Sedan

Sedan, a town and frontier fortress of France, dept. of Ardennes, stands on the Meuse, 64 miles by rail NE. of Rheims. Colbert founded here cloth-factories, the fabrics of which have a European reputation; some 10,000 workmen are employed in this industry and its branches. Various branches of metal-working are carried on, and there is an active trade in wool. Pop. (1872) 13,807; (1891) 20,138. The fortress, or rather the citadel, capitulated to the Germans in 1815; but Sedan is chiefly noted for the surrender (September 2, 1870) of Napoleon III. and an army of 86,000 men, with all their accoutrements and baggage, to the Germans in the Franco-German war. The fortress was dismantled after 1875. Marshals Turenne and Macdonald were born here. Previous to its incorporation with France (1642) it was the capital of an independent principality (that of the Comtes de la Marek and later dukes of Bouillon) and a Protestant stronghold. Its industrial prosperity was largely due to the influx of Huguenots; and at its theological seminary, famous until the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, notable Scotsmen such as Andrew Melville taught.