Napoleon and Grouchy by Paul L Dawson

Author:Paul L Dawson
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Napoleonic Wars
ISBN: 9781526700698
Publisher: Frontline Books
Published: 2017-06-30T04:00:00+00:00

The mission of Colonel Marbot

Both General Berton and Colonel Marbot, of the 7th Hussars, state that reconnaissance patrols were sent out to link with Grouchy. No paperwork from 1815 exists at all to confirm this. However, it is not impossible that this did occur. The first reference to this was written in 1818, but it may very well be an elaborate case of false memory of what should have happened, rather than what did happen, as the author, General Berton, was writing to blame Grouchy for the loss of Waterloo. But his story seems to have a ring of truth about it, otherwise why would Grouchy have written to Marbot about the latter’s own recollections of the day? Clearly Berton’s writings had a grain of truth in them. Berton comments the following about the night of 17 June:15

Since Quatre-Bras, the division of Domon was detached to scout along the left bank of the Dyle, along to the Brussels road; the 4th Regiment of Chasseurs passed the bridge at Moustier, where his skirmishers opened fire with their carbines at the Prussian cavalry. With the onset of night, the division returned and bivouacked to the right of headquarters.

If this is correct, then Domon found the same column that Milhaud had spotted earlier that day. So clearly, if Berton is telling us the truth, headquarters now had intelligence of the Prussians still being on the right bank of the Dyle at Moustier. Was it in response to this news that Marbot was sent off? He writes:16

The 7th Hussars, of which I was colonel, was part of the light cavalry division attached to the 1st Corps forming, on 18 June, the right wing of the army that the emperor commanded in person.

At the beginning of the action, about eleven o’clock, my regiment was detached from the division, along with a light infantry battalion, which was placed under my command. These troops were established as a reserve at the far right, behind Frischermont facing the Dyle.

Specific instructions were given to me from the emperor by his aide-de-camp, General La Bédoyère, and an aide, that I cannot remember the name of, specified that I was to leave most of my troop always in view of the battlefield, and I was to take 200 infantry into the woods of Frischermont, establish a squadron in Lasne, then move towards the positions at Saint-Lambert with another squadron, place half at Couture, and half at Beaumont, which were to send out reconnaissance patrols along the Dyle, and towards Moustier-Ottignies. The commanders of various detachments had to leave quarter of a mile between each outpost, forming a contiguous string along on the battlefield, so that by means of hussars, galloping from one post to the other, the officers on reconnaissance might inform me quickly before they met the vanguard troops of Marshal Grouchy, who were to arrive on the side of the Dyle. I was finally ordered to send directly to the emperor all the reconnaissance reports.

I executed the order that

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