The Sixth Division, the Brunswick Infantry, and the Reserve Artillery, encamped between the villages of Douilly and Villers.
Notwithstanding the precautions which the Duke of Wellington had taken to ensure the orderly conduct of his troops, and to conciliate in their favour the good disposition of the inhabitants along the line of march, it being his anxious desire that they should be considered as being on a friendly footing, and as acting on behalf of the legitimate Sovereign, there was one portion of his Army which committed the greatest excesses: these were the Dutch-Belgian troops, who set his Orders on this head completely at defiance. They pillaged wherever they went, not even excepting the Head Quarters, the house which he himself occupied: they forced the safeguards, and rescued, at the point of the bayonet, the prisoners from the Gensd'armerie which the Duke had formed for the Police of the Army.
Two of the Officers had just rendered themselves conspicuous by participating in, and actually encouraging, these disorders, which had arisen to such a height as to arouse his Grace's just indignation and severe censure. He desired the General Officer then in command of that part of the Army to put in full force his General Order of the 26th of June, to cause a Roll Call of Companies to be made every hour, and to see that every Officer and soldier was present. He also directed him to place the two Officers before alluded to in arrest, and to send them to the Hague, to be disposed of by the King of the Netherlands; to whom he forwarded a copy of the letter containing these instructions. This letter, which strongly evidenced the feelings of annoyance, under which the Duke wrote it, concluding with the following cutting reproof:—Je ne veux pas commander de tels Officiers. Je suis assez longtemps Soldat pour savoir que les Pillards, et ceux qui les encouragent, ne valent rien devant l'Ennemi; et je n'en veux pas.
The following were the positions of the respective Armies on the evening of the 27th:—
The First Prussian. Corps d'Armée had its main body at Gillicourt; its Second Brigade at Longpré, about half a league from Villers Cotterets; and its Third Brigade at Crespy.
The main body of the Third Prussian Corps d'Armée was at Compiegne; it had strong Detachments in the direction of Soissons.
The main body of the Fourth Prussian Corps was at Pont St Maxence; it had its Advanced Guard at Senlis, and Detachments at Creil and Verberie.
Prince Blücher's Head Quarters were at Compiegne.
Of the Anglo-Allied Army, the Second Division, the Nassau troops, and the British and Hanoverian Cavalry, were in the vicinity of Roye.
The Third Division, one Brigade of the First Division, the Dutch-Belgian Infantry attached to the First Corps, and the Dutch-Belgian Cavalry, were encamped near the villages of Crescy, Billencourt, and Bereuil.
The Fourth Division was at the village of Puzeaux, on the road to Roye.
The Brigade of Guards was at Crescy.
The Fifth Division and the Brunswick Cavalry were at Ham.
The Sixth Division, the Brunswick Infantry, and the Reserve Artillery, were between the villages of Douilly and Villers.
The Duke of Wellington's Head Quarters were at Nesle.
The remains of the First and Second French Corps d'Armée, Detachments from which had this day been defeated at Compiegne, Crespy, Creil, and Senlis, were in full retreat, partly upon the Senlis, and partly upon the Soissons, road.
The Imperial Guard and the Sixth Corps were at Villers Cotterets.
The Third and Fourth Corps were at Soissons.
Grouchy's Head Quarters were at Villers Cotterets.
General Pirch II. having learned, upon his arrival at one o'clock of the morning of the 28th, with the Advanced Guard of the First Prussian Corps d'Armée, at Longpré, near Villers Cotterets, that the latter place was not occupied by the Enemy in any force, determined to capture the place forthwith by a surprise. The troops detached to the front on this service (the Fusilier Battalion of the 6th Regiment and the Brandenburg Dragoons), favoured by the darkness (which as yet was scarcely relieved by the approaching dawn), as also by the Wood through which they advanced, fell upon a Detachment that was moving by a by road through the Wood, consisting of a French Horse Battery of fourteen guns, twenty ammunition waggons, and an escort of one hundred and fifty men. The whole vicinity of Villers Cotterets was, in fact, filled with French troops; thus dispersed, that they might sooner obtain refreshment after the long march, and be prepared to start again at two o'clock in the morning. Thus they were all in motion at the time of this capture.
General Pirch now pushed on to Villers Cotterets, where the Prussians made many prisoners. Grouchy himself narrowly escaped being taken as he was mounting his horse and hastening out of the opposite side of the town. On reaching the Windmill Height upon the road to Nanteuil, he succeeded in collecting together and forming his troops. Pirch, after detaching Cavalry in pursuit of the Enemy, as also towards Longpré to cover his Right, and towards Soissons to protect his Left, took up a defensive position. He deployed his Infantry, with the Foot Battery, upon the Height at the Garden of the Château, posted two Battalions at the point of a Wood that jutted out on his right; and was still occupied in making his arrangements, when a Cavalry Detachment, on the Soissons road, sent in word that a hostile Corps was to be seen approaching from Soissons. Another report was received immediately afterwards, that the Enemy showed much Cavalry on that side, and was already detaching two Regiments of the latter Arm towards the Prussian Left Flank; as also another Cavalry force, along with from twenty to twenty five pieces of artillery against the Right Flank.