Memoirs of the Private Life, Return, and Reign of Napoleon in 1815 Volume II Part 12

4th Corps.

Infantry 12,000 Cavalry 1,500 Cavalry of Pajol 2,500 ------ 30,500

Cavalry of Excelmans 2,600 Cuira.s.siers of Milhaud 2,600

35,700

Artillery, horse and foot 2,250 And 112 pieces of ordnance.

CENTRE AND RESERVE.

_Under the Emperor._ 6th Corps.

Infantry 11,000 Old guard 5,000 Middle guard 5,000 Young guard 4,000 Horse grenadiers 1,200 Dragoons 1,200 27,400 Artillery, horse and foot 2,700 And 134 pieces of ordnance.

_Recapitulation._

Infantry 87,500 Cavalry 20,800 Artillery, horse and foot 7,350 Engineers 2,200

Total 111,850 Pieces of ordnance 362]

Marshal Grouchy, with the 3d and 4th corps, and the cavalry of Generals Pajol, Excelmans, and Milhaud, was placed on the heights of Fleurus, and in advance of them.

The 6th corps and the guard were in echelon between Fleurus and Charleroi.

The same day the army of Marshal Blucher, ninety thousand strong, collected together with great skill, was posted on the heights of Bry and Sombref, and occupied the villages of Ligny and St. Amand, which protected his front. His cavalry extended far in advance on the road to Namur[45].

[Footnote 45: General Blucher had not had time to collect the whole of his forces.]

The army of the Duke of Wellington, which this general had not yet had time to collect, was composed of about a hundred thousand men scattered between Ath, Nivelle, Genappe, and Brussels.

The Emperor went in person, to reconnoitre Blucher's position; and penetrating his intentions, resolved to give him battle, before his reserves, and the English army, for which he was endeavouring to wait, should have time to unite, and come and join him.

He immediately sent orders to Marshal Ney, whom he supposed to have been on the march for Quatre Bras, _where he would have found very few forces_, to drive the English briskly before him, and then fall with his main force on the rear of the Prussian army.

At the same time he made a change in the front of the imperial army: General Grouchy advanced toward Sombref, General Gerard toward Ligny, and General Vandamme toward St. Amand.

General Gerard, with his division, five thousand strong, was detached from the 2d corps, and placed in the rear of General Vandamme's left, so as to support him, and at the same time form a communication between Marshal Ney's army and that of Napoleon.

The guard, and Milhaud's cuira.s.siers, were disposed as a reserve in advance of Fleurus.

At three o'clock the 3d corps reached St. Amand, and carried it. The Prussians, rallied by Blucher, retook the village. The French, entrenched in the churchyard, defended themselves there with obstinacy; but, overpowered by numbers, they were about to give way, when General Drouot, who has more than once decided the fate of a battle, galloped up with four batteries of the guard, took the enemy in the rear, and stopped his career.

At the same moment Marshal Grouchy was fighting successfully at Sombref, and General Gerard made an impetuous attack on the village of Ligny. Its embattled walls, and a long ravine, rendered the approaches to it not less difficult than dangerous: but these obstacles did not intimidate General Lefol, or the brave fellows under his command; they advanced with the bayonet, and in a few minutes the Prussians, repulsed and annihilated, quitted the ground.

Marshal Blucher, conscious that the possession of Ligny rendered us masters of the event of the battle, returned to the charge with chosen troops: and here, to use his own words, "commenced a battle, that may be considered as one of the most obstinate mentioned in history." For five hours two hundred pieces of ordnance deluged the field with slaughter, blood, and death. For five hours the French and Prussians, alternately vanquished and victors, disputed this ensanguined post hand to hand, and foot to foot, and seven times in succession was it taken and lost.

The Emperor expected every instant, that Marshal Ney was coming to take part in the action. From the commencement of the affair, he had reiterated his orders to him, to manoeuvre so as to surround the right of the Prussians; and he considered this diversion of such high importance, as to write to the marshal, and cause him to be repeatedly told, _that the fate of France was in his hands_. Ney answered, that "he had the whole of the English army to encounter, yet he would promise him, to hold out the whole day, but nothing more."

The Emperor, better informed, a.s.sured him, "that it was Wellington's advanced guard alone, that made head against him;" and ordered him anew, "to beat back the English, and make himself master of Quatre Bras, cost what it might." The marshal persisted in his fatal error.

Napoleon, deeply impressed with the importance of the movement, that Marshal Ney refused to comprehend and execute, sent directly to the first corps an order, to move with all speed on the right of the Prussians; but, after having lost much valuable time in waiting for it, he judged, that the battle could not be prolonged without danger, and directed General Gerard, who had with him but five thousand men, to undertake the movement, which should have been accomplished by the twenty thousand men of Count Erlon; namely, to turn St Amand, and fall on the rear of the enemy.

This manoeuvre, ably executed, and seconded by the guard attacking in front, and by a brilliant charge of the cuira.s.siers of General Delore's brigade and of the horse grenadier guards, decided the victory. The Prussians, weakened in every part, retired in disorder, and left us, with the field of battle, forty cannons and several standards.

On the left, Marshal Ney, instead of rushing rapidly on Quatre Bras, and effecting the diversion, that had been recommended to him, had spent twelve hours in useless attempts, and given time to the Prince of Orange to reinforce his advanced guard. The pressing orders of Napoleon not allowing him, to remain meditating any longer; and desirous, no doubt, of repairing the time he had lost; he did not cause either the position or the forces of the enemy, to be thoroughly reconnoitred, and rushed on them headlong. The division of General Foy commenced the attack, and drove in the sharpshooters, and the advanced posts. Bachelu's cavalry, aided, covered, and supported by this division, pierced and cut to pieces three Scotch battalions: but the arrival of fresh reinforcements, led by the Duke of Wellington, and the shining bravery of the Scotch, the Belgians, and the Prince of Orange, suspended our success. This resistance, far from discouraging Marshal Ney, revived in him an energy, which he had not before shown.

He attacked the Anglo-Hollanders with fury; and drove them back to the skirts of the wood of Ba.s.su. The 1st of cha.s.seurs and 6th of lancers overthrew the Brunswickers; the 8th of cuira.s.siers defeated two Scotch battalions, and took from them a flag. The 11th, equally intrepid, pursued them to the entrance of the wood: but the wood, which had not been examined, was lined with English infantry. Our cuira.s.siers were a.s.sailed by a fire at arm's length, which at once carried dismay and confusion into their ranks. Some of the officers, lately incorporated with them, instead of appeasing the disorder, increased it by shouts of "Every one for himself (_sauve qui peut!_)"

This disorder, which in a moment spread from one to another as far as Beaumont, might have occasioned greater disasters, if the infantry of General Foy, remaining unshaken, had not continued to sustain the conflict with equal perseverance and intrepidity.

Marshal Ney, who had with him only twenty thousand men, was desirous of causing the first corps, which he had left in the rear, to advance: but the Emperor, as I have said above, had sent immediate orders to Count Erlon, who commanded it, to come and join him, and this general had commenced his march. Ney, when he heard this, was amid a cross fire from the enemy's batteries. "Do you see those bullets?"

exclaimed he, his brow clouded with despair: "I wish they would all pa.s.s through my body.". Instantly he sent with all speed after Count Erlon, and directed him, whatever orders he might have received from the Emperor himself, to return, Count Erlon was so unfortunate and weak as to obey. He brought his troops back to the marshal; but it was nine o'clock in the evening, and the marshal, dispirited by the checks he had received, and dissatisfied with himself, and others, had discontinued the engagement.

The Duke of Wellington, whose forces had increased successively to more than fifty thousand men, retired in good order during the night to Genappe.

Marshal Ney was indebted to the great bravery of his troops, and the firmness of his generals, for the honour of not being obliged, to abandon his positions.

The desperation, with which this battle was fought, made those men shudder, who were most habituated to contemplate with coolness the horrors of war. The smoking ruins of Ligny and St. Amand were heaped with the dead and dying: the ravine before Ligny resembled a river of blood, on which carca.s.ses were floating: at Quatre Bras there was a similar spectacle! the hollow way, that skirted the wood, had disappeared under the b.l.o.o.d.y corses of the brave Scotch and of our cuira.s.siers. The imperial guard was every where distinguished by its murderous rage: it fought with shouts of "The Emperor for ever! No quarter!" The corps of General Gerard displayed the same animosity. It was this, that, having expended all its ammunition, called out aloud for more cartridges and more Prussians.

The loss of the Prussians, rendered considerable by the tremendous fire of our artillery, was twenty-five thousand men. Blucher, unhorsed by our cuira.s.siers, escaped them only by a miracle.

The English and Dutch lost four thousand five hundred men. Three Scotch regiments, and the black legion of Brunswick, were almost entirely exterminated. The Prince of Brunswick himself, and a number of other officers of distinction, were killed.

We lost, in the left wing, near five thousand men, and several generals. Prince Jerome, who had already been wounded at the pa.s.sage of the Sambre, had his hand slightly grazed by a musket shot. He remained constantly at the head of his division, and displayed a great deal of coolness and valour.

Our loss at Ligny, estimated at six thousand five hundred men, was rendered still more to be regretted by General Gerard's receiving a mortal wound. Few officers were endued with a character so n.o.ble, and an intrepidity so habitual. More greedy of glory than of wealth, he possessed nothing but his sword; and his last moments, instead of resting with delight on the remembrance of his heroic actions alone, were disturbed by the pain of leaving his family exposed to want.

The victory of Ligny did not entirely fulfil the expectations of the Emperor. "If Marshal Ney," said he, "had attacked the English with all his forces, he would have crushed them, and have come to give the Prussians the finishing blow: and if, after having committed this first fault, he had not been guilty of his second folly, in preventing the movement of Count Erlon, the intervention of the 1st corps would have shortened the resistance of Blucher, and rendered his defeat irreparable: his whole army would have been taken or destroyed."

This victory, though imperfect, was not the less considered by the generals as of the highest importance. It separated the English army from the Prussians, and left us hopes of being able to vanquish it in its turn.

The Emperor, _without losing time_, was for attacking the English on one side at daybreak, and pursuing Blucher's army without respite on the other. It was objected to him, that the English army was intact, and ready to accept battle; while our troops, hara.s.sed by the conflicts and fatigue of Ligny, would not perhaps be in a condition, to fight with the necessary vigour. In fine, such numerous objections were made, that he consented to let the army take rest. Ill success inspires timidity. If Napoleon, as of old, had listened only to the suggestions of his own audacity, it is probable, it is certain, and I have heard General Drouot say it, that he might, according to his plan, have led his troops to Brussels on the 17th; _and who can calculate what would have been the consequences of his occupying that capital?_

On the 17th therefore, the Emperor contented himself with forming his army into two columns; one of sixty-five thousand men, headed by the Emperor, after having joined to it the left wing, followed the steps of the English. The light artillery, the lancers of General Alphonse Colbert, and of the intrepid Colonel Sourd, kept dose after them to the entrance of the forest of Soignes, where the Duke of Wellington took up his position.

The other, thirty-six thousand strong, was detached under the orders of Marshal Grouchy, to observe and pursue the Prussians. It did not proceed beyond Gembloux.

The night of the 17th was dreadful, and seemed to presage the calamities of the day. A violent and incessant rain did not allow the army, to take a single moment's rest. To increase our misfortunes, the bad state of the roads r.e.t.a.r.ded the arrival of our provision, and most of the soldiers were without food: however, they gaily endured this double ill luck; and at daybreak announced to Napoleon by repeated acclamations, that they were ready to fly to a fresh victory.

The Emperor had thought, that Lord Wellington, separated from the Prussians, and foreseeing the march of General Grouchy, who, on pa.s.sing the Dyle, might fall on his flank, or on his rear, would not venture to maintain his position, but would retire to Brussels[46]. He was surprised, when daylight discovered to him, that the English army had not quitted its positions, and appeared disposed, to accept battle. He made several generals reconnoitre these positions; and, to use the words of one of them, he learned, that they were defended "by an army of cannons, and mountains of infantry."

[Footnote 46: This conjecture was well founded: but Blucher, who had escaped Grouchy, had formed a communication with Wellington through Ohaim, and promised him to make a diversion on our right. Thus Wellington, who had prepared to retreat, was induced to remain.]

Napoleon immediately sent advice to Marshal Grouchy, that he was probably about to engage in a grand battle with the English, and ordered him, to push the Prussians briskly, to approach the grand army as speedily as possible, and to direct his movements so as to be able to connect his operations with it[47].

[Footnote 47: I have heard, that the officer, who carried this order, instead of taking the direct road, thought proper to take an immense circuit, in order to avoid the enemy.]

He then sent for his princ.i.p.al officers, to give them his instructions.

Some of them, confident and daring, a.s.serted, that the enemy's position should be attacked and carried by main force. Others, not less brave, but more prudent, remonstrated, that the ground was deluged by the rain; that the troops, the cavalry in particular, could not manoeuvre without much difficulty and fatigue; that the English army would have the immense advantage of awaiting us on firm ground in its intrenchments; and that it would be better, to endeavour to turn these. All did justice to the valour of our troops, and promised, that they would perform prodigies; but they differed in opinion with regard to the resistance, that the English would make.

Their cavalry, said the generals who had fought in Spain, are not equal to ours; but their infantry are more formidable, than is supposed. When intrenched, they are dangerous from their skill in firing: in the open field, they stand firm, and, if broken, rally again within a hundred yards, and return to the charge. Fresh disputes arose; and, what is remarkable, _it never entered into any one's head_, that the Prussians, pretty numerous parties of whom had been seen towards Moustier, might be in a situation to make a serious diversion on our right.