Pierre-Louis-Charles Rigault de Genouilly (April 12, 1807 in
Rochefort – May 4, 1873 in
Barcelona) was a nineteenth-century French admiral. He fought with distinction in the
Crimean War and the
Second Opium War, but is chiefly remembered today for his command of French and Spanish forces during the opening phase of the
Cochinchina campaign (1858–62), which inaugurated the French conquest of
Vietnam.
Early career
Charles Rigault de Genouilly was born and raised in Rochefort into a family with naval connections. His father was a naval engineer and his mother, Adélaïde-Caroline Mithon de Genouilly, was the niece and adopted daughter of
Claude Mithon de Genouilly, a naval commander during the
American War of Independence.
Rigault de Genouilly entered the
Ecole Polytechnique in 1825.
[Randier, 342] He entered the navy as a midshipman in 1827, and served in the Morea expedition aboard the frigate
Fleur de Lys during the
Greek War of Independence. In 1828 he was transferred to
Résolue, and took part in operations against pirates in the Greek archipelago.
Promoted
enseigne de vaisseau in 1830, he participated in the French expedition against
Algiers and the forcing of the Tagus in 1831. In 1832 he served aboard
Ducreuse during the blockade of the Dutch coast in the
Belgian War of Independence. He was promoted
lieutenant de vaisseau in 1834.
In 1843, he assumed command of the corvette
Victorieuse on the China and India Seas station, and took part in an expedition to explore the Yellow Sea. On 25 April 1847
Victorieuse and
Gloire (
capitaine de vaisseau Augustin de Lapierre), which had been sent to Da Nang (Tourane) to negotiate for the release of two French Catholic missionaries, were attacked without warning by several Vietnamese vessels, in an incident known as the
Bombardment of Da Nang. The two French ships fought back, and with their superior armament rapidly destroyed their attackers. In July 1847
Victorieuse ran aground on the coast of Korea, but Rigault de Genouilly was exonerated from blame by a court of enquiry.
He was promoted
captaine de vaisseau in July 1848, and served on a commission charged with studying the defences of Havre. He then became
chef de cabinet of the
navy minister Joseph Grégoire Cazy. Between 1849 and 1851 he was captain successively of the
paddle steamer frigate
Vauban and of
Charlemagne, the first screw-driven French battleship converted from a sailing ship. This type of conversion was called a
vaisseau mixte to distinguish it from purpose-built steam ships such as
Napoléon. He conducted extensive tests on
Charlemagne, for which he received the thanks of the admiralty.
Crimean War
Rigault de Genouilly was appointed flag captain of the
Ville de Paris in 1853.
In 1853 he was appointed flag-captain of the ship of the line
Ville de Paris by Admiral Hamelin and took part in the bombardment of Odessa on 22 April 1854, one of the early naval actions of the
Crimean War. Promoted
contre-amiral (rear admiral) in 1854, he served with distinction in the
siege of Sebastopol, where he was in command of the French marines (
fusiliers-marins).
Second Opium War
In 1857 Rigault de Genouilly sailed aboard the frigate
Némésis to join the naval armada assembled by Admiral Léonard Charner for the
Second Opium War, and was placed in command of the French naval division. During the campaign he took part in the blockade of Macau and captured the city of
Canton.
After this success he served at the capture of the
Peiho forts and accompanied the
Anglo-French expedition to
Tientsin.
Cochinchina campaign
In November 1857, in response to the execution of two Spanish missionaries by the Vietnamese emperor
Tu Duc and the failure of a diplomatic mission to Hue led by Charles de Montigny, Rigault de Genouilly was authorised by the French emperor
Napoleon III to launch a punitive expedition against Vietnam. In September 1858 a joint French and Spanish expedition under his command landed at
Da Nang and captured the city.
The allies expected an easy victory, but the war did not at first go as planned. Vietnamese resistance was more stubborn than had been expected, and the French and Spanish found themselves besieged in Da Nang by a Vietnamese army under the command of Nguyen Tri Phuong. The
Siege of Đà Nẵng lasted for nearly three years, and although there was little fighting disease took a heavy toll of the allied expedition. The siege eventually ended with the unopposed evacuation of the French garrison in March 1860.
Shortly after his capture of Da Nang, Rigault de Genouilly cast around for somewhere else to strike the Vietnamese. In January 1859 he proposed to the navy ministry an expedition against Saigon in Cochinchina, a city of considerable strategic significance as a source of food for the Vietnamese army. The expedition was approved, and in early February, leaving
capitaine de vaisseau Thoyon at Da Nang with a small French garrison, Rigault de Genouilly sailed south for Saigon with a powerful naval flotilla and a Franco-Spanish landing force. On 17 February 1859, after forcing the river defences and destroying a series of forts and stockades along the Saigon river, Rigault de Genouilly captured Saigon. The allies were not strong enough to hold the enormous
Citadel of Saigon, and on 8 March 1859 blew it up and set fire to its rice magazines. In April Rigault de Genouilly returned to Da Nang with the bulk of his forces to reinforce Thoyon's hard-pressed garrison. On 8 May 1859 he personally led a French attack on the Vietnamese siege lines at Da Nang. The attack achieved limited success, but the French were unable to break the siege.
In October 1859 Rigault de Genouilly, whose actions in Cochinchina had been severely criticised in France, was replaced by Admiral François Page, who was instructed to obtain a treaty protecting the Catholic faith in Vietnam but not to seek any territorial gains.
Later career
Between 1862 and 1864, following his return to France, Rigault de Genouilly served first aboard
Bretagne and then aboard
Ville de Paris as commander of the French squadron of evolutions (
escadre d’évolutions) in the Mediterranean. He was
navy minister from 20 January 1867 to 4 September 1870, replacing
Justin de Chasseloup-Laubat. He also became
Minister of War on August 13, 1869, succeeding
Adolphe Niel. He only held the position for a few days, and was replaced by
Edmond Le Bœuf on August 21, 1869.
Rigault de Genouilly turned down the offer of command of one of the French fleets during the
Franco-Prussian War and resigned as navy minister on the fall of the Second Empire after the
battle of Sedan. One of his last acts as navy minister was to order naval personnel and gunboats to take part in the Siege of Paris. After his resignation he retired to Spain to live out his last years. He died in Barcelona in 1873.
Offices held
See also
