“Of the dispositions he had made. The Emperor made him stay to supper, gave him his orders, and received the Marshal with the frank confidence of the camp; he unfolded to him his projects and his hopes for the day of the 16th, which was very soon to begin. He talked with him a long time in the night of the 15th and 16th. All the officers of the Imperial headquarters can attest this.”
Among these officers was, no doubt, Marshal Grouchy.
It goes without saying that at this interview Ney told the Emperor that he had not occupied Quatre Bras, and why he had not done so. With almost equal certainty may it be believed that Napoleon told him that he must occupy the place the next forenoon.
Heymès then proceeds as follows:[249]
“The 16th, at two o’clock in the morning, the Marshal returned to Gosselies (i.e., from Charleroi), where he stopped some minutes in order to confer with General Reille; he gave him the order to set out, as soon as he could, with his two divisions and his artillery, and to get his troops together at Frasnes, where the Marshal himself would arrive almost as soon.”
And he adds that at 8 A.M. Reille at the head of his two divisions was en route for Frasnes. General Reille, however, while he says[250] that his troops were ready to march in the morning,[251] says also that at 7 A.M. he went to see Marshal Ney, to ask for orders; and that the Marshal said he was expecting them from the Emperor. One may infer from these statements, which are not perfectly consistent with each other, that Ney, on his return to Gosselies from Charleroi, told Reille that they must be ready to move at a moment’s notice, and that that officer at once proceeded to get his men into marching order, and that he had them on the Charleroi-Brussels turnpike, ready to march, before seven o’clock. One may, perhaps, infer more than this; namely, that Ney, immediately on his return from seeing the Emperor, ordered Reille to proceed with his two divisions, as soon as he could, from Gosselies to Frasnes, so that, when the order to seize Quatre Bras should arrive, it might be executed promptly; but that he afterwards reconsidered the matter, and allowed Reille to remain in Gosselies till the written orders should come.
Whether this be so or not, however, it is plain that when Ney had been, as Heymès says he had been, informed by the Emperor himself of his projects for the ensuing day, he ought certainly to have ordered Reille up to Frasnes at once, with the two divisions then at Gosselies,—thereby uniting all of the 2d Corps that was under his control,[252]—and to have seen to it that the 1st Corps was ready to follow promptly in their rear. No special authority for this was needed. In fact it was obviously necessary to get these two divisions out of the way of the 1st Corps, which ought to be assembling at Gosselies in the early morning, if it was to accomplish anything of consequence during the forenoon. But Ney, whatever may have been his first intentions on returning from seeing Napoleon, did actually nothing of this kind.[253] One cannot avoid the feeling that he was unwilling to take the slightest responsibility, even that involved in uniting the three divisions of the 2d Corps at Frasnes, and supplying their place at Gosselies with the four divisions of the 1st Corps,—a step which, taking account of the situation, and of the written orders that had been issued to the 1st Corps, it was his manifest duty to take. The consideration, that, by this course, the formal order to seize Quatre Bras, which he undoubtedly expected, could be executed at once, while, by retaining Reille at Gosselies until the order should be received, the time required to march the five miles which lay between Gosselies and Frasnes would postpone the carrying out of the movement by some two hours or more, does not seem to have had any weight with him. In fact, beyond getting Reille in readiness to march, Ney really seems to have made no preparations to facilitate the execution of the important order which he fully expected to receive.
That this statement is not too strong, appears when we consider what Ney did to get the 1st Corps up and well in hand, a matter which assuredly demanded his most strenuous and active efforts at this moment. Ney arrived at Gosselies from Charleroi, as we have seen, about 2 A.M. He stayed there, apparently, till shortly after 7 A.M.[254] We know[255] that, even at 3 A.M. one division of the 1st Corps had not arrived at the river, and that another was still at Marchienne. The other two divisions had crossed the Sambre, and the leading one[256] was between Jumet and Gosselies. Colonel Heymès, after stating the positions of the English at Quatre Bras,[257] says:[258] “In default of staff-officers, of whom the Marshal had none, officers of the chasseurs and lancers of the Guard were sent to meet the 1st Corps in the direction of Marchienne-au-Pont; they had orders to press its march to Frasnes.” But we shall presently see, that it was not until 11 A.M., when Reille, with the divisions of Foy and Jerome, was ordered to advance from Gosselies to Quatre Bras, that the first three divisions of d’Erlon’s Corps were ordered to Frasnes. It appears, then, from Heymès’ statement, that the activity exhibited by Marshal Ney, to which he calls attention, was not shown until Ney had ordered these divisions to Frasnes, that is, until after eleven o’clock. That this conjecture is correct, appears also from the fact, stated by Colonel Heymès,[259] that the regiments of the chasseurs and lancers of the Guard, from which officers were detailed on staff duty, as above stated, were in reserve behind the village of Frasnes, and, therefore, not at Gosselies. There is, therefore, nothing to show that Marshal Ney did anything in regard to getting up the 1st Corps until after 11 o’clock A.M.[260] If he had, Colonel Heymès, who was on his staff, would doubtless have mentioned it. And it seems to be an unavoidable inference from what Colonel Heymès says, that at the time when these extemporized staff-officers were sent to find the 1st Corps and hurry it up, part of it, at any rate, was supposed by Marshal Ney to be yet in the neighborhood of Marchienne.