Paris Fr. BM.  Gustave Paul Cluseret (13 June 1823 – 22 August 1900) was a French soldier and politician who served as a general in the Union Army during the American Civil War, and Delegate for War during the Paris Commune.BiographyIn the French ArmyCluseret was born on 13 June 1823 in Suresnes, Hauts-de-Seine. In 1841 he entered the Saint-Cyr military academy, and was commissioned in the French Army in 1843. He was made captain of the 23rd Mobile Guard battalion following the February revolution of 1848, and participated in the suppression of the June Days Uprising which was to later earn him hostility in certain socialist quarters. His support for an anti-Bonapartist demonstration on 29 January 1849 saw him demoted from command of his battalion, and he fled to London after Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte's December 1851 coup.He was reinstated as a lieutenant in early 1853 and took part in several expeditions to Algeria. He served in the Crimean War, and was wounded during the siege of Sebastopol. It was at this time that he acquired the nickname of "Captain Tin Can", derived from his hoarding of canned meat and bread rations at the expense of his troops. He resigned from the army in July 1858.  In 1861 Cluseret returned to America to 'participate in the triumph of freedom'.[3] He served under Fremont and McClellan, and actively lobbied to secure his promotion to the rank of brigadier general.[4] Cluseret later served in under Robert H. Milroy, in the 2nd division of Robert C. Schenck's VIII Corps. Many national officers perceived him as a soldier of fortune. He received orders from Milroy to take his brigade through the Allegheny Mountains into the Shenandoah Valley, which he obliged. Cluseret entered the valley with his brigade and occupied the town of Strasburg at first, skirmishing with confederate troops and capturing some. Cluseret then marched northwards for the famous town of Winchester, which he occupied on the Christmas eve of 1862 with his force of 3,000 men. A few days after marching into Winchester, Cluseret's forces were harassed by confederate cavalry. Allegedly, his command was so chaotic and disorganized that Cluseret by accident ordered his troops to fire on his own cavalry, which killed one of their horses, causing consternation and a torrent of complaints by officers of his brigade to the division commander, General Milroy. Later on, several officers of Cluseret's brigade sent a formal petition to Milroy complaining of Cluseret's "tyrannical behavior" and rudeness, his lack of fluency in English and his European background which they viewed made it impossible for him to "understand the genius of our institutions" and (abridged) "inability of a commander of European conscripts to command American volunteer armies".Milroy arrived soon after to occupy the town. Milroy and Cluseret then frequently quarreled; Milroy was an unrestrained and radical abolitionist, and actively enforced the emancipation proclamation. His treatment of the pro-confederate civilian population was also harsh. Milroy's frequent arrests or exiles of women in particular outraged Cluseret greatly. Due to these disagreements Milroy pushed for Cluseret's dismissal, writing several letters to his superior Schenck to describe Cluseret's lack of rapport with his subordinates, his overbearing behavior to his men, but avoided mentioning Cluseret's lack of enthusiasm in enforcing the emancipation proclamation. Cluseret was finally forced to relinquish command in the second week of January 1863, but did not formally resign his commission until March of that year.[5]Following his resignation he co-founded the New York City-based newspaper New Nation with Fremont, which adopted a radical Republican perspective, criticising Lincoln's gradualist approach to the issue of slavery. After an acrimonious dispute between the two leading to a lawsuit, Cluseret had to pay Fremont a £1,148 fine, although he remained proprietor of the New Nation for a further year.[6]