Jean-Baptiste Billot
Jean-Baptiste Billot was a French general and politician.Life
Jean-Baptiste Billot entered the École spéciale militaire de Saint-Cyr in 1847, and on leaving it in 1849 joined the staff with the rank of sous-lieutenant. His Republican convictions led to his voting no in the plebiscite of 1851 according full powers to Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte. Even so, he pursued a brilliant military career under the Second French Empire, promoted to lieutenant in 1852 then captain in 1854. He received the légion d'honneur in 1859. Billot participated in the Mexico expedition : commandant of the state of Chihuahua then of Querétaro with the rank of chef d'escadrons, the ministry of Charles Duclerc and that of Jules Méline. During his time as minister he saw the Dreyfus affair and in 1882 appointed Georges Ernest Boulanger director of infantry at the war office. He alternated military commands with political posts: vice-president of the Conseil supérieur de la Caisse des offrandes nationales and member of the Conseil supérieur for war from 1883 to 1896, commander of the 1st Army Corps from 1884 to 1888, then minister for war in the Méline government from 1896 to 1898. Grand-Cross of the Légion d'Honneur in 1896 and Médaille militaire in 1897, general Billot was also grand-cross of the order of Cambodia, then a French protectorate, in 1898 and of the order of the Crown of Romania.
He was implicated by Émile Zola of conspiracy to frame Alfred Dreyfus, a Jewish officer, for espionage in an 1898 open letter J'Accuse…!. In it Zola accuses General Billot of having held in his hands absolute proof of Dreyfus's innocence and covering it up. The case, known as the Dreyfus affair, captivated and divided France.
