Battle of Sedan
A French army with the emperor in it surrendered at Sedan on 2 September 1870, six weeks after France declared war. The war had been engineered by Bismarck, who edited a telegram from his king about a conversation with the French ambassador into a form calculated to insult both nations, and published it. France declared war and found itself alone, with the southern German states joining Prussia under treaties France did not know existed. The Prussian army mobilised faster by rail, concentrated better, and outnumbered the French at every point of contact, and its needle guns were inferior to the French chassepot while its steel breech-loading artillery was far superior. Two French armies were separated within a fortnight. Bazaine's was shut up in Metz, and MacMahon was ordered by Paris to march to relieve him rather than fall back on the capital — a political decision that Moltke read from the newspapers. The Prussians swung north and pushed MacMahon's army into the fortress town of Sedan against the Belgian border, and surrounded it with 200,000 men and some 700 guns on the heights. The French cavalry charged three times at Floing into nothing, and a Prussian general said it was beautiful. Napoleon III, in pain from bladder stones, ordered the white flag raised and surrendered himself with 104,000 men. Paris declared a republic two days later and fought on for five months. The German Empire was proclaimed at Versailles in January 1871, and the emperor of the French died in exile in Kent.
- Year: 1870 CE
- Category: Military
