The Battle of Waterloo: Europe in the Balance (10 page)

Infantry squares

By 5 pm the French had control of the Bois de Bossu while Picton’s men were engaged in a musketry duel at close quarters with Reille’s infantry advancing on the crossroads. Ney now pushed forward his heavy cavalry and lancers, which forced Picton’s redcoats and Brunswick’s black-clad men to form square. These dense formations were proof against cavalry, but with the men so tightly packed they were highly vulnerable to artillery. When a battery of French horse artillery opened fire at close range it began to inflict high casualties.

The duke of Brunswick was hit by a musket ball and thrown from his horse as the French cavalry moved forward – apparently to charge his infantry. Getting the Brunswick infantry into square when they had just seen their beloved duke mortally wounded was a struggle and they only just made it in time. Seeing the infantry well formed, the cuirassiers pulled back. The French artillery was not so considerate and – although at long range – was deadly accurate.

Wellington ordered his infantry to fall back behind the crossroads to get out of range of the French cannon. Ney chose this moment to hurl his heavy cavalry and lancers forward in a smashing charge. Wellington himself was caught in the open as a squadron of cuirassiers emerged from the smoke. He had to jump his horse over the heads of the infantry of the 92nd Highlanders, shouting at them to duck, to gain the safety of their square. Regiments of Dutch and Hanoverian infantry were caught out of square and were butchered by the French cavalry.

Watching the unfolding confusion in Wellington’s centre, Ney was jubilant. He could see that only a part of Wellington’s army had arrived and that the rest was turning up in some confusion. He guessed, correctly, that most of Wellington’s army was strung out on the roads south of Brussels in confusion and disorder. Now he had broken through Wellington’s position at Quatre Bras. The road to Brussels was open and with it the opportunity to smash Wellington’s army bit by bit with ease.

Ney sent an urgent message to d’Erlon waiting at Frasnes to hurry forward and join the victorious pursuit of Wellington’s broken army. But d’Erlon and his 20,000 men had gone. Ney was astounded. Where on earth was d’Erlon?

Without d’Erlon’s fresh men, Ney had to spend some time reorganizing his own forces to exploit his success. By that time, Wellington had been reinforced by the British 3rd Division under Sir Charles Alten. As the red-coated infantry moved forward to bolster the defensive positions, Wellington became rather more confident that he could hold Quatre Bras. He still had very few cavalry and almost no infantry, but his fresh British infantry should be able to hold off the French forces he could see ranged against him. The problem would come if Ney were to be reinforced.

Napoleon’s call for help

Ney, meanwhile, had just received a message from Napoleon written by Soult, telling him about the battle raging around Ligny. The message continued, ‘His Majesty desires me to tell you that you are to manoeuvre immediately in such a manner as to envelop the enemy’s right and fall upon his rear – the army in our front is lost if you act with energy. THE FATE OF FRANCE IS IN YOUR HANDS. Do not hesitate for a moment.’

Ney was exasperated. If he sought to disengage from Wellington he would be presenting the rear of his battered divisions to the fresh men that were joining Wellington. A disaster was more than possible. And anyway, where was d’Erlon? He scanned the battlefield, only to see the Hanoverian army arriving to bolster Wellington. Once again he sent out messengers to try to find d’Erlon and bring him up to Quatre Bras before Wellington gained the upper hand and was able to slip around Ney’s flank to join Blücher.

Wellington chose this moment to push his infantry forward in an effort to retake the farms. The British infantry were advancing through fields of standing rye some 2 m tall. This meant that Ney could see only swaying rye and could not be certain how many infantry were on the move. It also meant that the infantry could not see the trap Ney was preparing for them. He was sending forward 1,000 cuirassiers, backed by 800 lighter cavalry and as many infantry as were in good order to advance.

The French cuirassiers catch the British 69
th
and 73
rd
Regiments in line. The British did not have time to form a defensive square and suffered heavy casualties.

The Prince of Orange had ordered the British infantry to advance in line so that they could bring their massed musket fire to bear on the French infantry he had seen beyond the rye. The British officers, alerted by the sounds of thundering hooves, gave the order to get into square, but for the 69th and 73rd regiments it was too late. The cuirassiers were on them before they could get into square.

The slaughter was horrific as the scattered infantry fell easy prey to the big horsemen. The King’s Colour of the 69th was captured, a humiliating blow to the regimental pride. Both regiments fled back for the safety of the hedged roads around the crossroads, followed by the 33rd when it came under heavy artillery fire. The remaining infantry in squares among the rye came under attack at the hands of the light cavalry, but managed to hold their own. The cuirassiers swept on until they met the steady Brunswickers lining the hedges, supported by artillery.

It was now 6.30 pm and Wellington was deeply relieved to see General Sir George Cooke arrive with four battalions of the British Guards. Wellington sent them to his right to support Picton’s battered men. He resumed his advance, but Ney blocked the advance with infantry and artillery acting in close unison.

At around 9 pm the light began to go as the sun sank and gradually the fighting around Quatre Bras came to an end. Ney decided to withdraw back towards Frasnes to reorganize Reille’s corps. He left behind a rearguard to watch Wellington. Ney was reasonably content with how the day had gone, though the sudden disappearance of d’Erlon had robbed him of a complete victory over Wellington. Still he had stopped Wellington going to Ligny, which had been his primary objective.

Wellington, however, was less pleased. He had promised Blücher that he would arrive at Ligny by late afternoon, and he had failed to do so. He was also painfully aware that his army was spread across a large area of ground, was confused and muddled. Even at this late stage Wellington could not be certain where much of his army was nor whether it had received his orders to come to Quatre Bras. Once again, messengers were sent out to find the lost units and bring them to Wellington at Quatre Bras.

D’Erlon’s movements – a missed opportunity

Jean-Baptiste Drouet, Count d’Erlon, had been having an extremely trying day. He had woken at dawn at Jumet, just north of Charleroi. With him he had two of his four divisions, the other two having been held up trying to get over the narrow bridges over the Sambre. He had in his hands Ney’s orders from the previous evening that he was to concentrate his corps into a compact body as the enemy were only a few kilometres north. D’Erlon therefore waited for his two rear divisions to come up before starting the march north up the main road to Quatre Bras and Brussels.

He had reached Gosselies when his cavalry scouts out to the west sent in an urgent message that large columns of the enemy were approaching. D’Erlon at once halted his advance and began deploying his corps to give battle. The columns turned out to be elements of Wellington’s scattered army heading for Quatre Bras. They ignored the French cavalry scouts and were unaware of d’Erlon’s presence. Once this was established, d’Erlon continued his march north. At this point he received Ney’s order to halt at Frasnes and await further orders.

D’Erlon and his forward units reached Frasnes, where a temporary headquarters was established. D’Erlon then rode back to hurry up his rear units. At about 3.30 pm Napoleon’s personal ADC, Charles de la Bédoyère, arrived in Frasnes with an order to d’Erlon from Napoleon. De la Bédoyère used his position to ‘speak as if he were the emperor’. In the absence of d’Erlon he gave his message to General Delcambre, d’Erlon’s chief of staff. The orders were to march on Ligny and Saint-Amand to attack the Prussians, with whom Napoleon was engaged in battle.

Delcambre turned to his subordinate, General de Salle, and ordered him to get the corps moving in accordance with Napoleon’s instructions. He then rode off to find d’Erlon, while de la Bédoyère rode back to Napoleon. As the units of I Corps came up to Frasnes, de Salle turned them east towards Ligny. Delcambre found d’Erlon, who then galloped off to get to the head of his corps as it marched on Ligny.

By 5.30 pm he was approaching Ligny, and it was at this point that he and his men were spotted by French and Prussian cavalry scouts. Those sightings precipitated the final moves at Ligny that led to the Prussian defeat.

At 6 pm, however, Ney’s order to d’Erlon instructing him to come to Quatre Bras finally caught up with the commander of I Corps. He now had totally contradictory orders. Ney wanted him at Quatre Bras, Napoleon wanted him at Ligny. The standard procedures of the French army were quite clear about how an officer should behave in such circumstances. An officer had a duty to obey his immediate superior (Ney) unless a more senior commander (Napoleon) were actually on the spot and issuing orders.

D’Erlon compared the two sets of orders. Napoleon’s gave the impression that the battle at Ligny was going well and that d’Erlon was only desired to come and help out. Ney’s letter emphasized the urgency of the situation and made it clear the d’Erlon was needed. All things considered, d’Erlon decided that he had no choice but to obey Ney. Nevertheless, two of his divisions were almost at Ligny so he ordered them to continue on to join Napoleon. The rest of his column was to turn around and go back to Quatre Bras.

D’Erlon spurred back down his column to take personal charge of his rearguard, now his advance guard. The process of turning 20,000 men around was slow and inevitably led to some confusion, but even so d’Erlon got his men underway with commendable speed.

The two divisions that d’Erlon sent to help Napoleon advanced until they ran into Prussian troops near Wagnelée. Entirely ignorant of how the battle was going, they then halted and messengers were sent to try to find Napoleon and ask for orders. This had the unfortunate effect of giving the Prussian right wing time to get away before the divisions were ordered to attack what had been, when they first arrived, the isolated and disorganized Prussian divisions to their front.

D’Erlon got back to Frasnes at 8 pm to find urgent messages from Ney wanting to know where he was and what he was doing. D’Erlon led his forward units up the road toward Quatre Bras just in time to meet Ney falling back to regroup. A remarkably amicable discussion – given the circumstances – then followed. D’Erlon then pushed some of his units up to Quatre Bras to take over the duties of rearguard from Reille’s men, who needed supper and sleep.

D’Erlon must have realized that if he had been at either Quatre Bras or Ligny he would have been instrumental in winning a great victory for Napoleon. As it was he had been at neither and no victory had been won.

At end of day

Night finally fell on 16 June with Wellington wondering how the Prussians had fared, Gneisenau falling back north before retreating home to Germany without Blücher who was presumed dead, Ney wondering how Napoleon had got on but confident he would attack Wellington next morning with d’Erlon’s men and Napoleon hopping mad with d’Erlon and puzzled as to where the Prussians had gone.

The campaign was still undecided despite the thousands of men who had died.

Chapter 6
 
‘With your sword in his back’
 

Napoleon’s verbal order to Grouchy about pursuing Blücher, 17 June 1815
 

A little after midnight the Prussian chief of staff and temporary commander, Gneisenau, was at Mellery just north of Tilly. He was waiting for reports to come in to confirm that his scattered army had got his orders to converge on Wavre. He was also waiting for Bülow of the IV Corps to arrive. That prickly nobleman and veteran soldier outranked Gneisenau and would, presumably, be taking command of the entire Prussian army when he arrived.