Driant, Lt Col E. A. C. (1855-1916), the first hero of Verdun. He wrecked a promising regular career by marrying the daughter of Gen Boulanger, unsteady populist war minister in the 1880s, and criticizing the keeping of dossiers on officers of clerical sympathies. Retiring as a captain, he was elected to the Chamber of Deputies, where he championed fortification of the frontier with Germany. As ‘Capitaine Danrit’ he wrote imaginative if Anglophobe books. Recalled in 1914, he commanded two chasseur battalions at Verdun while condemning, in parliament, lack of defensive preparations. When the attack came he held the Bois des Caures for a day, buying valuable time, but was killed during the withdrawal.
— Richard Holmes
