Captain of military engineering in the army of Metz in 1870, he opposed the surrender of the city then surrounded, and presented in vain to Bazaine a report demonstrating the vulnerability of the Prussian army. He leaves the besieged city to join the government of National Defense in Tours, and proposes a maneuver allowing to distance the enemy far from his bases, this one was dismissed. Partisan of the war to the extreme, he offered his services to the Paris Commune on March 19, 1871 and was appointed