Alfred Dreyfus - Wikipedia

Thank you my friend Maj Marty Hogan for making us aware that October 9 is the anniversary of the birth of French Jewish artillery officer Alfred Dreyfus " whose trial and conviction in 1894 on charges of treason became one of the most tense political dramas in modern French history with a wide echo in all Europe."
"After more than four years in a Guyana prison colony, citizen Dreyfus, pardoned but not cleared, would fight for nearly seven years more to reclaim his honor and to be reintegrated into the ranks of his beloved Army. Between his arrest and his appointment as squadron leader under the terms of a law voted by the Chamber of Deputies on 13 July 1906, 4,276 days passed."
Called up at the beginning of World War I on 2 August 1914, [Alfred Dreyfus] wrote to his friend the marquise Arconati-Visconti: "And now take heart! Germany deserves a good clean-up." He served in the artillery staff office of the entrenched camp in Paris, and then in the artillery depot of the 168th division. Commander Dreyfus was promoted to lieutenant-colonel of the reserves in the fall of 1918, and was made an officer in the Legion of Honor by Clemenceau in July of 1919. Racist descriptions of his facial features faded away-his nose was described as long in 1882, and by 1894 it had become hooked. In his service records from 1906 and 1922, however, it became long again, and then average! A retired artillery officer "who had been kept from his path in life by a tragic error," Alfred Dreyfus died at his Paris home on 12 July 1935, "without ever having become embittered," according to his daughter Jeanne. He was buried at the Montparnasse Cemetery on Sunday, 14 July 1935.

Additionally, today is my birthday which I share with my darling wife.
Rest in peace Alfred Dreyfus!

Images: Alfred Dreyfus as a schoolboy; Dreyfus's cabin on Devil's Island; Commander Alfred Dreyfus on 21 July 1906; Alfred Dreyfus with his fellow officers during the First World War

Background from Dreyfus.culture.fr/en/dreyfus-and-his-family/the-itinerary-of-a-french-officer/an-alsatian-at-the-ecole-polytechnique.htm
"AN ALSATIAN AT THE ECOLE POLYTECHNIQUE
A serious student
Alfred Dreyfus was an unhappy boarder at the Sainte-Barbe and Chaptal secondary schools, and he ended up studying for his high school diploma (which he received in 1876) at the home of his sister Henriette. However, he proved to be talented. Later in life, a linguist praised his "amazingly clear, precise and grammatically correct language," but his results in the hard sciences gave him the chance to try for the Ecole Polytechnique. In the intensive pre-admission preparatory classes held at Saint-Barbe, he encountered 197 Catholic students, 24 Protestants and 2 Orthodox students, all hoping to obtain admission either to Saint-Cyr, the Ecole Centrale or the Ecole Polytechnique. His minority status would later deter him from joining the alumni association of "Barbistes," whose ranks included Generals de Boisdeffre, Chanoine and Zurlinden.

Among the nine Jewish students, only Camille Léon, the son of the Receiver General, was preparing for the Saint-Cyr entrance exam. The eight others, including four from Alsace and one from Lorraine, all had their sights set on the Ecole Polytechnique (or "X," as it is commonly referred to). With an average score that rose from 12.74 to 14.6 (out of 20) in his first year, Alfred Dreyfus had every hope of succeeding.
A hard-working Polytechnician
In the fall of 1878, Dreyfus was admitted on his first attempt. He was in 182nd place among the 236 accepted to this school that had been founded in 1794, and which had been given military status in 1804. With the ambitious motto of "For the Country, the sciences, and glory," "X" trained scientists such as the mathematician Henri Poincaré (class of 1873), but its main output was members of the military. The army was the main employer of Polytechnique graduates, many of whom entered the artillery, a learned branch which accommodated only 11% of the 28,000 active officers. Graduating 128th in his class, Alfred Dreyfus then spent two years in the Ecole Polytechnique's graduate school, the École d'Application in Fontainebleau, as a second lieutenant artillery student. Once again, he improved his graduation ranking, coming out 32nd out of 95; although there was "nothing specific to point out," his record noted that he "could make a good officer."
AN ARTILLERY OFFICER
A conscientious lieutenant
Dreyfus was assigned to the 31st artillery regiment in Le Mans on 1 October 1882. Although he left this post a year later, he distinguished himself by his enthusiastic service and his application during maneuvers. His biographer Vincent Duclert has pointed out that he was not served by his weak and monotonous voice, but that he imposed his authority "by the accuracy and intelligence of his orders." Assigned to the horse batteries of the 1st division of the independent cavalry in Paris, he showed himself to be enthusiastic and conscientious; in January 1886, his commanding officer described him as spirited, a bold horseman, educated and intelligent. The following year, the enthusiasm of the excellent battery lieutenant was noted, and in January of 1888, he was noted as the "best lieutenant in the battery group (…) served by an excellent memory and a very lively intelligence." His qualities as an instructor and as a leader propelled him to a higher rank.
A captain at thirty
On 12 September 1889, a few days before his thirtieth birthday, Alfred Dreyfus was promoted to captain of the 21st artillery regiment and was dispatched to Bourges as adjunct to the director of the Ecole Centrale de Pyrotechnie Militaire. He taught courses in mathematics and draftsmanship to the head pyrotechnicians, and he continued to assert that the army, as a school for duty and honor, should "be a highly moral school"; he liked to think that he was "ruthless towards those who serve poorly" and just with those who did well. He was bored at Bourges, and found that the manners there had retained "a quite rustic flavor." Although he shared his comrades' "dream of glory at the foot of a standard," Captain Dreyfus wanted to perfect his knowledge of tactics and topography, but as a modern officer, he knew that strategic preparation for the next conflict was essential. By sitting for the examination at the Ecole de Guerre, he positioned himself to make a personal contribution to this.
A PATRIOT AT THE ECOLE SUPERIEURE DE GUERRE
A lively spirit
On 20 April 1890, on the eve of his marriage, Alfred Dreyfus was accepted to the Ecole Supérieure de Guerre among 18 artillerymen and 55 infantry officers. Although he was 77th in a class of 81, he made rapid progress. He carried out various topographic and railway studies, and took part in the inspection of the forts along France's borders. Captain Dreyfus did not lose touch with his family, even though he did not always obtain the obligatory pass to travel to the annexed province of Alsace. Family money allowed him to have a certain number of servants, thanks to an annual income of some 40,000 francs. His assets and those of his wife made him a wealthy officer, but also an object of jealousy. The anti-Semitism of one of his assessors to ask the school's commanding officer whether "a Jewish officer was not capable of serving his country as well as another." Dreyfus knew that there were only 300 Jewish officers in the French army, but he believed the War Minister's speech to the deputies, after the death of Captain Mayer in a duel, in which he stated that to distinguish between religions in the army was "a crime against the nation."
A sound and very healthy sense of judgment
Captain Dreyfus was valued for his mastery of both military theory and administrative procedures, and was labeled "intelligent, hard-working and blessed with a prodigious memory." Nevertheless, the director of the school stated that his student did not have "any outstanding quality." On the other hand, the chief inspector noted in his personal file: "the marks of this officer do not speak of his sense of judgment, which seems to me to be sound and very healthy, which is not a quality that is shared by everyone." Later, Dreyfus recounted a conversation with Colonel Niox, who told him that the school had never differentiated between Jews and others, to which Dreyfus responded, "I had nothing but praise for all of the friendship and kindness that I was shown at the Ecole de Guerre." Despite having received-along with a fellow Jewish officer, a lieutenant-a very bad mark at the end of his second year (5 out of 20), Dreyfus's other grades allowed him to graduate ninth out of 81. This automatically assured him access to the general staff, like all his classmates who graduated in the top twelve.
THE CASHIERING OF A GENERAL STAFF OFFICER
Upsetting the established order
Dreyfus was appointed intern to the Army Staff Office on 1 January 1893, and thought that, in a democratic country like France, the doors to a smooth and brilliant career were opening to him. In a short time, however, he sensed a certain reticence of the part of certain heads of office, who were alumni of the Ecole d'Application d'Etat-Major and who ardently hoped for a situation that favored graduates of Saint-Cyr. Dreyfus spent six months in each of the four offices that made up the strategic services of the high command in peacetime. According to Vincent Duclert, his successive appointments included the first bureau for drawing up the order of battle of the armies, the fourth bureau for the railway service allowing for the concentration of troops, the second bureau for the study of German artillery, and finally the third bureau for "the signature of supply registers for covering troops." Although General Renouard noted that Captain Dreyfus, a very intelligent officer, had "everything one needs to succeed," his enthusiasm for learning, study and observation would be held against him when it came to making him out to be guilty and a traitor.
The torment of an innocent man
Dreyfus was arrested on 15 October 1894, and accused of being the author of a bordereau (a detailed list), which had been found in a wastebasket in the office of the military attaché at the German embassy. He was convicted of treason on 22 December 1894, and sentenced to permanent deportation to a fortress, and many regretted that "the rogue had not been shot." His sentence was confirmed on 31 December 1894 by the review board, and Alfred Dreyfus was cashiered on 5 January 1895. He experienced this "dismal ceremony" as a torment and an agony, and he tried in vain to convince the attendant crowd of his innocence.
In his Journal, Edmond de Goncourt noted "the opinions of journalists are those of boys climbing trees and [that it] is really quite difficult to establish the guilt or innocence of the accused by examining his bearing."
On 9 January, writing in the newspaper Gil Blas under the title "Crime and Punishment," the lawyer Ajalbert stated that no one looked guiltier than an innocent man who was exhausted. Dreyfus arrived in French Guyana on 12 March 1895, and was landed on Devil's Island on 13 April of the same year. The choice of this place made his sentence worse. One of his judges at the Court of Cassation, Alphonse Bard, wrote that the island transformed it into an "instrument of torture." He would stay there more than four years before returning to France, where he was convicted once again. Although he was rehabilitated and became officer Dreyfus once again.
THE PRISONER OF DEVIL'S ISLAND
The embodiment of a scoundrel
The Iles du Salut had been used as a penal colony during the Directorate and then under Napoleon III, and it was here, in compliance with a law passed on 9 February 1895, that Dreyfus would, in the words of the governor of Guyana, "atone for the crime that he had committed." Transported like a "low wretch,"he did not revolt, writing to his wife on 12 March, "It is only fair. No pity should be shown to a traitor; he is the lowest scoundrel, and inasmuch as I represent such a scoundrel, I can only approve."
Undeserved torment
As the first and only political deportee not to have been sent to New Caledonia (which had been the destination of the Communards
), he was imprisoned on Devil's Island, a former leper colony where a small stone hut had been built for him. On 3 September 1896, the false report of his escape mobilized the prison hierarchy; Dreyfus was subjected to "undeserved torment": each night from 6 September to 20 October, he was shackled to his bed by means of the barbarous double buckle
. Although he was transferred to a larger hut after 25 August 1897, a wooden fence that had been erected around his exercise area blocked any view of the island or the sea. Only letters from his family kept up his morale.
A model prisoner
He spent 1,517 days on Devil's Island, from 13 April 1895 to 9 June 1899. Finding it intolerable to have nothing to do, he read a great deal and wrote long letters to his wife. He regularly asked for justice. On 5 October 1895, he asked the president of the Republic for "full light to be thrown on this conspiracy of which my family and I are the unhappy and terrible victims." On 10 September 1896, he repeated his request to president Felix Faure for a search for the "true guilty party, the author of this abominable crime." Ignorant of the development of the Affair in France, he continued to be a model prisoner. On 26 January 1898, he explained to his wife, "I have accepted all, borne all, without a word. I am not boasting, I merely did my duty, and only my duty."
The language of Truth
Although he was subjected to a "process of terror" that cost between fifty and sixty thousand gold francs a year (according to Vincent Duclert, his biographer), and although he felt "nailed to the rack," Dreyfus resisted by keeping a journal, by drawing and by writing more than a thousand letters. On 26 December 1898, when there was hope that his name would be cleared, he wrote to his wife, "if I have undergone this, it is out of desire for my honor, my property, our children's heritage (…). When one has lived a life of duty, of complete honor, when one has known only a single language, that of the Truth, it is a source of strength, I assure you, and no matter how horrible fate may be, one must be noble-minded enough to overcome it and to make it bow down before you."
COMMANDER ALFRED DREYFUS
A reinstatement with limited effect
Eleven and a half years passed between Captain Dreyfus's demotion and his appointment as a squadron leader. After more than four years in a Guyana prison colony, citizen Dreyfus, pardoned but not cleared, would fight for nearly seven years more to reclaim his honor and to be reintegrated into the ranks of his beloved Army. Between his arrest and his appointment as squadron leader under the terms of a law voted by the Chamber of Deputies on 13 July 1906, 4,276 days passed. The years that Dreyfus spent in detention would not be counted, which dashed any hope that he would achieve the rank of general.
Dreyfus was appointed artillery commander for the district of Saint-Denis on 15 October 1906, and made several attempts to rectify this by approaching Council President Clemenceau and the War Minister General Picquart. However, both men-who had not admitted the real strategy of the presidential pardon-thought that they could not go back on a vote that was already several months old.
A career destroyed by "tragic error"
Having lost the hope that he would become a general, Alfred Dreyfus requested retirement on 26 June 1907. On 4 October 1907, "a victim to the end," Dreyfus noted that he drew comfort "in thinking that the iniquity that [he had] so intensely suffered will have served the cause of humanity and developed feelings of social solidarity." A decree on 25 October 1907 made him eligible for a pension: for 30 years, 10 months and 124 days of service, he was granted an annual sum of 2,350 francs.

Called up at the beginning of World War I on 2 August 1914, he wrote to his friend the marquise Arconati-Visconti: "And now take heart! Germany deserves a good clean-up." He served in the artillery staff office of the entrenched camp in Paris, and then in the artillery depot of the 168th division. Commander Dreyfus was promoted to lieutenant-colonel of the reserves in the fall of 1918, and was made an officer in the Legion of Honor by Clemenceau in July of 1919. Racist descriptions of his facial features faded away-his nose was described as long in 1882, and by 1894 it had become hooked. In his service records from 1906 and 1922, however, it became long again, and then average! A retired artillery officer "who had been kept from his path in life by a tragic error," Alfred Dreyfus died at his Paris home on 12 July 1935, "without ever having become embittered," according to his daughter Jeanne. He was buried at the Montparnasse Cemetery on Sunday, 14 July 1935.

Alfred Dreyfus Full video - The Best Documentary Ever!!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cgIUm2X6K1s

FYI COL Mikel J. Burroughs LTC Stephen C. LTC (Join to see) Lt Col John (Jack) Christensen Lt Col Charlie Brown Maj Bill Smith, Ph.D. Maj William W. "Bill" Price SCPO Morris Ramsey SGT Mark Halmrast Sgt Randy Wilber Sgt John H. SGT Gregory Lawritson CPL Dave Hoover SPC Margaret Higgins SSgt Brian Brakke 1stSgt Eugene Harless CPT Scott Sharon

Maj Marty Hogan I think I studied this in college. Too long ago. LOL

Seems they at that point didn't look very hard for the actual spy and picked a scapegoat based on nothing more than a strong prejudice on the part those in authority. It also seem when the actual spy was located and after He was tried they let Him escape. That was completely disgraceful what had happened to Alfred Dreyfus at the hands of the very Army He honorably served. Despite what was done to Him He still continued to love His Country and the Army. I feel those that railroaded this man on pure blatant discrimination and hatred should have been sent to prison themselves and paid for what they did to Alfred Dreyfus.