The editors of The Wordsworth Dictionary of Military Bi-
ography write: “The attack of 8 September was the one
perfectly-planned and executed operation by the Allies
in the Crimea. With meticulous attention to detail the
French columns assaulted the Russian defenses, the criti-
cal attack being carried out successfully by the division
commanded by MacMahon. After eight hours’ fighting
the Malakoff was in French hands and, after the failure
of the British to take the Redan, MacMahon turned his
fire on the Russians there and drove them out also. The
following day the Allies occupied Sebastopol.”
The fall of Sebastopol led to the quick collapse of
the Russians and an eventual end to the war. For his
services in the Crimea, MacMahon was offered the post
of head of the French army, but he declined, desiring
instead to return to Algeria.
In 1859, MacMahon’s talents were soon called
on again when the newly created king of Italy, Victor
Emmanuel II, tried to evict the French and Austrians
who had long occupied Northwest and Northeast Italy,
respectively. Victor Emmanuel made a secret deal with
the French to send forces into Italy to assist in fight-
ing the Austrians. MacMahon’s most important victory
was at Magenta (4 June 1859) against an Austrian force
commanded by the Austrian general Count Franz von
Gyulai. Historian George Bruce writes of this battle:
“MacMahon crossed the Ticino River, attacked the Aus-
trian position and after hard fighting drove them out of
Magenta and totally defeated them with a loss of about
6,000 killed and wounded. The French lost 4,400.”
In response to this loss, the Austrians advanced along
the Mincio River to take on MacMahon’s forces, but
he evaded them and in the end was able to avoid an-
other major battle. For his brilliant victory at Magenta,
MacMahon was made a marshal of France by Emperor
Napoleon III, and he was given the title of the duc de
Magenta (duke of Magenta).
On 1 September 1864, MacMahon was appointed
governor-general of Algeria, a post he held until 1870. In
the latter year, he was recalled to France when the Prus-
sians attacked and invaded there. MacMahon was named
as the commander of the Alsace division of the French
army. However, where he had been brilliant against the
Austrians, he was less successful against the Prussians. At
Wissembourg (4 August 1870), his front-line advance
forces were quickly dispatched by the Prussians, and at
Wörth (also called Reischoffen, 6 August 1870) on the
Sauer River, he was again beaten and forced to fall back
to the city of Saverne, and then to Toul. Seeing the Prus-
sian advance as a direct threat to Paris, Emperor Napo-
leon III named MacMahon as supreme commander of
all French forces, assembling at Châlons-sur-Marne.
Although he had a force of some 120,000 men,
MacMahon was opposed to an operation against the
Prussians because of a lack of organization in the French
military. Nonetheless, he began to march his troops
northeast to Metz to relieve the French Army of the
Rhine, trapped there under heavy Prussian bombard-
ment. However, the Prussians cut him off near the
Meuse River, where a series of engagements (29–31 Au-
gust 1870) forced him to fall back to the ancient fortress
at Sedan. On 1 September 1870, French forces took on
some 200,000 Prussians under General Helmuth von
Moltke, but MacMahon was seriously wounded during
the fighting, leaving his army without proper guidance.
The Prussians hit the French middle with bombard-
ment and then launched a main attack. Within hours,
Napoleon III, on the battlefield, was informed that the
chances for victory were hopeless, and he surrendered
himself and his forces. In one of the worst moments in
the history of France, more than 80,000 French soldiers
were taken as prisoners of war; more than 3,000 lay
dead on the battlefield, with another 15,000 wounded.
Although the Prussians lost nearly 10,000 killed and
wounded, their loss was less grievous because their
army was so much larger. The victorious Prussians
marched on Paris, where, just three days after the French
defeat at Sedan, a riot overthrew the government of Na-
poleon III.
In 1871, there was a rising of the revolutionary
Commune of Paris after the Prussians left; MacMa-
hon was called upon by the new government to put it
down. He was widely praised for his firm suppression
of the insurrection, and his services to the nation were
rewarded two years later when he was elected by the
French National Assembly as president of France, suc-
ceeding Adolphe Thiers. Although he had been a mon-
archist and had resolved to bring back a French king, he
nonetheless decided against any measures that would
force the issue, and thus a monarchy was not reinstated.
A new constitution was promulgated in 1875, and with
the resignation of Premier Jules Simon in May 1877
and the election of several nonmonarchist assemblies,
MacMahon was forced to drop the matter completely,
leaving him a weakened president. He resigned in Janu-
ary 1879, before the end of his term, when he decidedmAcmAhon, mARie-eDmé-pAtRice-mAuRice De, Duc De mAgentA 0