It must have been obvious that speed was essential if this operation was
to be successful. But Ney compounded his tardiness of the 15th with
lethargy on the 16th, and made no move until the early afternoon. His
inactivity allowed Wellington, who arrived at Qu atre Bras at 10 a.m., to
ride eight miles for a conference with Blucher; he advised him not to
offe r battle if Napoleon appeared. The incredible French sloth was later
blamed on a confusing order from Soult which read: 'the intention of His
Majesty is that you attack whatever is before you and after vigorously
throwing them back, join us to envelop this corps.' Crucially the orders
did not make it clear that the Ligny operation was at all times to have
priority and that Ney should not commit himself at Qu atre Bras to the
point where he could no longer take part in the main battle. But a good
general understands his commander-in-chief's intentions and grasps
strategy as a whole; this kind of intellectual grip was quite beyond the
Prince of the Moskova.
Finally Ney bestirred himself. If he had launched an attack at any time
before 2 p.m. on the 16th, he would easily have wrested the crossroads
from the Allies. Then for an hour 8,ooo Anglo-Dutch (there had been
reinforcements) held 4o,ooo French troops at bay while Ney advanced
with exaggerated caution, terrified that the enemy might have extra men
in concealed positions. By 3 p.m. the defenders were on the point of
cracking when suddenly General Picton's 8,ooo-strong division arrived.
For a while the two fo rces fought a furious seesaw engagement but then
around 4.30 fu rther large-scale reinforcements arrived under the Duke of
Brunswick and tipped the scales in the Allies' favour.
A furious Ney, seeing victory snatched from his grasp, lost control of
himself and ordered Kellermann's cavalry to charge the British infantry
unsupported. At around 5 p.m. the dauntless horsemen formed up for
what looked like a suicide mission. Against all the odds, they nearly
succeeded, but then the British brought up heavy guns; the combination
of artillery and packed infantry devastated the heroic French cavalry. By
6.30 p.m. the race to get reinforcements to Qu atre Bras had been easily
won by Wellington. With 36,ooo men he felt confident enough to order a
large-scale counterattack, and by 9 p.m. he had regained all the ground
taken by the French during the day. The French had taken 4,ooo
casualties, the Allies 4,8oo (half of them British).
With Ney's non-appearance at Ligny, the French did not achieve their
aims there either. On the morning of the 16th Napoleon wrote: 'In three
hours the fate of the campaign will be decided. If Ney carries out his
orders thoroughly, not a man or gun of this army in fr ont of us will get
away.' At first the battle went according to plan. French cannonades
marcin
(Marcin)
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