The Battle of Sedan was a military engagement fought between the Prussian Army, under the command of Helmuth von Moltke, and the French Army, led by Patrice de Mac-Mahon and Napoleon III, on September 1, 1870, at Sedan, France, during the Franco-Prussian War.
Summary
Having lost to the Prussians at the Battle of Beaumont on August 30, 1870, the French forces had been on the run for 24 hours; however, von Moltke managed to encircle the French Army at the town of Sedan, with him launching a frontal assault at the enemy, while other Prussian/German forces attacked from the north and west, using heavy artillery barrage, which punched big holes in the French lines. Despite the French cavalry counterattack, which was conducted in three waves under General Margueritte, the Prussian units charging from the East tore up the French infantry lines as Margueritte’s attack ground to a halt, with him himself getting killed in action.
Weapons
At the 1870 Battle of Sedan, the French troops were armed with the Chassepot rifle, a breech-loading, bolt-action rifle, which gave the French more fire power. Nevertheless, the Prussians were equipped with steel breech-loading cannons designed by Alfred Krupps, which had a range of up to 7,600 yards (7,000 m) and could devastate French formations as they formed up far from the battlefield. At the end of the battle, Napoleon III surrendered his sword to Otto von Bismarck, the German Chancellor who accompanied Helmut von Moltke.
Opposing forces
Prussian Army: 190,000 men (infantry, cavalry, and artillery).
French Army: 145,000 troops.
The map below shows the French troops surrounded on all sides by the Prussian Army during the Battle of Sedan.
