Auguste-Alexandre Ducrot

Who was Auguste-Alexandre Ducrot?

Auguste-Alexandre Ducrot was a French general. Ducrot served in Algeria, in the Italian campaign of 1859, and as a division commander in the Franco-Prussian War.

At the Battle of Sedan on 1 September 1870, he succeeded to command of the French army when Marshal Mac-Mahon was wounded early in the morning. By that time, it was obvious that a disastrous defeat was inevitable. Ducrot summed up the situation with the famous remark

Nous sommes dans un pot de chambre, et nous y serons emmerdés.

Ducrot ordered the army to withdraw, but then General de Wimpffen presented a commission authorizing him to succeed Mac-Mahon. Wimpffen overruled Ducrot, and ordered a counterattack that failed completely. Emperor Napoleon III then surrendered the army to the Prussians.

Ducrot refused to sign the articles of surrender, and was imprisoned by the Prussians. He soon escaped, and took part in the Siege of Paris.

Ducrot commanded the most important French attack against the Prussian besiegers, 29 November - 3 December 1870. After the defeat of this attack, Ducrot urged the French government to make peace.