[8] On 3 August 1870, the 61-year-old Abel Douay led the forward division of Mac-Mahon's army group, a force of approximately 8,600,[6][9] into the frontier town of Wissembourg in Alsace, the border region between the two combatant nations.

[10] Faulty intelligence had characterized the Prussians' border positions as weak and unready,[10] and Abel Douay's superiors felt confident that he could repulse any enemy probes while making use of the town's badly needed food and resources.

[9] Though the logistical benefit of the seizure of Wissembourg's stores was keenly appreciated at first, the tactical and strategic drawbacks quickly became known: the town, a flat lowland place with antiquated seventeenth-century fortifications,[9] faced thickly wooded countryside which would help cover the advance of the attackers.

[11] At 8:30am the next day, batteries of undetected Prussian artillery began pummelling the French position, and though Abel Douay attempted a rapid defensive posture,[11] the advantage of surprise had been devastatingly complete.

[17] Twenty years after the battle, an apocryphal story was published in Germany proffering a different end for Abel Douay: a German "eyewitness" claimed that the general had been shot by one of his own men, allegedly for ordering the French retreat.

[18] This story perhaps derived from the reported words of Frederick III who, advancing through the battlefield, had come upon Abel Douay's corpse and made the bald observation that the general had died beyond the range of German rifle fire.