Resulting in the capture of Emperor Napoleon III and over a hundred thousand troops, it effectively decided the war in favour of Prussia and its allies, though fighting continued under a new French government.

[2] Emperor Napoleon III, along with Marshal Patrice de MacMahon, formed the new French Army of Châlons on 17 August to march on to Metz to rescue Bazaine.

[4] After a major defeat in which he lost 7,500 men and 40 cannons, MacMahon aborted the planned link-up with Bazaine and ordered the Army of Châlons to withdraw north-west towards the obsolete 17th-century fortress of Sedan.

[5] His intention was to rest the army, which had been involved in a long series of marches, resupply it with ammunition and, in his words, maneuver in front of the enemy.

[7] MacMahon denied a request from General Félix Douay, commander of 7th Corps, to dig trenches, claiming the army would not remain at Sedan for long.

[7] Upon arrival in the vicinity of Sedan on 31 August, MacMahon deployed Douay's 7th Corps to the north-west on the crest between the Calvaire and Floing.

Napoleon had ordered MacMahon to break out of the encirclement, and the only point where that seemed possible was La Moncelle, whose flank was protected by a fortified town.

Prince George of Saxony and the Prussian XI Corps was assigned to the task, and General Baron von der Tann was ordered to attack Bazeilles on the right flank.

[9] Von der Tann sent a brigade across pontoon bridges at 04:00 in the early morning mist, the Bavarians rushing the village and capturing it through surprise.

[9] The French Marines of the 1st Corps fought back from stone houses and the Bavarian artillery shelled the buildings into rubble.

[12] Ducrot ordered the retreat that Moltke had expected, but was overruled almost immediately by General Wimpffen, who had been given a commission by the government to succeed MacMahon were he to become disabled.

[19] Douay directed General Jean Auguste Margueritte's cavalry squadrons to open an escape route by launching three desperate attacks on the nearby village of Floing where the Prussian XI Corps was concentrated.

[2][20] By 14:00, the German infantry had seized the Calvaire and opened fire on the huddled French masses in the Bois de la Garenne.

[22] The Bois de la Garenne was subject to constant German artillery fire from multiple sides and when the Prussian Guards infantry captured the forest at 14:30, the French survivors inside it surrendered en masse.

[24] He hoisted the white flag on the fortress walls of Sedan and sent General André Charles Victor Reille to deliver a letter of surrender to the Prussian Royal Headquarters on the hillside above Frénois.

Commenting on the difficult situation, two days after news hit Paris of Emperor Napoleon III's capture, his wife said, "Why didn't he kill himself?"