Hundred Days
- Main article :Military mobilisation during the Hundred Days
- Prussian Army (Army of the Lower Rhine)
This army was composed entirely of Prussians from the provinces of the Kingdom of Prussia, old and recently acquired alike. Field Marshal Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher commanded this army with General August Neidhardt von Gneisenau as his chief of staff and second in command.
Blücher's Prussian army of 116,000 men, with headquarters at Namur, was distributed as follows:
- I Corps (Graf von Zieten), 30,800, cantoned along the Sambre, headquarters Charleroi, and covering the area Fontaine-l'Évêque–Fleurus–Moustier.
- II Corps (Pirch I), 31,000, headquarters at Namur, lay in the area Namur-Hannut–Huy.
- III Corps (Thielemann), 23,900, in the bend of the river Meuse, headquarters Ciney, and disposed in the area Dinant–Huy–Ciney.
- IV Corps (Bülow), 30,300, with headquarters at Liege and cantoned around it.
- German Corps (North German Federal Army)
This army was part of the Prussian Army above, but was to act independently much further south. It was composed of contingents from the following nations of the German Confederation: Electorate of Hessen, Grand Duchy of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, Grand Duchy of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, Grand Duchy of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach, Duchy of Oldenburg (state), Duchy of Saxe-Gotha, Duchy of Anhalt-Bernburg, Duchy of Anhalt-Dessau, Duchy of Anhalt-Kothen, Principality of Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt, Principality of Schwarzburg-Sondershausen, Principality of Waldeck (state), Principality of Lippe and the Principality of Schaumburg-Lippe.
Fearing that Napoleon was going to strike him first, Blücher ordered this army to march north to join the rest of his own army. The Prussian General Friedrich Graf Kleist von Nollendorf initially commanded this army before he fell ill on 18 June and was replaced by the Hessen-Kassel General Von Engelhardt. Its composition in June was:
- Hessen-Kassel Division (Three Hessian Brigades)- General Engelhardt
- Thuringian Brigade - Colonel Egloffstein
- Mecklenburg Brigade - General Prince of Mecklenburg-Schwerin
Total 25,000
- Prussian Reserve Army
Besides the four Army Corps that fought in the Waterloo Campaign listed above that Blücher took with him into the Kingdom of the Netherlands, Prussia also had a reserve army stationed at home in order to defend its borders.
This consisted of:
- V Army Corps - Commanded by General Ludwig Yorck von Wartenburg
- VI Army Corps - Commanded by General Bogislav Friedrich Emanuel von Tauentzien
- Royal Guard (VIII Corps) - Commanded by General Charles II, Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Strelitz
Read more about this topic: Royal Prussian Army Of The Napoleonic Wars
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