User:Amvros/Alfred N. Duffié

Alfred N. Duffié (May 18, 1833 - November 8, 1880) was a French-American soldier and diplomat who served in the Crimean War and the American Civil War.

Duffié, born in Paris on May 18, 1833, enrolled in France's Imperial Cavalry in 1852. As a member of the 6th Dragoon regiment he served during the Crimean War, seeing action at the Battle of Balaclava and the Battle of Chernaya River. In 1859, Duffié was commissioned as a sub-lieutenant in the 3rd Hussar cavalry regiment. However, he soon resigned his commission and left France for the United States. For leaving the army before his resignation was accepted, Duffié was charged with desertion and sentenced in absentia to ten years of imprisonment. After coming to the United States he married into a prominent New York family, making his new home on Staten Island. When the American Civil War broke out, Duffié enlisted in the Union army, joining the 2nd New York Cavalry (also known as the Harris Light Cavalry) in early 1862. That July he was appointed to command of the 1st Rhode Island Cavalry, with the rank of colonel. Sent to the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia, the 1st Rhode Island saw action against Confederate troops under General Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson in August 1862, near Cedar Mountain. At the Battle of Kelly's Ford in March 1863, Duffié ordered a charge which forced the opposing cavalry into retreat.

When the Union cavalry was reorganized, Duffié was promoted to command of a division. He was less successful in this role. During the Battle of Brandy Station, Duffié's division lost its way and failed to reach the field in time. Shortly afterward, at Middleburg, Virginia, he was decisively defeated by Confederate cavalry under General J.E.B. Stuart. Though Duffié escaped (with only four officers and twenty-seven men), this was the end of his divisional command. In June 1863, he was promoted to the rank of Brigadier General. That fall, he was sent to West Virginia to raise and train cavalry units. He also took part in operations against Confederate guerrilla John S. Mosby, promising to capture the so-called "Gray Ghost" and bring him back to Washington. Instead, it was Duffié who was captured by Mosby's men in October of 1864. He was sent to prison camp, then paroled on February 22, 1865. Duffié was then ordered to Texas for a campaign against Confederates in that state, but that campaign ended before he could arrive. On August 24, 1865 he was mustered out of service.

Duffié was naturalized as a U.S. citizen in 1867. In 1869 he was appointed U.S. consul to Cadiz, Spain. It was there, on November 8, 1880, that he died from tuberculosis.