León Gambetta. One of the first members of the new Government of National Defense during the Franco-Prussian War; appointed Minister of the Interior, he ran the government from Tours after leaving a besieged Paris in a gas balloon to organize resistance in Tours, where he also took control of the Ministry of War. Letter headed Ministére de lIntérieur/Cabinet du Ministre, dated on December 5th, 1870 at Tours, one day after the French lost the crucial Second Battle of Orleans, which divided the French Army and caused the Government to be transferred to Bordeaux. Contents concerning the appointment of the sender as médecin en chef, with interesting extracts: Je vous remercie de tout mon coeur au nom de la Patrie et de la République. Signed León Gambetta. Very good.
