The comments made to Ellesmere were largely similar to those made to both De Ros and Stanhope. In the Ellesmere version, Wellington is more specific about the advice he claimed to have given the Prussians. It was, 'I should not have formed mine (Army) in this defensive position as yours is. I should have held them further back, and would have thus protected them from the effect of the French artillery.'

As we have seen above, the Prussians deployed the smaller part of their army to defend the villages of St. Amand and Brye. What would have happened had the Prussians followed the advice Wellington claimed to have given? They would have withdrawn this infantry to a position on the far side of the windmill height, abandoning the villages mentioned to the French. As many of the buildings in these two villages were stone, then this would have offered the French cover from Prussian artillery fire.

Moreover, as the slope from Ligny to Brye was too steep to deploy artillery, there was little the Prussians could have done to stop the French advancing from here into the centre of the Prussian position. The possession of the village of Ligny was the key to winning the battle.

Later that day, its capture by the French decided the battle. To have abandoned it without a fight would have been folly. If the Prussians had followed the advice Wellington claims to have given, then they would have had to quit the field of Ligny without a fight, leaving the French to turn their full attention on Wellington. As the Duke's men were spread all over Belgium and not fully concentrated, this would have led to his army being mopped up piecemeal. As that was not in his own interests and Wellington certainly did not want that to happen, the only logical conclusion to draw is that he never made such a suggestion to Blucher.

Wellington's final comment to Ellesmere, 'We saw in the evening what passed on the Prussian field of battle -- the failure of the charge of cavalry made by Blucher' is similar to that made to De Ros and has been examined above. Suffice to say that Wellington's claim was physically impossible and conflicts with his own records of these events.

More Were the Prussian Positions at Ligny Exposed

Introduction
The Sombreffe Position
Wellington and the Windmill at Bussy
De Ros
Stanhope
Ellesmere
Conclusions
Large Ligny Map (extremely slow: 472K)
Jumbo Ligny Map (monstously slow: 1.42Mb!)