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
This information from Blücher, however, induced the Duke to issue,
about ten o’clock in the evening,[164] a second set of orders, having
for their object a general movement of the army towards the east.[165]
Alten’s division was now positively ordered to Nivelles; Cooke’s
division of guards, which had been ordered to collect at Ath, some
thirteen miles south-west of its headquarters at Enghien, was now
ordered on Braine-le-Comte, eight miles south-east of Enghien; and the
second and fourth divisions, and the cavalry of Lord Uxbridge, which
constituted the extreme right of the army and had been cantoned between
Ath and Audenarde on the Scheldt, were now ordered to Enghien. Enghien
is about eight miles north-west of Braine-le-Comte, which is about nine
miles west of Nivelles, which in its turn is about seven miles west of
Quatre Bras. No orders were issued to the reserves.
Up to this point we can go by the records. But here we encounter
serious difficulties in the evidence. Everybody knows that, somehow or
other, the Duke of Wellington collected the next day at Quatre Bras a
considerable part of his army. We also know that it has been claimed
that during the night of the 15th and 16th the Duke ordered the whole
army to Quatre Bras. We shall presently have occasion to describe how
the Dutch-Belgian troops got there without his orders; but our task now
is to examine the orders which Wellington gave after the despatch of
those the substance of which has just been given, and his Report of
the campaign, and also his own doings on the morning of the 16th, and
see what light these documents and doings throw upon the statements and
claims which have been made and set up in his behalf.
The Duke’s official report,[166] dated Waterloo, June 19th, seems to
contain express reference to three sets of orders.
“I did not hear,” he says, “of these events [the French attack on
the Prussian posts on the Sambre] till in the evening of the 15th;
and I immediately ordered the troops to prepare to march,” that is,
by the orders which were sent off between 5 and 7 o’clock P.M., “and
afterwards,” that is, by the orders issued at 10 o’clock, “to march
to their left, as soon as I had intelligence from other quarters to
prove that the enemy’s movement upon Charleroi was the real attack.”
Then, after stating how the Prince of Orange reinforced the brigade
of Prince Bernhard at Quatre Bras, and had, early in the morning of
the 16th, regained part of the ground which had been lost the evening
before, he goes on to say:—
“In the meantime,”—that is to say, before the “early morning,”—“I had
directed the whole army to march upon Les Quatre Bras.”[167]
Müffling says[168] that, towards midnight,[169] the Duke entered his
room, and said:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account