Editing Alfred Dreyfus (section)

==Early career==
The childhood experience of seeing his family uprooted by [[Franco-Prussian War|the war with Germany]] prompted Dreyfus to decide on a career in the military. Following his 18th birthday in October 1877, he enrolled in the elite {{lang|fr|[[École Polytechnique]]|italic=no}} military school in [[Paris]], where he received military training and an education in the sciences. In 1880, he graduated and was commissioned as a sub-lieutenant in the French army. From 1880 to 1882, he attended the artillery school at [[Fontainebleau]] to receive more specialized training as an [[artillery]] officer. On graduation, he was assigned to the 31st Artillery Regiment, which was in the garrison at Le Mans. Dreyfus was subsequently transferred to a mounted artillery battery attached to the First Cavalry Division (Paris), and promoted to lieutenant in 1885. In 1889, he was made adjutant to the director of the Établissement de Bourges, a government arsenal, and promoted to captain.<ref name="YuMuseum"/>

On 18 April 1891, the 31-year-old Dreyfus married 20-year-old [[Lucie Dreyfus|Lucie Eugénie Hadamard]] (1870–1945). They had two children, Pierre (1891–1946) and Jeanne (1893–1981).<ref name="YuMuseum">{{cite web|url=http://www.yumuseum.org/dreyfus3.html|title=Alfred Dreyfus|website=YuMuseum.org|publisher=[[Yeshiva University Museum]]|url-status=dead|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20110721033354/http://www.yumuseum.org/dreyfus3.html|archivedate=July 21, 2011|date=|access-date=February 13, 2023}}</ref> Three days after the wedding, Dreyfus learned that he had been admitted to the [[École Supérieure de Guerre]] or War College. Two years later, he graduated ninth in his class with honourable mention and was immediately designated as a trainee in the French Army's General Staff headquarters, where he would be the only Jewish officer. His father Raphaël died on 13 December 1893.

At the War College examination in 1892, his friends had expected him to do well. However, one of the members of the panel, General Bonnefond, felt that "Jews were not desired" on the staff, and gave Dreyfus poor marks for ''cote d'amour'' (''French slang: attraction''; translatable as ''likability''). Bonnefond's assessment lowered Dreyfus' overall grade; he did the same to another Jewish candidate, Lieutenant Picard. Learning of this injustice, the two officers lodged a protest with the director of the school, General Lebelin de Dionne, who expressed his regret for what had occurred, but said he was powerless to take any steps in the matter. The protest would later count against Dreyfus. The French army of the period was relatively open to entry and advancement by talent, with an estimated 300 Jewish officers, of whom ten were generals.<ref name=PRead>{{cite book|first=Piers Paul|last=Read|author-link=Piers Paul Read|date=2012|title=The Dreyfus Affair|publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing Plc |isbn=978-1-4088-3057-4}}</ref>{{rp|83}} However, within the Fourth Bureau of the General Staff, General Bonnefond's prejudices appear to have been shared by some of the new trainee's superiors. The personal assessments received by Dreyfus during 1893/94 acknowledged his high intelligence, but were critical of aspects of his personality.<ref name=PRead/>{{rp|84}}