Emmanuel Felix De Wimpffen, a French soldier, born in Laon, Sept. 13,1811. He belongs to a distinguished Swabian family. Count Franz (1797-1870) was an Austrian field marshal; Franz Ludwig von Wimpffen-Berneburg (1732-1800) served in the French and Würtemberg armies; and Baron Felix von Wimpffen-Berneburg (1745-1814) was a French general. Emmanuel Felix, son of the latter, was educated at St. Cyr, and served in Algeria, in the Crimea, and in the Italian war of 1859, when he became general of division. He was afterward governor of Algiers and Oran. In July, 1870, he carried the declaration of war to Berlin. In August Palikao placed him in command of the 12th corps, and, after Failly's removal, of the 5th corps. On Aug. 30 he reached Sedan with an order of Palikao to rank second in command. As he found the army in a critical condition, he withheld it until the morning of Sept. 1, and for several hours after MacMahon had been wounded and replaced by Ducrot, when, expecting a victory, he superseded the latter, and at once countermanded the retreat which might have saved a part of the army.

He had allowed himself to be deceived by a Prussian brigade falling back and by a momentary cessation of firing, without perceiving the flank movement which enabled the Germans to surround the French, who in the afternoon were everywhere beaten. Wimpffen in vain proposed to the emperor to escape, and offered his resignation, which was declined. He concluded the capitulation with Moltke, and Stuttgart was assigned to him as a residence. In 1871 he was summoned before the parliamentary commission at Versailles, which made him responsible for a great part of the catastrophe. To vindicate himself he published Sedan and Réponse au general Ducrot, par un officier superieur (1871). Subsequently he attacked the ex-emperor in Edmond About's Le XIXeme Siécle, which caused Granier de Cassagnac to denounce him in the Pays as a traitor who had lost the army by his vanity and incapacity. Wimpffen arraigned him before the civil tribunal, but Cassagnac denied the jurisdiction of this court, in which no proof of justification is allowed.

In 1875 Wimpffen brought before the court of assizes in Paris a criminal suit for defamation, and employed Jules Favre as his advocate; Cassagnac was defended by Lachaud. At the trial, which took place in February, Wimpffen was unable to get a single general officer on his side, some colonels and civilians constituting all his witnesses. Cassagnac was acquitted, and Wimpffen was sentenced to pay the ' cost of the trial. In April, 1876, he was an unsuccessful candidate for the legislative body.