Republican general who commanded the National Guard against the June rising of 1848 and was shot at Montmartre on 18 March 1871
Born at Libourne in 1809, he joined the army as a volunteer at twenty. A republican non-commissioned officer, he was implicated in plots under the July Monarchy, escaped from Sainte-Pélagie prison and fled to England; back under the amnesty of 1837, he worked for Le National. Elected to the Constituent Assembly for the Gironde in 1848, he commanded the National Guard of the Seine in the June Days and harshly repressed the workers of the National Workshops. He opposed the coup of 1851 and went into exile in Belgium and Luxembourg. In 1870 the Government of National Defence made him commander-in-chief of the National Guard during the siege; after the Buzenval sortie of January 1871 he resigned in February. On 18 March, reconnoitring the barricades of Montmartre in civilian clothes, he was seized by the crowd and shot after General Lecomte.
Also known as: Jacques Léon Clément-Thomas
Activities and affiliations
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1848–1849
Legislature and state representation
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1848–1871
France state institutionsCommander of the National Guard of the SeineMain
Military command
Career Timeline
- 1834Arrested over the Lunéville plot; escaped to England
- 1848Deputy for the Gironde; repressed the June Days
- 1851Opposed the coup; exile in Belgium and Luxembourg
- 1870–1871Commander-in-chief of the National Guard of the Seine
- 1871Seized at Montmartre and shot