EMMANUEL

See also:

• FELIX
• FELIX, ANTONIUS
• FELIX, LIA (1830– )

FELIX DE

See also:

• EMMANUEL FELIX DE WIMPFFEN (1811-1884)

WIMPFFEN (1811-1884)  , French soldier . Entering the army from the military school of St Cyr, he saw considerable active service in Algeria, and in 184o became captain, in 1847 chef de bataillon . He first earned marked distinction in the Crimean War as colonel of a Turco regiment, and his conduct at the storm of the Mamelon won him the grade of general of brigade . In the campaign of 1859 he was with General MacMahon at Magenta at the head of a brigade of Guard Infantry, and again won promotion on the field of battle . Between this campaign and that of 187o he was mainly employed in Algeria, and was not at first given a command in the ill-fated " Army of the Rhine." But when the earlier battles revealed incapacity in the commander of the 5th corps, De Wimpffen was ordered to take it over, and was given a dormant commission appointing him to command the Army of Chalons in case of Marshal MacMahon's disablement . He only arrived at the front in time to rally the fugitives of the 5th corps, beaten at Beaumont, and to march them to Sedan . In the disastrous battle of the 1st of September, MacMahon was soon wounded, and the senior officer, General Ducrot, assumed the command . Ducrot was beginning to withdraw the troops when Wimpffen produced his commission and countermanded the order* In consequence it fell to him to negotiate the surrender of the whole French army . After his release from captivity, he lived in retirement at Algiers, and died at Paris in 1884 . His later years were occupied with polemical discussions on the surrender of Sedan, the responsibility for which was laid upon him . He wrote, amongst other works, Sedan (1871), La Situation de la France, et les reformes'necessaires (1873) and La Nation armee (1875) .