Ney, who had just overtaken the army on the march, had ridden over from Charleroi, where he had seen the Emperor, and had received[75] from him the command of the 1st and 2d Corps. Napoleon had told him that Reille was marching on Gosselies, and, when he reached Reille, he found him, as we have just seen, in the very act.
On his arrival at Gosselies, Ney carried forward with himself to Frasnes the cavalry of the 2d Corps, Piré’s, and the division of Bachelu. About half-past six,[76] Ney with these troops drove the enemy,—a brigade under Prince Bernard of Saxe Weimar,—from Frasnes. They fell back to Quatre Bras. The division of Girard was sent in pursuit of the Prussians, who had retired from Gosselies on Fleurus. The other two divisions,—those of Jerome and Foy,—remained at Gosselies. A division of cavalry of the Guard, under Lefebvre-Desnouettes, about 2000 strong, which had been lent temporarily to Ney, was placed by him in support of the troops at Frasnes.[77] Ney remained at Frasnes till a late hour in the evening.
Thus the 2d Corps had accomplished its tasks for the day. Its commander had shown himself energetic and capable. The advance at Frasnes observed the enemy’s post at Quatre Bras. The troops had had a very exhausting day and needed a good night’s rest.
The 1st Corps, under the Count d’Erlon, did not do so well by any means. To begin with, d’Erlon did not start at 3 A.M., as he was ordered to do, but at 4 o’clock.[78] His troops had no fighting to do; they simply followed in the rear of the 2d Corps.[79] They had, to be sure,[80] five miles farther to go, having bivouacked at Solre-sur-Sambre, and they were, no doubt, affected by that tendency to delay which seems always to attend the last half of a long marching column; it is well known that the last half never keeps up, relatively, with the first half. D’Erlon had also been required to detach part of his troops at the various crossings of the Sambre.[81] But these facts afford no adequate explanation of the tardiness of this corps. At night d’Erlon’s headquarters were at Marchienne; his leading division, Durutte’s, had reached Jumet;[82] but at least one-fourth of his troops had not crossed the river. Nevertheless, by an order[83] dated 3 P.M., d’Erlon had been informed that Reille had been ordered to march on Gosselies and to attack the enemy there, and that the Emperor wished him, d’Erlon, also to march on Gosselies and to support this operation. Later in the day, or perhaps in the evening,[84] after Marshal Ney had assumed command of the two corps, d’Erlon was informed[85] that it was the Emperor’s intention that he should join the 2d Corps at Gosselies, and that Ney would also give him orders to that effect.[86] This last sentence must imply that Napoleon had enjoined on Ney to bring up these troops. It is true that Charras[87] says that, on the evening of the 15th, the 1st Corps was in echelon from Marchienne to Jumet, implying that all the troops had crossed the river; and this is the generally accepted belief.[88] But we find a despatch,[89] dated at Marchienne at 3 A.M. of the 16th, from the chief-of-staff of the 3d division of the 1st corps, Marcognet’s, to General Noguès, who commanded the 1st brigade of that division, informing him that the 2d brigade would remain at Marchienne until the arrival of the 1st division, that of General Allix. This shows beyond a doubt that, notwithstanding the order of three o’clock in the afternoon for the 1st Corps to reach Gosselies and support Reille in attacking the enemy, and the subsequent order to the same effect, yet, at three o’clock in the morning of the 16th, twelve hours afterwards, one division had not arrived at the river, and another division (two brigades) was still at Marchienne. This state of facts, it must be recollected, existed when the whole 2d Corps had been at and beyond Gosselies for more than eight hours! It is impossible not to blame d’Erlon for this excessive tardiness in the movements of his corps,—not only for not having executed the order of three o’clock in the afternoon to proceed at once to Gosselies, but generally, for not having seen to it that his troops were, during the entire march, within a short distance[90] of the 2d Corps, a measure certainly, when all the circumstances are taken into account,—and especially that the advance of Reille was to be made in an enemy’s country and was actually stoutly resisted,—of the most obvious necessity. And it must not be forgotten that in Belgium in the middle of June, it is light until nine o’clock in the evening, and the sun rises before four.
It may be remarked that the controversies which have been waged in regard to the truth of Napoleon’s statement that he, on the 15th, gave Ney verbal orders to seize and occupy Quatre Bras, have deflected the attention of historians from the subject now under consideration,—the conduct of d’Erlon in regard to the march of the 1st Corps on the 15th,—a subject closely connected, as we shall hereafter see, with the operations of the army on the succeeding day.
In regard to the much vexed question referred to above, we shall say nothing here. It is not pretended that Napoleon gave to Ney on the 15th any written orders to go to Quatre Bras. Napoleon’s statement[91] that he gave him verbal orders to that effect has been denied, and is widely disbelieved. We prefer, for many reasons, to confine our narrative to generally admitted facts, or to those which admit of definite proof. What we have to say about this matter will be found in the Notes to this chapter.
In summing up the situation, we may fairly conclude, that, with the exception of the backwardness of the 1st Corps, the progress made during the day had been satisfactory to the Emperor. He says himself:—
“All the Emperor’s manœuvres had succeeded to his wishes; he had it thenceforth in his power to attack the armies of the enemy in detail. To avoid this misfortune, the greatest that could befall them, the only means they had left was to abandon the ground, and assemble at Brussels or beyond that city.”[92]
Napoleon had in fact concentrated in front of Fleurus a sufficient force wherewith to fight the Prussians, if, as he thought it not unlikely, they should risk a battle on the next day. He was not apprehensive of the Anglo-Dutch army joining their allies in this battle, for Wellington, as he calculated, could not concentrate in season a sufficient force to overcome the two corps which, under Ney, he intended should occupy Quatre Bras the next forenoon. He had purposely abstained from occupying Sombreffe, for he feared that if he did this, Blücher, finding his communications with Wellington blocked at this point, would retire without a battle, and endeavor to effect a junction with the English at Wavre, or elsewhere to the northward; whereas, so long as the road which connected his army with that of Wellington remained free, Blücher might with confidence be expected to risk a battle for the preservation of that line of communication, that is, at or near Fleurus, with the expectation of being reinforced by his ally. But if he ventured upon this course, Napoleon expected to beat him, for Napoleon calculated that, by the occupation of Quatre Bras the next morning, he could prevent Blücher’s receiving any assistance from his Anglo-Dutch allies.