English, Prussian and French official accounts of the battle.—Marshal Grouchy’s report of the battle of Wavre.—Returns of the different armies.—Position of the allied artillery.—Artillery, etc., taken at Waterloo.—Questions connected with the campaign: Wellington’s position at Waterloo.—Opinion of general Jomini.—The Duke’s plans and expectations.—His letter to lord Castlereagh.—Resolution of the allied powers, on receiving the intelligence of Napoleon’s flight from Elba.—Wellington’s letter to general Kleist.—The Duke’s decision.—His anticipations.—Obstacles which his Grace met with.—Conduct of the Saxon troops.—Blücher forced by them to quit Liège.—Wellington’s resolution concerning these troops.
OFFICIAL ACCOUNT OF THE BATTLE OF WATERLOO.
The dispatch of the duke of Wellington, written immediately after the battle, cannot fail to interest every one. It is a document which has fixed the attention of statesmen and soldiers, not more on account of the importance of the event it describes, than for the noble simplicity, perfect calmness and exemplary modesty which characterize the great man who penned it: it stands in honourable contrast with the hurried, inflated, untrue accounts of military achievements not unfrequently given by commanders of no small renown.
(London Gazette extraordinary.)
“Downing-street, June 22d, 1815.
“Major the Hon. H. Percy arrived late last night with a dispatch from field-marshal the duke of Wellington, K.G., to Earl Bathurst, his Majesty’s principal secretary of state for the war department, of which the following is a copy:
To Earl Bathurst.
“Waterloo, June 19th, 1815.
“MY LORD,
“Bonaparte, having collected the 1st, 2d, 3d, 4th, and 6th corps of the French army, and the Imperial guard, and nearly all the cavalry, on the Sambre, and between that river and the Meuse, between the 10th and 14th of the month, advanced on the 15th, and attacked the Prussian posts at Thuin and Lobbes, on the Sambre, at day-light in the morning.