The Brunswickers, who were also composed of young soldiers, performed a glorious part in the Battle; and amply avenged the death of their Prince. Some of their Battalions were much shaken at the moment Alten's Division was driven back a short distance; but they speedily rallied, and resumed their lost ground. Altogether, their bravery, which was frequently called into action; and their endurance, which was severely tested, merited the strongest commendation.
The troops constituting the Nassau Brigade under Kruse (or more properly the 1st Regiment of the Nassau Contingent), were attached to Alten's Division. They were consequently often in the thick of the fight; and though, on the occasion above alluded to, they were thrown into disorder and driven in by a furious onset of the Enemy, they conducted themselves generally throughout the day with great steadiness and bravery.
It is impossible to allude in terms of adequate praise to the services of that most important branch of the Army, the General Staff; the Officers of which distinguished themselves no less by the zeal, the daring, and the activity, with which they carried into execution the commands of their respective Chiefs, than by the alacrity and intelligence which they evinced in catching and imparting the true spirit of their instructions. The constant exposure to which their peculiar duties necessarily subjected them could not but entail upon them severe losses. Few indeed were those who escaped unhurt throughout this arduous conflict.
The co-operation of the Prussians in this Battle has been gradually developed and fully detailed. That the communications which Wellington received from Blücher led him to expect that co-operation at a much earlier period, is beyond a doubt; but setting aside all consideration of the causes of the delay which attended the arrival of the Prussian forces, it is equally doubtless that the tardiness of that co-operation had a more decided influence on the general result of the Battle than if they had reached the Field at an earlier period.
For, supposing the Prussians to have arrived in force before the French had become so seriously and desperately engaged with the Anglo-Allied Army, Napoleon was too much a Master of his art to have risked a decisive Battle with the combined forces of his antagonists. In this case he would, in all probability, have fallen back upon his frontier, have called in all available Reserves from the interior, and by means of his Triple Line of Fortresses, as well as by skilful manœuvring, have endeavoured to separate once more the opposing Armies, and to obtain another chance of beating them in detail. As it happened, however, he was too deeply involved in the contest with Wellington; he had suffered too severely in his repeated attacks, to admit of a retreat, under such circumstances, being looked upon, even by his friends in Paris, in any other light than that of a defeat: and he knew too well that with a defeat, however it might be produced, would vanish the only tie which yet bound him to the nation—the implied belief in his invincibility, and the firm reliance on his ability to re-establish and maintain the military glory of France. It is to this conviction alone that we can attribute the desperate resolve with which he risked the fate of the Empire and his own political existence upon the issue of his final attack upon Wellington's Line, at a moment when the Armies opposed to him had effected their junction; and which, by calling the whole of his force into requisition, deprived him of an adequate Reserve, by aid of which he might have succeeded in effecting an orderly and honourable retreat.
Had the Prussians succeeded in driving the French out of Planchenoit half an hour earlier: such a circumstance, combined with the General Advance of the Anglo-Allied Line, would no doubt have caused the whole of Lobau's Corps, and perhaps also d'Erlon's, to lay down their arms and surrender at discretion; since their retreat towards Maison du Roi would thus have been cut off, whilst the British Advance would have frustrated any attempt to retire across the Charleroi road. On the other hand, a similar result might have ensued, at least as regards Lobau's Corps, had that General Advance occurred half an hour earlier; while the French Right was engaged with the Prussians at a greater distance from the Charleroi road.
In the former case, however, the final attack was judiciously delayed until, by the arrival of the additional force which was fast approaching, such a simultaneous attack could be made along the whole of the French Right as would insure most decided success: and in the latter case, the final attack could not have been made at a more opportune moment, and with a greater prospect of success, than immediately after the signal defeat of the French Imperial Guard upon the Anglo-Allied position. Indeed, contingencies of this kind might be brought forward with reference to any Battle whatever; and when it is considered that there exists no example in modern warfare of so complete a victory, the result must appear as glorious, as decisive, and as comprehensive, as the most stern and rigid calculator of the chances of Battle could have desired.
As regards the actual share which the Prussians had in the Battle, it may be truly affirmed that the contest maintained between Bülow's Corps and Lobau's troops in conjunction with a portion of the Imperial Guard, was most obstinate and sanguinary. In the Three successive struggles for the possession of Planchenoit, especially, the deadly animosity mutually cherished by the troops of both nations, was fearfully exemplified; and the losses sustained by the Prussians in the comparatively brief period during which they were engaged, afforded ample proof of the value of their co-operation. It is undeniably true that the blow which decided the victory was that given by Wellington, when, after having completely defeated the grand attack by the French Imperial Guard, he instantly followed up that defeat by boldly attacking and penetrating the Centre of the Enemy's Lines, and sustaining this movement by the General Advance of his whole Army; but it is at the same time, equally true, that the powerful diversion effected by the Prussians diminished the strength of those French Lines by the Corps of Lobau which had not hitherto fired a single shot in this Campaign, by twelve Battalions of the Imperial Guard which had suffered scarcely any loss at Ligny, and, finally, by eighteen Squadrons of Cavalry.
The vigorous attack which was made by Bülow upon Lobau's Line, simultaneously with the last assault upon Planchenoit, contributed most materially to the general and fatal panic which seized upon the whole of the French Army. The Prussians too, by the energetic pursuit which they kept up during the night, under the guidance of the indefatigable Gneisenau, rendered the victory still more complete and decisive; and effectually deprived the Enemy of every opportunity of recovering himself on the Belgian side of the frontier.