LORENCEZ, Charles Ferdinand Latrille, Count de (lo-ron-say), French soldier, born in Paris, 23 May, 1814. He entered the military school of Saint Cyr in 1830, and was graduated two years later as 3d lieutenant. He served in Algiers, had become a colonel in 1852, and won the commission of major-general in 1855, during the Crimean war, at the capture of the Malakoff. In January, 1862, he was sent to Mexico with re-enforcements for the expedition that had landed there in December, 1861. He arrived at Vera Cruz on 5 March, and was made lieutenant-general on the 20th. He left the camp of Chiquihuite on 19 April, and on the following morning entered Orizaba, having defeated the Mexican forces in a cavalry engagement. On the 23d he was joined by the Mexican General Galvez with a strong force "of volunteers, and on the 27th assumed command of the French forces in Mexico. He defeated the patriots at Acultzingo on 28 April, entered Amozoc on 4 May, and on the following day attacked the fortified hills of Guadelupe and Loreto, opposite Puebla. Owing to the lack of proper artillery, he was unable to capture these posts, and retreated toward Orizaba. He passed the Cumbres heights on the 16th, and on the following morning was joined at Tecomolucan by the insurgent chief Marquez and 500 cavalry. Zaragoza was beaten after a sharp action at Acultzingo on 18 May, and on the 20th Lorencez arrived at Orizaba, which he fortified, as he had resolved to await the arrival of re-enforcements in that city. On 17 June he defeated Zaragoza again, but the French forces suffered heavily from yellow fever and want of provisions. When Napoleon III. sent a larger army to Mexico, he appointed Lorencez second in command under General Forey; but the former asked to be recalled, and left Vera Cruz on 17 December, 1862. General Lorencez would have been created a senator but for his opposition to the sending of re-enforcements to Mexico, urging the emperor to recall his troops, and predicting that the issue would be disastrous. He fought during the Franco-German war of 1870-'1, but a disease contracted in Mexico compelled him to retire from active service in 1872. He has since been occupied with a history of the French expedition to Mexico.