CHAPTER XI.

THE BATTLE OF LIGNY.

Marshal Blücher had taken up a position, which although in some respects determined by the nature of the ground, was nevertheless intended to secure two objects,—first, his line of communications with Namur, and an unobstructed march for his expected IVth Corps, Bülow’s, and, secondly, his avenue of communication with the Anglo-Dutch army, from which he expected to receive at least some assistance in the course of the afternoon. It thus came about that the centre of the Prussian army was at Sombreffe,—that the line of the right wing ran through the villages of Ligny and St. Amand in a south-westerly direction, and that that of the left wing ran from Sombreffe through the hamlet of Mont Potriaux to Tongrinelle and Balâtre in a south-easterly direction. This left wing consisted entirely of the IIId Corps, Thielemann’s. It contained 22,051 infantry, 2,405 cavalry, and 48 guns.[339] The Ist Corps, Zieten’s held the front of the centre and right wing, and was supported by the IId Corps, that of Pirch I., throughout its whole extent. These two corps contained 56,803 infantry, 6,093 cavalry, and 176 guns.[340] The right wing was “in the air”; it was possible to turn it completely, by way of St. Amand and Wagnelée. Behind Ligny and St. Amand, and on commanding ground, was the village of Brye. Blücher’s whole force thus consisted of 87,352 men, of whom 8,498 were cavalry,—with 224 guns.

Napoleon, having finished giving his orders shortly after nine, arrived at Fleurus about 11 A.M.[341] He busied himself, while the troops were arriving, with examining the enemy’s position. From the tower of an old and disused windmill in the outskirts of the town he made, it is said, his first observations. Then he went,—without his staff, as his custom was before a battle,—partly on horseback and partly on foot, along the front of the enemy’s position, seeing for himself everything that could be seen. By the time the troops had arrived in the neighborhood of Fleurus, he had formed his plan. He had not, however, correctly estimated the numbers of the force opposed to him; the nature of the ground prevented his being able to see all the enemy’s troops.[342]

The more natural and obvious plan for Napoleon would have been to direct his attack upon the exposed Prussian right wing, and to operate in conjunction with the column under Marshal Ney, so far as that might seem expedient. By moving upon Wagnelée and Brye, he would turn the position of St. Amand, and almost certainly secure a victory. But Napoleon did not see in this operation any chance of inflicting a decisive blow.[343] At most, he would only have defeated an exposed wing of the enemy’s army. There would have been nothing to prevent its falling back upon the centre and left wing. The Prussians would no doubt be worsted, but their defeat could hardly be of a character to cripple them. Nor would their communications be in the slightest degree imperilled.

What Napoleon determined on was an operation far more decisive. He saw that that part of the Prussian army which lay in the neighborhood of Sombreffe, Tongrinelle and Balâtre, placed there, as it had been, for the purpose of protecting the communications with Namur, would in all probability not dare to move from its position, and would accordingly not be able to take any active part in the battle. He would therefore have to deal only with that portion of the enemy’s army which lay between Sombreffe and St. Amand,—say, two-thirds of their entire force. He also saw that if the enemy’s centre, between Ligny and Sombreffe, could be broken, the Prussian right wing would be separated from the rest of the army, and that he might hope to overwhelm it. He saw also one other thing. If, at or about the time when this success should be obtained, a strong column from Marshal Ney’s command could march down the Quatre Bras-Namur turnpike and move upon Brye, that success would almost certainly be of the most decisive character.[344] Attacked in front and rear at the same time, its connection with the rest of the army severed, surrounded by superior numbers, the utter rout of that part of the Prussian army was inevitable. (See Map 6.)

At one o’clock the French army had arrived, and was in and about Fleurus. The Emperor threw the 4th Corps, Gérard’s, about 16,000 strong,[345] with 38 guns, far to the right, opposite the whole front of the village of Ligny; the 3d Corps, Vandamme’s, about 19,000 strong,[346] with 38 guns, connected with the left of the 4th Corps, and, assisted by Girard’s division of the 2d Corps, about 4,300 strong,[347] with 8 guns, menaced the Prussians in the village of St. Amand; while the cavalry of Pajol and Exelmans, to the number of about 6,500 men,[348] with 24 guns, supported by Hulot’s division of the 4th Corps, observed the Prussian left wing,—stationed from Sombreffe to Balâtre. The Guard, with Milhaud’s Cuirassiers, in all about 22,000 men, with 102 guns,[349] was kept in reserve, near Fleurus, ready to strike the final blow when the enemy in Ligny and St. Amand should have been sufficiently weakened by a continuous struggle of three or four hours. The whole force consisted of 67,787 men, of whom 13,394 were cavalry, with 210 guns.[350] These dispositions consumed perhaps an hour or more. At 2 o’clock the chief-of-staff, Soult, wrote[351] to Marshal Ney, informing him that, at half-past two Marshal Grouchy, with the 3d and 4th Corps, would commence an attack on a Prussian corps stationed between Sombreffe and Brye; that it was the Emperor’s intention that Ney should also attack the enemy before him; and, after having vigorously driven them, should fall back upon the main army to join in enveloping this Prussian corps, of which mention had just been made.

Then, at half-past two precisely, the battle began;[352] Gérard vigorously attacked Ligny,—Vandamme and Girard, St. Amand. With equal vigor did the Prussians defend their positions. The engagement immediately became very hot, and very sanguinary. Both sides fought with singular determination. In less than an hour Napoleon was convinced that he had more than a single corps to deal with,—as he had written to Ney,—it was an army. The success, therefore, could be made more decisive than he had at first thought possible, if only at the proper time Ney’s coöperation could be secured. Without that coöperation, indeed, he was practically sure of victory; it was plain to him that the Prussians in the villages of Ligny and St. Amand and its neighboring hamlets, and on the heights in the rear of these villages, were becoming exhausted, and were suffering terribly from the fire of his guns, to which their position on the heights exposed them;[353] he knew that when the proper moment arrived he could defeat them; but he wanted something more than a defeat; he saw that the rout or capture of this part of the Prussian army was a certain thing if Ney could only make that movement from Quatre Bras upon their right and rear, of which he had spoken in his 2 o’clock order. Hence at a quarter-past three Soult wrote to Ney again,[354] urging him to manœuvre at once, so as to envelop the enemy’s right, and to fall on his rear. He told him that the Prussian army was lost if he acted vigorously; that “the fate of France was in his hands.” “Thus,” the order proceeds, “do not hesitate an instant to make the movement which the Emperor orders, and direct yourself on the heights of Brye and St. Amand to assist in a victory perhaps decisive.”

The officers who carried these orders had some thirteen miles to ride, about six miles on cross-roads, as far as Gosselies, and the remainder on the great Brussels turnpike, on which d’Erlon’s troops were marching towards Frasnes. Their errands could not have been performed in less than two hours,[355] and as a matter of fact they required three hours. Napoleon could hardly have expected the first order to reach Ney much before 5 P.M., and the second hardly before 6 P.M. The distance from Quatre Bras to Marbais, where the road branches off from the Namur turnpike in the direction of Wagnelée, is nearly four miles. If then at 5 o’clock it should be in Marshal Ney’s power to execute the 2 P.M. order, his troops might be looked for or heard from in the direction of Marbais about 7 o’clock. If he should be unable to obey the 2 o’clock order, but should be able to execute the 3.15 order, his movement down the Namur road might be looked for about 8 o’clock.

The battle then went on with unabated determination and with heavy loss on both sides. Blücher reinforced his troops from time to time; in this way he exhausted his reserves; nearly all his divisions were brought under fire. Napoleon on the other hand was exceedingly chary of giving aid to the two corps engaged; he wished to keep his reserves as large as possible; at half-past five he had employed ten thousand fewer men than his adversary.[356] At this time, also, the 6th Corps was well on its way from Charleroi. The hour was approaching, too, when Ney’s coöperation might be expected.

Up to this time Napoleon had remained in his position in front of Fleurus;[357] it was a central position, and nothing had called for his personal superintendence elsewhere.

But now he prepared to strike the decisive blow. He determined to put in the Guard. He proposed to send to Vandamme the infantry division known as the Young Guard, and one of the two brigades of the division known as the chasseurs of the Guard;[358] the other brigade of this division he would place at the disposal of Gérard. He himself, at the head of the infantry division of grenadiers of the Guard, known as the Old Guard, with all the artillery of the Guard, with Guyot’s division of the heavy cavalry of the Guard, and Milhaud’s division of cuirassiers of the line,—to take the place of Lefebvre-Desnouettes’ division of light cavalry of the Guard which was with the left wing under Marshal Ney,—prepared to carry the village of Ligny, and the commanding heights above and to the right of the village, thereby breaking the centre of the enemy’s line.

At this moment, however, word came from Vandamme that a column of the enemy was seen debouching from a wood some two miles away, and apparently marching on Fleurus. This was not the quarter in which the expected reinforcement from Ney was looked for. Curiously enough, Vandamme did not ascertain what this column was. Why he should not have done this it is not easy to see. Had he sent a patrol to find out who these troops were, time would have been saved, and time, at that hour in the day, was most important. The Emperor sent one of his own aides to ascertain the facts; and, pending his report, suspended the projected attack. The battle went on as before, but Blücher drew more and more from his centre and left wing to support his right at St. Amand and the neighboring villages.

In something less than two hours the aide returned. The troops which Vandamme had reported advancing were those of d’Erlon’s Corps.[359] All anxiety was relieved. Napoleon naturally concluded[360] that d’Erlon had been sent by Ney, and would immediately move on Brye. He instantly resumed the suspended movement.[361] Before half-past seven, Vandamme had received his reinforcements, and had renewed the fight with energy. At the same time the Emperor, at the head of the grenadiers and cavalry of the Guard and of Milhaud’s cuirassiers, marched for the village of Ligny, of which the eastern portion was already in the possession of Gérard’s Corps. The Prussians, though fighting desperately, were speedily overcome; the village was carried; the brook of Ligny, a serious obstacle for both cavalry and artillery, was crossed on the bridges in the town; and at half-past eight o’clock[362] the French troops, passing out of the northern end of the village, deployed on the heights lying between that village and Sombreffe, and ascended the plateau, the key to the field of battle, on which stood the windmill of Bussy. The Prussian troops which Blücher had allowed to remain on this part of the line offered a stout but ineffectual resistance. The old Marshal himself came up from St. Amand, where he had wrongly supposed that the crisis of the battle was being decided, and at the head of a body of cavalry fiercely charged the victorious French. In one of the encounters his horse was killed, he himself was badly bruised, and came very near being taken prisoner.

Meantime, the Prussians fell back from St. Amand and the neighboring villages, which were at once occupied by Vandamme. Brye, however, was held until midnight by Pirch I. with a strong rear guard, and Thielemann occupied Sombreffe and Point du Jour. The corps of Zieten, followed finally by that of Pirch I., retreated on Tilly, a town just north of Sombreffe, and in the direction of Wavre.

The Prussians lost[363] in this battle about 18,000 men killed and wounded; and, a day or two afterwards, about 10,000 or 12,000 more, who would seem to have done their duty in the fight, abandoned their colors, and retired towards Liége. These men belonged to provinces which had formerly been part of the French Empire, and their sympathies were with Napoleon.[364] The French captured some thousands of the Prussian wounded, and 25 or 30 guns. The French loss was between 11,000 and 12,000 men.[365]

The battle was over at about half-past nine. The 3d Corps established itself in bivouac beyond St. Amand and Wagnelée; the 6th Corps occupied the plateau of Bussy; the 4th Corps was on the right of the 6th, with one division at and near Potriaux. The Guard and Milhaud’s cuirassiers occupied a line behind these troops.[366] At 11 P.M. the Emperor returned to Fleurus,[367] where he established his headquarters.

All parts of the French army on the field had taken part in this action except the 1st and 6th Corps. The 1st Corps retired towards Frasnes soon after it had been seen. As for the 6th Corps, the order to Lobau, which was not sent until 2.30 P.M., could not have reached him in his bivouac near Charleroi till 3.30 P.M. He had eight miles to march before reaching Fleurus; he was then directed on Ligny, and he passed through Ligny, just after the successful attack of that place by the Imperial Guard, to his final position on the plateau of Bussy, between Brye and Sombreffe, where he arrived about 9.30 P.M.[368] It has been considered singular, that when Lobau arrived at Fleurus, say, about 7.30 P.M.,[369] he should have been directed on Ligny, apparently to support the movement of the Guard; whereas if he had been instructed to move on Brye by passing around St. Amand and Wagnelée it would seem that he might have struck the defeated Prussians in flank and rear, and accomplished substantially what Napoleon expected from Ney. But the withdrawal of the 1st Corps could only be explained by the supposition that Ney had encountered the English in considerable force; and under these circumstances Napoleon may have deemed it wiser to retain the 6th Corps as a reserve for the whole army.[370]

The battle of Ligny was a great victory, although it was not a decisive victory. Napoleon had diminished by one-third the strength of his opponent’s army, and had also driven him from the field. He had certainly achieved a great success. But the advantage obtained was not all that he had a right to expect. Had it not been for the appearance of d’Erlon’s Corps in the neighborhood of St. Amand, the attack by the Guard would have been made at half-past five o’clock, when there would have been sufficient daylight left to have made it possible to follow up the victory. On such a result as would have been obtained in this event Napoleon had a right to calculate, and that he did not obtain such a result was in no way his fault.[371] For the purpose therefore, of estimating the adequacy of the Emperor’s measures to the task before him, and the danger which Marshal Blücher ran when he accepted battle, we should consider what would have been the result, if the attack of the Guard had been made two hours earlier than it was made, and there had been two hours of daylight in which to complete the defeat and to pursue the enemy.

As for the coöperation of Ney, that is a different matter. Napoleon could not know what resistance Ney might encounter; hence he could not calculate on his overcoming that resistance and sending a reinforcement to the main army,—he could only hope that Ney would be able to do this. If Ney should be able to keep off the English, all that Napoleon had a right to calculate on would be effected. Whether Ney could have accomplished more than he did accomplish will be considered in another place.

Owing, then, to the postponement of the attack on the Prussian centre caused by the unexpected apparition of a large body of troops (the 1st Corps), in a quarter where it threatened the French left, the victory of Ligny was by no means so complete as it otherwise would have been. Darkness came on before the Prussians, retiring from St. Amand and the neighboring hamlets, could be vigorously pressed. Nevertheless, the victory of Ligny had disposed of Blücher for thirty-six hours, at the very least. It gave Napoleon an opportunity of attacking Wellington the next day without danger of interference from the Prussians. And as this success had been achieved with no loss at all on the part of the 1st and 6th Corps and with a trifling loss on the part of the Guard, Napoleon was in excellent condition to take advantage of the opportunity thus presented. That is to say, the decision of Marshal Blücher to accept battle when he had collected only three-fourths of his army, and the inability of the Duke of Wellington to render him any assistance, had produced this result at the close of the second day of the campaign,—that one of the allied armies had been badly beaten, and that Napoleon was perfectly free to attack the other the next day with superior forces, most of which consisted of fresh troops.

FOOTNOTES:

[339] Charras, vol. 1, p. 155, n.

[340] Ib., p. 155, n.

[341] Charras, vol. 1, p. 145.

[342] Ib., p. 150.

[343] For a further discussion of this subject see the Notes to this chapter.

[344] “A movement that would certainly have obtained an immense victory.” Jomini, p. 223.

[345] Charras, vol. 1, p. 155, n. The division of Hulot and the cavalry of Maurin were stationed opposite the bend in the enemy’s line, beyond Ligny. Ib., p. 161.

[346] Ib., p. 155, n.

[347] Charras, vol. 1, p. 155, n.

[348] Ib., p. 155, n.

[349] Ib., p. 155, n.

[350] Ib., p. 155, n. This is exclusive of the 6th Corps, which was in reserve. It numbered 10,465 men, with 32 guns.

[351] Doc. Inéd., XIII, p. 40; App. C, xxv; _post_, pp. 383, 384.

[352] The battle of Ligny has often been described. Charras, La Tour d’Auvergne, Thiers, on the French side, Clausewitz and Ollech on the German side, give excellent descriptions. Siborne’s account is also very clear and good. It is unnecessary to repeat the details here.

[353] Sir Henry Hardinge, speaking to the Duke of Wellington, said: “When you had examined the Prussian position, I remember you much disapproved of it, and said to me, ‘if they fight here they will be damnably mauled.’”

* * * The Duke added: “They were dotted in this way—all their bodies along the slope of a hill, so that no cannon ball missed its effect upon them.” Stanhope, p. 109. _Cf._ Hooper, p. 96.

[354] Doc. Inéd., XIV, p. 42; App. C, xxvi; _post_, p. 384.

[355] The Duke of Elchingen—Doc. Inéd., p. 41—estimates the distance at nearly five leagues, that is, 12-1/2 miles, and allows two hours for the time occupied. Charras, vol. 1, page 204, n., makes the distance six leagues (15 miles) and estimates the time at three hours.

[356] Charras, vol. 1, p. 166.

[357] Ib., p. 164.

[358] Sometimes classed as part of the Old Guard, as in Charras, vol. 1, p. 67 and La Tour d’Auvergne, p. 48, and sometimes as “the Middle Guard” (_la Garde moyenne_). See “Napoléon à Waterloo,” p, 315, n. 1; p. 325.

[359] We shall consider in another place how d’Erlon’s Corps came to be there. Shortly after it was seen by Vandamme it retired to Frasnes.

[360] La Tour d’Auvergne, p. 135: Jomini, pp. 138, 139.

[361] There was no delay, as suggested by Siborne, vol. 1, p. 218. From where the Guard had been stationed to the northerly end of the village of Ligny, where it was put in, was at least two miles and a half. Only a small part of this distance had been traversed before the news from Vandamme caused a halt.

[362] Charras, vol. 1, p. 175, n. 2: letter from Soult to Joseph Bonaparte.

[363] Charras, vol. 1, p. 179, where he discusses the Prussian authorities. _Cf._ Muquardt, p. 139, n.

[364] _Cf._ Gneisenau, vol. 4, pp. 381, 382. Müffling: Passages, pp. 204, 205, 223. Siborne, vol. 1, pp. 302, 303.

[365] Charras, vol. 1, p. 180.

[366] Ib., pp. 177, 178.

[367] Ib., p. 179.

[368] Charras, vol. 1, p. 178.

[369] Charras (vol. 1, p. 184) thinks it was not later than 6.30 P.M. when the 6th Corps reached Fleurus.

[370] Charras (vol. 1, pp. 184, 185) severely criticises this decision.

[371] Unless he erred in arresting the attack of the Guard on the appearance of the strange corps. See _post_, p. 174, note 8.

_NOTES TO CHAPTER XI._

1. Napoleon has been often blamed because he did not begin the battle of Ligny till between two and three o’clock in the afternoon. We have spoken of this criticism before, and recur to it now merely to repeat that the greater part of this delay may (in all probability) be accounted for by his wish that his own advance-movement should be contemporaneous with that of the left wing, one-half of which was far in the rear. There was probably also an unusual amount of time spent in examining the position of the enemy.

Clausewitz[372] is undoubtedly right in saying that

“If the actual tactical shock of battle could have been arranged to take place in the morning of the 16th, it would have been an enormous mistake in Napoleon to have delayed it, for Blücher was collecting his troops at that time, and, as the whole force of the Prussians [including Bülow’s Corps, which for anything Napoleon knew to the contrary, might arrive during the day] was far superior to the 75,000 men which he could use against it, nothing was so important as to offer battle before it was all got together.”

It is also true,[373] that, had Napoleon advanced early in the morning with the main body of his army, leaving Ney to push forward with the left wing as soon as he could, he would have been able to interrupt the formation of the Prussian line of battle, and would not have been in the least interfered with by the Anglo-Dutch army. But Napoleon, although it is plain from his letters to Grouchy and Ney that he did not expect to find either the Prussians or the English in great force, preferred on the whole to make his own advance coincide in point of time with that of Marshal Ney. He could not estimate with any certainty the number of troops which Blücher might have on the heights of Ligny or within call; he could not know how large a part of his army Wellington had been able to collect. Hence he decided to defer his own movement until Ney was ready, or, at least, ought to have been ready, with all the troops which had been assigned to him, to protect the left flank of the main army from all danger of an attack by the Anglo-Dutch forces.

The question is one on which different opinions will always exist. The course adopted by Napoleon was unquestionably the one most in accordance with the principles of war. Whether a chance of success justifies a departure from the practice of those principles, or whether such a departure is warranted only in cases of emergency, is the real question. We have no room to discuss it further here.

2. Napoleon’s plan of battle at Ligny has been severely criticised. Clausewitz,[374] Rogniat,[375] Marshal Davout,[376] are especially pronounced in their opinion that Napoleon should have manœuvred so as to turn the Prussian right, and not to pierce their centre. The question is thus stated by Rogniat:

“We arrived upon their right flank; reason counselled us to attack this wing; in this way we should have avoided in part the defiles of the brook; we should have approached our own left wing, which was fighting at Quatre Bras, so that both armies could have helped each other, and finally we should have thrown the Prussians far from the English, in forcing them to retire on Namur.”

To this Napoleon[377] replied from St. Helena:

“The question in this battle was not that of separating the English from the Prussians; we knew that the English could not be ready to act till the next day; but here the point was to hinder that part of the IIId Corps of Blücher which had not joined him by 11 A.M., and which came by way of Namur, and also the IVth Corps, which came from Liége by way of Gembloux, from uniting [with the Ist and IId Corps] on the field of battle. In cutting the enemy’s line at Ligny, his whole right wing at St. Amand was turned and compromised; while by simply becoming masters of St. Amand, we should have accomplished nothing.”

In other words, Napoleon defends his plan of battle by showing that it aimed at a decisive tactical success; that its accomplishment would practically have destroyed half of the Prussian army; which an attack upon the exposed right wing would not have effected. He contends that the Prussians being, as they certainly were, on this day, completely separated from the English, the best thing he could possibly do was to take advantage of their faulty formation, and cut off and destroy the two exposed corps. This he calculated he could effect with the troops he had in hand. Then he undoubtedly hoped that he would get assistance from Ney in this operation.[378] The order to Ney at 2 P.M. shows this beyond a question; and this order was reiterated at a quarter-past three. Napoleon said to Gérard during the battle,[379] “It is possible that in three hours the issue of the war may be decided. If Ney executes his orders well, not a cannon in the Prussian army can escape capture. That army is taken _en flagrant délit_.” This last expression occurs also in the 3.15 P.M. order. The possibility of Ney’s sending a force down the Quatre-Bras-Namur turnpike to take the exposed Prussian right wing in rear, was therefore an additional reason for inclining him to make his main attack at Ligny, and thereby isolate this wing, with the hope of surrounding and destroying it. That he had no right to count on Ney’s coöperation is certainly true, as has been stated above; but then Napoleon believed that he could carry out his plan without Ney’s coöperation, and that if Ney should assist him, his success would be overwhelming.

To the reasons advanced by Rogniat for making the main attack upon the right flank of the Prussians, Marshal Davout adds another:—[380]

“He ought not to have left the Prussian army between himself and Marshal Ney; because, in that case, if he should beat the Prussians, he would force them to retire in the direction of the English.”

To the same effect Clausewitz[381] asks, “whether Bonaparte ought to have arranged his attack so as to drive Blücher towards Wellington, or so as to push him away from him,”—implying that the result of the battle as fought by Napoleon had the former effect.

“If,” says Clausewitz, “Bonaparte had attacked St. Amand with his right wing, Wagnelée with his left, and had advanced with a third column against the road from Brussels,[382] the Prussians, if they lost the battle, would have been forced to retreat along the Roman road, that is, towards the Meuse, and a union with Wellington in the days immediately following the battle would have been very uncertain, perhaps impossible.”

We can have no hesitation in admitting that if the Prussians had been driven in the direction of the Meuse as the result of the battle, they could not have afforded aid to the English on the 18th of June. But we can hardly believe that if Napoleon had destroyed their Ist and IId Corps, which he expected would be the result of his plan of battle, the Prussians could possibly have afforded any further assistance to the English. Still, while the decision of the Prussian generals after the battle to maintain their communication with the Duke of Wellington, and to come to his assistance at Waterloo with their whole army, was not arrived at merely or chiefly because the two corps which had been beaten at Ligny were able to fall back in a northerly direction instead of in an easterly direction, in retiring from the field of battle,[383] it is certainly true that this fact did make the task easier of accomplishment; it saved time, also. At the same time, it did not affect in any way the risk involved in the operation,—that of renouncing for the time being their line of supplies.

3. We have seen that Napoleon believed that Ney’s intervention, which, as we have seen, might have occurred at the moment when the Prussian centre was being pierced, would have gained him a great victory. But Clausewitz[384] asks: “Why was it inevitable that 10,000 men in the rear of the strong Prussian army of 80,000 men, in an open country, where one can see on all sides, should bring about its complete overthrow?” In other words, Napoleon was not warranted (so Clausewitz contends) in expecting such a decisive success, even if Ney should send 10,000 men down the Namur road.

But Clausewitz has not in his question, above quoted, put the case quite fairly. The question which Napoleon considered was this:—What would in all probability be the effect upon two Prussian corps, numbering at the commencement of the action not over 63,000 men, attacked vigorously for three or four hours, subjected during that time to a most destructive fire of artillery, reduced by casualties to a force not greatly exceeding 50,000 men, assailed in front by over 20,000 fresh troops in addition to their opponents of the last few hours, forced to make a precipitate retreat by having their connection with the rest of their army broken,—what would be the effect upon them at this moment of an unexpected and vigorous attack in rear of 10,000 fresh troops? Napoleon thought and said, that, in his judgment, the result would be the total rout of the two corps, the capture of all their guns and perhaps half of their men. It is probable that he was right in his opinion.

4. But how far was Napoleon warranted in expecting aid from Ney?

As to Ney’s whereabouts at the time when the 2 P.M. order should reach him, say, at 5 P.M., we have spoken before,[385] and have shown that, long before that hour, certainly as early as 4 P.M., the whole of the 2d Corps and the greater part of the 1st Corps ought to have arrived at Quatre Bras. In fact, it will be remembered that had Reille obeyed at once Ney’s order to him he would have arrived at Quatre Bras at noon; and there was nothing to prevent d’Erlon following promptly on his traces. Napoleon, it is true, as we learn from his own narrative, had heard of this vexatious delay, caused by Reille,—which he naturally but erroneously attributed to Reille’s superior, Ney,—but he still seemed to think it possible that Ney could be at Quatre Bras at noon, notwithstanding. This, to be sure, was absolutely out of Ney’s power, as we have seen; but there was no reason whatever why Ney should not have had long before 5 P.M. his whole command well in hand, at or in front of Quatre Bras. Napoleon was perfectly justified in assuming this to be the case.

But though Ney might well be at Quatre Bras with his whole force, he might yet be entirely unable to comply with the Emperor’s order to detach a force to attack the Prussians in rear.

Clausewitz[386] points out that Ney with his 40,000 men could easily encounter 50,000 to 60,000 English and Dutch. This is certainly true. It may be added that the last dispatch[387] sent to Ney informed him that an officer of lancers had just informed the Emperor that large masses of the enemy were to be seen near Quatre Bras. This information was incorrect, as a matter of fact, yet it was believed to be true at the time the despatch was written. Of course the truth may have been ascertained before the 2 P.M. order was sent to Ney; but we do not know this for a fact. There was certainly no reason why Napoleon should have felt certain that Ney would find it possible to send troops to his assistance; it all depended upon the forwardness of the concentration of the Duke of Wellington’s army; and as to this Napoleon could but guess,—he had no information at all.

5. If Napoleon, then, could not rely with any certainty on Ney’s assistance, was he justified in adopting a plan of battle, to the full success of which Ney’s coöperation was essential? Would it not have been wiser for him to have adopted the plan recommended by Rogniat, Davout and Clausewitz, and to have thrown his whole force on the exposed right wing of the Prussians?

This question cannot be properly answered without a careful examination of the tactical conditions, and this no one of Napoleon’s critics has attempted with any detail. We will leave the matter, therefore, with this single observation. Napoleon, when he had completed his examination of the Prussian position, saw that there were open to him two plans of attack, each giving excellent promise of success. He chose the one which in his judgment offered the greater chance of success, independent of Ney’s coöperation, and promised a decisive success if Ney’s coöperation could be secured. As it was, without Ney’s assistance, and in spite of an unfortunate accident which caused an injurious delay in the final attack, he gained a great victory. It hardly seems worth our while to speculate on what the results would have been if he had adopted the other plan.

6. Why did not Napoleon order d’Erlon’s Corps to remain and take part in the action? For not doing this he has been most severely criticised by Charras[388] and others. But Napoleon must have supposed that d’Erlon had come upon the field under orders from Marshal Ney expressly to remain and take part in the action. Why, then, should he send him any orders? Jomini, indeed, says[389] that Napoleon should have sent d’Erlon an order directing him on Brye. We can see now that this would have been wise; but it might well have appeared unnecessary at the time, inasmuch as the order of 2 P.M. by implication directs Ney’s troops on Brye. It must also be remembered that at this moment Napoleon had all he could attend to in organizing the decisive movement on Ligny.

If any other explanation than the above be needed, it has been furnished by Clausewitz.[390] He says that the lateness of the hour probably prevented Napoleon from directing personally the employment of the 1st Corps.

“Napoleon seems to have received information of the approach of this corps somewhere in the neighborhood of half-past five; it took till seven before the news that it was d’Erlon was brought him; it would have taken an hour before d’Erlon could have received the order, and another hour would have passed before he could have appeared in the neighborhood of Brye,” _i.e._, in obedience to such an order.

The inference is that Napoleon may well have thought it better to let d’Erlon proceed in obedience to the orders under which he was acting when he came upon the field.

7. We may fairly say that Napoleon fought few battles in his whole career more carefully and more skilfully than the battle of Ligny. The difference between a brave and zealous general of ordinary capacity and a master in the art was well illustrated on this field. Clausewitz’s remarks on this battle are very clear and instructive. We give them in full,—premising that the figures vary more or less from those which we have adopted.

[391]“If we get a picture of the whole battle, it is like all modern battles, a slow destruction of the opposing forces in the first line, where they touch each other, in a fire lasting many hours, subjected to only slight oscillations, till, at last, one part obtains a clear superiority in reserves, _i.e._, in fresh bodies, and then with these gives the deciding blow to the already wavering forces of the enemy.

“Bonaparte advances with about 75,000 men[392] against Blücher, whose three united corps form a force of 78,000 men,[393] that is of equal strength.

“With about 30,000 men he combats, from 3 o’clock till 8, the two chief points of Blücher’s position, St. Amand and Ligny. He employs some 6,000 men to occupy the IIId Prussian army corps, and with 33,000 he remains far behind the fighting line, quietly in reserve. Of these he employs 6,000 men finally to sustain the battle at St. Amand.

“As early as 6 o’clock he determines to give the deciding blow at Ligny with the Guard: at that moment he receives the information that a considerable corps has appeared on his left flank, about one hour’s march distant. Bonaparte stops his movement, for it might be a corps coming from the enemy at Brussels. The fact is, it was Frasnes against St. Amand. A troop of cavalry is sent in haste to reconnoitre this corps, but nearly two hours go by before the news comes back that it is the 1st French army corps. On this account the attack on Ligny does not take place till 8 o’clock.

“Even this blow Bonaparte does not give with the whole mass of his reserves, but only with about half of them, that is, with the Guard; the 6th Corps remains behind as a reserve.

“Blücher has in the beginning of the battle employed the Ist army corps of 27,000 men in the positions of Ligny and St. Amand, and the IIId, of 22,000 men, in that extending from Sombreffe to Balâtre, and has kept back only the IId, with 29,000 men, as a reserve. It is true that the IIId army corps could have been concentrated, since the enemy did not attack it in earnest, and it may have been looked upon as a reserve. Blücher, it is true, counted still on Bülow’s arrival; but it did not take place, and so the situation of the Prussian reserves remained always unfavorable. The IId army corps, that is, the reserves, were gradually, as we have seen, employed to sustain the battle. Nothing therefore remained to decide the battle even if the state of the battle had remained perfectly balanced, or even had turned out favorably for us.

“As the day ended, the situation of the opposing forces was somewhat as follows: Blücher had used up in the villages 38,000 infantry, who had suffered considerably, had in great part expended their ammunition, and must be looked upon as useless, in which there was not much more force. 6,000 infantry were stationed behind the villages, scattered in single battalions which had however not yet fought. The rest of the 56,000 men of the Ist and IId army corps were cavalry and artillery, of which only a small part was fresh.

“If the IIId army corps had been collected, or if it had been sufficiently provided for, it would have been a reserve of about 18,000 men; it could therefore have been said that Blücher had still 24,000 men in reserve.

“Bonaparte, although originally some few thousand men weaker than Blücher, had now, however, several thousand more fresh troops than that general: the cause of this was his keeping back more men, a greater economy of forces in the firing.

“This small[394] superiority of reserves would naturally not have decided much, but it must nevertheless be looked on as the first cause of the victory.

“The second reason was the unequal result which the firing had up to that time produced.

“It is true that when Bonaparte advanced against Ligny we still occupied part of this village, but we had then lost the rest; it is true that we still occupied a position between Wagnelée and St. Amand, but here, too, we had lost villages and ground; the engagement had therefore turned out everywhere a little to our disadvantage, and in such a case the preparations for the deciding blow are already made.

“The third and most important reason was, however, without doubt, the fact that Blücher did not have at his disposal the troops which had not yet fought, namely, the IIId Corps. It is true that the XIIth brigade was very near him, but that was too little: the IXth was also not far away; but of this, as well as of the whole of Thielemann’s Corps, there had been no thought; and the IIId Corps, therefore, as regards a decisive blow to be given by it, was as good as out of reach and could be used only for the retreat. Perhaps and very probably, this scattered disposition of Thielemann is to be looked upon as on the whole an actual advantage. If the IIId Corps had been at hand, it would have been employed also, without increasing the chances for a successful result, which, considering the turn which the whole affair had taken, could have been secured only by a decided superiority, such, in fact, as the arrival of Bülow’s Corps would have procured. And if the IIId Corps had been used, the loss in battle would probably have been greater by 10,000 men.”

We cannot leave this subject without calling attention to a remark[395] of Marshal Davout’s in his criticism of the Emperor’s conduct of this campaign. He speaks of him in connection with this battle as

“The Napoleon of the Moskowa, who, to make use of a vulgar expression, takes the bull by the horns; this was the reason why this battle was so bloody and so hotly fought, etc.”

How much justification there is for this remark appears from Clausewitz’s review of Napoleon’s tactics, which we have cited above. But Davout had a case to make out, apparently, and he desired to score a point at every stage of his criticism; an extremely common temptation, by the way, to which very many critics yield. As for the losses suffered by the French to which Davout refers, it must be remembered that Napoleon would have brought the action to a close two hours sooner, had it not been for the unexpected apparition of d’Erlon’s Corps; and that a good part of the French loss was suffered in those two hours. The same cause also operated to render the victory much less decisive than it otherwise would have been, as darkness came on before anything like pursuit could be attempted. Any fair criticism, therefore, of Napoleon’s conduct of the battle of Ligny ought to proceed on the supposition that this unlucky incident, for which a superserviceable staff-officer was solely responsible, had not occurred. On this supposition, then, the Prussian centre at Ligny would have been broken between 6 and 7 P.M., the losses of the French would have been much less, and their victory would necessarily have been much more complete.

8. The wisdom of Napoleon’s course in arresting the attack on the Prussian centre when the news of the appearance of a strange corps which might possibly consist of hostile troops was brought to him, has perhaps not received the attention it deserves. When Napoleon decided to wait till he should learn what this body of troops might be, he was all ready to give the finishing blow to the Prussian army. He was pretty certain to break up a large part of that army. If the unknown corps should turn out to have come from Ney, it was certainly in a position where it could play a most important part in the attack. If, on the other hand, it should turn out to have come from Wellington, Napoleon, provided only that he should have time enough to complete his contemplated stroke against Blücher, would probably be in a much better situation to deal with his antagonists than he could otherwise hope to occupy. It would seem, therefore, as if it was by no means clear that Napoleon took the wisest course when he deferred the main attack on the Prussians on the appearance of d’Erlon’s Corps.

9. It is not easy to see why Napoleon, certainly when he found that he would have to fight a battle at Ligny, should not have ordered the 6th Corps up to Fleurus at once, so that he might have it close at hand in case he needed it. The extreme importance of inflicting, if possible, a crushing defeat on the Prussians was so clearly seen by him, as his orders to Ney on the afternoon of the 16th and morning of the 17th abundantly show, that we cannot understand why he should not have availed himself of the aid of Lobau’s command. Lobau, even if he were not sent for until 11 A.M., could have been at Fleurus at or before 4 P.M.; and had he then been directed to march in rear of the troops of Vandamme and Girard which were fighting at and near St. Amand, he could have fallen upon the Prussian right and rear near Brye at or about half-past five o’clock, which was the moment when Napoleon was preparing for the decisive stroke at Ligny. Lobau could undoubtedly have accomplished all that Napoleon expected from Ney. And the coöperation of Lobau could have been arranged for without any chance of failure, while that of Ney was necessarily dependent on the situation in which he might find himself at Quatre Bras.

FOOTNOTES:

[372] Clausewitz, ch. 25, p. 53.

[373] _Cf._ Charras, vol. 1, pp. 182, 183.

[374] Clausewitz, ch. 34.

[375] Cons. sur l’Art de la Guerre, p. 339, cited in Corresp., vol. 31, p. 472.

[376] Davout, p. 545.

[377] Corresp., vol. 31, p. 472.

[378] Clausewitz (ch. 34, pp. 81 _et seq._) points out that Ney’s coöperation could not have formed an essential part of Napoleon’s plan of battle, for Napoleon “could not know whether Ney would be able to spare him a single man.”

[379] Corresp., vol. 31, p. 206.

[380] Davout, p. 545.

[381] Clausewitz, ch. 34, p. 83.

[382] It is not quite clear in which direction this column was to advance.

[383] Maurice, pp. 350, 351: July, 1890. Maurice thinks that the beaten troops must have crossed the turnpike, even if they were intending to retreat towards the Rhine.

[384] Clausewitz, ch. 31, p. 66.

[385] _Ante_, p. 133.

[386] Clausewitz, ch. 31, p. 65.

[387] Doc. Inéd., IX, p. 31; App. C, xxii; _post_, p. 381.

[388] Charras, vol. 1, pp. 170, 171, 183, 184.

[389] Jomini, p. 138.

[390] Clausewitz, ch. 34, p. 84.

[391] Clausewitz, ch. 32, pp. 73 _et seq._

[392] This includes the 6th Corps.

[393] Charras makes the Prussian army about 87,000 strong.

[394] Unless we include the IIId Corps among the Prussian reserves, the French superiority in reserves was very large; and Blücher, as Clausewitz goes on to state, did not have the IIId Corps at his disposal.

[395] Davout, p. 547.