François Achille Bazaine was an officer of the French army. Rising from the ranks, during four decades of distinguished service under Louis-Philippe and then Napoleon III, he held every rank in the army from Fusilier to Marshal of France. He became renowned for his determination to lead from the front, for his impassive bearing under fire and for personal bravery verging on the foolhardy, which resulted in him being wounded on numerous occasions and having his horse shot from under him twice. From 1863 he was a Marshal of France, and it was in this role that he surrendered the last organized French army to Prussia during the Franco-Prussian war, during the siege of Metz.