Men of the Time, eleventh edition/Borel, Jean Louis
BOREL, Jean Louis, a French general, born at Faujeaux (Ande), April 3, 1819, was selected by General MacMahon as his aide-de-camp soon after quitting the Staff College in 1840, and served for several years in the African wars, under the future Duke of Magenta. At the latter end of 1854 he went with his general to the camp of Boulogne, where MacMahon took the command of a division of infantry. In Aug. 1855, they both left for the Crimea, and M. Borel, then only a Staff captain, marched by the side of his general to the assault on the Malakhoff. Promoted to the rank of major after the brilliant engagement of the 8th of Sept., he made, in the capacity of aide-de-camp to MacMahon, the campaign against the Kabyles of Algeria in 1856, and that of Italy in 1859. In 1867 Colonel Borel parted company with the Duke of Magenta, to whom he had rendered great service on many occasions, and, going to Paris, was appointed Chief of Staff of the National Guards of the Seine under General Autemarre d'Erville. After the declaration of war against Germany he did not take apart in the earlier engagements between the German troops and the Army of the Rhine, but on the delegation of the Government of the National Defence leaving Paris for Tours, Colonel Borel was summoned to that city, and appointed Chief of Staff of the 15th Corps d'Armée, and promoted to the rank of Brigadier-General. When the Army of the Loire was definitely organised, he became General Chief of Staff, and to his exertions was, in a great measure, due the temporary success gained by the French near Orleans in Nov. 1870. A few weeks later he was created a General of Division. In Dec. 1877 he succeeded General Berthaut as Minister of War. In Sept. 1878, he was sent by the Government to inspect the new fortifications in the Vosges. His resignation of the Ministry of War was accepted Jan. 13, 1879, when he took the command of the Rouen Army Corps.