Battle of Ligny at ½ past 8 o'clock p.m.
When it is considered that a very great portion of the Prussian Army consisted of young soldiers, who were under fire for the first time, their bravery and exertions in maintaining so lengthened a contest of this nature, with the veteran warriors of the French Army, cannot fail to be regarded with the highest admiration.
Such were the distribution and the state of the Prussian troops throughout their Line, when Napoleon arrived near the lower extremity of Ligny, with a formidable Reserve. This consisted of eight Battalions of the Guard, of Milhaud's Corps of Heavy Cavalry, comprising eight Regiments of Cuirassiers, and of the Grenadiers à Cheval of the Guard. It was not, however, his sole Reserve; for most opportunely Lobau's Corps had just arrived and taken post on the right of Fleurus. The troops which the French Emperor held thus in hand ready to launch as a thunderbolt against the weakened Centre of the Prussian Line of Battle, were perfectly fresh, not having hitherto taken any part whatever in the contest, and they might justly be styled the flower of his Army. It was this consciousness of the vantage ground he then possessed which, upon his perceiving the comparatively unoccupied space in rear of Ligny, called forth from him the remark to Count Gérard, "They are lost: they have no Reserve remaining!" He saw that not another moment was to be delayed in securing the victory which was now within his grasp, and gave his last Orders for the attack at the very time when Blücher, whose Right had just been strengthened by the arrival of the remaining three Battalions of Colonel Langen's (the Eighth) Infantry Brigade, was making his dispositions for vigorously assailing the French Army in its Left Flank.
The projected movement that was to decide the Battle was preceded, at about half past eight o'clock, by the rapid advance of several Batteries of the Guard, which opened a most destructive fire upon the Prussians posted within, and formed in the immediate rear of, Ligny. Under cover of this cannonade, Gérard, with Pecheux's Infantry Division, reinforced the troops that still maintained that half of the Village which lay on the right bank of the rivulet, and pushed forward with a determination to dislodge the Enemy from the remaining portion on the left bank. While the Prussian Infantry in rear of Ligny were in movement for the purpose of relieving their comrades who were already giving way before this renewed attack, they suddenly perceived, on the French right of the Village, a Column issuing from under the heavy smoke that rolled away from the well served Batteries which had so unexpectedly opened upon them, and, which continued so fearfully to thin their ranks; and, as the mass rapidly advanced down the slope with the evident design of forcing a passage across the valley, they could not fail to distinguish both by its well sustained order and compactness, and by its dark waving surface of bearskins, that they had now to contend against the redoubted Imperial Guard. Ligny being thus turned, the Prussian Infantry, instead of continuing its advance into the Village, was necessitated, by its inferiority of numbers, to confine its operations to the securing, as far as possible, an orderly retreat for the defenders of the place.
Notwithstanding their dreadfully exhausted and enfeebled state, and their knowledge that a body of fresh troops was advancing against them, a body, too, which they knew was almost invariably employed whenever some great and decisive blow was to be struck, they evinced not the slightest symptom of irresolution, but, on the contrary, were animated by the most inflexible courage. The sun had gone down, shrouded in heavy clouds, and rain having set in, the battlefield would speedily be enveloped in darkness; hence the Prussians felt that it required but a little more perseverance in their exertions to enable them to counterbalance their deficiency of numbers upon any point of their Line by a stern and resolute resistance, sufficient to secure for the entire of their Army the means of effecting a retreat, unattended by those disastrous consequences which a signal defeat in the light of day might have entailed upon them.
The 21st Regiment of Infantry boldly advanced against the French Column, with a determination to check its further progress; but soon found itself charged in flank by Cavalry that had darted forward from the head of a Column which, by the glimmering of its armour, even amidst the twilight, proclaimed itself a formidable body of Cuirassiers. It was, in fact, Milhaud's whole Corps of that description of force, which had effected its passage on the other side of the village. The 9th Regiment of Infantry fought its way through a mass of Cavalry, whilst Major Wulffen, with two weak Squadrons of the 1st Westphalian Landwehr Cavalry, made a gallant charge against the French Infantry, which received it with a volley at a distance of twenty paces. The Prussian Infantry compelled to evacuate Ligny, effected its retreat in Squares, in perfect order, though surrounded by the Enemy, bravely repelling all further attacks, made in the repeated but vain attempts to scatter it in confusion.
Blücher, who had arrived upon the spot from his Right, having, in consequence of this sudden turn of affairs, been under the necessity of relinquishing his meditated attack upon the French Left, now made a last effort to stem the further advance of the Enemy, and, if possible, to force him back upon Ligny. The rain having ceased, it became lighter, and the Enemy's Columns being more clearly discernible, the Prince immediately ordered the advance of three Regiments of the Cavalry attached to the First Corps d'Armée, namely, the 6th Uhlans, the 1st West Prussian Dragoons, and the 2nd Kurmark Landwehr Cavalry. These Regiments, which constituted the only Cavalry force immediately at hand, had for some time been posted in reserve, and had suffered severely from their exposure to the fire from the French Artillery. Lieutenant General Röder directed the 6th Uhlans to make the first charge. The Regiment was led on by Lieutenant Colonel Lützow, to whose Brigade it belonged. In the charge which was directed upon the Enemy's Infantry, Lützow and several of his Officers fell under a volley of musketry. The Regiment, which was about 400 strong, lost on this occasion 13 Officers and 70 men. A second attack, made by the 1st West Prussian Dragoons, and supported by the 2nd Kurmark Landwehr Cavalry, seemed to offer a fair prospect of penetrating the French Infantry, when the former Regiment was unexpectedly charged in flank by the Enemy's Cuirassiers, and completely dispersed. The Westphalian, and 1st Kurmark Landwehr Cavalry, with several other Squadrons of the Landwehr, were collected together, and formed a mass of twenty four Squadrons, with which a further attack was made upon the Enemy, but without success.