Ligny

Context

Back from Elba in March 1815, Napoleon had to face two separate armies in Belgium: Wellington's Anglo-Dutch force and Blücher's Prussians. The whole campaign rested on one simple idea: insert himself between them and beat them one after the other. On 16 June he attacked the Prussians positioned along the Ligny brook, between Fleurus and Sombreffe.

Forces

France: about 68,000 men, the corps of Vandamme and Gérard, Grouchy's cavalry and the Guard.

Prussia: about 84,000 men, three corps of Blücher's army, deployed on a forward slope and badly exposed to artillery.

Course of the battle

The fighting went house by house through the villages of Ligny and Saint-Amand, in thundery heat. Around eight in the evening the Guard broke the Prussian centre; Blücher, leading a cavalry charge, was unhorsed and trampled, and his aide-de-camp picked him up unconscious on the field.

But the victory was not exploited. D'Erlon's corps, sent and recalled several times between Ligny and Quatre-Bras, marched all day between the two battlefields and fought on neither. With no fresh troops to pursue, the Prussian army withdrew by night without being destroyed.

Consequences

It was the last victory of his life, and it was sterile. Gneisenau wanted to fall back eastwards, on the Prussian lines of communication; it was Blücher, back in the saddle, who imposed the retreat northwards, parallel to Wellington. Two days later the Prussians came out on the French right flank at Waterloo, around seven in the evening.