The Sun.
London, England, 1870-10-03 00:00:00

HE SUS, LONI)ONI, _MQNDAY, OCTOBER. 3,167 b.,

THI7 VVAR

GENERAL WIMPFFEN ON TIE CAPITULA-
TION OF SEDAN.
On the s'th of September General Wimpff en sent in his
official report to the Minister of War respecting the
capitulation of ;Sedan. ThiS report has not been published
by the, Government, a fact which has occasioned some
little surprise. The SaNt Public, a Lyons journal, pub
lishes the - document, Which, under the eircumstance.i,
posseses especial interest. The General begins by
describing the position occupied by his forces when
he. assumed the eommand, on MacMahon being wounded-
' " On the Ist of September," he says, "at daybreak
the enemy began the attack 'en the 12th corps, and pro-
'longed it.towards the right against the Ist corps. At
7 o'clock Marshal' MacMahon, being wounded, resigned
the command to •General:Ducrot. I was not informed of
this till nearly Fyn hour later,when that officer had already
given several, orders to the commandants of the corps
d'armee. I thought it right to allow these orders to be

executed, but towards nine o'clock, seeing the left of the
let corps making a decidedly 'retreating movement, I
resolved to take advantage of the letter which your
Excellency had sent me. General Ducrot told me it was
his intention to retire upon Illy, but his battalions instead
of following that direction, changed their front •in the rear

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on the right wing, and' drew towards the further camp.
This movement seemed •to dangerous for several
reasons.. The .road was, a • difficult one for several corps
d'arrae,;
_it was necessary to go over• at least six kilo-.
metres 'diistance, troops. wearied by five hours'
fighting; 'and it Was'likely that the enenV, whd was in full
force, and could watch the movement, would fling them-
selvei tipon the troops, and. drive them back.. on to the
Prussian troops'in the rear...l therefore-ordered General
Ducrot to resume his former position, and I reinforced his
left.hythe Saurin brigade, though.he thought such assist:
mice nseless. I then went to the centre of the 7th corps,
to "'take account of ' the positiOn of the troops
engaged in the direction of that line of retreat.
I was convinced ' that the warch of our army
to .Mdzieres could only. be ,accomplished with
great difficulty during the day, and I resolved to hold my
positions until the night." General Wimpffen goes on to
deseiibe the fight at the wood of Garenne, which the 7th
o,:ii•Ps vainly endeavoured to keep, and where he tried to
support them without success. General Donai warned
him that he could hold his position no longer, and that
the forces•in front of him were so .largo that he could not
retreat 'on Illy. As the 12th Corps occupied strong poSi-
tions and held therd.unshaken, General Wimpffen pro-
posed to reinforeethem by all the disposable troops of the
Ist and sth Corps, with the view of throwing .back
part of the enemy's . army into the' Meuse and ob-
taining an outlet by way of Carignan. 'Re wrote
to the Emperor, telling him this, and inviting him to place
himself in th-enaiddle:of his troops, who would feel it an
honour to
,open a passage fer him. It was then about
,half-past three. enemy at first yielded to the offen-
sive movement of the French, but the troops of the 7th
and Ist Corps, Which remained on the plateau as a rear
g,inird; wiefe attacked and overwhelmed by a superior
force. Instead of following up the movement of the 12th
Coips, these troops, in passing between the grand name
and the wood of Garonne, drew nearer and nearer to the
fortifications of Sedan, which irresistibly attracted them,
and ended by ranging theinselves under the cannon of the
citadel. "At four o'clock," continues the general, " an
officer brought me 'a letter, in which the Emperor in-
formed me that the white 'flag had been hoisted over the
.citadel, and proposed to me, to cease firing, and to negotiate
with the enemy. I refused several times to yield to this
injunction. Notwithstanding the pressing instances of his
Majesty, I thought it was my duty to make a last
effort, and I went into the town to summon
all the troopS .which were accumulated there,
but whether from the fatigue consequent on twelve
hours', fighting without food, from ignorance of the danger-
ouS consequences of their agglomeration in a townill suited
for defence, or from instructions badly underitook very
few men responded ' to my appeal, and it was only With
some 2,000 soldiers, aided by some of the brave inhabi-
tants of Sedan, that I drove the enemy from the village
of Balan. This was the last effort of the battle." After this
Geneial WiroPffen gives substantially the same account
pf, the capitulation. that. his aides-de-camp have already
furnished. • At 'the -Emperor's 'reiterated commands, he
resigned himself, lie
,Says, to
.negotiate with Count von
Moltke,.and was immediately startled to find how well-
informed the PruSsian commander was as to the resources.
and-PoSition• of the French army. At first he refused
Vozi Moltkets conditions, but a subsequent conference
with"-'the commandants of the corps d'armde convinced
_hini that further resistance was impossible. He cannot give
the- exact amount of the French losses, but he estimates the
huriaber of dead and wounded in the tyTo days of Beaumont
and Sedan at from 15,000 to 20,000, and the enemy states
that in those-two days he made 30,000 prisoners:. At the
battle on the plateau of Illy the French had from' 60;000
,t,o 65,000 combatants,: while Von, Moltke admitted that
they fought against ;220,000, and. that at five o'clock .in the
evening a.Prussian corps d'armde, of superior force to the
French army, was stationed on the line of retreat. Gen.eral
'Wimpffen, who has' declared he will not separate his fate
froin that of his Wen; was 'to proceed to Stuttgard; where
lie; was to be imprisoned. . .

other three-seriously wounded. The greatest care has
been taken to conceal the name of the victim. Some say
it is the Crown Prince and others Prince Frederic Charles.
A traveller from :Rheims to St.. Quentin says ti; It he saw
a miliiary train conducting a train towards Prus-sia, and
that the.highest honours were rendered to the departed.