Sedan, Battle of

During the Franco-Prussian War, disastrous French defeat by the Prussians 2 September 1870 at Sedan, a fortified town in northern France, close to the Belgian border and about 195 km/120 mi northeast of Paris. The victory cost the Prussians about 9,000 casualties, but the French lost 17,000 killed and wounded and 104,000 prisoners of war, including Emperor Napoleon III. The French no longer had any effective regular army – in the future, war would have to be carried on by mostly citizen armies – and now only Paris held out; once the siege was over, the Prussians were to win the war. In the aftermath of the defeat, the French decided to return to republican government.

French forced to Sedan The Prussian advance from the east had forced the principal French armies, under General Marie MacMahon, to encamp at Chalons, where MacMahon reorganized them into a 150,000-strong army. The other main French army was besieged in the fortress of Metz, which MacMahon was ordered to relieve 21 August. To avoid the Prussians, he took a circuitous north route via Reims (in order to resupply his force there) and then intended to march east via Verdun to Metz. However, Prussian cavalry patrols discovered his route and he was gradually forced further north, fighting rearguard actions, until the army arrived in Sedan in a disorganized state 30 August.

Battle The town was surrounded by three Prussian armies with a ring of troops and artillery. The Prussians attacked 2 September, pouring concentrated artillery fire into the exposed French troops who held a stretch of country north of the town. MacMahon was wounded and the command fell to General Auguste Alexandre Ducrot, who ordered a retreat, though in truth there was little chance of breaking out of the Prussian encirclement. However, General Emmanuel Wimpffen, who had arrived from Paris just before the Prussians sealed the town off, produced orders from the government appointing him to succeed MacMahon, and he cancelled the order to retreat, electing instead to fight where they stood. Meanwhile the Prussians tightened their grip, and by evening Napoleon III ordered the French to surrender.