The French were driven with so much impetuosity towards the Gate leading out to Dinant, that there appeared every probability of a considerable number of them falling into the hands of the Prussians. The former, however, had heaped up large bundles of wood, intermingled with straw and pitch, against the Gate, and set them on fire on the approach of the Prussian troops. The Gate and the street were soon in flames, and the pursuit was thus obstructed; but even had this not occurred, the great fatigue of the troops who, during the previous sixteen hours, had been either marching or fighting, was sufficient to deprive them of the power of following the retreating Enemy with any degree of vigour.
After nine o'clock in the evening, the town was in the possession of the Prussians. Major Schmidt took the command at the Dinant Gate and Major Jochens at the Bridge over the Sambre. The remaining troops of the Seventh, and some Battalions of the Sixth, Brigade were posted by General Brause upon the Market Place. The Fusilier Battalions of the Advanced Guard, which had supported the attack, more to the right, had also advanced into the town, towards the Bridge over the Sambre. They had been sharply cannonaded by the Enemy from the right bank of the Sambre.
A small party of Cavalry, under Captain Thielemann, of the Pomeranian Hussars, was sent forward a short distance on the road to Dinant, to form the Advance of the troops destined to pursue the Enemy at daybreak.
General Teste's Division retired slowly, and in good order, by the Dinant road, as far as Profondeville; where it took up a position during three hours. At midnight it resumed its march, and arrived at Dinant at four o'clock on the following morning.
This retreat of Grouchy by Namur upon Dinant was executed in a skilful and masterly manner; and the gallant defence of the former town by General Teste's Division, unaided by Artillery, merits the highest commendation.
In this action the Prussians suffered a loss, including that already mentioned as having occurred to the Sixth Brigade, of 1,500 men; and the French are supposed to have lost about the same number. In the last attack, the latter abandoned 150 prisoners they had previously taken from the Prussians.
The Second Prussian Corps d'Armée occupied Namur during the night. The Cavalry of the Third Corps bivouacked at Temploux; the Infantry of the latter (which had been rejoined on the march from Wavre by the Ninth Brigade), near the town of Gembloux.
The circumstances under which the French Army, generally, was placed on the 19th of June rendered it sufficiently obvious that Grouchy would be compelled to effect his retreat by Namur; and further, that whatever show of resistance he might offer on that point would be solely intended to gain time for the security of his troops whilst retiring, in one Column only by the long and narrow Defile of the Meuse which leads to Dinant. Aware that Napoleon's defeated Army was retiring along the direct line of operation, the Charleroi road; he immediately saw the imminent risk of his own retreat becoming intercepted, and the consequent necessity of his effecting the latter in a parallel direction, with a view to his rejoining the main Army as soon as practicable. To retire, therefore, by Gembloux upon Namur, and thence along the line of the Meuse, by Dinant and Givet, naturally presented itself as the true and proper course to be pursued.