Charles Ferdinand Latrille, Comte de Lorencez (23 May 1814 –16 July 1892) was a French Army general under Napoleon III during the 19th century. He was a relative of the Empress Carlota of Mexico, who was the only daughter of King Leopold I, King of the Belgians and wife of Maximilian I of Mexico. He was most notable for losing the Battle of Puebla in the early stages of the Second French intervention in Mexico (ultimately culminating in the Second Mexican Empire) although he would continue to have military command during France's war with Prussia. Early career Lorencez was born in Paris to a minor noble family. His parents were Caroline Nicolette Oudinot de Reggio and Guillaume Latrille de Lorencez, a veteran of the French Revolutionary wars and the Napoleonic Wars, making the young Lorencez the grandson of Marshal Oudinot. He studied at the military academy of Saint-Cyr, one of France’s most prestigious military schools, from 1830 to 1832, graduating as a third sous-lieutenant at age 18. He later became a captain in 1840 before he served first in Algeria in charge of the 3e chasseurs à pied, specialized light infantry sent to handle skirmishes in the country's rough terrain. In 1845, his men were put under the command of lieutenant-colonel Aimable Pélissier, a future marshal who operated at the time in the west of the town of Dahra controversially helping to kill Algerian combatants and civilians in the Dahra caves creating a scandal in France. Lorencez was then wounded and mentioned in several dispatches being distinguished notably at the Siege of Zaatcha in 1849 serving under colonel Canrobert, another future French marshal, commanding the 1er battalion of Zouaves helping the decisive end of the bloody siege. He was then promoted to Lieutenant-Colonel commanding the 7e de Ligne at age 35. On his return to France, Lorencez was promoted to the rank of colonel of the 49e de ligne in 1852, the year that Napoleon III seized power and proclaimed himself emperor of the Second French Empire, but Lorencez would be a staunch Bonapartist for most of his career. In 1855, at the Battle of Malakoff during the Crimean War, he commanded a brigade in 5th division of 2nd corps where they were pushed back in ferocious fighting against the Russians at the Bastion du Mat. However, the French managed to take Malakoff leading to the fall of Sevastopol and