Ligny

14 June
15 June
Ney's Orders
Lack of Haste
16th June
Troop Dispositions
The Battle
Appendix
French Army
Prussian Army
Battlefield in 1982
Tactical Deployments
Bibliography
Photographs

Movements and Dispositions, 15^th June.

In the early hours of Thursday, 15^th June, with Napoleon’s words ringing in their ears, the French army began to move across the frontier, but things were not going smoothly with the execution of the Emperor’s plans. At 7.00 a.m. General of Division de Ghaisnes, Count of Bourmont, commander of the 14^th Division of the French IV Army Corps (Gérard), deserted with all his staff to the Prussians. This threw his former division into a state of panic, which was only quietened down by the efforts of General Hulot, commander of one of the brigades, and by General Gérard himself who steadied the troops and restored their confidence. The news soon spread to old Blücher at his headquarters at Namur, but he made no change to his orders, even allowing for the fact that he was now fully aware that Napoleon had gained the initiative. [1] Instead he mounted his horse and set-off to join his army, which he had ordered to concentrate at Sombreffe.

Another glitch in the smooth advance of the French army had occurred at the centre where the III Corps, which should have been on the move at 3 a.m. did not receive their marching instructions until between four and five o’clock in the morning. It is said that the aide-de-camp carrying Napoleon’s orders to General Vandamme had fallen from his horse and broken his leg, thus the orders were not delivered. The consequences of this caused a bottleneck, as the troops who were to follow the III Corps had to be given new marching orders while Vandamme attempted to get his men on the road.[2] Napoleon sent for General Duhesme with the Young Guard to secure Charleroi and its bridge, and these troops, together with the sappers and marines gradually forced the Prussians to retire, the French taking possession of the town at around 12.00 a.m.[3]

The bridge over the Sambre at Marchienne, although being stoutly barricaded by the Prussians was cleared just after 10.30 a.m. by elements of Reille’s corps which crossed over the river closely followed by d’Erlon’s I corps, the Prussians falling back towards Gilly and Fleurus, retiring north-eastwards. This left one of Ziethen’s brigades under General Steinmetez isolated on their right flank, near Binche. These troops were hastily pulled back towards Gosselies. Meanwhile, General Pirch II Prussian brigade took up a defensive position at Gilly.

During these movements Marshal Ney, who had been summoned to join the French army, finally managed to procure horses for himself and his Aide-de-Camp Colonel Heymes, and joined Napoleon at Charleroi at around 3.00 p.m. Although undoubtedly still dubious of Ney’s behaviour during his return from Elba, when the marshal had promised King Louis XVIII that he would bring him back to Paris in an iron cage, Napoleon greeted Ney in a friendly way and gave him the command of the Ist and II nd corps and the Guard light cavalry division of General Lefebvre-Desnouettes, with instructions to, “Go and pursue the enemy.”[4] General J.F.C. Fuller, in his work, ‘The Desisive Battles of the Western World,’ states that, ‘There can be little doubt that he must have said more than this, and, according to Gourgaud (one of Napoleon’s ADCs), he instructed him (Ney) to sweep the enemy off the Charleroi-Brussels Road and occupy Quatre-Bras. The probability of the last injunction is supported by the statement in the Bulletin of the 15^th June that “The Emperor has given the command of the left to the Prince of Moskova, who this evening established his headquarters at Quatre-Chemins on the Brussels Road.” Though Ney did not do so, this statement indicates that Napoleon intended that he should.’[5] Commandant Lachouque however states that, ‘ …what could he (Napoleon) know of the significance of Quatre-Bras? When he crossed into Belgium on the 15^th June there was a heavy mist everywhere. He knew that Wellington was in Brussels and that Blücher was at Namur. It would have been impossible for him to make an accurate assessment of the situation.’[6] The problem with Lachouque’s argument is that he seems to forget that Napoleon could read a map! Quatre-Bras was an important crossroads and the fact that the French Emperor could not see it owing to the weather was immaterial to his plan of confronting one enemy army while holding back the other. Thus the debate concerning Ney’s orders to occupy Quatre-Bras would seem to favour the fact that they followed the general principles of the Emperor’s overall plan of campaign.

While Ney made his way to take command of the left wing of the army, Marshal Grouchy arrived at Napoleon’s headquarters and was given command of the right wing, consisting of the III and IV Corps, together with the cavalry divisions of Pajol and Excelmans. With these he was ordered to drive the Prussians back towards Sombreffe. Grouchy, probably as much in the dark concerning the exact positions of his forces as Ney must have been, dithered around so much that, at 5.30 p.m. Napoleon, becoming uneasy in not hearing the sound of Grouchy’s cannon, galloped forward to prod him along.[7] This done, the majority of Ziethen’s Prussians were pushed back as far as Fleurus. Over on the left Ney had also driven a Prussian detachment out of Gosselies, but he then halted his forward movement. Possibly one of the only times in his life when he exercised prudence, Ney failed to seize the all-important crossroads at Quatre-Bras. Wellington had not sent a single man to meet the forward movement of the French, and even though Prince Bernard of Saxe-Weimer had taken it upon himself to place his Nassau brigade, soon to be reinforced by three more battalions sent by General Perponcher at the crossroads, a vigorous attack could have brushed these aside. However, we must remember that Ney had fought the English in Spain, and probably considered that the small force visible at Quatre-Bras was only a façade, and that the woods and folds of ground concealed far larger bodies of allied troops. Whatever Ney’s reasons for not attacking on the evening of the 15^th may or may not have been, a great chance to deliver a crushing blow to Wellington and Blücher’s concentration had been missed.

The French army bivouacked for the night in an area of ten miles by ten. On the left Lefebvre-Desnouettes’s cavalry was around Frasnes, with Reille’s II Corps between that point and Gosselies. Girard’s division of that corps was at Wangenies, near Fleurus*, while d’Erlon’s I Corps was covering the ground from Marchienne to Gosselies. On the right Marshal Grouchy had Pajol’s and Exelmans’s cavalry divisions south of Fleurus, around Lambusart. The III Corps under Vandamme was between Charleroi and Fleurus, while Gérard’s IV Corps camped on both sides of the Sambre River at Châtelet. In the centre, under Napoleon’s direct orders, were the Guard around Charleroi and Gilly, and to their rear, but still not across the river, were Lobau’s VI Corps and the cavalry corps of Milhaud and Kellermann.[8] Napoleon had indeed achieved his first objective. He had placed his forces so as to separate both of the allied armies. However he had no idea that Blücher was intending to gather his army and offer battle the very next day.