Napoleon: A Biography

It must have been obvious to the merest lieutenant in Grouchy's corps
that the Emperor's overall intention was to impede a junction between
the two Allied armies and that preventing this had to be Grouchy's main
aim. At Wavre Blucher sent BUlow on a flank march west to Waterloo; if
Grouchy had used even moderate intelligence and sent just part of his
force west, they would have come upon Bulow and prevented his rescue
mission. But Grouchy's idiocy did not end there. Having assured
Napoleon that he would be setting out at first light for Wavres, he
delayed departure from Gembloux until 10 a.m. When firing was heard
from the direction of Waterloo after midday, Grouchy's senior generals,
Gerard especially, urged him to turn round and march to the sound of
the guns. Grouchy refused.
There can be no excuses or exculpation for this clear dereliction of
duty. A marshal of France was supposed to be a man of initiative and
intelligence, not an automaton blindly obeying orders; it was Grouchy's
clear duty to head in the direction of the fighting, as the great Desaix had
done at Marengo. When he heard that the plodding Grouchy was
determinedly heading towards him at Wavres, Blucher sent word to
Bulow on no account to be swayed from his mission. Grouchy deserves
every syllable of the scathing judgement Napoleon eventually passed on
his incompetent subordinate: 'Marshal Grouchy, with 34,000 men and

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Battle ofWaterloo

18June 1815

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