Really amazing, something different!
Could be use for a famous and bad part of the French Army story :
Fachoda !
Capitaine Marchand, and the Congo-Nil mission
June 22, 1896, Capitaine Jean Baptiste Marchand was given command of an exploratory mission dubbed "Mission Congo-Nile". In the context of the Franco-British colonial rivalry in Africa, the role of the "Mission Merchant" is paramount. This is, by carrying the first of the Nile from the West African territories under French control, challenge British hegemony on the great river and implement south of Egypt a new French protectorate. For this expedition so hazardous to health perspectives and military, logistical or policy, Jean-Baptiste Marchand spares no detail. By exercising great authority and utmost care in the preparation, he surrounds himself with experienced officers, including a lieutenant (then Captain) Charles Mangin, the future General Mangin of the Great War.
July 10, 1898, column reaches Fashoda and immediately strengthens the defenses of the place. Things get complicated with the arrival of 19 September 1898 the forces of Lord Kitchener. It has won the victory of Omdurman and does not intend to contest the view of the Nile control, its delta to its sources. After some negotiations the British established a blockade around the place and the Fashoda crisis, local, quickly became international. Relations between France and the United Kingdom tend to a point which threatens the space of a moment, a war is possible. Jean-Baptiste Marchand (appointed battalion commander in the meantime, on October 1, 1898) has all the trouble to communicate with Paris. In January 1899, an agreement was finally reached between the two colonial powers. Mission Congo-Nile drains Fashoda on order. It served its purpose but could not stand up indefinitely to a much more powerful British army. To avoid national humiliation, the pretext government a bad health status of the troop Marchand, as the latter is ulcéré1,2.
July 6, 1899, the Merchant commander is assigned to the 4th Marine Infantry Regiment. It is now pledged a national popularity, which seemed to promise the finest military in the future. On 5 January 1900, he was promoted to lieutenant colonel, just fifteen months in battalion commander rank. The following September he left for China with the responsible French expeditionary force in an international force to oppose the Boxer Rebellion. There used until April 1902. Back in France, he was appointed colonel on 1 October 1902 and became head of the 8th Infantry Regiment Colonial. May 17, 1904, he resigned from the French army in particular following the case of the plugs. It is then commanding officer of the 4th R.I.C.
