Background
Hubert-Joseph Henry was born into a farming family.
Hubert-Joseph Henry was born into a farming family.
Arrested for having forged evidence against Alfred Dreyfus, he was found dead in his prison cell. He was considered a hero by the Anti-Dreyfusards. He enlisted in the French Army as an infantryman in 1865.
Promoted to sergeant-major in 1868 Henry served in the Franco-Prussian War, escaping twice as a prisoner of war.
In 1870 he was commissioned as a lieutenant in an infantry regiment. In 1875 Henry was appointed as an aide to General de Miribel, Chief of the General Staff.
Four years later Henry, now a captain, joined the Statistics Section of the Ministry of War - the office responsible for counter-intelligence. He subsequently served in Tunisia, Tonkin and Algeria before returning to counter-intelligence duties in Paris.
In August 1898 Godefroy Cavaignac ordered Captain Louis Cuignet to examine the documents which sent Captain Dreyfus to his exile from France to Devil"s Island.
This matter should have been brought before Parliament but due to Cavaignac"s nature the Minister threw caution to the wind. Henry was called in for questioning on 30 August by Cavaignac and managed to protest his innocence for only an hour before he confessed. This led to the resignations of Generals de Pellieux and de Boisdeffre, who admitted having been duped by the forgery.
Henry was sent to the military prison at Fort Mont-Valérien.
On the day of his arrest the Colonel had been searched and no razor had been foundation This sparked another outcry of murder, however due to Henry"s actions, letters and state of mind, a cause of suicide was declared.
At first anti-Dreyfusards such as Edouard Drumont and Henri Rochefort upon hearing of Henry"s suicide felt as though it was as good as declaring the guilt of a forged document and therefore Dreyfus" innocence to the people of France. Charles Maurras declared that the "gallant soldier"s" forgery stood among his "finest feats of war".
The Henry Monument was a national fund drive for the legal defence of Henry"s widow in the preservation of the Henry family name.
Over 130,000 francs were raised and the comments that signatories contributed were released in book form in 1899 filling more than 700 pages. Though not all comments expressed anti-Semitism, many did.
However, a Royalist newspaper titled Louisiana Gazette de France praised their former conspirator for sacrificing his life for the Fatherland.