Melchior Joseph Eugène Daumas (4 October 1803 in Delémont, Switzerland – May 1871 in Camblanes), was a French general and writer.

Under the orders of Marshal Bertrand Clausel, Daumas took part in the campaigns in of Mascara and Tlemcen.

[1] General Christophe Juchault de Lamoricière, upon becoming commander-in-chief of the restive colony for a short period, created the affaires arabes, the Arab affairs department, and put Daumas in charge of the province of Oran.

When Thomas Robert Bugeaud became governor general of Algeria in 1840, he reinstated the bureaux arabes, the main instrument to administer cooperative tribes during the insurgency, on 17 August 1841.

The same day Daumas was named the head of the colony's entire Arab affairs program.