CHAP. VI. 1815. BOOK XV. enemy was soon seen advancing with all his force for another struggle. As they came near, the fire of the artillery slackened, and the bloody struggle began. The moment was pressing. The duke, who stood with the 92d regiment, turned to them, and said with energy, "92d, you must charge these fellows." The order was cheerfully obeyed. They rushed against the black battalions with an ardour nothing could resist. At this moment, Colonel Cameron, and three other officers of rank, were mortally wounded. In the former, his country sustained a severe loss. He was indeed a brave man. His death roused the spirit of the highlanders to fury-they pressed the enemy with such infuriated rage, that their vast columns fled before this daring band, leaving the field covered with the dead, dying, and wounded. The 92d followed them for a mile, till they came near the main body of the enemy, and till the re-advance of the cavalry rendered it prudent for them to retire, which they did to a wood, where they remained during the remainder of the engagement. Meanwhile the battle raged in the centre and on the right. The enemy attempted to separate the divisions of the British army as they came up, but without success. He, however, still held the wood, which, in some measure, commanded the right of the allied position. It was of the greatest importance to obtain the possession of it. The division of the guards, under General Maitland, had newly come up, and were immediately commanded by the Duke of Wellington to drive them from this point. They advanced to the charge, and the tirailleurs of the enemy fled before them. Driven into the wood, the enemy defended himself with the greatest obstinacy, disputing every inch of ground, and making every tree a rampart, from behind which he annoyed the British. It was at length cleared; but scarcely had the British troops passed it, when they were attacked by the French cavalry repeatedly, and with the greatest fury; but the guards, imitating the heroic conduct of the 5th division, repulsed all their attacks. The enemy charged in amongst them, and were almost cut to pieces, with comparatively little loss a square of black Brunswickers, on this occasion, behaved firmly, and occasioned the enemy great loss. Their light troops, however, advanced in such numbers, that they again obtained possession of the wood; but after three hours severe fighting, it was finally wrested from them; and the guards, though they sustained considerable loss, retained undisputed possession of this important post, which commanded the road to Brussels. The enemy were now in great confusion; but as Ney had left the 1st corps in reserve, he determined to renew the combat; and these troops being fresh, he thought of overwhelming the British with superior numbers. On sending for it, however, he was much mortified at finding that Bonaparte had called it away to his own aid against the Prussians. He, therefore, ordered the reserve of the second corps to cover his broken battalions; and at length retired to his original position at Frasnes, leaving the British complete masters of the field-of-battle. up The loss of the British in this action was very severe; and as the cavalry and artillery had not come up, they fought under every disadvantage. Including the number of gallant officers, the loss amounted to 2,251 killed and wounded, and thirty-one missing. The whole, including that of the Hanoverians, Dutch, Belgians, Brunswickers, &c. consisted of about 5,000 men. The loss of the enemy was also very considerable, as he acknowledged it to amount to 4,200. The field-of-battle, which was confined to a narrow space, was thickly covered with the slain. The groans and lamentations of the wounded and dying, to whom little relief could be afforded, was dismal and distressing, and filled the hearts of the survivors with pain and anguish. The numbers of dead round Quatre Bras was very great. The walls of the houses were, in many places, covered with blood, which had spouted in streams from the wounded, who retired to lean against them, in order to support their dying bodies. An orchard of four acres, which was thickly planted with fruit-trees, had, in many of them, from 80 to 100 balls. In a house at Place Nay, 300 holes were made in the walls and roof, from the number of bullets which had penetrated into it. In one cellar, lay five of the imperial guards, who had been dispatched by the 79th regiment; and a well contained the bodies of twenty Frenchmen. Their putrid remains had completely spoiled the water. Indeed, all the water on this bloody field, as late as the 25th, was quite red, stagnating in puddles, and the smell from it most offensive. In this battle, every regiment in the British army was eager to distinguish itself. During the operations, a Scotch regiment was, for a considerable time, unemployed by any French column, though exposed to a fire of round shot. The officers, who had a complete view of the field, saw the 42d, and other battalions, warmly engaged in charging:-the young men could not brook the contrast presented by their inactivity. "It will," said they, "be the same now as it always has been !-the 42d will have all the luck of it. There will be a fine noise in the newspapers about that regiment, but the devil a word of us." Some of their elders consoled them by assuring them of the probability that, before the day was over, they would have enough of it." This regiment was soon afterwards called into action, and behaved with great gallantry. It was reduced to a mere skeleton; and the greater number of those fine spirited youths, who expressed this impatience, were laid on the field, in cold and silent lifelessness, before the evening. We must now return to the military operations between Blacher and Bonaparte. While Marshal Ney was engaged with the allies under the Duke of Wellington, Bonaparte had marched with the whole of his remaining force against the Prussian army, posted at Sombref. Marshal Blucher occupied a strong position on a line where three villages, built upon broken ground, served each as a separate redoubt, defended by artillery and infantry; his right wing occupied the village of St. Amand, his centre Ligny, and his left Sombref. The ground behind these villages was considerably elevated; a deep ravine in front of this elevation. The villages were iu front of the ravine, and masses of infantry were stationed behind each. The force with which Bonaparte advanced to the attack of the Prussians has never been exactly ascertained; but it probably amounted to about 100,000 men. It appears to have been Bonaparte's intention to turn the principal part of his force against the Prussian general, before he could be supported by the army under the Duke of Wellington. He calculated upon giving the Prussian army a decisive defeat, separating it from the British general, and forcing it back upon Maestricht. As Blucher was informed that Wellington had put some troops in motion to support him, and expecting the arrival of the fourth corps of his army in the evening, he determined to give battle. On approaching the Prussian army, Bonaparte found some change in his dispositions necessary. He "changed front, the right in advance, and pivoted upon Fleurus." The third corps, under Vandaume, marched upon St. Amand. Girard, with the fourth corps, marched against Ligny; Grouchy upon Sombref, while the reserve, or sixth corps, with the rest of the cavalry, the guards, and the cuirassiers of General Milhaud, were drawn up on the heights of Fleurus. The battle began at three in the afternoon by a furious cannonade from the French; and nearly 200,000 men, and 500 pieces of cannon commenced the work of mutual destruction. The first effort was to turn the right of the Prussian army. Lefol's division of Vandamme's corps attacked the village of St. Amand. The Prussians defended it most gallantly; but the French, charging with the bayonet, succeeded in gaining possession of it, and established themselves in the church and church-yard. As this village was the key of their right wing, the Prussians made several desperate attempts to regain it; and the combat bere was peculiarly obstinate and bloody. Each side, at this point, was supported by 50 pieces of artillery. At length the village The action BOOK XV. ́ was recovered again by the enemy. meanwhile, extended along the whole line; as Bonaparte directed a vast number of troops CHAP. VI. against the third corps of the Prussian army stationed at Sombref. It was at Ligny, however, that the combat was most severe and destructive. Having been repulsed in endeavouring to turn the right here, the enemy attempted to force the centre of the Prussian army. This memorable village stands upon a small river of the same name, a tributary stream to the Sambre. It was large and solidly built, and in the centre of the Prussian line. The utmost efforts of the French were directed against this important point, and the most determined bravery, on the part of the Prussians, was exercised to defend it. Two hundred pieces of cannon, from both sides, were directed against this devoted spot. The battle round this was terrible and bloody. It was maintained hand to hand, and man to man, for seven hours. Both sides continued to bring up fresh troops, and while the contest, from time to time, continued to rage in other parts of the line, it never ceased for one moment at Ligny. Alternate attempts were made to wrest this place from each other for upwards of four hours. "Prince Blucher, in person, sword in hand, continually led his troops to the combat." The artillery of the enemy was planted on the right bank of the rivulet, and that of the Prussians on the left bank. Each side had, behind that part of the village which they occupied, great masses of infantry, which maintained the combat, and whose ranks were continually renewed by reinforcements, which they received from the rear and also from the heights, both on the right and on the left. The movements on the bloody field were confined to a very narrow space. The enemy stated, that the village of Ligny "was taken and re-taken several times." But Blucher says, " villages have often been re-taken, but here the combat continued for five hours in the villages themselves, and the movements were confined to a very narrow space." The charges of the cavalry were numerous, severe, and destructive. In one of these charges, on the part of the Prussians, which was led on by Blucher in person, but which proved unsuccessful, that brave general had a very narrow escape from either death or captivity. The enemy, in their turn, advanced. A shot struck the marshal's horse. Furious from the pain, the animal darted forward, till exhausted it dropped down dead. It fell, however, upon its gallant rider, who, stunned by the fall, lay entangled under it. The French cuirassiers advanced-the last Prussian horseman had passed their chief, without knowing his situation. One adjutant alone remained. He alighted beside him, resolved to share his fate.. 1815. CHAP. VI. 1815. BOOK XV. by without seeing the veteran chief. The Prussian cavalry returned to the charge. The enemy were driven back, and again passed him without perceiving his helpless situation; and then, and not till then, the gallant Blucher was extricated from his perilous state. "Heaven," said the Prussian account, "in this instance watched over us." Blucher thus extricated, mounted a dragoon horse, and the first words he uttered were, "well, my brave fellows, let us charge them again." In the mean time, the combat continued at all points with unabated fury. "Part of the village of St. Amand was re-taken, by a battalion commanded by the field-marshal in person."The recapture of part of this village, and, in consequence thereof, of a height adjoining thereto, seemed to throw a gleam of hope on the Prussian arms. From the map it appears, that Blucher was here very near separating the enemy's line, and turning the left of his main body, which was attacking him. This bright prospect was, however, but of short duration. At this moment, accounts were received that the English division, destined to support them, was violently attacked by a French corps, and that it could barely maintain itself at Quatre Bras. The fourth corps, under Bulow, had not made its appearance, as had been calculated upon; and no pros pect remained of deriving any benefit from its assistance during the day. The Prussians "invoked, but invoked in vain, the arrival of those succours which were so necessary." Ligny was still held-there the combat raged with the same fury, and with an equality of success. The Westphalian and Berg regiments fought at this point. A whole company of the former fell in the court-yard of the church, and on the terrace before it lay fifty dead. Each side made a fortress of the houses occupied by them. The enemy held one end of the village, and the Prussians the other. The French were driven out four times, and as often resumed the ground which they had lost: at length the village was set on fire by the enemy, and the combatants fought amidst the burning houses. All the Prussian divisions either were or had by this time been engaged. No fresh corps remained at hand to support them. The enemy, on the other hand, continued to pour forth fresh troops to the combat. But even his strength, numerous as it was, had been nearly exhausted. By seven o'clock," said he, "we remained masters of all the villages situated on the banks of the ravine, which cover ed the Prussian position." Part of these he had obtained, but not yet all. On the heights of Bussy and Ligny the Prussian masses still remained unshaken. A desperate effort became necessary, to decide the bloody day. "Almost all the troops," said the enemy, "had already been engaged in the villages." How hard he 66 was pressed, and how uncertain the combat long was, appears from Ney's letter, wherein we are informed that, without informing him, the emperor took away the first corps of the army to his assist. ance, as also a division of Girard's corps, which Ney depended upon for support. The emperor must, therefore, have been very doubtful of the issue of the combat where he was, before he would venture to withdraw half of his force from Ney, without consulting him. In fact, the bravery of the Prussians proved long equal to his fiercest attacks. At St. Amand, the destruction had been so great amongst the enemy's troops, that Bonaparte was, in reality, forced to call forward, in the greatest haste, the first corps to his assistance at this point. But by the time this force arrived, the Prussians had been compelled to abandon this place. It was then sent back to Ney; but it arrived too late to render him any assistance. At Sombref, on the Prussian left, General Thielman, with the third corps, remained immoveable against all the efforts of the enemy. Bonaparte, therefore, resolved to complete his success by one of those skilful and daring manoeuvres which characterised his tactics. In the village of Ligny, which fronted the centre of the Prussian line, he drew up the imperial-guard, which he had hitherto kept in reserve. Eight battalions of these troops formed into one solid column, supported by four squa drons of cavalry, two regiments of cuirassiers, and the horse-grenadiers of the guard, traversed the village at the pas-de-charge, threw themselves into the ravine which separates the village from the heights, and began to ascend them, notwith. standing a dreadful fire of grape and musketry from the Prussians. Their advance, however, was not stopped, nor even in the smallest degree shaken by this fire; but, boldly coming up the heights of Bussy, they made such an impression on the masses of the Prussian line as threatened to break through the centre of their army. The combat at this moment was truly dreadful, but the impetuosity of the French grenadiers surmounted every obstacle, and cut their way through the opposing ranks with a horrible carnage. The division of Pecheaux, supported by the cuirassiers, having made a circuit round Ligny, came from both sides at once, unobserved, upon the main body of the Prussian force at this point, which was posted behind the houses. At the same moment also the Prussian cavalry, which were posted on a height behind the village, were repulsed in repeated attacks upon the French cavalry. I was now dark. "The movement made by the enemy," said Blucher, " was decisive." Neverthe less, though thus surrounded, and in the shade of night, which heightens the idea of danger in the human mind, the Prussian columns behind Ligny did not suffer themselves to be discouraged, "Formed in masses, they coolly repulsed all the attacks made upon them; and this corps retreated in good order upon the heights, whence it continued its retrograde movement upon Tilly." In consequence, however, of this sudden eruption of the enemy's cavalry, the artillery belonging to the Prussian army, in their precipitate retreat, got into defiles, in which they fell into disorder, and Blucher acknowledged that fifteen pieces were taken by the enemy. The Prussian army retreated during the night, and the next morning was followed by General Thielman, with the third corps, who retired upon Gembloux, where the fourth corps, under Bulow, had arrived during the night. The whole army then retreated upon the village of Wavre, where Blucher established his head-quarters. The French did not attempt to pursue them. The loss of the Prussians, in the battle of Ligny, amounted to at least 20,000 men; that of the French was also severe. Although hostilities had commenced only on the preceding day, yet, in this short space of time, upwards of 40,000 men had fallen in the three armies. Great, however, as this destruction was, it is triffling to what followed. The repulse of the enemy at Quatre Bras was of The most essential service; and, while it added the greater praise to the British troops, which effected The whole without the assistance of cavalry or artillery, against an enemy superbly provided with both, it prevented Ney, with the force under his command, from turning the right wing of the allied army as Bonaparte had calculated upon. Had this taken place, at the same moment when the Prussian army was driven from their position, it might have been attended with the most disastrous consequences; and the two allied armies would probably have been separated from each other. But in consequence of the first corps having been withdrawn from the assistance of Ney, that officer was prevented from gaining any advantage; and he was much chagrined when he found that it had been ordered away. When Bonaparte had succeeded in his attack against the Prussians, he sent the first corps back again to Ney; but it was so late when it arrived, he could make no use of it, as the remainder of the British army had come up. Ney afterwards ac used Bonaparte of causing this corps to march backwards and forwards during the day without being of any service to either party: but it is easy to find faults after errors are committed. The truth is, that both Ney and his master, before the battles of the 16th, had the most perfect confidence that their force was quite sufficient to carry all their objects into execution; but the bravery of their adversaries confounded all their calculations; Bonaparte found the Prussians braver than he expected; and, therefore, it was necessary to brie up more troops to make them yield. As he did Succeed, however, without the help of that CHAP. VI. corps, it was a most unfortunate circumstance for BOOK XV. him that he deprived Ney of its services; for the failure of that officer in consequence, at Quatre Bras, was unquestionably the primary cause of all those terrible disasters which followed. While the Prussian army was retreating, the the Duke of Wellington, and the army under his command, remained on the field-of-battle at Quatre Bras. The British general was here exposed to the same privations as the meanest soldier. The open field was his pillow. Fatigued and cold towards the morning, he became anxious for a fire, which, after some difficulty, the soldiers of the 92d regiment kindled. Every one was eager to render him assistance or comfort, and he seemed in these trifling instances to feel greatly the attention of the troops towards him. He had been joined by the cavalry and artillery and the rest of the army. By the morning of the 17th, he had placed the whole in the position of Quatre Bras, and was combining his measures to attack Ney at Frasnes, when he received a dispatch from Blucher, informing him of the unfortunate result of affairs on his side. The retreat of the Prussian army rendered a corresponding movement, on the part of the British general, abso lutely necessary, in order to maintain his communication with the Prussians. He accordingly resolved on retreating towards Brussels, which was done in the most perfect order. Such were the results of the sanguinary combats of Ligny and Quatre Bras, where, according to Marshal Soult, the overthrow was terrible, and the effect theatrical. The emperor had, indeed, at one point beaten, but not broken, the line, so far as to compel the allies to choose other ground to re-form it; but from that he was not able to derive any material advantage, and certainly none such as he had anticipated. Although the allies had found it necessary to retreat, yet he did not attempt to pursue them. Their bravery on the 16th, had taught him that he must move with caution; and it was now necessary for him to remould his plans, to recruit and re-organize his strength; and to be certain that, in the next engagement, no corps of his army should march backwards and forwards, during a whole day, doing nothing. The bravery of the British troops had, in a particular manner, baffled his views; and till they were disposed of, he could neither turn a force against the Prussian army sufficient to" crush" it, nor could he march to Brussels in safety. In the battle of the 16th, both sides fought with the utmost resolution; but the French soldiers with the bitterest animosity. The first and third corps of the French army had hoisted the black flag, and resolved to give no quarter to their enemies. But the animosity of the French troops was particularly directed against the Prus 1815. 1815. BOOK XV. sians. "On the 15th, before Charleroy," said an official account to Davoust, "several squares of PrusCHAP. VI. sian infantry were broken by some squadrons. Of 5 or 6,000 men, who composed those squares, only 1,700 could be saved." The Moniteur, however, comes closer and more boldly to the point. On the 16th, said that paper," the firing of our troops against the Prussians, whose govern ment has been the principal instigator of this unjust war, was such, that the emperor was obliged to order the recal to be beaten three times, for the purpose of enjoining the making of prisoners, and the stopping the carnage." The policy that could dictate or tolerate such a system as this, must have been short-sighted indeed. It was an evil which was certain to work its own cure; and and through means which the beart recoils to think on. The consequence of this conduct, on the part of the enemy, was, that the anger of the Prussians was kindled to fury and retribution, stern and unrelenting; and their comrades' blood nerved their arms and steeled their hearts to future combats. The retreat of the allied armies gave, the French an opportunity, at which they are adepts, and which, at this time, was peculiarly necessary, namely, to claim great and brilliant victories; and also to anticipate the most happy and decisive results in their favor. Bulletin after bulletin was transmitted by telegraph to the interior, and to the shores of the ocean, to announce that the emperor" had completely beaten the united ar mies of Wellington and Blucher." Three of these dispatches were received at Boulogne, on the morning of the 18th. Paris was illuminated. The most extravagant joy was manifested by the friends of the emperor. The artillery was fired by bundreds. The waves of the channel heard with amazement the terrible echo; and the chalky cliffs of Albion remained in suspense and fear. The whole vanity and arrogance of the ambi tious and thoughtless French people were again brought forward to public notice. "His majesty," said the Moniteur," was to enter Brussels the day after this glorious action, in which, it is said, the safety of the general-in-chief, Wellington, is compromised." The official accounts published by the minister at war adopted even a loftier tone, "The noble lord (Wellington) must have been confounded. There were, upon the field-ofbattle, eight enemies to one Frenchman!" Continuing this strain of exultation and irony, the account proceeds:-" Whole bands of prisoners are taken. We do not know what is become of their commanders. The route is complete on this side, and I hope we shall not soon hear again of these Prussians, if they should ever be able to rally at all. As for the English, we shall see what will become of them. The emperor is there." CHAPTER VII. Remarks upon the Plans of the allied Generals.-Marshal Grouchy sent to observe the Prussians, while Bonaparte proceeds against the British Army.—Skirmishes.—Repulse of the Enemy by the Life-guards.—Retreat of the British Army to Waterloo.-Dreadful State of the Weather-Views of Bonaparte.-State of Brussels and its Vicinity during the Battles of Ligny and Quatre BrasStrength of the French and allied Armies on the Morning of the 18th.-Their Positions. IN consequence of the retreat of the British and Prussian armies, it was generally supposed that the allied commanders had been inattentive, and not sufficiently upon their guard, in allowing Bonaparte thus to attack them unprepared, and, as it were, in detail with the force under his direction. There is, however, little ground for this supposition; for Blucher, as we have already seen, was not off his guard. It was absolutely necessary, in order to procure sustenance to the troops, to have them in extensive cantonments. "The combined armies," said Lord Castlereagh, "it has been found expedient to distribute where sustenance could most easily be procured. The Duke of Wellington and Prince Blucher could not concentrate this force without leaving a large portion of the frontier of the King of the Netherlands open to the incursions of the French." For this purpose Brussels, and the surrounding coun try, was certainly the best chosen. From thesce they could be removed, with the greatest celerity, to any point on the frontiers of the Netherlands If Bonaparte had attacked that country from be tween Valenciennes and Lisle, as he might have done, and as his march upon Beaumont indicated that he might attempt, then the allied troops could reach the frontiers to oppose him, as soon as he could move his army from Avesnes to that point. It was by no means improbable that the enemy would make an attempt first in that quarter; be P |