| Battle Of Ligny |
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The Battle of Ligny, fought June 16 , 1815 , was a French victory under Napoleon against the Prussian army under Gebhard Leberecht Von Blücher in the Napoleonic Wars . It was Napoleon's last victory. GROUND The Prussians had deployed along the Ligny Brook. They held all the farmhouses, and looked in a good defensive position with most of their advance forces in cover. In fact the Prussian three Army Corps' positions were so good, that Napoleon at first had been deceived thinking he'd encountered only one Prussian Army Corps. However, Blücher had overstretched his left flank, and exposed his right to the French artillery. According to Prussian sources he had done so expecting Wellington to come to aid his right flank. BATTLE Between 1430 hours to 1500 hours, Napoleon started his attack. He ordered his 3rd and a some of 2nd Corps to attack St. Amaund, a farmhouse, and attacked Ligny itself. The first attacks on Ligny were not successful, but the French eventually got through. The St. Amaund attack was more successful. The French broke through after likewise vicious and ferocious fighting, but were still resisted by the Prussians. They forced the Prussians to abandon their positions at around 1700 hours but failed to push on. Some troops were spotted on approaching the French left flank. Napoleon paused his attack while he sent an ''aides-de-camp'' (ADC) to see whether they were French or Prussian. They turned out to be French, D'Erlon's 1st Corps. But just as they were about to enter the battle, to the Napoleon's rage, they turned around. Marshal Ney had called them to aid him at the Battle Of Quatre Bras . In the end, the 1st Corps did not fight in either engagement. Due to the confusion, it was about an hour before Napoleon resumed his attack, in the mean while the Prussians regrouped and tried one last counterattack. It didn't work. In the end the Prussians were routed and the centre fled when Napoleon committed his Imperial Guard to smash it, however the stubborn defence put up by the two wings of the Prussian army and a ferocious cavalry charge led by Blücher prevented it from becoming a total rout. By nightfall, at about 2100, almost all of the Prussian formations had left the field. On the Prussian right Lieutenant-General Ziethen's I Corps retreated slowly with most of its artillery, leaving a rearguard at close to Brye to slow the French pursuit. On the left Lieutenant-General Thielemann's III Corps retreated unharmed, leaving a strong rearguard at Sombreffe . The bulk of the rearguard held their positions until about midnight before following the rest of the retreating army. In fact some Prussian outmost rearguards only left the battlefield in the early morning of 17 June as the exhausted French had failed to pursue victory and press on. It was to the honour of General von Gneisenau's excellent staff, that Prussian forces were directed towards Wavre, a position that would allow the Prussians to come to Wellington's aid on 18 June and subsequently swing the outcome of the campaign into their favour. This turned the tactical defeat at Ligny into a strategic victory. Napoleon ordered Grouchy to follow the Prussians on 17 June. Grouchy, misled by contingents of Prussian stragglers, believed that they had followed their "natural" line of retreat towards Namur and Aachen. When he learned of the fact, that instead the Prussians were ordered to rally in and around Wavre, it was too late. CONCLUSION If Ney's 2nd Corps and 3rd Cavalry Corps had not blocked the Allied army at Battle Of Quatre Bras on the same day, then units of the Allied army would have arrived down the Nivelles-Namur road on the right hand side of the Prussian position much as the Prussians arrived on the left flank of the Allied lines at the Battle Of Waterloo two days later. This is why Napoleon sent Ney to block the road at the Quatre Bras cross roads. It had been his strategy to cross the border in secret and attack the Allied armies before they could combine, because if they combined then they would outnumber his army. If he was able to engage them separately then his army outnumbered theirs in the individual engagements. In Wellington's words "''he {Link without Title} humbugged me''". In driving the Prussians back onto their lines of communications and sending Grouchy 's with a corps to pursue them, to stop them reforming and coming to the aid of Wellington's allied formations, he judged that he had done enough to prevent this happening. There has been much debate of what would have happened if D'Erlon 's 1st Corps had engaged at either Ligny or Quatre Bras, but he did not and Napoleon went on to his meet his destiny at Waterloo. SEE ALSO FURTHER READING
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