E-text prepared by Brian Coe, Wayne Hammond, and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team (http://www.pgdp.net) from page images generously made available by Internet Archive (https://archive.org) Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this file which includes the original maps. See 58174-h.htm or 58174-h.zip: (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/58174/58174-h/58174-h.htm) or (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/58174/58174-h.zip) Images of the original pages are available through Internet Archive. See https://archive.org/details/battleofwavregr00kell Transcriber’s note: Text enclosed by underscores is in italics (_italics_). Text enclosed by equal signs is in bold face (=bold=). THE BATTLE OF WAVRE AND GROUCHY’S RETREAT THE BATTLE OF WAVRE AND GROUCHY’S RETREAT A Study of an Obscure Part of the Waterloo Campaign by W. HYDE KELLY, R.E. With Maps and Plans London John Murray, Albemarle Street, W. 1905 AUTHOR’S PREFACE So much has been written on the Waterloo Campaign that, even in the smallest details, nothing new can be revealed; but the dazzling magnitude of the great battle itself has obscured a part of the campaign which is seldom studied--the battle against Thielemann, and Grouchy’s skilful retreat from Wavre. I have chosen this tail-end of the campaign because little is known about it; because it serves useful lessons even for to-day; because the operations leading up to the battle round Wavre are of great interest; and because a campaign full of mistakes should be studied as carefully as a campaign free from error. From history we obtain experience, and experience teaches us how to act for the future. We learn how great men of old time fought their battles and managed their retreats; we see the reasons of their successes and their failures; and we should endeavour to make use of our lessons when our own time comes. Not that Grouchy can be deemed a great soldier; nor can his part of the 1815 campaign be regarded as of prime importance in itself; but as showing the small trifles that mar great plans in their execution, as showing how little a thing will sometimes destroy the grandest conceptions, his operations from 16th June to the end of the month are well worthy of attention. I might have employed my time more profitably had I chosen to work upon some more illustrious name than Grouchy’s, or upon some more modern campaign of greater advantage to the war student of to-day; but I chose to bring forward an obscure page in the history of the most famous campaign, for in that history there is much that may still be laid to heart.