Lt Gen Alfred van der Smissen 2nd Baron van der Smissen
Birth name	Alfred-Louis-Adolphe-Graves van der Smissen
Born	1 February 1823 Brussels
Died	16 June 1895 Brussels
Allegiance	Belgium, France
Rank	Lieutenant general
Battles/wars	French conquest of Algeria, Second Franco-Mexican War
Relations	Thomas Graves, 1st Baron Graves, his great-uncle

Map of Mexico by van der Smissen in his book Souvenirs du Mexique, 1864-1867.^[1]

Death announcement of Alfred van der Smissen.

Alfred van der Smissen, 2nd Baron van der Smissen (1 February 1823 - 16 June 16 1895) was a Belgian general.^[2]

Biography

He started his career in the French Foreign Legion^[3] before serving in the Belgian Legion in the Second Franco-Mexican War.^[4]

Family

Alfred van der Smissen is the second son of Jacques Van der Smissen, 1st Baron van der Smissen [fr], a Belgian artillery officer who enlisted in 1807 in Napoleon's Grande Armée, where he obtained the rank of major. His mother was Louise Catherine Colleton Graves, daughter of Rear Admiral Richard Graves (1758-1836) and niece of Thomas Graves, 1st Baron Graves, who took part in the landing of the French expeditionary force of Jean-Baptiste-Donatien de Vimeur de Rochambeau near Yorktown.^[5][6]

Honours and arms

• Grand Officer of the Order of Leopold

• Commander of the Legion of Honour

• Order of the Lion and the Sun First Class

• Order of the Medjidie Third Class

• Military Cross

• Order of Saint Anna, 1st class with diamonds

• Grand Cross of the Order of the Red Eagle

• Grand Cross of the Order of Charles III

• Cross of Honour 1st Class of the Princely House Order of Hohenzollern

• Order of Guadalupe

• Grand Cross of the Order of Aviz

• Order of the Gold Lion of the House of Nassau

• Imperial Order of the Mexican Eagle

• Commemorative medal of the Mexico Expedition

• Knight of the Order of Leopold (Austria)

• 2nd Class Order of the Crown (Prussia)

Coat of arms of Coat of arms of the van der Smissen family

Description Vert, a castle open argent and masoned sable, each tower surmounted by a hand-grenade sable fired or, in each bottom canton a pile of six roundels sable. Coronet A Belgian Baron's Coronet Motto Vestigia nulla retrorsum.

Bibliography

• André Vander Mensbrugghe, « Alfred-Louis-Adolphe Vander Smissen », dans : Biographie nationale de Belgique, tome 22.
• Jacqueline Hons, « La légion belge au Mexique  », Ami, n^o 26, novembre 1981.
• Eric Taladoire, Les contre-guérillas françaises dans les terres chaudes du Mexique (1862-1867), l’Harmattan 2016
• Charles Daubige, Les vestes rouges au Tamaulipas, 1876
• Modeste Loiseau, Le Mexique et la légion belge (1864-1867), Bruxelles : J. De Cocq, 1870
• Emile Walton, Souvenirs d’un officier belge au Mexique (1864-1866), Ch. Tanera Éditeur, Paris, 1868, p. 172

References