Before We Continue ...

L'Aigle blessé¹
Monument to the French army at Waterloo
Source

Okay, I admit it, I enjoy writing about things that many people may not be familiar with. Now most folks know what the Battle of Waterloo was about, the British beat the French and Napoléon got sent to a rock off the coast of Africa (the island of Saint Helena to be exact). No, he didn't "surrender" at Waterloo, as much as I like the band ABBA, they got that wrong. And if you get your history from Ridley Scott films, well, perhaps you'd best move on.

Anyhoo, in this latest historical fiction of mine, I've tried to layout what could have given the French the victory. We're almost there, the Battle of Waterloo is imminent, but it's going to be smaller and perhaps even bloodier than the real thing. The French have virtually destroyed the Prussian Army, its commander and chief-of-staff lie dead on the battlefield, much of the Netherlands army (consisting of Dutch and Belgian troops) has been roughly handled and their loyalty to the Allied cause might be on shaky ground. (After all, many of those soldiers had been in Napoléon's army within the couple of years prior to Waterloo.)

But where are we at now? How did we get here? Time for a couple of maps to illustrate what's been going on over the past few posts. (These maps were all derived from this excellent map at this website.)

Here is where we began, on Wednesday, the 14th of June, 1815:

Wellington's army is scattered across Belgium as he couldn't be sure if the French were going to advance on Brussels via Charleroi, or through Mons. The first option would split Wellington from his Prussian allies, the second would sever his supply lines to the English Channel. Neither option appealed to him, but he had to cover all of his bases.

The Prussian army is spread from Charleroi to Liege, with one corps south of Namur. The French army is concentrated around Beaumont, in France, ready to strike north.

In the actual campaign the French started off on the wrong foot. A division commander defected to the Prussians and two corps, Vandamme's and Gérard's, got entangled on the first morning primarily because the Emperor's chief of staff, Maréchal Soult, didn't get the orders out on time, allegedly. So things started slow, in my account, everything went off like clockwork (and Napoléon had gotten rid of the traitor before the campaign).

As the 15th of June dawns, the French have energetically moved against the Prussians around Ligny (having driven Ziethen's forward screen around Charleroi back on the 14th) and Maréchal Davout is driving the left wing of the Armée du Nord north towards Genappe, fighting has already occurred around Quatre Bras (which historically didn't occur until the 16th).

The French VI Corps, under Lobau, by dint of hard marching moved overnight to block the roads north out of Namur. Which Thielmann's III Prussian Corps discovers as they attempt to cross a bridge over the Sambre, which was sabotaged during the night.

The Prussian IV Corps, under Bülow, has yet to receive any orders so they still sit outside, and within, the city of Liege. Later in the morning, a courier gets through and they begin their march to Sombreffe, far too late to assist the main Prussian army (I and II Corps) under Generalfeldmarschall von Blücher.

Wellington, still unsure of the main French thrust is holding his forces close in hand. The Netherlands cavalry division near Mons has fallen back on orders received from the Prince of Orange who is convinced that the main French thrust is coming up from Charleroi.

The Duke of Wellington has ordered Picton's British division and the Duke of Brunswick's corps south, but only to Genappe.

The French are now concentrated between the armies of Wellington and the Prussians, now under the command of von Pirch. Lobau's VI Corps, badly hurt, is still battling with Thielmann's corps just north of Namur. Thielmann has been hurt as well, mostly through bad morale amongst his mostly Landwehr formations.

Bülow, having witnessed hundreds of stragglers and deserters headed for the Rhine, has stopped his forward movement and is preparing to defend Liege, which is not on the French radar at the moment.

Perponcher's Netherlands Division has been largely destroyed, Ziethen's Prussian corps as well, those men not dead or wounded on the field are fleeing towards Liege. The deaths of von Gneisenau and von Blücher have left the Prussians with no firm hand on the controls.

Picton's division and the Brunswick corps are still holding near Genappe but have taken heavy casualties. As torrential rains begin late on the 16th and continue through most of the day on the 17th, the French push is slowed down. Though this allows Wellington time to build his position up at Mont St. Jean, he has far fewer troops to deploy there than he had historically.

The French are still counting their own cost, but morale in the Armée du Nord is sky high. Napoléon is still suffering badly from his piles, but a day out of the saddle while Davout directs the pursuit of the Anglo-Allied army while Soult pursues what is left of the Prussians will give the Emperor a chance of good health on the 18th.

Historically he failed, in this tale, he is set to spend the night of the 18th in the Palais Royale in Brussels. The Duke of Wellington will be approaching absolute exhaustion by that day, he has scarcely slept in two days.

Will history repeat itself in this tale? It doesn't look good.

¹ The wounded eagle.