Franco-Prussian War: Sedan

While the French army was now hanging out in Metz doing nothing, Gen, MacMahon had a brand-new army in Chalons and was thinking of marching it to Paris. But then a message arrived from Bazaine, saying he was breaking out of Metz and going northwest. So MacMahon said okay, let's go northeast and help him. And off he went.

Now Motlke had two jobs: keep Bazaine's army in Metz and destroy MacMahon's. So he divided his armies into two equal halves and demoted Steinmetz.

Frederick Charles got to deal with Bazaine and the other Germans went off to find MacMahon. They found evidence that MacMahon had marched northeast from Rheims, so the Germans quick marched it through the Argonne forest. It was a hard march for the Germans, but totally worth it when their cavalry found MacMahon's army on August 26. (1)

When MacMahon had decided to march off to help Bazaine rather than go to Paris he was already toast. His only chance now was speed and his army couldn't do that. The Battle of Beaumont began on Aug. 30 and was a total party for the Germans. MacMahon ordered his corps commanders to fall back on the fortress of Sedan.

At this interesting point, a new French character arrives — the unfortunately named General de Wimpffen. He was originally in Africa, but was ordered to Sedan via Paris. In his pocket was a message that if anything happened to MacMahon, Wimpffen was in charge.

He came to Sedan just as the German armies started surrounding them, sealing the French army against the Belgian border. This prompted Gen. Ducrot the say the following "deathless sentence": "Nous sommes dans un pot de chambre et nous y serons emmerdes."

I didn't get the joke right away. (We're not all fluent in French here, Howard.) But this sentence really is deathless, because Google found the translation in half a second: "We’re in the toilet bowl, about to be shit on.”

And Ducrot was right. MacMahon was hit in the leg by a shell fragment and Ducrot tried to organize a retreat before they were totally surrounded.

But then Wimpffen showed up. Despite his name, he was no wimp, although a little wimpiness would have helped the situation. He insisted on staying, repeatedly shouting "We need a victory!" while the Germans pulled the noose tight. The French had to surrender and Napoleon III was captured.

Sounds like it's all over, right? Guess again.


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1) Happy Birthday Ron!