Canrobert, Marshal F. C. (1809-95). François Certain Canrobert made his name as a spectacularly brave infantry officer during the French conquest of Algeria. He commanded one of the first-formed chasseur battalions, and, as a general, supported Louis-Napoleon's 1851 coup (see Napoleon III). He resigned supreme command in the Crimea in 1855, pleading inability to work with his British allies (who nicknamed him ‘Robert Can't’), but showed his usual dash in Italy in 1859. In the Franco-Prussian war he commanded VI Corps, holding the ridge at Saint-Privat on 18 August 1870 with characteristic courage. After the war he sat as a Bonapartist senator. With his wispy hair, big moustaches, and eternal cigarette, he was the archetypal Second Empire beau sabreur, a gallant subordinate but unwilling to take high command.
— Richard Holmes
