1895
January 5 : The degradation takes place in public
in the courtyard of the Ecole Militaire. A warrant-officer strips him of his
badges and buttons, then draws Dreyfus' sword from its scabbard and snaps it
across his knee. During the ordeal, sincere patriots along with an anti-Semitic
mob unleash shouts of anger at "the traitor," who continues to maintain that
they are punishing the wrong man.
Many newspapers echo Dreyfus' alleged confession to Captain Lebrun-Renaud.
January 17 : President of the Republic Félix Faure succeeds President Jean Casimir-Périer who has resigned over a minor political dispute .
New Cabinet, with Prime Minister Alexandre Ribot. Ludovic Trarieux, Justice Minister.
February 22 : Dreyfus begins his journey to the penitentiary in French Guyana.
March 12 : Dreyfus arrives in French Guyana.
April 13 : Dreyfus is transferred to Devil's Island, where he will be placed in solitary confinement.
July 1 : After a long illness, Colonel Sandherr dies. A new Chief of Intelligence Services, Lieutenant-Colonel Georges Picquart, another Alsatian like Dreyfus, is chosen among the General staff officers, bypassing Major Henry.
October 28 : New Cabinet, with Prime Minister Léon Bourgeois.
1896
March Another intercepted express letter --"le petit bleu"-- which this time bears Major Esterhazy's signature-- is intercepted.
April 29 : New Cabinet, with Prime Minister Jules Méline. General Billot is Minister of War.
July, 30 : Opening the Dreyfus file to check similarities between the "petit bleu" and the leaked documents from 1894, Picquart gradually realizes that all the evidence brought against Dreyfus, notably the "bordereau," which he can compare with the "petit bleu," is actually the work of Esterhazy.
August 5 : Picquart informs the Chief of the General Staff, General de Boisdeffre, of his suspicions about Esterhazy as the actual spy.
September 3 : Efforts by Picquart to convince the Deputy Chief of the General Staff, General Gonse, of Dreyfus' innocence again prove unsuccessful. He is now considered as a whistle-blower who could bring embarrassment to the General Staff if he keeps insisting in reopening Dreyfus' earlier investigation.
English newspapers are circulating the false news of Dreyfus' escape from Devil's island.
Immediate measures are taken to prevent any future attempts. At night, Dreyfus is kept in irons.
September 14 : Tipped by a leak from Headquarters, an article in L'Eclair mentions for the first time the incriminating secret file communicated to the judges alone during the trial of December 1894. In trying to definitely prove Dreyfus' treason, the paper even quotes -wrongly, but conveniently- the letter mentioning "this scoundrel of D..." now transformed into "this scoundrel of Dreyfus".
September 18 : Citing the revelation of a secret file as new evidence for a mistrial, Lucie Dreyfus petitions the Chamber of Deputies in the name of her husband.
Henry starts tampering with documents in order to incriminate Dreyfus and discredit Picquart later.
October 27 : General de Boisdeffre and General Gonse transfer Picquart from his position and send him to a mission far removed from Paris.
October 31 : With Picquart now out of the way, Major Henry conveniently produces new evidence: a letter allegedly from the Italian Embassy to the German Attaché specifically naming Dreyfus as their contact. This document, fabricated by master-forger Lemercier-Picard -an agent of Henry-, will be later known as "le faux Henry."
November 6 : The wife and the brother of the convicted officer, Lucie and Mathieu Dreyfus, continue to fight untiringly in the hope of a fairer trial. Inspired by their efforts, the writer Bernard-Lazare publishes his brochure Une Erreur judiciaire [A Judicial Error: The Truth on the Dreyfus Affair ] in Brussels, marking the point of departure for a retrial.
November 10 : Thanks to another leak from Headquarters, Le Matin boastingly publishes the copy of the first incriminating document of 1894, the "bordereau," as evidence of Dreyfus' treason.
December General Gonse sends trouble-maker Picquart to a dangerous mission in Tunisia where rebels are rising up against French colonial rule.
Many newspapers echo Dreyfus' alleged confession to Captain Lebrun-Renaud.
January 17 : President of the Republic Félix Faure succeeds President Jean Casimir-Périer who has resigned over a minor political dispute .
New Cabinet, with Prime Minister Alexandre Ribot. Ludovic Trarieux, Justice Minister.
February 22 : Dreyfus begins his journey to the penitentiary in French Guyana.
March 12 : Dreyfus arrives in French Guyana.
April 13 : Dreyfus is transferred to Devil's Island, where he will be placed in solitary confinement.
July 1 : After a long illness, Colonel Sandherr dies. A new Chief of Intelligence Services, Lieutenant-Colonel Georges Picquart, another Alsatian like Dreyfus, is chosen among the General staff officers, bypassing Major Henry.
October 28 : New Cabinet, with Prime Minister Léon Bourgeois.
1896
March Another intercepted express letter --"le petit bleu"-- which this time bears Major Esterhazy's signature-- is intercepted.
April 29 : New Cabinet, with Prime Minister Jules Méline. General Billot is Minister of War.
July, 30 : Opening the Dreyfus file to check similarities between the "petit bleu" and the leaked documents from 1894, Picquart gradually realizes that all the evidence brought against Dreyfus, notably the "bordereau," which he can compare with the "petit bleu," is actually the work of Esterhazy.
August 5 : Picquart informs the Chief of the General Staff, General de Boisdeffre, of his suspicions about Esterhazy as the actual spy.
September 3 : Efforts by Picquart to convince the Deputy Chief of the General Staff, General Gonse, of Dreyfus' innocence again prove unsuccessful. He is now considered as a whistle-blower who could bring embarrassment to the General Staff if he keeps insisting in reopening Dreyfus' earlier investigation.
English newspapers are circulating the false news of Dreyfus' escape from Devil's island.
Immediate measures are taken to prevent any future attempts. At night, Dreyfus is kept in irons.
September 14 : Tipped by a leak from Headquarters, an article in L'Eclair mentions for the first time the incriminating secret file communicated to the judges alone during the trial of December 1894. In trying to definitely prove Dreyfus' treason, the paper even quotes -wrongly, but conveniently- the letter mentioning "this scoundrel of D..." now transformed into "this scoundrel of Dreyfus".
September 18 : Citing the revelation of a secret file as new evidence for a mistrial, Lucie Dreyfus petitions the Chamber of Deputies in the name of her husband.
Henry starts tampering with documents in order to incriminate Dreyfus and discredit Picquart later.
October 27 : General de Boisdeffre and General Gonse transfer Picquart from his position and send him to a mission far removed from Paris.
October 31 : With Picquart now out of the way, Major Henry conveniently produces new evidence: a letter allegedly from the Italian Embassy to the German Attaché specifically naming Dreyfus as their contact. This document, fabricated by master-forger Lemercier-Picard -an agent of Henry-, will be later known as "le faux Henry."
November 6 : The wife and the brother of the convicted officer, Lucie and Mathieu Dreyfus, continue to fight untiringly in the hope of a fairer trial. Inspired by their efforts, the writer Bernard-Lazare publishes his brochure Une Erreur judiciaire [A Judicial Error: The Truth on the Dreyfus Affair ] in Brussels, marking the point of departure for a retrial.
November 10 : Thanks to another leak from Headquarters, Le Matin boastingly publishes the copy of the first incriminating document of 1894, the "bordereau," as evidence of Dreyfus' treason.
December General Gonse sends trouble-maker Picquart to a dangerous mission in Tunisia where rebels are rising up against French colonial rule.
