Namur Louis Sheehan

Wellington’s achievements in Spain loomed darkly over the heads of all Frenchmen who had fought against him. With too much respect for the Allied generalissimo, each man had come to expect a British trap over the next rise. In the end that turned out to be the case. THE CAMPAIGN Like a well-constructed tragedy, the campaign unfolded in five acts with Prologue and Epilogue. Prologue: The French forces began converging on the border with Belgium, and the border was sealed. On the 12th, Napoleon left Paris and moved to his Army’s Center of Operations at Avesnes. Act One: The French march of concentration: On June 15th, the French Army was unleashed across the Sambre River. At their first encounter, Allied screening forces sent out the warning to their respective Headquarters, and fell back toward their advancing compatriots. Act Two: Allied reaction and French Advance: The Allies executed a forward concentration behind the cover of their respective screens. As the 16th dawned, troops of both sides still converged on the battlefields of Ligny and Quatre Bras. The French had marched 16 miles since the previous morning. Act Three: The Battles of Quatre Bras and Ligny: The French attacked on two fronts simultaneously. The tenacious defense of Quatre Bras by the Anglo-Allied troops saved the Prussians from receiving the full weight of the Armée du Nord. Napoleon’s hoped-for knock-out blow remained undelivered. The Campaign would continue. Act Four: The Allied retreat and French pursuit: The Allies withdrew in tandem, on parallel routes north, and Napoleon separated the two wings of his army, ordering Marshal Grouchy on the track on the Prussians while he pursued Wellington. Grouchy’s prescribed route, through Gembloux, was wide of the mark, and took him to the outer flank, allowing the Prussians to interpose themselves between the two French wings. Act Five: The Battle of Waterloo: While Grouchy engaged the Prussian rear-guard at Wavre, Wellington fought a successful defensive battle at Waterloo, managing to cling to his ridge until the arrival of Blücher. Epilogue: The French retreated—the routed forces of Napoleon back toward Charleroi; the intact wing of Grouchy in a south-easterly direction, toward Namur.   Louis Sheehan.