Jacques Léon Clément-Thomas was born in 1809 in

Libourne Libourne (; ) is a commune in the Gironde department in Nouvelle-Aquitaine in southwestern France. It is a sub-prefecture of the department. It is the wine-making capital of northern Gironde and lies near Saint-Émilion and Pomerol. Geog ...

(Gironde) and shot in Paris on 18 March 1871, one of the first deaths of the

Paris Commune The Paris Commune (, ) was a French revolutionary government that seized power in Paris on 18 March 1871 and controlled parts of the city until 28 May 1871. During the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–71, the French National Guard (France), Nation ...

. A Republican of the old guard, Clément-Thomas was an army general, Commander in Chief of France's

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. ...

on two occasions, and a parliamentary deputy.

Early military and political career

Jacques Léon Clément-Thomas joined the army as a volunteer at the age of twenty. As a junior officer of republican tendencies, he was implicated in several plots (including that of

Lunéville Lunéville ( ; German : ''Lünstadt'' ; Lorrain: ''Leneinvile'') is a commune in the northeastern French department of Meurthe-et-Moselle. It is a subprefecture of the department and lies on the river Meurthe at its confluence with the Ve ...

) during the

July Monarchy The July Monarchy (), officially the ''Kingdom of France'' (), was a liberalism, liberal constitutional monarchy in France under , starting on 9 August 1830, after the revolutionary victory of the July Revolution of 1830, and ending 26 Februar ...

. Arrested in 1835, Clément-Thomas managed to escape from the

Sainte-Pélagie Prison Sainte-Pélagie was a prison in Paris, in active use from 1790 to 1899. It was founded earlier than that, however, in 1662, as place for "repentant girls" and later "debauched women and girls." The former Parisian prison was located between the ...

in Paris. Exiled to England, Clément-Thomas returned to France after the amnesty of political offenders in

1837 Events January–March * January 1 – The destructive Galilee earthquake causes thousands of deaths in Ottoman Syria. * January 26 – Michigan becomes the 26th state admitted to the United States. * February 4 – Seminoles attack Fo ...

and collaborated with the newspaper '' Le National'', the organ of the "bourgeois Republican" majority. Clément-Thomas was a supporter of the

French Second Republic The French Second Republic ( or ), officially the French Republic (), was the second republican government of France. It existed from 1848 until its dissolution in 1852. Following the final defeat of Napoleon, Napoleon Bonaparte at the Battle ...

and was elected to the Constituent Assembly in 1848 as member for Gironde. When the uprising of June 1848 broke out, he was placed in command of the National Guard of the Seine, which harshly repressed the revolting workers of the National Ateliers. Clément-Thomas failed to be elected a deputy of the Legislative Assembly in 1849. He opposed

Napoleon III Napoleon III (Charles-Louis Napoléon Bonaparte; 20 April 18089 January 1873) was President of France from 1848 to 1852 and then Emperor of the French from 1852 until his deposition in 1870. He was the first president, second emperor, and last ...

's coup d'état of December 2, 1851 and vainly tried to raise the Gironde against the coup. During the

Second French Empire The Second French Empire, officially the French Empire, was the government of France from 1852 to 1870. It was established on 2 December 1852 by Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte, president of France under the French Second Republic, who proclaimed hi ...

, he went into exile in Belgium and Luxembourg.

Return to the National Guard

Clément-Thomas returned to Paris after the proclamation of the Republic on 4 September 1870. The

Government of National Defence The Government of National Defense () was the first government of the Third Republic of France from 4 September 1870 to 13 February 1871 during the Franco-Prussian War. It was formed after the proclamation of the Republic in Paris on 4 Septembe ...

appointed him commander in chief of the National Guard of the Seine during the siege of Paris. He participated in the disastrous Buzenval breakout attempt of 20 January 1871. Clément-Thomas resigned his command on 13 February.

Execution

18 March 1871 General Jacques Leon Clement-Thomas is executed by the Commune

During the uprising of 18 March 1871, in civilian clothes, Clément-Thomas reconnoitered the barricades of Montmartre. He was recognized and seized by the crowd, thrown on top of the corpse of General Claude Lecomte, who had been lynched a few minutes earlier, and he too was executed. Their bodies remained exposed for two days on rue des Rosiers (now rue du Chevalier-de-la-Barre). A Doctor Guyon, who examined the bodies afterwards, found forty balls in the body of Clément-Thomas and nine rounds in the back of Lecomte. The legend that Generals Lecomte and Thomas were shot "in a regulation manner" by a firing squad was a fabrication: it is based on a photograph staged by the photographer Eugène Appert, which was taken in June, three months later. This photograph may have in turn been inspired by an engraving and report in the edition of

L'Illustration ''L'Illustration'' (; 1843–1944) was a French language, French illustrated weekly newspaper published in Paris. It was founded by Édouard Charton with the first issue published on 4 March 1843, it became the first illustrated newspaper in ...

of the 25th of March, 1871. There was even a 1908 activist theater production (entitled ''La Commune''), which portrays a pseudo-trial of the two generals before their execution.

Legacy

On 18 November 1871 a court-martial (le 6e Conseil de Guerre) handed down the death penalty to Simon Charles Mayer (1820 Nancy - 1887

Basel Basel ( ; ), also known as Basle ( ), ; ; ; . is a city in northwestern Switzerland on the river Rhine (at the transition from the High Rhine, High to the Upper Rhine). Basel is Switzerland's List of cities in Switzerland, third-most-populo ...

), major of the Paris Commune, for being responsible for the murder of the two generals Claude Lecomte, and Jacques Leonard Clement Thomas, in spite of weak evidence. In 1872 this sentence was commuted to life-long forced labour, and thereafter he was exiled to

New Caledonia New Caledonia ( ; ) is a group of islands in the southwest Pacific Ocean, southwest of Vanuatu and east of Australia. Located from Metropolitan France, it forms a Overseas France#Sui generis collectivity, ''sui generis'' collectivity of t ...

References

Other Sources

* Bernard Noël, ''Dictionnaire de la Commune'' ictionary of the Commune Flammarion, collection Champs, 1978. * Récit de l'exécution des Généraux Lecomte et Clément-Thomas par Alphonse Daudet dans ''Le jardin de la rue des rosiers - Souvenirs d'un homme de lettres'' [Account of the execution of Generals Lecomte and Clément-Thomas by Alphonse Daudet in ''The Garden on the Rue des Rosiers - Memories of a man of letters.''

{{DEFAULTSORT:Clement-Thomas, Jacques Leon 1809 births 1871 deaths French generals French military personnel of the Franco-Prussian War People from Libourne Politicians from Nouvelle-Aquitaine Moderate Republicans (France) Members of the 1848 Constituent Assembly Executed French people Executed military leaders Burials at Père Lachaise Cemetery

Early military and political career

Return to the National Guard

Execution

Legacy

See also

References

Other Sources