1852. January 12. Joseph Jacques Cesaire Joffre born. 1867. Entered preparatory military school, Paris. 1869. Entered Polytechnic Academy. 1870. Volunteered in army to defend Paris against Prussians. 1870. Commissioned second-lieutenant. 1876. Commissioned captain for work on fortifications. 1884. Sent to Formosa to construct barracks and trenches. 1885. Decorated, Legion of Honor, Tonkin. 1891. Professor in military school, Fontainebleau. 1893. Sent to Madagascar on construction work. 1894. Headed expedition to Timbuctoo. 1901. Brigadier-general. 1911. Chief of general staff. 1914. Commander-in-chief, French army. 1916. Marshal of France. FOCH THE SCHOOLMASTER IN WAR To wait until one is sixty-three years old before even smelling powder--and then to find oneself in command of the greatest allied army that the world has ever seen--such is the remarkable story of the French General, Ferdinand Foch. His life, like that of more than one famous soldier is a bundle of paradoxes, or contradictions, but prove once again that "truth is stranger than fiction." Those of us who know and love Dumas's swashbuckling hero, D'Artagnan, will remember that he was a Gascon and always spoiling for a fight. Foch was another Gascon who passed threescore years of his life peacefully enough--but when he did get into the fight at last, it was a "corker"! The Gascony of France and Spain--for it is in the Pyrenees separating the two countries--has produced some famous men, other than Foch--and D'Artagnan. In the fighting days of the Republic and the First Empire, it gave to France Murat, Marbot, and Bessieres. From Gascony at a later day came "Papa" Joffre to do his sturdy bit in saving France. The ancestral home of the Foch family is on the Garonne River, among the foothills of the Pyrenees. Here the river is hardly more than a trout stream threading its way down the wooded slopes or murmuring through the valleys. It is just such a spot as any boy would like to call "home." The father of Ferdinand Foch had been born here during the days of the First Empire, when the fame of the Corsican was ringing around the world--and had consequently been christened Napoleon. He married the daughter of one of Bonaparte's officers, Colonel Dupre, and the family were naturally ardent loyalists. To Napoleon Foch and Sophie Dupre were born four children, a daughter and three sons, and the second son was christened Ferdinand. The father at this time had entered the French civil service, and in 1851, when Ferdinand was born, was at Tarbes in the Upper Pyrenees, as secretary of the prefecture.