He was cited at the combats of Ponts in 1835, Lamanère in 1836, Huesca in 1837 and the battle of Barbastro in 1837, where he dragged out the body of general Conrad from the hands of the enemy, despite a bullet wound to the right leg.

He led a daring landing and seized the naval fortress with a frontal assault, an action for which he received particular praise: "General Bazaine who commands that portion of the French Army now operating at the mouth of the Dnieper may be cited as presenting one of the most brilliant examples of the achievement of military distinction in the modern day".

Bazaine's African experience as a soldier and as an administrator stood him in good stead in dealing with the guerrilleros of the Juárez party, but he was less successful in his relations with Maximilian, with whose court the French headquarters was in constant strife.

On 28 May 1865, while still in Mexico, Bazaine got engaged and married to Maria-Josefa Pedraza de la Peña y Barragán, who was described as belonging to "a respectable Mexican family, well connected with the Spanish aristocracy and had numerous friends in high places" by the media at the time.

[7] In a contrary New York Times opinion piece:- Marshal Bazaine has long rested under a cloud in his country on account of his connection with the invasion of Mexico by Maximillian, and, feeling as Americans did and still do about this enterprise of Emperor Napoleon, it is difficult to form an unprejudiced estimate of the character of the man who took so prominent a part in that fortunately unsuccessful effort to established an empire on our Southern border.

On 12 August 1870, during the war, Bazaine was nominated as the commander-in-chief of the Army of the Rhine, which was forced to deploy towards Châlons-sur-Marne to rejoin reserves in order to face the German troops.

Directing the only truly organized armed force of France at that moment, he seemed to consider it mainly as a political tool and contemplated the various intrigues, notably with the Empress, probably to restore the Empire torn since 4 September.

Add to this dark painting more 20,000 sick or wounded to the point of absence of medicines and a torrential rain since 15 days now, flooding the camps and not allowing the men to rest because their small tents were the only shelter they had".

Léon Gambetta, gone to Tours in the hope to assemble a Liberation army, understood that his initiative was unworkable and accordingly launched a proclamation where he explicitly accused Bazaine of treason in his speech: "Metz was capitulated.

He has made himself the agent of Sedan, the partner in crime with the invader, and, in the middle of the army which had the guard of, he simply delivered it, without even attempting a supreme effort, 120,000 combatants, 20,000 wounded, guns, cannons, the flags and the strongest citadels of France, Metz, virgin, to him, of foreign defilements".

The day after assuming command of the Army, on 14 August at Borny he was badly wounded by a shell on the left shoulder, a fact which was to be excluded from his service roll presented at his Court Martial in 1873.

[9] Remaining in Metz was based on the knowledge that if the slow-moving French army ventured far out it would infallibly be headed off and brought to battle in the open by a superior numbered adversary.

9, led by Rittmeister Oskar von Blumenthal, discovered that Marshal François Bazaine's 160,000-man Army of the Rhine was attempting to escape from Metz to join with French forces at Verdun.

The French could have swept away the key Prussian defense and escaped, however, Bazaine had no confidence in his generals or his troops, and contented himself with inflicting severe losses on the most aggressive portions of the German army.

[11] Citing the need to acquire more ammunition and the distance from the supply trains, Bazaine issued an order on the night of 16–17 August for his army to fall back closer to Metz.

[14] Two days later, while the French actually retreated on Metz (taking seven hours to cover 5 to 6 miles) the masses of the Germans gathered in front of Bazaine's Army at Gravelotte, intercepting his communication with the interior of France.

When on 2 September 1870, MacMahon blundered into a German trap at Sedan, the Emperor mounted a horse despite his pain, rode along the firing line for hours seeking death.

The purport of these negotiations still remain to some extent obscure, but it is beyond question that he proposed with the permission of the Prussians to employ his army in "saving France from herself", perhaps to ignite a revolution against the government of the Third Republic.

Bazaine's awareness of his army's shortcomings against the well-known speed and menacing efficiency of the Prussian military machine, was evidenced in his remark to a friend whilst boarding the train from Paris to Metz: "Nous marchons à un désastre."

"[10] From Bazaine's military analysis of various lessons of the war, e.g. Waterloo, i.e. that a line of resolute men on the defensive could again and again break an enemy attack; Mexico, i.e. Lee's dashing Confederates lose a war despite their commander's brilliance in attack; Africa, i.e. that dramatic sorties were invaluable in North Africa but risky against European armies; and the Prussian all-steel Krupp breech-loading gun which shaped the future of battlefield artillery, resulted on him concluding that the best approach for France is not an offensive one, stating "It is better to conduct operations systematically, i.e., defensively, as in the Seventeenth Century.

The royalists and the republicans held their bouc émissaire in order to lay all the responsibilities of a defeat on a Bonapartist and justify the proclamation of the French Republic of 4 September 1870, and attempting to show the incapacity of the Emperor, through his subordinate.

The Duke of Aumale, President, condemned him to death with military degradation for having capitulated in an open campaign, collaborated with the enemy, and surrendered Metz before having exhausted all available means of defense.

One New York Times commentary piece wrote:- "There was nothing shown in the trial at Versailles to prove to unprejudiced observers that Bazaine was a traitor, or that he had done all in his power to extricate his army from the perilous position in which it had been placed.

Another, contrary New York Times commentary piece wrote:- The proofs alleged against him make it clear that he thought not of defeating or escaping from the enemy, but solely of becoming the arbiter of the fortunes of France.

During the night of 9–10 August 1874, at the instigation of his wife (Pepita) and assistance,[6] who was only twenty-six in 1873, and with the help of ex-Captain Doineau of the Arab Bureaux, his aide de camp lieutenant-colonel Henri-Léon Willette, Bazaine escaped after two hundred and twenty-one days of imprisonment.

Admiral Jaures (French Ambassador in Madrid) had made it a rule to leave every ball, fete, or drawing room where he met Bazaine, on several instances naming the Court-Martial as the reason.

[23] Bazaine was initially married to Maria Juaria Gregorio Tormo de la Soledad, on 12 June 1852, during his commandment of the Sidi Bel Abbès (Algeria) subdivision of the 1er R.E.L.E.

In commenting on the application the Correspodencia Militar, the organ of the Spanish War Office, said:- "Many persons believe that the unfortunate Marshal was the victim of a fatality or a mistake of judgment, and many articles and books have been printed in his defense, and now, at length, a worthy Spanish officer, son of Marshal Bazaine, has addressed to the Minister of Justice of the French Republic a request, based on the terms of the law of 1895, for the revision of judgment of the court-martial of Trianon which convicted his late father.

This book also recorded his defence against the 1873 accusation of treason, it was not directed to a vindication of Bazaine's conduct during the Franco-German War, but instead a sort of history of that disastrous campaign, with a considerable portion of the book devoted to setting forth how the catastrophes of 1870 might have been prevented, or at least diminished, providing facsimiles of official documents, dispatches, and letters, including a report addressed by the Emperor Napoleon in captivity at Wilhelmshohe and a communication to Empress Engénie during the events of Metz, and maps to elucidate the campaign.

Clamence in Albert Camus's novella "The Fall" refers to family and connections as 'Bazaines' His actions during the French interdiction in Mexico are recorded in Norman Zollinger's novel "Chapultepec."