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The Commemorative medal of the 1870–1871 War (french: Médaille commémorative de la guerre 1870–1871) was a French military campaign medal awarded to those who served during the Franco-Prussian War. The war, declared by Emperor
Napoleon III Napoleon III (Charles Louis Napoléon Bonaparte; 20 April 18089 January 1873) was the first President of France (as Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte) from 1848 to 1852 and the last monarch of France as Emperor of the French from 1852 to 1870. A nephew ...
on Prussia on 19 July 1870, ended in defeat for France and terminated in the
Treaty of Frankfurt The Treaty of Frankfurt may refer to one of three treaties signed at Frankfurt, as follows: * Treaty of Frankfurt (1489) - Treaty between Maximilian of Austria and the envoys of King Charles VIII of France *Treaty of Frankfurt (1539) - Initiated ...
of 10 May 1871. Although the bravest were rewarded with the
Legion of Honour The National Order of the Legion of Honour (french: Ordre national de la Légion d'honneur), formerly the Royal Order of the Legion of Honour ('), is the highest French order of merit, both military and civil. Established in 1802 by Napoleon, ...
and the
Military Medal The Military Medal (MM) was a military decoration awarded to personnel of the British Army and other arms of the armed forces, and to personnel of other Commonwealth countries, below commissioned rank, for bravery in battle on land. The award ...
, the by-then republican authorities firmly refused to create a commemorative medal for award to the participants of the conflict, possibly in an effort to forget the humiliation and national shame caused by the sad events. Forty years would have to elapse before the government would agree to a tangible form of recognition for the surviving veterans of the conflict. The Commemorative medal of the 1870–1871 War was finally established by a law of 9 November 1911.


Award statute

The Commemorative medal of the 1870–1871 War was awarded to veterans of the Franco-Prussian War who could prove with an official document, their service under French colours in France or
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, or on board armed naval vessels, between the months of July 1870 and February 1871, in: *the
regular army A regular army is the official army of a state or country (the official armed forces), contrasting with irregulars, irregular forces, such as volunteer irregular militias, private armies, mercenary, mercenaries, etc. A regular army usually has the ...
; *the
National Guard National Guard is the name used by a wide variety of current and historical uniformed organizations in different countries. The original National Guard was formed during the French Revolution around a cadre of defectors from the French Guards. Nat ...
; *the Corps-Francs; *the mobilized National Guard; *the sedentary National Guard of besieged cities; *the sedentary National Guard of open cities; *the Navy; *organized irregular corps (Paris police, forestry agents and guards, customs officials); *the military postal and treasury services; *the sedentary National Guard of open cities, attacked in 1870–71, whose courage was recognized by the government with the addition of the cross of the
Legion of Honour The National Order of the Legion of Honour (french: Ordre national de la Légion d'honneur), formerly the Royal Order of the Legion of Honour ('), is the highest French order of merit, both military and civil. Established in 1802 by Napoleon, ...
in their coats or arms. The law of 27 March 1912 enlarged this list of potential recipients to include doctors, medics, nurses and
chaplains A chaplain is, traditionally, a cleric (such as a minister, priest, pastor, rabbi, purohit, or imam), or a lay representative of a religious tradition, attached to a secular institution (such as a hospital, prison, military unit, intelligence ...
able to prove their presence on the battlefield, in ambulances and hospitals, as well as to balloon pilots who escaped from besieged Paris to carry out a public service. A
decree A decree is a legal proclamation, usually issued by a head of state (such as the president of a republic or a monarch), according to certain procedures (usually established in a constitution). It has the force of law. The particular term used for ...
of 17 September 1921 added all veterans of the war of 1870-1871 that were wounded or maimed in combat, or that particularly distinguished themselves in the face of the enemy, as potential recipients of the
Military Medal The Military Medal (MM) was a military decoration awarded to personnel of the British Army and other arms of the armed forces, and to personnel of other Commonwealth countries, below commissioned rank, for bravery in battle on land. The award ...
. Finally, a new law of 13 July 1923 (published on 17 July 1923) added as recipients: *children under fourteen years of age at the 1870 declaration of war, who volunteered and were enlisted in the battalions of the National Guard to receive the medal with the clasp "ENGAGÉ VOLONTAIRE" ( en, "VOLUNTEER ENLISTEE"). The accompanying scroll will bear the title "ENFANT VOLONTAIRE" ( en, "VOLUNTEER CHILD") as well as the company and battalion numbers. *children under the age of eighteen who, although not enlisted during the war, accomplished acts of civic courage that could be proven as authentic.


Award description

The Commemorative medal of the 1870–1871 War was a 30-mm-in-diameter circular medal struck from bronze. Its
obverse Obverse and its opposite, reverse, refer to the two flat faces of coins and some other two-sided objects, including paper money, flags, seals, medals, drawings, old master prints and other works of art, and printed fabrics. In this usage, ''o ...
bore the relief image of the effigy of the "warrior republic" in the form of the left profile of a helmeted woman's bust wearing armour. On either side, the relief inscription along the outer medal circumference "RÉPUBLIQUE FRANÇAISE" ( en, "FRENCH REPUBLIC"). The reverse bore at its lower center, a rectangle bearing the relief inscription "AUX DÉFENSEURS DE LA PATRIE" ( en, "TO THE NATION'S DEFENDERS"), superimposed over the relief images of military weapons (sabres, lances, cannons), a naval anchor and a flowing banner, at its top, the relief years "1870 1871" bisected by the banner's mast. The medal hung from a ribbon passing through a ring itself passing through a ball shaped suspension loop at the top. The 36-mm-wide green silk moiré ribbon bore four 4-mm-wide equidistant vertical black stripes, the whole forming nine alternating 4 mm stripes. The clasp "ENGAGÉ VOLONTAIRE" ( en, "VOLUNTEER ENLISTEE") could be worn on the ribbon. The medal was engraved by artist Georges Lemaire, his model to represent the effigy of the republic was Miss Fernande Dubois, an artist at the
Opéra-Comique The Opéra-Comique is a Paris opera company which was founded around 1714 by some of the popular theatres of the Parisian fairs. In 1762 the company was merged with – and for a time took the name of – its chief rival, the Comédie-Italienne ...
.


Notable recipients

*Marshal
Ferdinand Foch Ferdinand Foch ( , ; 2 October 1851 – 20 March 1929) was a French general and military theorist who served as the Supreme Allied Commander during the First World War. An aggressive, even reckless commander at the First Marne, Flanders and Art ...
*General Émile Zimmer *General
Louis Archinard Louis Archinard (11 February 1850 – 8 May 1932) was a French Army general at the time of the Third Republic, who contributed to the colonial conquest of French West Africa. He was traditionally presented in French histories as the conqueror an ...
*General
Michel-Joseph Maunoury Michel-Joseph Maunoury (17 December 1847 – 28 March 1923) was a commander of French forces in the early days of World War I who was posthumously elevated to the dignity of Marshal of France. Initially commanding in Lorraine, as the success ...
*General Louis François Léon Friant *General Tell Aristide Frédéric Antoine Chapel *General
Maurice Bailloud Maurice Camille Bailloud (Tours, 13 October 1847 – 1 July 1921) was a French general. Career He was the son of Ennemond Henri Bailloud, a Navy lieutenant and Virginie Marie Marchand. He studied from 1866 at the École spéciale militaire de ...
*General Ludovic Hurault de Vibraye *General Édouard Laffon de Ladebat *General Noël Édouard, viscount of Curières and of Castelnau *General Marie Charles Justin Tournier *General George Albert Bazaine-Hayter *General
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 ...
*General
Raoul Le Mouton de Boisdeffre Raoul François Charles Le Mouton de Boisdeffre, or more commonly Raoul de Boisdeffre (6 February 1839, Alençon – 24 August 1919, Paris) was a French Army general. Biography He studied at the College of Saint Cyr and at the Staff-College. D ...
*General
Auguste Dubail Augustin Yvon Edmond Dubail (15 April 1851 – 7 January 1934) was a French Army general. He commanded the First Army and Army Group East during World War I. Biography Augustin Dubail was born in Belfort on April 15, 1851. He graduated from ...
*General Maurice Balfourier *General
Charles-Marie de Braconnier General Charles-Marie de Braconnier, or Carlos Braconnier (28 June 1849 – 13 March 1917) was a Belgian soldier who participated in the expeditions led by Henry Morton Stanley and was the founder and first commander of the station of Léopoldvill ...
*General Marie Félix Silvestre *General
Joseph Joffre Joseph Jacques Césaire Joffre (12 January 1852 – 3 January 1931) was a French general who served as Commander-in-Chief of French forces on the Western Front from the start of World War I until the end of 1916. He is best known for regroup ...
*General Alfred Frédéric Philippe Auguste Napoléon Ameil *General Jean Baptiste Jules Carbillet *General Brice Adrien Bizot *Rear admiral
Benjamin Jaurès Admiral Constant Louis Jean Benjamin Jaurès (3 February 1823 – 13 March 1889) was a French Navy officer and politician. Born in Albi, Tarn, he was a senator for life and active in Japan during the 1863 Shimonoseki campaign and the Boshin ...
*Colonel Charles Nicolas Friant *Colonel Léon Aurousseau *Captain Pharaon Van Del Bulke *Chaplain Osmin Gardey *Léon de Vesly *Field Marshal
Earl Kitchener Earl Kitchener, of Khartoum and of Broome Park, Broome in the County of Kent, was a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created in 1914 for the famous soldier Field marshal (United Kingdom), Field Marshal Herbert Kitchener, 1st Ea ...
(who served in a French ambulance unit)


See also

*
Ems Dispatch The Ems Dispatch (french: Dépêche d'Ems, german: Emser Depesche), sometimes called the Ems Telegram, was published on 13 July 1870 and incited the Second French Empire to start the Franco-Prussian War and to declare war on the Kingdom of Prus ...
* Franco-Prussian War *
Austro-Prussian War The Austro-Prussian War, also by many variant names such as Seven Weeks' War, German Civil War, Brothers War or Fraternal War, known in Germany as ("German War"), (; "German war of brothers") and by a variety of other names, was fought in 186 ...
*
Peace of Prague (1866) The Peace of Prague (german: Prager Frieden) was a peace treaty signed by the Kingdom of Prussia and the Austrian Empire at Prague on 23 August 1866. In combination with the treaties of Prussia and several south - and central German states it eff ...
*
Napoleon III Napoleon III (Charles Louis Napoléon Bonaparte; 20 April 18089 January 1873) was the first President of France (as Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte) from 1848 to 1852 and the last monarch of France as Emperor of the French from 1852 to 1870. A nephew ...
*
William I, German Emperor William I or Wilhelm I (german: Wilhelm Friedrich Ludwig; 22 March 1797 – 9 March 1888) was King of Prussia from 2 January 1861 and German Emperor from 18 January 1871 until his death in 1888. A member of the House of Hohenzollern, he was the f ...
*
Otto von Bismarck Otto, Prince of Bismarck, Count of Bismarck-Schönhausen, Duke of Lauenburg (, ; 1 April 1815 – 30 July 1898), born Otto Eduard Leopold von Bismarck, was a conservative German statesman and diplomat. From his origins in the upper class of J ...


References


External links


Musée de la Légion d'Honneur
{{DEFAULTSORT:Medaille Commemorative De La Guerre 1870-1871 Military awards and decorations of France Second French Empire Franco-Prussian War Awards established in 1911 1911 establishments in France French campaign medals