Georges Picquart

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Marie Georges Picquart (Strasbourg September 6, 1854 – Amiens January 18, 1914), French general and Minister of War.

Major Picquart served as reporter of the debates in the first Dreyfus court martial for the minister of war and the chief of the staff, he was promoted to the rank of lieutenant-colonel on April 6, 1896. When he served as the chief of the army intelligence section (deuxième bureau, service de renseignement militaire) in 1896, he discovered that the memorandum (the bordereau) that had been used to convict Captain Alfred Dreyfus (see Dreyfus affair) had been the work of Major Ferdinand Walsin Esterhazy. Several high ranking generals warned colonel Picquart to conceal his discovery but Picquart persisted and continued his investigation but was hindered and sabotaged by ambitious underlings like major Henry. As a consequence he was relieved of duty and sent (December 1896) to regimental duty in Tunis. After the trial of Émile Zola, Picquart himself was accused of forging the note that had convinced him of Esterhazy's guilt. He was then arrested for forgery and was waiting for a court martial during the period the French Supreme Court was reviewing the Dreyfus case. After the (kangaroo court) second court-martial - held as a consequence of the conclusions of the Supreme Court - Picquart resigned from the army but the exoneration of Alfred Dreyfus in 1906 also absolved Picquart, who was promoted to brigadier-general and entered Georges Clemenceau's first cabinet as minister of war. He served in that function for the entire duration of the cabinet from 25 October 1906 to 24 July 1909. He died January 18, 1914 from wounds he received from falling off his horse.

Georges Picquart

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