Battle of Sedan
On 1–2 September 1870, at Sedan in the Ardennes near the Belgian border, the Prussian and German armies under Moltke encircled and destroyed the French Army of Châlons. Marshal MacMahon's force, marching to relieve the army trapped at Metz, was caught in a loop of the Meuse and pounded by massed German artillery from the surrounding heights, its cavalry charges futile against the guns. With no escape, and with Emperor Napoleon III present, the French surrendered: more than 100,000 men were taken prisoner along with the emperor himself. The capture of a reigning emperor and his entire army was a stunning, decisive blow that exposed the gulf between French reputation and French capability. News of Sedan brought down the Second Empire two days later, as republicans in Paris proclaimed a new government determined to continue the war — but the road to the siege of Paris and German unification now lay open.
- Year: 1870 CE
- Category: Military
