27 Facts About Louis Faidherbe

Louis Faidherbe created the Senegalese Tirailleurs when he was governor of Senegal.

Louis Faidherbe was the fifth child of Louis Cesar Joseph Faidherde, a hosier who had volunteered as a Republican in the revolutionary war, and his wife, Sophie Monnier.

Louis Faidherbe's father died in 1826 when he was seven and he was brought up by his mother.

Louis Faidherbe was a hard-working student and later received his military education at the Ecole Polytechnique and then at the Ecole d'Application in Metz.

Louis Faidherbe held this post with one brief interval until July 1865.

Explorers had made known the riches and possibilities of the Niger regions, and Louis Faidherbe formed the design of adding those countries to the French dominions.

Louis Faidherbe even dreamed of creating a French African empire stretching from Senegal to the Red Sea.

Louis Faidherbe's push to build fortifications farther out, his conflicts with Protet, and his protests to Paris over Protet's inaction earned him the governorship in 1854.

Louis Faidherbe brought into subjection the country lying between the Senegal river and Gambia.

At the Battle of Logandeme, Louis Faidherbe launched war against the Serer people of Sine, during the reign of Maad a Sinig Kumba Ndoffene Famak Joof.

Scholars like Martin A Klein note that Faidherbe was merely playing with words and was making political decisions in Senegal without any authority whatsoever.

Saint-Louis Faidherbe was placed under formal military control, and a telegraph and road link was set up to the other French colonies in Goree Island and Rufisque.

Louis Faidherbe placed under direct French control large-scale seasonal groundnut cultivation near the fort systems, and then along the rail lines.

Louis Faidherbe helped him in his study of the Wolof, Pular, and Sarakole languages.

In 1858, when Louis Faidherbe was 40, he married his 18-year-old niece, Angele-Emilie Marie Sophie Louis Faidherbe.

Louis Faidherbe was the daughter of his older brother, Romain, who had died eight years earlier.

Louis Faidherbe was promoted to divisional general in November 1870, and in December appointed as commander-in-chief of the Army of the North by the Government of National Defence.

Louis Faidherbe quickly proved himself to be the most able of the generals fighting Prussian forces in the French provinces, and won several small victories against the Prussian First Army at the towns of Ham, Hallue, and Pont-Noyelles.

Louis Faidherbe was named as candidate for the legislature on several lists in the Somme department in the elections of 8 February 1871, and was elected.

Louis Faidherbe decided not to accept his election while retaining his military command in the north.

Between October 1871 and May 1872 Louis Faidherbe undertook a scientific mission to Upper Egypt, where he studied the monuments and inscriptions.

Louis Faidherbe ran for election to the senate in Nord as a republican on 30 January 1876 but was defeated.

Louis Faidherbe was elected on 5 January 1879 to the senate for the departement of Nord.

Louis Faidherbe resigned his seat prior to the end of his term in 1888.

Louis Faidherbe wrote on the geography and history of Senegal and the Sahara.

Louis Faidherbe was elected a senator in 1879, and, in spite of failing health, continued to the last a close student of his favorite subjects.

Louis Faidherbe died on 29 September 1889, his body receiving a public funeral.