battle of Bazeilles (for which he was made a Commandeur de la Légion d'honneur ), and was wounded at the Battle of Sedan in 1870. After the war, Brière de l'Isle was named Governor of Sénégal from 1876 to 1881. He took an important role in the French conquest of Senegal . Kanya-Forstner describes him as "an authoritarian ruler who angered French commercial interests and turned

8424-526: The overflow. The expeditionary column that General Millot led to Bắc Ninh in March 1884 was organised into two brigades, under the respective command of Generals Louis Brière de l'Isle and François de Négrier . After making troop deductions for garrison duty, Millot was able to give each of his brigade commanders two marching regiments ( régiments de marche ), each containing the equivalent of three infantry battalions. Professional protocol prevented him from mixing

8532-426: The pace and extent of French expansion along the road to Timbuktu . Giving its military commanders sufficient cover to act unilaterally (if unlawfully), this territory was quickly expanded through conquest to the east, and renamed French Sudan in 1890. Promoted brigadier ( général de brigade ) in 1881, Brière de l'Isle was given command of the 1st Brigade of the Tonkin Expeditionary Corps in February 1884, during

8640-405: The penal African light infantry battalions. These three battalions—the 2nd Legion Battalion, the 1st Battalion, 3rd Algerian tirailleurs Regiment, and the 2nd African Battalion—were commanded respectively by chefs de bataillon Hutin, de Mibielle and Servière. The artillery reinforcements consisted of two 80-millimetre army artillery batteries, under the command of Captains Jourdy and de Saxcé, and

8748-459: The process of eastward expansion of direct territorial control had begun. Charles de Freycinet , Minister of Public Works supported the proposed railway, and in 1880, Jauréguiberry issued a decree that all work on the railway was to be carried out by the Troupes de Marine. Brière de l'Isle was committed to expanding French control over the middle Niger River valley, but unlike many of his predecessors

8856-597: The process, Gallieni constructed the French fort at Bafoulabé . Soleillet had advocated in his reports for what was to become the Dakar-Niger Railway , linking Senegal to the middle Niger at Ségou. Brière de l'Isle was quickly won over, and found an ally in the new Minister of the Navy (to whom colonial officials reported), Admiral Jean Bernard Jauréguiberry , appointed February 1879. While Jauréguiberry failed to win sufficient government funding, and Gallieni's failure to build roads to Bafoulabé shook government resolve,

8964-402: The ranking marine infantry officer in Tonkin. Bichot's interregnum lasted only a few weeks, and saw no large-scale battles between the French and the Black Flags. His short tenure of command was chiefly notable for a reconnaissance in force towards Sơn Tây on 18 September 1883, in the course of which the French discovered the remains of Commandant Henri Rivière , who had been killed in action at

9072-459: The regular army to command of the Tonkin Expeditionary Corps, which would be henceforth be constituted as a two-brigade infantry division with the normal complement of artillery and other supporting arms. Jules Ferry 's cabinet approved this recommendation, and Courbet was replaced in command of the expeditionary corps on 16 December 1883 by General Charles-Théodore Millot—ironically, on the very day on which he captured Sơn Tây. He resumed command of

9180-448: The shoulder Rivière had fallen, then risen to his feet, then collapsed again. His recumbent body had been last seen surrounded by a knot of Black Flag soldiers. Most of Rivière's fellow officers naturally assumed that he had been either shot or stabbed to death on the battlefield there and then, but many Vietnamese believed that he had been taken alive by the Black Flags. According to a Vietnamese soldier who claimed to have been present at

9288-399: The soldiers would say 'This wouldn't have happened if Courbet were still in command!' The 1883 campaigns in Tonkin were conducted, like most French colonial enterprises, by the troupes de marine , and had been overseen by the navy ministry. In December 1883, however, in view of the increasing commitment of troops from Algeria to Tonkin, the army ministry insisted on appointing a general from

9396-408: The spot where Rivière had fallen on 19 May. The body had been gashed with sword slashes, the head and the hands were missing, and the sleeves of the naval tunic had been cut away to remove the marks of rank. Several French naval officers who knew Rivière well were able to confirm that the body was indeed his. These circumstances strongly suggested that Rivière had been killed in the heat of battle, on

9504-495: The summer and autumn of 1885, exacerbated by de Courcy's neglect of quarantine precautions, in which more French soldiers died than in the entire nine months of the Sino-French War. Elements of the Tonkin expeditionary corps were attacked at Huế on 2 July 1885 in the so-called 'Huế Ambush', which initiated the Annamese insurrection. Forbidden by the French government to launch a full-scale invasion of Annam, de Courcy landed troops along

9612-402: The time, Rivière had been brought into Liu Yongfu's presence shortly after the battle ended and had been beheaded on the orders of the Black Flag leader, one of whose close friends had been killed by the French during the battle. Neither version of his death could be confirmed. Several weeks after the battle the French heard rumours that Rivière's body had been savagely mutilated and buried near

9720-515: The total number of French soldiers in Tonkin to 35,000 in the summer of 1885. In May and June 1885 thousands of fresh French troops poured into Tonkin, swamping the veterans of the two brigades that had fought the Sino-French War, and the expeditionary corps was reorganised into two two-brigade divisions. Brière de l'Isle was replaced in command of the expeditionary corps on 1 June 1885 by General Philippe-Marie-Henri Roussel de Courcy (1827–1887), but remained in Tonkin for several months as commander of

9828-447: The transports Vĩnh Long , Européen , Comorin and Cholon left Toulon to embark the Legion , Turco and Bat' d'Af' reinforcements at Mers-el-Kebir and Oran. On 10 January the three line battalions, the artillery and specialist troops set sail from Toulon aboard the transports Saint-Germain , Poitou , Annamite and Mytho . Two smaller vessels, Sarthe and Shamrock , accommodated

9936-402: The two brigades were reorganised before the 1st Brigade left Lạng Sơn to relieve the Siege of Tuyên Quang . Roussel and Roperh's batteries were left at Lạng Sơn, and Jourdy's battery was transferred to the 1st Brigade. In March 1885 the expeditionary corps was reinforced by two battalions of zouaves ( chefs de bataillon Mignot and Simon), under the overall command of Lieutenant-Colonel Callet,

10044-505: The two men soon plummeted. Brière de l'Isle disagreed with de Courcy's unimaginative pacification strategy in Tonkin and his failure to take effective quarantine measures to deal with a cholera outbreak in August 1885. In October 1885, with Annam and Tonkin in open insurrection against French rule and the Tonkin Expeditionary Corps decimated by cholera, he decided that he had had enough. Unable to stomach working for de Courcy any longer, he left Tonkin and returned to France. Brière de l'Isle

10152-440: The vulnerable coastline of central Vietnam to seize a number of strategic points and to protect Vietnamese Catholic communities in the wake of massacres of Christians by the Annamese insurgents at Quảng Ngãi and Bình Định. Key moments in de Courcy's intervention were the occupation of Vinh by Lieutenant-Colonel Chaumont in August, and the relief of Qui Nhơn and capture of Bình Định by General Prud'homme in September. In November 1885

10260-536: Was a French Army general who achieved distinction firstly as Governor of Senegal (1876–81), and then as general-in-chief of the Tonkin Expeditionary Corps during the Sino-French War (August 1884–April 1885). Louis Briere de l'Isle was born on 4 June 1827 in Martinique . In 1847 he graduated from Saint-Cyr and was made Sous lieutenant in the Troupes de marine , promoted to lieutenant in 1852 and captain in 1856. In

10368-405: Was a serious defeat for the French, it strengthened the resolve of Jules Ferry 's administration to entrench the French protectorate in Tonkin. The news of Rivière's defeat and death reached Paris on 26 May, and the French navy minister Admiral Peyron declared 'France will avenge her glorious children!' The Chamber of Deputies immediately voted a credit of three and a half million francs to finance

10476-628: Was arguably the most successful of the many commanders of the expeditionary corps, but he was unpopular with both his officers and his men, who considered him overcautious. Significantly, his decision to halt General de Négrier's pursuit of the defeated Chinese forces in the Bắc Ninh campaign was held against him, even though he had sound military reasons for this decision. The troops immediately gave sardonic Vietnamese nicknames to their three generals. The much-admired de Négrier became Maolen ('Quick!'), Brière de l'Isle Mann Mann ('Slow!'), and Millot Toi Toi ('Stop!). Millot's career in Tonkin ended on

10584-409: Was briefly replaced in command of the expeditionary corps by General Warnet. Warnet, despite a wealth of evidence that Tonkin was far from pacified, was a political general. Knowing that the French public wanted to hear no more depressing news of bandits and pirates in Tonkin, he declared that Tonkin was pacified and recommended to the army ministry the formal downgrading of the expeditionary corps into

10692-641: Was commanded by général de brigade Louis Brière de l'Isle (1827–1896), who had earlier made his reputation as governor of Senegal. The 2nd Brigade was commanded by général de brigade François de Négrier (1842–1913), a charismatic young Foreign Legion commander who had recently quelled a serious Arab rebellion in Algeria. Millot commanded the expeditionary corps for eight months, from February to September 1884. During his tenure of command he organised two major campaigns to capture Bắc Ninh and Hưng Hóa (March and April 1884) and two more modest expeditions to capture Thái Nguyên and Tuyên Quang (May and June 1884). In

10800-529: Was immediately reinforced. This cable, immediately dubbed the 'Lạng Sơn telegram', brought down Jules Ferry 's government on 30 March 1885, ruined Ferry's political career, and dealt a severe blow to domestic support for French colonial expansion (see Tonkin Affair ). It also cast a shadow over Brière de l'Isle's professional reputation. Although he was to obtain further professional advancement before his retirement, he knew that he would in future be remembered not as

10908-479: Was marred at the end of March 1885 by the controversial Retreat from Lạng Sơn . The retreat, which threw away the gains of the February Lạng Sơn Campaign , was ordered by Lieutenant-Colonel Paul Gustave Herbinger, the acting commander of the 2nd Brigade, and came less than a week after General de Négrier's defeat at the Battle of Bang Bo (24 March 1885). Brière de l'Isle was in Hanoi at the time, and

11016-486: Was perfect. He had expected to be cashiered for his Capture of Nam Dinh , but instead he found himself the hero of the hour. There had recently been a change of government in France, and the new administration of Jules Ferry was strongly in favour of colonial expansion. It therefore decided to back Rivière up. Ferry and his foreign minister Paul-Armand Challemel-Lacour denounced Bourée's agreement with Li Hongzhang and recalled

11124-406: Was perhaps the greatest military achievement of his career. Immediately after the capture of Lạng Sơn he returned to Hanoi with Lieutenant-Colonel Laurent Giovanninelli's 1st Brigade to relieve the Siege of Tuyên Quang , leaving General François de Négrier 's 2nd Brigade at Lạng Sơn. After defeating Liu Yongfu 's Black Flag Army at the Battle of Hòa Mộc (2 March 1885), Brière de l'Isle entered

11232-460: Was planning to shift his headquarters to Hưng Hóa, to supervise a planned offensive against the Yunnan Army around Tuyên Quang. Without waiting to sift the misleading information contained in Herbinger's alarmist cables from Lạng Sơn, Brière de l'Isle fired off a pessimistic telegram on the evening of 28 March to the French government, warning that the Tonkin Expeditionary Corps faced disaster unless it

11340-430: Was recalled on 11 March 1881 in response. By the end of 1881 Senegal had its first civilian governor, Marie Auguste Deville de Perière . While it fell to Borgnis-Desbordes, Joseph Gallieni and Louis Archinard to lead the conquest of the middle Niger region, Brière de l'Isle began the advance, and oversaw the creation of the military territory of "Upper Senegal" ( Haut-Sénégal ) region on 27 February 1880. This created

11448-441: Was struck by an epidemic of typhoid fever and had to evacuate its camps. Had its men ever been sent to Tonkin, they would probably have suffered a high mortality rate. In the event, China punctiliously implemented the terms of the peace settlement, and the division was broken up in late June 1885. The following table lists all marine infantry companies known to have served in Tonkin between April 1882 and April 1886. Six companies of

11556-429: Was the high point of Brière de l'Isle's career. Brière de l'Isle's record of solid professional achievement was marred in the second fortnight of March 1885, with simultaneous French defeats on 24 March at the Battle of Phu Lam Tao and (far more serious) the Battle of Bang Bo . Although de Négrier retrieved his defeat at Bang Bo by inflicting crippling casualties on the Guangxi Army at the Battle of Ky Lua on 28 March,

11664-412: Was under the command of Lieutenant-Colonel Defoy. Its three battalions—the 23rd, 111th and 143rd—were commanded respectively by chef de bataillon Godart, Lieutenant-Colonel Chapuis and chef de bataillon Farret. The second regiment, led by Lieutenant-Colonel Jacques Duchesne of the Foreign Legion, was supplied by the 19th Army Corps in Algeria and included a Legion battalion, a Turco battalion and one of

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