Lorencez, Charles Ferdinand Latrille, comte de, 1814-1892.

French general. Born May 23, 1814, in Paris, France; died 1892 in Loos, Basses Pyrénées, France. Son of General Guillaume Latrille. Charles Ferdinand Latrille, Comte de Lorencez, graduated from the Académie Militaire de Saint Cyr and later took part in the Crimean War (1853-1856), obtaining the rank of Brigadier General in 1855. In 1862, Lorencez replaced Admiral Jean Pierre Edmond Jurien de la Gravière as commander of the French army in Mexico, landing at Veracruz with six thousand troops on March 6. In April, the forces of Lorencez and Juan N. Almonte marched on Puebla, attacking it on May 5, 1862. Lorencez's decision to obey French rules of war caused his forces to suffer great losses, and they retreated to Orizaba. Replaced by General Elias Frédéric Forey in late September, 1862, Lorencez returned to France in November. He later took part in the Franco-Prussian War (1870-1871) and was captured in Metz on October 27, 1870. After being held in Germany as a prisoner of war, Lorencez returned to France in 1872; he died twenty years later in Loos.