Battle of Ligny - Aftermath

Aftermath

The Prussian defeat at Ligny made Wellington's Quatre Bras position untenable. Wellington spent 17 June falling back northwards, to a defensive position he had personally reconnoitred the previous year at Mont St Jean, a low ridge south of the village of Waterloo and the Forest of Soignes. Napoleon, with the reserve and the right wing of the Army of the North, made a late start on 17 June and joined Ney at Quatre Bras at 13:00 to attack Wellington's army, but found the position empty. The French pursued Wellington, but the result was only a brief cavalry skirmish in Genappe just as torrential rain set in for the night.

The retreat of the Prussians was not interrupted, and was seemingly unnoticed, by the French. Crucially, they retreated not to the east, along their own lines of communication and away from Wellington, but northwards, parallel to Wellington's line of march and still within supporting distance, and remained throughout in communication with Wellington. On the Prussian right, Zieten's I Corps retreated slowly with most of its artillery, leaving a rearguard close to Brye to slow any French pursuit. On the left, Lieutenant-General Thielemann's III Corps retreated unmolested, leaving a strong rearguard at Sombreffe. The bulk of the rearguard units held their positions until about midnight, before following the rest of the retreating army. In fact, Zieten's I Corps rearguard only left the battlefield in the early morning of 17 June, as the exhausted French had failed to press on. Pirch I's II Corps followed I Corps off the battlefield and Thieleman's III Corps moved last with the army's various supply parks in tow. The last of III Corps moved out in the morning and was completely ignored by the French. Von Bülow's IV Corps, which had not been engaged at Ligny, moved south of Wavre and set up a strong position on which the other elements of the Prussian army could reassemble. Before leaving Ligny, Napoleon gave Grouchy 33,000 men and orders to follow up the retreating Prussians. A late start, uncertainty about the direction the Prussians had taken, and the vagueness of the orders given to Grouchy meant that he was too late to prevent the Prussian army reaching Wavre, from where it could march to support Wellington.

By the end of 17 June, Wellington's army had arrived at its position at Waterloo, with the main body of Napoleon's army following. Blücher's army was gathering in and around Wavre, around eight miles (13 km)' march to the east.

It was at Waterloo on 18 June 1815 that the decisive battle of the campaign took place. Many people believe that the start of the battle was delayed for several hours as Napoleon waited until the ground had dried from the previous night’s rain. But a soaked soil can only dry slowly by strong sun and wind. It appears that in the morning of the 18th there was ample sun, negligible wind, and even some showers. Every hour that Napoleon could have attacked earlier as he did, would have been is his favour, but the French could not attack in the morning for the simple reason that the entire army had not yet taken its battle positions. By late afternoon the French army had not succeeded in driving Wellington’s allied forces from the escarpment on which they stood. Once the Prussians arrived in the late afternoon, attacking the French right flank in ever increasing numbers, Napoleon’s key strategy of keeping the Seventh Coalition armies divided had failed and his army was driven from the field in confusion, by a combined coalition general advance.

On the morning of 18 June 1815 Napoleon sent orders to Grouchy, commander of the right wing of the Army of the North, to harass the Prussians to stop them reforming. These orders arrived at around 06:00 and Grouchy's corps began to move out at 08:00. By 12:00 cannon fire could be heard from the Battle of Waterloo. Grouchy’s corps commanders, especially Gérard, advised that they should "march to the sound of the guns". As this was contrary to Napoleon’s orders "you will be the sword against the Prussian’s back driving them through Wavre and join me here", Grouchy decided not to take the advice, convinced as he was that the Prussians were positively known to be at Wavre in the morning, and that any other movement than ordered by Napoleon to "March on Wavre and draw closer to the main army" (order send by Napoleon around 10 p.m.) would have been a disobeying of given orders. One may always ask of this hypothetical question as to whether Grouchy should have disobeyed this order. Would any movement begun at noon have done any good to Napoleon? Would he even have arrived at Plancenoit, or even further on the battlefield, as the Prussian divisions of Pirch and Thielemann were sufficient enough to hold him back, while Blücher could use the corps of Bülow and Zieten to aid Wellington to decide the victory.

Following Napoleon’s orders Grouchy attacked the Prussian III Corps under the command of General Johann von Thielmann near the village of Wavre. Grouchy believed that he was engaging the rearguard of a still-retreating Prussian force. However only one Corps remained; the other three Prussian Corps (I, II and the still fresh IV) had regrouped after the Prussians defeat at Ligny and were marching towards Waterloo.

After the French defeat at Waterloo, the simultaneous battle of Wavre, was concluded the next morning with a hollow French victory. About 33,000 French and 18,000 Prussians were locked in battle along the Dyle on the evening of the 18th, after which the Prussians were pushed back towards Louvain. In the morning of the 19th Grouchy received word of the outcome of the battle of Waterloo. Although Pirch' Corps was sent to trap Grouchy, the latter avoided being surrounded and managed to retreat in good order to Namur on the 19th and 20th, and entered France on the 21st with his force of nearly 30,000 organised French soldiers with their artillery. However, this army was not strong enough to resist the combined coalition forces, so it retreated toward Paris with the armies of Wellington and Blücher and other Coalition forces advancing on the same objective.

Napoleon announced his abdication on 24 June 1815. In the final skirmish of the Napoleonic Wars, Marshal Davout, Napoleon's minister of war, was defeated by Blücher at Issy on 3 July 1815 after some severe fighting. With this defeat, all hope of holding Paris faded, as did any prospects that Napoleon could hold onto power in France. Napoleon tried to escape to North America, but the Royal Navy was blockading the French ports to forestall such a move. He finally surrendered to the captain of HMS Bellerophon on 15 July. There was a campaign against hold out French fortresses that ended with the capitulation of Longwy on 13 September 1815. The Treaty of Paris was signed on 20 November 1815. Louis XVIII was restored to the throne of France, and Napoleon was exiled to Saint Helena, where he died in 1821.