The Battle of Waterloo: Europe in the Balance by Rupert Matthews

Author:Rupert Matthews [Matthews, Rupert]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: History, Military, Napoleonic Wars, Strategy, Non-Fiction
Amazon: B00YCSLNES
Goodreads: 25679869
Publisher: Arcturus
Published: 2015-05-31T23:00:00+00:00

D’Erlon’s movements – a missed opportunity

Jean-Baptiste Drouet, Count d’Erlon, had been having an extremely trying day. He had woken at dawn at Jumet, just north of Charleroi. With him he had two of his four divisions, the other two having been held up trying to get over the narrow bridges over the Sambre. He had in his hands Ney’s orders from the previous evening that he was to concentrate his corps into a compact body as the enemy were only a few kilometres north. D’Erlon therefore waited for his two rear divisions to come up before starting the march north up the main road to Quatre Bras and Brussels.

He had reached Gosselies when his cavalry scouts out to the west sent in an urgent message that large columns of the enemy were approaching. D’Erlon at once halted his advance and began deploying his corps to give battle. The columns turned out to be elements of Wellington’s scattered army heading for Quatre Bras. They ignored the French cavalry scouts and were unaware of d’Erlon’s presence. Once this was established, d’Erlon continued his march north. At this point he received Ney’s order to halt at Frasnes and await further orders.

D’Erlon and his forward units reached Frasnes, where a temporary headquarters was established. D’Erlon then rode back to hurry up his rear units. At about 3.30 pm Napoleon’s personal ADC, Charles de la Bédoyère, arrived in Frasnes with an order to d’Erlon from Napoleon. De la Bédoyère used his position to ‘speak as if he were the emperor’. In the absence of d’Erlon he gave his message to General Delcambre, d’Erlon’s chief of staff. The orders were to march on Ligny and Saint-Amand to attack the Prussians, with whom Napoleon was engaged in battle.

Delcambre turned to his subordinate, General de Salle, and ordered him to get the corps moving in accordance with Napoleon’s instructions. He then rode off to find d’Erlon, while de la Bédoyère rode back to Napoleon. As the units of I Corps came up to Frasnes, de Salle turned them east towards Ligny. Delcambre found d’Erlon, who then galloped off to get to the head of his corps as it marched on Ligny.

By 5.30 pm he was approaching Ligny, and it was at this point that he and his men were spotted by French and Prussian cavalry scouts. Those sightings precipitated the final moves at Ligny that led to the Prussian defeat.

At 6 pm, however, Ney’s order to d’Erlon instructing him to come to Quatre Bras finally caught up with the commander of I Corps. He now had totally contradictory orders. Ney wanted him at Quatre Bras, Napoleon wanted him at Ligny. The standard procedures of the French army were quite clear about how an officer should behave in such circumstances. An officer had a duty to obey his immediate superior (Ney) unless a more senior commander (Napoleon) were actually on the spot and issuing orders.

D’Erlon compared the two sets of orders. Napoleon’s gave the impression that the battle at Ligny was going well and that d’Erlon was only desired to come and help out.

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