The Campaign of Waterloo: A Military History: Third EditionRopes, John Codman
History
The Campaign of Waterloo: A Military History: Third Edition
Ropes, John Codman
Napoleon I, Emperor of the French, 1769-1821 -- Elba and the Hundred Days, 1814-1815; Waterloo, Battle of, Waterloo, Belgium, 1815
At five or soon after, two brigades of Alten’s 3d British division
arrived, and gave Wellington an equality, perhaps even a slight
superiority in force. Ney, on the other hand, had not been reinforced
either by d’Erlon or by Kellermann’s two divisions of cavalry, all
which troops had been placed at his disposal by the Emperor, and all
which he had been, by the last order which he had received from Marshal
Soult, expressly directed to employ in the movement upon Quatre Bras.
That is to say, as late as five o’clock, when the battle had been in
progress for three hours, Ney had not got his command together, had
not, in fact, assembled one-half of it on the field. Where were these
missing troops? (See Map 7.)
Take, first, the case of the 1st Corps. We have seen that the division
of the 2d Corps, which was the last to arrive, arrived on the field of
battle at or shortly before 3 P.M. Quatre Bras is distant from Frasnes
about two miles and a half, and the field of battle, therefore, was
about two miles beyond Frasnes. Since Jerome arrived on the field at 3
o’clock, he must have left Frasnes about or soon after 2 o’clock. If
Durutte, who commanded the leading division of the 1st Corps, had
followed Jerome promptly from Jumet, which is not over a mile and a
half to the south of Gosselies, he would have reached Frasnes before 3
o’clock. The other two divisions, which were ordered to Frasnes, should
have arrived certainly in the course of the next hour and a half; so
that by 4 or 4.30 P.M. Ney should have had the three divisions of the
1st Corps which he had ordered to Frasnes, ready for use there.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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