40 cannons, the French withdrew toward Sedan. Having reformed in the town, the Army of Châlons was immediately isolated by the converging Prussian armies. Napoleon III ordered the army to break out of the encirclement immediately. With MacMahon wounded on the previous day, General Auguste-Alexandre Ducrot took command of the French troops in the field. The Army of Châlons was trapped and destroyed at the Battle of Sedan. Siege The French calculated they had enough food for 70,000 civilians for three and a half months and five months worth of provisions for a regular garrison. Because the entire Army of the Rhine was trapped in the fortress, the provisions only lasted for 41 days and the oats for 25. The Germans brought up 50 heavy siege guns from Germany to bombard Metz, but the fortress was too heavily stocked with artillery and well-built for it to be taken with the means available to the Germans. Unable to silence the fortress guns sufficiently to conduct siege operations, the besiegers opted to starve out the trapped French army. By September, about 25% of the 197,326-strong German siege force still lacked proper accommodations and the sick list in military hospitals grew to 40,000 men. The Germans supplemented their meat rations with tinned food. The French situation was much worse, with riots breaking out among the starving army and city residents. The French attempted to break the siege first at Noisseville on 31 August–1 September and again at Bellevue on 7 October but were repulsed each time. Each side lost about 5,000 total men killed and wounded in these two attempts. On 20 October, the food provisions of the fortress ran out and the French Army of the Rhine subsisted afterward on the flesh of 20,000 horses, which were consumed at a rate of 1,000 per day. Bazaine was forced to surrender his entire army on 27 October because of starvation. The Prussians offered the honors of war to the defeated French army, but, contrary to usual practice, Bazaine refused. On 29 October, Prussian flags were raised on Metz's outworks and the French Army of the Rhine marched out silently and in good order. They were taken prisoner by a Prussian Corps at each gate, put into bivouacs and supplied with food. The Germans allowed the French officers to keep their swords and remain in Metz, which was largely unharmed by the siege. The