Please note that the content of this book primarily consists of articles available from Wikipedia or other free sources online. Pages: 29. Chapters: French military personnel of the Sino-French War, Amedee Courbet, Liu Yongfu, Louis Briere de l'Isle, Li Hongzhang, Gustave Borgnis-Desbordes, Jules Ferry, Oscar de Negrier, Henri Riviere, Sebastien Lespes, Joseph Joffre, Tang Ching-sung, Zeng Jize, Zhang Peilun, Jacques Duchesne, Augustin Boue de Lapeyrere, Feng Zicai. Excerpt: Anatole-Amedee-Prosper Courbet (26 June 1827, Abbeville, Somme - 11 June 1885) was a French admiral who won a series of important land and naval victories during the Tonkin campaign (1883-86) and the Sino-French War (August 1884-April 1885). Courbet was born in Abbeville in 1828 as the youngest of three children. His father died when he was nine years old. He was a Polytechnician. From 1849 to 1853 Courbet served as a midshipman (aspirant) on the corvette Capricieuse (capitaine de vaisseau Roquemaurel). Capricieuse circumnavigated the globe during this period and cruised for several months along the China Coast, giving Courbet his first experience of the seas in which, thirty years later, he would win fame. After his return to France he was posted to the brick Olivier, attached to the Levant naval division. In December 1855, at Smyrna, he intervened to quell a mutiny aboard the Messageries imperiales packet Tancrede, and was subsequently commended for his conduct by the navy ministry. He was promoted to the rank of lieutenant de vaisseau in November 1856. From 1864 to 1866 Courbet served on the two-deck broadside ironclad battleship Solferino as aide de camp and secretary to Admiral Bouet-Willaumez, commander of the escadre d'evolutions. He was promoted capitaine de fregate in August 1866 and posted to the ironclad frigate Savoie as chief of staff to Admiral de Dompierre d'Hornoy, commander of the North Sea and English Channel naval division. In March 1870 he was posted to the Antilles naval...