“By the Emperor:
“The major-general of the army,
“Count Bertrand.
“At the Imperial Palace of Laeken.”
Little comment need be made upon this letter and proclamation. They are characteristic of Napoleon. A most able plan of operations is developed with his usual recklessness of human life: we see him prepared to sacrifice his troops of the line to save his guard; and either wing, so that with the other he might make a dash at Brussels.
His overweening confidence of being there even early on the 17th, and his sanguine expectations that the population would support him, are clearly shown by the above documents.
Napoleon must evidently have miscalculated the degree of energy and promptitude necessary to overcome two such generals as Wellington and Blücher. He sadly underrated the gallant troops which he and his marshal had to combat. And when adverse writers talk so much of the calculating, cautious and methodical Wellington (as Napoleon was pleased to call him,) being taken by surprise in this campaign, we may venture to ask, was not the Emperor taken by surprise and thrown out in all his calculations by the extreme vigilance and energy which brought three corps of the Prussian army, above eighty-five thousand men, into position at Ligny by mid-day on the 16th? and but for an error in the transmission of orders, these troops would also have been joined by Bulow’s corps; and had general Zieten sent information to general Müffling or to the duke of Wellington at Brussels, when the French army in three columns was first seen in his front in advance of Charleroi, the whole allied army might have been concentrated at Quatre-Bras during the night of the 15th. Wellington in person was at Ligny on the 16th; observing Napoleon preparing for battle, and after conferring with Blücher, he returned to Quatre-Bras in time to give a most critical check to the gallant Ney. Was it no surprise to Napoleon to find that Wellington, upon hearing of Blücher’s retreat from Ligny, instead of falling back to Ostend, etc., immediately retired with ominous steadiness upon Mont-St.-Jean? and there arrested the ambition of his opponent, who, instead of being at Brussels early on the 17th, as intimated to Ney, was compelled to open his eyes, on the morning of the 18th, to the fact that he was still above twelve miles from Brussels, and unable to advance a step nearer without fighting a desperate battle, and staking his empire on the result! He did fight: the stake was lost, and, by the next morning, he found himself again at Charleroi, whence he had dispatched his memorable letter to his “cousin” Ney but two days before. He must have felt an agony of surprise and something more, as he fled on for his very life, to escape from his enraged pursuers.
M. de Vaulabelle indeed, in his “Campaign and Battle of Waterloo,” published at Paris in 1845, attributes the non-arrival of Napoleon at Brussels, to his having calculated that the Prussians would not assemble in any great force until the 17th, ([page 53];) and further on ([page 54],) the author says, “Napoleon’s plans and arrangements were frustrated and his sanguine expectations disappointed, on finding a barrier of ninety-five thousand Prussians assembled between him and the Belgian capital.” The above author also informs us, ([page 68],) that a longer delay on the 16th, in executing his projected movements at Ligny, would have compromised his success on that day; and ([page 95],) that “on the 17th, fresh delays succeeded those of the two preceding ones.” Ney’s troops, although the marshal, it is pretended, received orders to renew the attack on Quatre-Bras at break of day, were still in bivac at eleven o’clock. We are given to understand by M. de Vaulabelle, that similar delays occurred to different corps placed under the direct command of the Emperor and marshal Grouchy. We are also told that “the soldiers grumbled at this inaction of which they did not know the motives, questioned their officers, and interrogated their generals;” in fact, to use the author’s words, “L’énergie et l’activité semblaient s’être réfugiées dans leurs rangs.” (“All energy and activity seemed to have taken refuge in their ranks.”) The inhabitants of St.-Amand also affirm that, on a group of generals passing through the village, the soldiers followed them with their cries, “We made our soup at break of day in order to be sooner at the ball, and we have been four hours doing nothing; why don’t we fight? There is something underhand[85].”
In face of all these discrepant statements, and upon calm reflection and close examination of the history of the battle of Waterloo, Napoleon’s disasters should not be attributed to the neglect or disobedience of his generals, but, under Providence, to the consummate bravery of the troops, and the skill of the generals opposed to him.
Napoleon, when at St.-Helena, admitted that the tactics of his army in the Waterloo campaign had their defects; but on no occasion, to my knowledge, did he admit that he himself had committed an error. He invariably endeavoured to shift all blame, more especially the irretrievable failure at Waterloo, to other shoulders than his own, to those of his marshals. He accused Grouchy, the well-tried soldier in many a hard-fought field, and who was banished for his attachment to the Imperial cause, of having, by neglect, delay and non-compliance with orders, occasioned his defeat at Waterloo; and Grouchy’s alleged false movement is the basis of every argument advanced by those who yet maintain the military infallibility of their idolized Emperor. One would imagine, from the tenor of Napoleon’s order of the day on the 14th of June, “Soldiers! we have forced marches to make, battles to fight, dangers to encounter,” that he would not have allowed the precious hours of the morning of the 16th to be frittered away in inactivity, or have left his troops until near eleven o’clock in the bivac of the night before, chiefly where they crossed the Sambre, viz. at Charleroi, Châtelet and Marchiennes, without making a movement to support his advanced troops at Frasnes and Fleurus. No doubt the French were fatigued and wanted rest; but, as the success of the campaign depended upon vigorously pressing forward, and making the most of the first advantages, there was no time for rest. Again, on the 17th, after the battles of Quatre-Bras and Ligny, we find Napoleon lingering on the field of Ligny, visiting the wounded, and expressing his satisfaction at witnessing the gallantry of his troops; we find him discussing, with Gérard and Grouchy, subjects in no way connected with the campaign which should decree him Emperor or exile; we find it to be near one o’clock P.M. (17th,) before he put his own force in motion to join Ney in pursuit of us, or before he gave Grouchy his orders to pursue the Prussians. Early in the morning, Pajol’s cavalry and Teste’s infantry divisions were detached towards Namur, in pursuit of the Prussians; and, strange to say, when, after capturing a Prussian battery on the Namur road, and sending it to the Imperial head-quarters, they found themselves completely baffled and at fault, they returned to their bivac of the preceding night near Mazy, and lay there till next morning, the 18th.