People

Both theEnglish and Prussian generals Post Date: Thu, 7 Aug 2008 1:09:25 +0000
Wellington was at Brussels; his troops,which consisted of thirty-five thousand English and about sixty thousandDutch, Germans, and Belgians, [236] guarded the country west of theCharleroi road as far as Oudenarde on the Scheldt. Bl?s headquarterswere at Namur; he had a hundred and twenty thousand Prussians under hiscommand, who were posted between Charleroi, Namur, and Li觥. Both theEnglish and Prussian generals were aware that very large French forces hadbeen brought close to the frontier, but Wellington imagined Napoleon to bestill in Paris, and believed that the war would be opened by a forwardmovement of Prince Schwarzenberg into Alsace.

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The Prussians were driven out Post Date: Thu, 7 Aug 2008 1:27:54 +0000
It was also his fixedconviction that if Napoleon entered Belgium he would throw himself not uponthe Allied centre, but upon the extreme right of the English towards thesea. [237] In the course of the 14th, the Prussian outposts reported thatthe French were massed round Beaumont: later in the same day there wereclear signs of an advance upon CharleroI Early next morning the attack onCharleroi began. The Prussians were driven out of it, and retreated in thedirection of Ligny, whither Bl?now brought up all the forces withinhis reach.

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But the march of the invader Post Date: Thu, 7 Aug 2008 1:47:37 +0000
It was unknown to Wellington until the afternoon of the 15ththat the French had made any movement whatever: on receiving the news oftheir advance, he ordered a concentrating movement of all his forceseastward, in order to cover the road to Brussels and to co-operate with thePrussian general. A small division of the British army took post at QuatreBras that night, and on the morning of the 16th Wellington himself rode toLigny, and promised his assistance to Bl? whose troops were alreadydrawn up and awaiting the attack of the French.But the march of the invader was too rapid for the English to reach thefield of battle.

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There was murderous hand-to-hand fighting Post Date: Thu, 7 Aug 2008 2:01:06 +0000
Already, on returning to Quatre Bras in the afternoon,Wellington found his own troops hotly engaged. Napoleon had sent Ney alongthe road to Brussels to hold the English in check and, if possible, toenter the capital, while he himself, with seventy thousand men, attackedBl? The Prussian general had succeeded in bringing up a force superiorin number to his assailants; but the French army, which consisted in agreat part of veterans recalled to the ranks, was of finer quality than anythat Napoleon had led since the campaign of Moscow, and it was in vain thatBl?and his soldiers met them with all the gallantry and even more thanthe fury of 1813. There was murderous hand-to-hand fighting in the villageswhere the Prussians had taken up their position: now the defenders, now theassailants gave way: but at last the Prussians, with a loss of thirteenthousand men, withdrew from the combat, and left the battlefield inpossession of the enemy.

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He seems to have assumed Post Date: Thu, 7 Aug 2008 2:19:12 +0000
If the conquerors had followed up the pursuit thatnight, the cause of the Allies would have been ruined. The effort of battlehad, however, been too great, or the estimate which Napoleon made of hisadversary's rallying power was too low. He seems to have assumed thatBl?must necessarily retreat eastwards towards Namur; while in realitythe Prussian was straining every nerve to escape northwards, and to restorehis severed communication with his ally.

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At the close of theday Post Date: Thu, 7 Aug 2008 2:34:02 +0000
At Quatre Bras the issue of the day was unfavourable to the French. Neymissed his opportunity of seizing this important point before it wasoccupied by the British in any force; and when the battle began the Britishinfantry-squares unflinchingly bore the attack of Ney's cavalry, and drovethem back again and again with their volleys, until successivereinforcements had made the numbers on both sides even. At the close of theday the French marshal, baffled and disheartened, drew back his troops totheir original position.

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Bl? on the night Post Date: Thu, 7 Aug 2008 2:49:51 +0000
The army-corps of General d'Erlon, which Napoleonhad placed between himself and Ney in order that it might act whereverthere was the greatest need, was first withdrawn from Ney to assist atLigny, and then, as it was entering into action at Ligny, recalled toQuatre Bras, where it arrived only after the battle was over. Its presencein either field would probably have altered the issue of the campaign.Bl? on the night of the 16th, lay disabled and almost senseless; hislieutenant, Gneisenau, not only saved the army, but repaired, and more thanrepaired, all its losses by a memorable movement northwards that broughtthe Prussians again into communication with the British.

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At Waterloo he drew up Post Date: Thu, 7 Aug 2008 3:08:13 +0000
Napoleon, after anunexplained inaction during the night of the 16th and the morning of the17th, committed the pursuit of the Prussians to Marshal Grouchy, orderinghim never to let the enemy out of his sight; but Bl?and Gneisenau hadalready made their escape, and had concentrated so large a body in theneighbourhood of Wavre, that Grouchy could not now have prevented a forcesuperior to his own from uniting with the English, even if he had known theexact movements of each of the three armies, and, with a true presentimentof his master's danger, had attempted to rejoin him on the morrow.Wellington, who had both anticipated that Bl?would be beaten at Ligny,and assured himself that the Prussian would make good his retreatnorthwards, moved on the 17th from Quatre Bras to Waterloo, now followed byNapoleon and the mass of the French army. At Waterloo he drew up forbattle, trusting to the promise of the gallant Prussian that he wouldadvance in that direction on the following day.

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In just reliance Post Date: Thu, 7 Aug 2008 3:25:43 +0000
Bl? in so doing,exposed himself to the risk of having his communications severed and halfhis army captured, if Napoleon should either change the direction of hismain attack and bend eastwards, or should crush Wellington before thearrival of the Prussians, and seize the road from Brussels to Louvain witha victorious force. Such considerations would have driven a commander likeSchwarzenberg back to Li觥, but they were thrown to the winds by Bl?and Gneisenau. In just reliance on his colleague's energy, Wellington, withthirty thousand English and forty thousand Dutch, Germans, and Belgians,awaited the attack of Napoleon, at the head of seventy-four thousandveteran soldiers.

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At eleven o'clock on Sunday Post Date: Thu, 7 Aug 2008 3:42:20 +0000
The English position extended two miles along the brow ofa gentle slope of cornfields, and crossed at right angles the great roadfrom Charleroi to Brussels; the chⴥau of Hugomont, some way down theslope on the right, and the farmhouse of La Haye Sainte, on the high-roadin front of the left centre, served as fortified outposts. The Frenchformed on the opposite and corresponding slope; the country was so openthat, but for the heavy rain on the evening of the 17th, artillery couldhave moved over almost any part of the field with perfect freedom.At eleven o'clock on Sunday, the 18th of June, the battle began.

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