13 Facts About Francis Garnier

Marie Joseph Francois Garnier was a French officer, inspector of Indigenous Affairs of Cochinchina and explorer.

Francis Garnier eventually became mission leader of the Mekong Exploration Commission in 19th century Southeast Asia.

Francis Garnier was born on 25 July 1839 in Saint-Etienne, as the second son of Louis-Alexandre Garnier and Anne Marie Felicite Garnier.

In early 1860,20 years old Francis Garnier, then serving as an aspirant on the Duperre during the Second Opium War, jumped into a stormy sea at night to save the life of a cavalry lieutenant who had fallen overboard.

When shortly afterwards Lagree died, Francis Garnier naturally assumed the command of the expedition, and he conducted it in safety to the Yangtze River, and thus to the Chinese coast.

Francis Garnier departed from Saigon with half of the expeditionary force on 11 October 1873 and reached Hanoi on 5 November.

Francis Garnier began shelling the Black Flags with a field piece mounted above the gate, and when they began to fall back he led a party of 18 French marines and sailors out of the city to pursue them, hoping to inflict some decisive blow.

Francis Garnier, leading three men uphill in a bayonet attack on a party of Black Flags, was stabbed and hacked to death by several Black Flag soldiers after stumbling in a watercourse.

The youthful enseigne de vaisseau Adrien Balny d'Avricourt led an equally small column out of the citadel to support Francis Garnier, but was killed at the head of his men.

Francis Garnier immediately hurried to the spot, but some of his men had got there before him, and their fire had sufficed to force the bandits to retreat behind the bamboo hedges.

Francis Garnier rallied a dozen men, three of whom dragged this small cannon, and left the town at a run to pursue the enemy.

Francis Garnier then divided the nine men who remained with him into three groups.

At this moment the two men who were accompanying Francis Garnier were 100 metres behind him.