Wellington and Blucher
Meet 16 June 1815:
Before the Battle of Ligny
Background
by Gary Cousins, Germany
 |
Much has been written about the meeting between Wellington and Blücher at the windmill at Brye, just before the Battle of Ligny on 16th June 1815. In this article I would like to examine what was said about this meeting by Clausewitz, Siborne Sr. and Pflugk-Harttung, and perhaps to throw additional light on the controversy around this episode of the 1815 campaign. 1
In the early hours of the 15th June 1815 the French army advanced, forcing Ziethen’s Prussian I Corps to make a fighting withdrawal north-eastwards towards Fleurus. In a letter timed at 8.15 a.m. on the 15th June, Ziethen told Blücher that he had asked Wellington to concentrate near Nivelles. When this letter arrived at Blücher’s HQ at Namur at around midday, the rest of the Prussian army, put on alert on the 14th June, was ordered to concentrate by the 16th June around Sombreffe, where Blücher had decided to give battle in what would become known as the Battle of Ligny.
2
The Prussian decision to give battle may have been driven by political as well as strictly military considerations: it seems there was a desire to give battle alone,
3
in the belief that the entire Prussian army could be concentrated. A message at midday on the 15th June, from Gneisenau at the Prussian HQ in Namur to Müffling at Wellington’s HQ in Brussels, announced that battle would be given, without offering Wellington any say in the matter, and without a request for help – it merely asked Wellington where and when he planned to concentrate his army.
4
There is no space here to go into the discussions, and messages exchanged, between Wellington’s and the Prussian HQ, and the orders and troop movements, leading up to the 16th June.
5
But by the 16th June, the Prussians found themselves facing what they believed to be almost the entire French army at Ligny. The Prussians had sought the first opportunity to fight a single great battle and decisively defeat the French, for which they needed overwhelming force at Ligny – but as they completed their dispositions, their IV Corps under Bülow was absent and unlikely to arrive on the 16th June.
They came to rely more upon substantial support from Wellington, and as soon as possible. An emphatic victory at Ligny would render any French breakthrough elsewhere inconsequential and doomed to defeat or retreat - indeed, whatever French forces were at Quatre Bras were insignificant and might even rejoin the main French army at Ligny - therefore Wellington’s concerns for the Charleroi-Brussels
road and further west were a mere distraction. From statements made after the defeat at Ligny, it appears that the Prussians had believed – perhaps had persuaded themselves – that Wellington had promised such support in the specific circumstances arising on the 15th / 16th June. 6
On the 16th June, Wellington left Quatre Bras just after noon to meet Blücher, to assess the situation at Ligny for himself and to consult on the best way to co-operate with the Prussians. He arrived at Ligny at about 1 p.m., met Blücher and his entourage at the windmill at Brye, and returned to Quatre Bras at about 1.45 p.m. What happened between 1 and 1.45 p.m. - did Wellington promise support, and if so was the promise specific and / or unconditional? - has been the subject of controversy ever since.
Wellington and Blucher Meet 16 June 1815 Before the Battle of Ligny
|