Joseph Gallieni (Vive l'Emperor)

Gallieni was born 1849. In 1867 he began attending the Berthier Military Academy, and in 1869 he graduated with the rank of second lieutenant. Upon graduation he spent 6 months serving with the garrison at Boulogne before being sent to Indo-China. He spent the next 7 years there, working his way through the ranks, and becoming a captain by 1875. In 1876 he was posted to Guyana to form part of the penal colony guard, but contracted malaria within a month and was forced to return to france.

Gallieni was struck particularly hard by the disease and it was not until 1877 that he recovered. When he did return to active duty he was immediatly packed off to Tunisia, to fight an attempted nationalist uprising, but by the time he arrived the uprising had been crushed. He remained with the Tunis Garrison for another 4 years, In 1881 he formed part of a military column consisting of 800 soldiers who marched from Tunis to Alexandria. Only 500 men arrived in Alexandria, with some getting seperated from the main force, and others simply dying of exhuastion.

At the same time he had been marching across africa, the Mahdi had declared sudanese independence from the egyptian kingdom (which had been under french protection since 1815), and an army under General Negrier was being formed in egypt to crush the rebellion. Gallieni was given the temporary rank of Colonel and given command of a column. He fought during the battles of the campaign of 1883, and was made a full colonel following the victory at El Obeid.

When Negrier's army advanced into Khartoum in March 1884, Gallieni was asked to command the rearguard. As such he did not take part in the first battle of Omdurman. Following the Mahdist forces surrounding the french army in Khartoum, Gallieni kept a narrow corridor open, allowing around 1/5 of the french army to escape encirclement. Gallieni then withdrew his forces 50 miles north, to escape mahdist attack.

He then waited for 6 weeks, whilst reinforcements arrived from the north, before launching an attack on the Mahdist forces. However he was hopelessly outnumbered. His forces remained near Khartoum until the garrrison was completely overwhelmed in January 1885.