Cassell's History of England, Vol. 5 (of 8): From the Peninsular War to the Death of Sir Robert PeelAnonymous
History
Cassell's History of England, Vol. 5 (of 8): From the Peninsular War to the Death of Sir Robert Peel
Anonymous
Great Britain -- History
and Ghent. What he had most to complain of was the very defective
manner in which he had been supplied with cannon on so momentous an
occasion, being able to muster only eighty-four pieces of artillery,
though he had applied for a hundred and fifty, and though there were
cannons enough at Woolwich to have supplied the whole of the Allied
armies.
Blucher's headquarters were at Namur, his right extending to Charleroi,
near the left of Wellington, and his left and reserves covering Gevil
and Liége. His force amounted to eighty thousand men, supplied with two
hundred cannon. On the 15th Buonaparte addressed his army, telling them
that the enemies arrayed against them were the same that they had so
often beaten, and whom they must beat again if they were the men they
had been. "Madmen!" he exclaimed, "the moment of prosperity has blinded
them. The oppression and humiliation of the French people are beyond
their power. If they enter France they will there find their tomb!"
This address had such an effect that the French advanced with all the
spirit of their former days. They swept the western bank of the Sambre
of the Prussian outposts; they advanced to Charleroi, drove out the
Prussians under Ziethen, and compelled them to fall back on the village
of Gosselies, and thence to Ligny and St. Amand. It was now seen that
the object of Buonaparte was to cut off the communication between the
Prussians and British, and defeat the Prussians first, instead of
having to fight the two armies at once. To complete this Ney had been
dispatched to attack and drive back the British advance at Quatre Bras
and Frasnes; but, hearing firing in the direction of Charleroi, which
was the engagement with Ziethen, he sent a division to support the
French there, and thus found his main body too weak to move the British
at Quatre Bras. For doing this without orders, Buonaparte reprimanded
Ney, as he afterwards did Grouchy for too implicitly following his
orders in pursuit of Blucher.
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