CHAPTER ONE

A General in the Dock

ON FEBRUARY 5, 1848, a short, stocky forty-one-year-old general of the French Army of Africa took the podium before the Chamber of Deputies in Paris to defend his actions. Less than two months earlier, he had taken into his custody the man who had been France’s most elusive and dangerous enemy for fifteen years: The Commander of the Faithful, Emir Abd el-Kader. Despite the astonishing military accomplishment his surrender represented, the terms of the emir’s capitulation had produced a storm of indignation and criticism in Paris.

General Leon Christophe Juchault de Lamoricière had a brilliant career. As a young lieutenant in the engineering corps, he had been with the army that sacked Algiers in 1830. Three years later, Lamoricière was promoted to infantry captain commanding native Zouave1 infantry, renowned as tough, fast marching shock troops. By 1840, at age thirty-four, he had become the youngest lieutenant general in the French army. He also had acquired a reputation for courageous leadership, iron-willed perseverance and an enormous appetite for work. However, the professional envy of others, his too obvious ambition and unorthodox ways made him a frequent target of attack from his enemies in and outside the military.

Lamoricière understood that the French army was unprepared for the new world it had entered. He quickly grasped the importance to the Arabs of that which was fast losing importance in France — religion. He learned Arabic and studied the Koran. Lamoricière didn’t accept the conventional wisdom of his fellow officers that fear and intimidation were all Arabs understood. The war was being fought to create a lasting peace necessary for attracting colonists. Harsh, indiscriminate punishment of the natives would not achieve it. Taking the high road of humane treatment, keeping promises and patiently building trust would accomplish more in the long run than brute force.

These principles, uncommon within the army, gradually won Lamoricière enormous influence among the Arabs and their leaders. By building good relationships with the tribes, he developed an intelligence network rivaling that of the emir himself, who had a famous ability to learn about French army plans and to keep his hand on the pulse of political attitudes in Paris toward the Algerian adventure.

Lamoricière’s desire to treat the natives decently, even if only to achieve France’s goals, was suspect in the army and among the more racist colonists whose boundless greed he detested. His enemies called him an “Arab lover.” They said he was “half Muslim” and an enemy of the Church, when actually he was a devout Catholic who would end his days working in a soup kitchen for the poor. His family coat of arms bore the motto, “God Is My Hope.”

In broad strokes, this was the man who marched briskly with dignified self-assurance before the Chamber wearing his Legion of Honor medal over his dark blue jacket with gold epaulets. Before he began his defense, this familiar tanned figure with wavy black hair, d’Artagnan goatee and piercing black eyes surveyed the expectant faces of the deputies. The general’s defense was brief and blunt:

“I have been accused of negotiating when I should have been engaging in operations against the enemy. Do you know what I would have taken if I had done so? I would have captured his baggage train. Perhaps, after further harassing raids, I would have announced that I had taken his tent, some rugs, one of his wives, maybe even some of his caliphs; but he and his cavalry would have escaped into the Sahara. No one can catch their desert hardened horses. If you think it is better for France’s interests for him to be in the desert than in Alexandria, it is still possible to send him back (nervous laughter).

“The emir abdicated voluntarily. After throwing all the weight of its valiant armies into Algeria, France finally saw this Arab chief, who had preached and lit the fires of Holy War, lay down his arms and put himself into the hands of our Governor-General. For France this was a triumph that was military, political and moral. The effect this has produced among the indigenous people is immense and its consequences will be felt for a long time.

“Abd el-Kader is the embodiment of a principle — that of a great religious affection; and in Algeria that is the only kind of political affection that unites the population. This principle manifests itself in Holy War. Religion has the same force as, once, did the principle of legitimacy in France. So much, that by his prestige, his faith, his eloquence, his past victories, this man has become a living symbol of an idea that moves the masses deeply. He represents a great danger so long as he remains in the country.”

When he finished, Lamoricière was met with tepid applause and angry outbursts from the deputies: “A representative of France should never have accepted conditions from the emir…He should be treated as a prisoner of war, a defeated enemy...It was a mistake to agree to send him to the Middle East.” The majority didn’t want to listen to Lamoricière. He knew too much and his detractors knew too little about the man he had finally brought to heel. A marabout’s word was sacred, especially if the marabout was Abd el-Kader.

How could the deputies far removed from the realities of warfare against the Arabs know the world Lamoricière had lived in since 1830? Trust had been the key to the general’s success. He had won over tribes for France because of his reputation for courage, firmness and fairness. He had shown the Arabs that France could rule better than the Turk. France’s enemy of fifteen years had surrendered voluntarily because he had trusted Lamoricière more than the sultan of Morocco, a fellow Muslim. Abd el-Kader’s knowledge of the Law and his humanity had convinced him that continuing the struggle against France was no longer God’s will.