Général is the French word for general. There are two main categories of generals: the general officers (), which are the highest-ranking commanding officers in the armed forces, and the specialist officers with flag rank (), which are high-level offic ...

Alexandre Percin was a French military officier, chief of staff for

Louis André Louis André (28 March 1838, Nuits-Saint-Georges, Côte-d'Or – 18 March 1913) was France's Minister of War from 1900 until 1904. Loyal to the secularist Third Republic, he was anti-Catholic, militantly anticlerical, a Freemason and was impli ...

, the

Minister of War A defence minister or minister of defence is a cabinet official position in charge of a ministry of defense, which regulates the armed forces in sovereign states. The role of a defence minister varies considerably from country to country; in som ...

responsible for the

Affaire des Fiches The Affair of the Cards (french: Affaire des Fiches), sometimes called the Affair of the Casseroles,The appellation is certified by Paul Naudon1. In the slang of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, “casserole” meant someone who cooked to ...

, from 1900 to 1904.

Life

Born in 1846 in

Meurthe-et-Moselle Meurthe-et-Moselle () is a department in the Grand Est region of France, named after the rivers Meurthe and Moselle. It had a population of 733,760 in 2019.Nancy, he entered into the

École Polytechnique École may refer to: * an elementary school in the French educational stages normally followed by secondary education establishments (collège and lycée) * École (river), a tributary of the Seine flowing in région Île-de-France * École, Savoi ...

in 1865 and took part, in 1870, in the Franco-Prussian War. He was injured at Patay on 2 December 1870 and at Bécon on 26 April 1871. He distinguished himself during the campaign, and was awarded the rank of captain. In 1879, he entered into the General Staff for

Artillery Artillery is a class of heavy military ranged weapons that launch munitions far beyond the range and power of infantry firearms. Early artillery development focused on the ability to breach defensive walls and fortifications during siege ...

, and become professor of artillery at the Ecole Spéciale Militaire de Saint-Cyr as

chef d'escadron In the French armed forces (and in the armed forces of former French colonies such as the armed forces of Nigern officergenerally very intelligent, very vigorous, very active, with a capacity for exceptional work, assiduous and methodical: he wrote well, and with grace." These qualities were not disputed by Lieutenant Colonel Émile Mayer, who had opportunity to judge Percin because of his friendship with the Minister of War. Mayer, who well knew the two men, recalled that they were commanded together to

Angoulême Angoulême (; Poitevin-Saintongeais: ''Engoulaeme''; oc, Engoleime) is a communes of France, commune, the Prefectures of France, prefecture of the Charente Departments of France, department, in the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region of southwestern Franc ...

and that "André had there the opportunity to appreciate his young comrade, of whom he had a high estimation of intelligence, of professional valor, and of moral quality... They were equally inclined to intransigence and were also committed to remain on the path which both had decided to accomplish." Percin was part of the list of six generals, drawn up by an informant, who together were described as being

Freemasons Freemasonry or Masonry refers to fraternal organisations that trace their origins to the local guilds of stonemasons that, from the end of the 13th century, regulated the qualifications of stonemasons and their interaction with authorities ...

. For Émile Mayer, "Percin had been, if not the instigator, at least the principal instrument of that thing which is called the ' système des fiches'." Because of his

republicanism Republicanism is a political ideology centered on citizenship in a state organized as a republic. Historically, it emphasises the idea of self-rule and ranges from the rule of a representative minority or oligarchy to popular sovereignty. It ...

and his relatives, Percin was considered to be the probable successor to the Minister of War before he quit the cabinet of André in 1904. He was then replaced by Colonel

Mardochée Valabrègue Mardochée Valabrègue ( – ) was a French soldier and the successor of Général Alexandre Percin as Chief of Staff for Minister of War Louis André. Biography Valabrègue was born in 1852 in Carpentras to Isaac Valabrègue and Debora Elodie Me ...

. In 1914, he was put in charge of the defense of

Lille Lille ( , ; nl, Rijsel ; pcd, Lile; vls, Rysel) is a city in the northern part of France, in French Flanders. On the river Deûle, near France's border with Belgium, it is the capital of the Hauts-de-France Regions of France, region, the Pref ...

against the

German Army The German Army (, "army") is the land component of the armed forces of Germany. The present-day German Army was founded in 1955 as part of the newly formed West German ''Bundeswehr'' together with the ''Marine'' (German Navy) and the ''Luftwaf ...

. His defense of the city was controversial because of an accusation that he had abandoned the city; in his book ''Lille'', published in 1919, he argued that he had only been following orders.

Bibliography

*Général Percin, "Le combat," Alcan, 1914 *Général Percin, ''1914, Les Erreurs du haut-commandement'', Paris : Albin Michel, 1919, 287 p. *Général Percin, "Massacre de notre infanterie, 1914–1918," Albin Michel, 1921

References

;Attribution *

Sources

*Émile Mayer, ''Nos chefs de 1914'', Paris : Librairie Stock, 1930, 317 p. *Bruno Besnier, ''L'affaire des fiches : un système d'État (1900–1914)'', La Roche-sur-Yon : Master I d'histoire, 2005. *Serge Doessant, ''Le général André, de l'affaire Dreyfus à l'affaire des fiches'', Editions Glyphe, Paris, 2009, 416 p. {{DEFAULTSORT:Percin, Alexandre 1846 births 1928 deaths French military personnel of the Franco-Prussian War French military personnel of World War I