Prince Camille Armand Jules Marie de Polignac (February 16, 1832 – November 15, 1913) was a French nobleman who served with the Confederates in the American Civil War, living on to become the last surviving Confederate major-general.
After service in the French army in the Crimea, Polignac was travelling in America at the outbreak of war, when he sided with the South. He distinguished himself as a brigadier in the Red River Campaign, notably at the Battle of Mansfield, after which he was promoted to the rank of divisional commander. Polignac was affectionately known by his troops, unable to decipher how to pronounce his name, as "Prince Polecat". which he apparently found amusing.
Returning to France, he commanded a division in the Franco-Prussian War, before devoting himself to the study of mathematics and music.
Contents
Early life and career
Polignac was born in Millemont, Seine-et-Oise, France, into one of the most prominent families of the French nobility. His paternal grandmother, Yolande de Polastron, had been a famous aristocratic beauty and Queen Marie-Antoinette's closest friend. His grandfather traced his male-line back to 1205, and was made a duke in 1780. His father, Jules de Polignac, was the absolutist chief minister of King Charles X of France who was rewarded for his services with the title of prince, which all of his legitimate male-line descendants enjoy (his first cousin twice removed, Prince Pierre de Polignac, Duke of Valentinois, would become prince consort to the heiress of the Grimaldi dynasty in 1920, and his descendants still rule the Principality of Monaco).