The Battle of Sedan was a major battle of the Franco-Prussian War which occurred on 1-2 September 1870 when the allied German armies led by Helmuth von Moltke surrounded and annihilated the French Army of Chalons, capturing Emperor Napoleon III, Marshal Patrice de MacMahon, and 104,000 of their soldiers. The Battle of Sedan was the decisive battle of the war, and it also resulted in the collapse of the Second French Empire and the rise of the French Third Republic.
History[]
The French Army of Chalons under Patrice de MacMahon, with Emperor Napoleon III in attendance, set out to relieve Francois Achille Bazaine in Metz. However, they were driven into a loop of the Meuse River at Sedan and there encircled by Helmuth von Moltke. On 1 September Prussian guns positioned on hills overlooking Sedan mercilessly battered the French from beyond the range of any artillery response. The wounded MacMahon was replaced first by Auguste-Alexandre Ducrot, then by Emmanuel Felix de Wimpffen, but neither could coordinate attempted breakouts. French cavalry distinguished themselves by their bravery in charging the Prussian lines near the village of Floing, but these were futile gestures in the face of concentrated infantry firepower. An observer commented of the slaughter of one body of horsemen that "so thorough a destruction by a single volley" had never been witnessed. With his forces suffering heavily under the relentless artillery bombardment, Napoleon III decided on surrender to end the slaughter. The following day the emperor met Otto von Bismarck to agree on terms and was then taken off into captivity, along with the entire army.