1-148-839 - Ann Ronan Picture Library/Heritage-Images

Battle of Sedan, France, Franco-Prussian War, 1 September 1870 (c1880). Stampede of French troops in retreat from the Prussian onslaught. Sedan was a national humiliation for the French, as their army was decisively defeated by the Prussians commanded by Moltke, and the Emperor Napoleon III captured. The defeat led to the fall of the French Second Empire and the occupation of Paris by the Germans and, in 1871, the creation of the German Empire. From The Graphic, (London, 24 September 1870).