Léonard-Léopold Forgemol de Bostquénard

Léonard-Léopold Forgemol de Bostquénard (1821 - 1897) was a general in the French Army.
He was born on the 17th September 1821 at Azerables, in the Creuse départment and died on the 28th November 1897 at Versailles.
He graduated from the military school of École Spéciale Militaire de Saint-Cyr in 1839 and was posted to Algeria in 1840 as an infantry lieutenant, eventually attaining the rank of colonel. At the start of the Franco-Prussian war, in [1870] , he was recalled in France. Provisionally ranked as a brigadier general on January 30 1871, he was made up to the permanent position in the following September.
He commanded a subdivision of the department of Aisne with the subsidiary role of secretary of the War Council and in 1878, he was put in military command of the department of Seine-et-Oise. He was promoted to divisional general on March 4th 1879. An injury that he received during the war obliged him to wear a large silver plastron over his abdomen. He was advised to retire, but replied that since he could still sit on a horse, he was still as useful on the battlefield as any other soldier.

In 1881, he was in command of the army for the region of Constantine, Algeria. He was ordered by the government of Jules Ferry to direct the military operations in Tunisia from April to July 1881 [ D'Estournelles, p. 142 and 485.] . They resulted in the establishment of the French protectorate under the treaties of Bardo and Marsa in 1883 [ See Forgemol de Bostquénard, "Rapport sur les opérations militaires en Tunisie (avril-juillet 1881)", Constantine, impr. Braham, 1882 ] . He remained in Tunisia up until 1883 and oversaw a second campaign of "pacification" in the region of Kairouan. On his return to Paris, he became a staff-officer at the war ministry. He was awarded the Legion d'honneur, on May 4th 1889 and received the French military medal in 1894. He was named as Commandant of the 11th Army Corps from 1889, until his retirement in 1894.

A commemorative plate was fixed to the wall of his modest family home at Azérables. It includes the name of his brother John Jacques Hector (1819-1883), military surgeon and also a member of the Légion d’honneur.

Bibliography

*Paul Henri Benjamin d' Estournelles de Constant, "La politique francaise en Tunisie : le protectorat et ses origines (1854-1891)", Paris : Plon, Nourrit, 1891. OCLC|67526371

ources

*en [http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=950CE4D61330E333A25753C3A9679D94669ED7CF "Gen. de Bostquénard dead"] , le New York Times, 30 novembre 1897.
* [http://www.military-photos.com/forgemol.htm Military biography and photograph]
*"This article is based on the equivalent article from the French Wikipedia, consulted on December 31, 2007."

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