In proof of the sincerity of his intentions, and as a first step towards securing the good will, if not the friendly disposition, of the French people, more especially of the Legitimists and the well and peaceably disposed; the Duke issued the following General Order to the whole of the troops under his command:—
Nivelles, 20th June, 1815.
General Order.
1. As the Army is about to enter the French territory, the troops of the Nations, which are at present under the command of Field Marshal the Duke of Wellington, are desired to recollect that their respective Sovereigns are the Allies of His Majesty the King of France; and that France ought, therefore, to be treated as a friendly country. It is therefore required that nothing should be taken, either by Officers or soldiers, for which payment be not made. The Commissaries of the Army will provide for the wants of the troops in the usual manner; and it is not permitted either to soldiers or Officers to extort contributions. The Commissaries will be authorised either by the Field Marshal, or by the Generals who command the troops of the respective Nations, in cases where their provisions are not supplied by an English Commissary, to make the proper requisitions, for which regular receipts will be given; and it must be strictly understood that they will themselves be held responsible for whatever they obtain in way of requisition from the inhabitants of France, in the same manner in which they would be esteemed accountable for purchases made for their own Government in the several dominions to which they belong.
2. The Field Marshal takes this opportunity of returning to the Army his thanks for their conduct in the glorious action fought on the 18th instant, and he will not fail to report his sense of their conduct in the terms which it deserves to their several Sovereigns.
Wellington.
On the same day, the Duke, in consequence of a report received by him from Lieutenant General Lecoq, and of a previous communication made to him by the King of Saxony, consented to take command of the Saxon Corps d'Armée, amounting to nearly 17,000 men. He directed the above General to march these troops to Antwerp, and there await further Orders.
The Anglo-Allied Army marched this day to Binche and Mons. The British Cavalry moved into villages between Roeulx and Mons. Vivian's Hussar Brigade took the Outpost duties on the Sambre. The Hanoverian Cavalry furnished Outposts towards Maubeuge. The Duke fixed his Head Quarters at Binche.
Blücher, having secured the passage of the Sambre in the neighbourhood of Charleroi, continued his pursuit of the Enemy, and crossed the French frontier on the 20th. He directed Zieten to march the First Corps d'Armée from Charleroi to Beaumont, to throw forward his Advanced Guard as far as Solre le Château, to detach a Party of Observation to the left towards Florenne, and to watch the road from Philippeville to Beaumont.
As the First Corps d'Armée advanced, it discovered at every step fresh proofs of the extreme disorder in which the French Army had retreated; and found twelve pieces of Artillery which they had hitherto contrived to save from the great wreck at Waterloo, but had now abandoned to their pursuers. On arriving at Beaumont, the Corps took up a bivouac. Its Advanced Guard, under General Jagow, consisting of the Third Infantry Brigade, the 1st Silesian Hussars, and a Horse Battery, reached Solre le Château upon the road to Avesnes.
The Prince, at the same time, ordered Bülow to move the Fourth Corps d'Armée as far as Colleret, where the road to Thuin intersects the high road from Beaumont to Maubeuge, and to push on the Advanced Guard to Beaufort. Bülow accordingly directed General Sydow to proceed with an Advanced Guard, consisting of a Cavalry Brigade, a Horse Battery, and two Battalions of Infantry, which had the day before reached Lermes on the road to Thuin, and to ascertain very particularly whether the French had established themselves on the Sambre, to secure the Bridges both here and at Lobbes, and further, to restore these passages, should they have been destroyed by the Enemy. Another Detachment, under Colonel Eicke, consisting of two Fusilier Battalions, the two Squadrons attached to the Thirteenth Brigade, and of the 2nd Silesian Hussars, was sent forward to take possession, in the first instance, of the passages of the Sambre, and then to join General Sydow; who, proceeding by Colleret towards Beaufort, was to form both Detachments into an Advanced Guard on reaching the latter place. In the mean time, the mass of the Fourth Corps, headed by the Reserve Cavalry under Prince William of Prussia, followed in one Column.
The progress made by this portion of the Prussian Army on the 20th was not so rapid as was desirable. Considerable delay arose in consequence of the degree of caution imparted to the movements by the impression which Bülow entertained that the Enemy would defend the passages, and endeavour to maintain himself along the opposite side of the river. Hence the Advanced Guard of the Corps only reached Ferrière la Petite; part of the main body proceeded as far as Montignies, and the remainder with the Reserve Artillery, did not get farther than the Bridges across the Sambre.
The Fifth Brigade (belonging to the Second Corps d'Armée) had started at daybreak from its bivouac at Anderlues, near Fontaine l'Evêque; and directed its march, by Binche, upon Villers, towards Maubeuge. The Brigade was reinforced by one hundred Dragoons under Major Busch, and half a Horse Battery; which Detachment arrived at Villers at five o'clock in the afternoon. This Cavalry was employed in observing the Fortress of Maubeuge, from the Mons road, as far as the Sambre; and the Brigade bivouacked at Villers. A Hanoverian Regiment of Hussars also observed the Fortress on the right of the Prussian Cavalry upon the Bavay road.