the Emperor's advance. Wellington was obsessed with the idea that the
movement towards Charleroi was a feint preparatory to an attack on
Mons. He responded by concentrating on his outer, not his inner, flank,
thus increasing the gap between him and Blucher. Military historians
have severely criticized Wellington for fastening on this unlikely scenario,
as a French attack on the open flank would simply have driven the two
Allied armies together. So it was that by the evening of the 15th
Napoleon had successfully interposed himself between the two enemy
forces. Returning that night from the Duchess of Richmond's reception
in Brussels - 'the most famous ball in history' as it has been called -
Wellington finally realized he had been gulled: 'Napoleon has humbugged
me, by God!'
But the Emperor's plans were also going awry. He gave the simple task
of capturing the crossroads at Qu atre Bras (an important road junction
uniting main routes north-south and east-west) to Ney and Grouchy,
who predictably made a mess of the task. Consumed with lethargy the
two marshals halted that night before achieving their objective. Their
excuse was that the enemy was in possession of Q!tatre Bras. The reality
was that just 4,ooo troops, mainly Dutch, were ensconced there under
Prince Bernhard of Saxe-Weimar. An energetic commander with the
huge superiority in numbers enjoyed by Ney could simply have swatted
such a small force aside. But when the Dutch beat off Ney's skirmishers,
the 'bravest of the brave' allowed himself to be deceived into thinking
there was a considerable Allied force there; apparently the shoulder-high
rye grass had successfully concealed the exiguous numbers of the Dutch.
So egregious was Ney's incompetence on this occasion that some of his
biographers have speculated that he was suffering from moral paralysis,
still brooding on the conflict between his fidelity to Bonaparte and the
oath of loyalty he had taken to Louis XVIII. This would be more
convincing had not Ney displayed similar folly .on numerous other
occastons.
Next day he proved the point that he was always singularly useless
unless some daredevil escapadewas�alled for. When Napoleon learned at
2 a.m. on the 16th that Qu atre Bras was still in enemy hands, he had to
shelve his plan to press on to Brussels to attack Wellington (once again he
had changed his mind). He decided to make a virtue of necessity and
attack Blucher at Ligny, using Ney's forces for the coup de grace. While
Grouchy engaged the Prussian left and Napoleon hurled the bulk of his
troops at the centre, Ney was to complete the 'mopping up' operations at
Q!tatre Bras, then swing right to Ligny and fall on the Prussian right
flank.
marcin
(Marcin)
#1