Battle of Ligny

“ Ney, however, did an important act in checking the advance of five or six divisions of the main army during the rest of the day while the battle of Ligny was decided, and in this repaired, in a measure, his various faults committed on the 16th. ”

“ Every house, every court, every wall, was the scene of a desperate conflict. Streets were alternately won and lost. An ungovernable fury seized upon the combatants on both sides, as they rushed wildly forward to relieve their comrades exhausted by their exertions in the [Pg 241] deadly strife—a strife in which every individual appeared eager to seek out an opponent, from whose death he might derive some alleviation to the thirst of hatred and revenge by which he was so powerfully excited. Hence no quarter was asked or granted by either party.
Battle of Ligny at 1⁄2 past 8 o'clock p.m. ”

“ Our force in the field towards the close of the day was about 29,000 infantry, 2,000 cavalry, and sixty-eight guns; that of [17] the enemy, about 16,000 infantry, 5,000 cavalry, with fifty guns.
To the fortunate circumstance of the marching and countermarching of D’Erlon’s corps (Ney’s reserve) between Frasnes, Ligny and Quatre-Bras, without pulling a trigger, we may probably attribute our success on the 16th. An additional force of 25,000 men, either at Ligny or Quatre-Bras, might have gained Napoleon a decisive victory. ”

“ They had just reached the field of Ligny when an order from Ney again caused them to retrace their steps to Quatre Bras, where they arrived just after the fighting there had come to an end. Thus twenty thousand men with forty-six guns were absolutely thrown away, while their presence with either Napoleon or Ney would have been invaluable.
Soon after two o'clock Picton's division, which headed the column, heard several cannon shots fired in rapid succession, and in another minute a perfect roar of artillery broke out. The battle had evidently begun ”

“ Amand and Ligny. He employs some 6,000 men to occupy the IIId Prussian army corps, and with 33,000 he remains far behind the fighting line, quietly in reserve. Of these he employs 6,000 men finally to sustain the battle at St. Amand.
“As early as 6 o’clock he determines to give the deciding blow at Ligny with the Guard: at that moment he receives the information that a considerable corps has appeared on his left flank, about one hour’s march distant. Bonaparte stops his movement, for it might be a corps coming from the enemy at Brussels. The fact is, it was 172 Frasnes against St. Amand. ”

“ The French accounts at the time speak of the intrepidity of the English infantry, and of their prodigious fire. And our Gazette stated, that “the honour gained by the infantry was in a great measure owing to the conduct and bravery of Lieutenant General Sir John Ligonier.” Mr. Jacob gives the particulars. The famous attack of the French intrenchments was commanded by Sir John Ligonier in person. Everything gave way to British intrepidity, the troops remaining masters of the field of battle for upwards of two hours. ”

“ The victory of Ligny did not entirely fulfil the expectations of the Emperor. "If Marshal Ney," said he, "had attacked the English with all his forces, he would have crushed them, and have come to give the Prussians the finishing blow: and if, after having committed this first fault, he had not been guilty of his second folly, in preventing the movement of Count Erlon, the intervention of the 1st corps would have shortened the resistance of Blucher, and rendered his defeat irreparable: his whole army would have been taken or destroyed." ”

“ The smoking ruins of Ligny and St. Amand were heaped with the dead and dying: the ravine before Ligny resembled a river of blood, on which carcasses were floating: (p. 175) at Quatre Bras there was a similar spectacle! the hollow way, that skirted the wood, had disappeared under the bloody corses of the brave Scotch and of our cuirassiers. The imperial guard was every where distinguished by its murderous rage: it fought with shouts of "The Emperor for ever! No quarter!" The corps of General Gérard displayed the same animosity. ”

“ What can one say when one sees Jean de Ligny, of the house of Luxembourg, exercise his nephew, the Count of Saint-Pol, a child of fifteen, in massacring those who fled? They treated their kinsfolk in the same manner as their enemies. For safety—better be a foe than a relation. ”

“ He exchanged his wearied horse for a fresher one, then placed himself at the head of the squadron and started for the front. He could hear the sound of firing in the direction of Ligny on the right, and also straight ahead of him. Advancing at a rapid trot, he came up to some battalions of French infantry. They were hotly engaged with the enemy, firing as fast as they could load.
"They run, they run," shouted an officer by his side. ”

“ As regards the influence which the defeat at Ligny exercised over the morale of the Prussian Army, its injurious effects were made manifest amongst the newly raised drafts from the Rhenish and Westphalian Provinces, and from the Duchy of Berg. Of these troops, 8,000 men betook themselves to a flight which admitted of no check until they reached Liege and Aix la Chapelle. Among the Rhenish troops, particularly those from Provinces which had formerly belonged to France, there were many old French soldiers ”

“ The torrent of battle flowed in favour of the rebels, and one wing of [19] the King's army retired; a few regiments, however, maintained their ground with the most heroic bravery, and were supported by Colonel Ligonier with a party of dragoons; after dark, the King's troops being exposed to a heavy rain, retired to Linlithgow. Colonel Ligonier covered the retreat with his dragoons to Linlithgow, and being drenched with rain and benumbed with cold, he was seized with an inflammation in the throat, of which he died on the 25th of January, much regretted by the regiment. ”

“ Just when his anxiety was greatest there came a letter from the Secretary of State, announcing that invasion of England was imminent, and hoping that troops could be spared from Flanders without prejudice to his operations. "What!" answered Ligonier indignantly, "Are you aware that the enemy has seventy thousand men against our thirty thousand, and that they can place a superior force on the canal before us and send another army round [123] between us and Antwerp to cut off our supplies and force us to fight at a disadvantage? ”

“ And on the long road 378northwards the desire to be near his young wife and his new possessions gave a keener zest to the scheme of a Central Italian French dependency of which Ligny himself should be made the governor. When the army reached Siena, though the city was a fief of the Holy Roman Empire, and therefore implicated in the Anti-Gallic league, none the less the Republic declared for France, demanding Ligny for her governor. The young man left a garrison there under Gaucher de Tinteville, and went with the King, hoping to pursue a like policy in Pisa. ”

“ I ran on to overtake the squad, which was directing its steps toward the fires at Sombref. As for the rest, I will not attempt to describe to you the appearance of the plateau in the rear of Ligny where our cuirassiers and dragoons had slaughtered all before them. The men and horses were lying in heaps. The horses with their long necks stretched out on the ground and the dead and wounded lying under them.
Sometimes the wounded men would raise their hands to make signs when the horses would attempt to get up and fall back, crushing them still more fearfully. ”

“ By the 10th of the month the Prussian forces, 300,000 strong, were at Ligny, not more than twenty-five miles from the capital. The terms in which by certain journals appeals were made to the invaders were questionable in respect to dignity: on the one hand, if as “friends,” offering friendship; on the other, if as enemies, barricades and sewers transformed into mines to be exploded under them. M. Balbi proposed that portable fortresses, each of a strength equal to one hundred thousand men, should be sent against them ”

“ About one o’clock a staff officer with Lord Raglan observed the Russians beginning to withdraw their artillery; then the news flew round that the enemy acknowledged his defeat, and at last the battle, the great ‘Soldiers’ Battle,’ was won.
A mass of two thousand men, all gathered closely together, formed to cover the retreat of the Russian artillery. The eighteen-pounders were turned upon them, and the balls tore through, carrying cruel destruction with them. ”

“ The fight throughout the whole Village of Ligny was now at the hottest: the place was literally crammed with the combatants, and its streets and inclosures were choked up with the wounded, the dying, and the dead: every house that had escaped being set on fire, was the scene of a desperate struggle: the troops fought no longer in combined order, but in numerous and irregular groups, separated by houses either in flames, or held as little forts, sometimes by the one, and sometimes by the other party ”

“ Ney has been blamed for want of promptness in his attack upon Quatre Bras; and Napoleon has been criticised for not having fought at Ligny before the afternoon of the 16th: but their censors should remember that soldiers are but men ; and that there must be necessarily some interval of time, before troops, that have been worn and weakened by twenty hours of incessant fatigue and strife, can be fed, rested, reorganized, and brought again into action with any hope of success. ”

“ General Geraud proceeded to attack Ligny, and here a murderous scene commenced. The troops of Napoleon succeeded in establishing themselves in part of the village, while all their efforts could not drive the Prussians from the remaining part, and the Prussians were unable to dislodge their opponents. Every house was fortified— every hedge became a military station. The combatants were so in contact with each other, that they had scarcely room to manoeuvre, and as the ranks thinned on either side, the void was filled with fresh troops. ”

“ Jean Louis de Ligonier was born at Castres [1] on the 7th November 1680; he came to England in the year 1697. On the declaration of war in 1702, he accompanied the British army to Flanders as a volunteer, and immediately, by prodigious bravery, attracted the attention of the Duke of Marlborough. On the 23rd October 1702, he and another volunteer, the Honourable Allan Wentworth, brother of Lord Raby, were the two first who mounted the breach at the storming of the citadel of Liege. Wentworth was killed at the side of John Ligonier. ”

“ On this day, Saturday, the Prince de Ligne’s son, although quartered for some time at Mons, made his official entry into the town as Commissary to his Majesty at the ceremony of Inauguration which is to take place on the day after to-morrow. Guns were fired, although we are at the very seat of war. He entered on horseback by the Havré gate, crossed the square, and went up the Rue Neuve to the hôtel de Ligne, [108] while the bells were ringing. He was followed by the dragoon officers of the Coburg regiment, and by his liveried retainers. ”

“ Once I was ordered to help some men build sheds of brush for the wounded. This was in a ravine behind us. In an hour the work was done, and as I crept up the slope to get forward to my regiment again I heard the loud voice of some officer on horseback. It was General John A. Logan. The enemy's artillery was sweeping the field at this point, but I could still hear Logan's voice above the battle, cheering a number of soldiers that were near. "We have taken this fort and we have taken that," he cried in tones that were simply stentorian. "We are giving them hell everywhere." ”

“ Ligonier, whose deployment the squadrons were to have covered, let them pass to the rear, and, hearing the guns of the Dutch towards Antoing, pushed the British infantry forward through the lanes, each unit on reaching open ground covering the exit and deployment of the one in rear, all under the French cannonade. This went on for two hours, and save that it showed the magnificent discipline of the British and Hanoverian regiments, was a bad prelude to the real attack. ”

“ Sergeant Linham had approached Jack, and he looked grimly at the strong position. ‘Ha, hum!’ he said, ‘many a man will lose the number of his mess before those heights are carried; but we shall do it.’
Just then the dense blue-uniformed masses of French infantry were seen moving forward to attack the Russian right. They advanced with a deal of dash, artillery supporting them. Soon a tremendous cannonade was in full progress, and the English line was halted till the French had achieved their object. ”

“ In passing through the town the Eleventh Corps was especially exposed to the fire of the enemy, who pressed his advantage and captured thousands of prisoners. Our wounded, who, up to this time, had been quartered in Gettysburg, fell into the enemy's hands, and scarcely one-half of our brave boys, who had so recently and proudly passed through the streets to the battle lines, had the privilege of returning, but either lay dead or dying on the well-fought fields, or were captives with a cruel foe. ”

“ We lost twenty-nine killed, thirty-six wounded, and forty missing. We found upon the field one hundred and twenty-five dead Rebels, and brought away upward of fifty wounded. A large number of the enemy's wounded were left upon the field in charge of their own surgeons. We captured two guns, three battle-flags, and upward of fifteen hundred prisoners.
To General Custer and his brigade, Lieutenant Pennington and his battery, and one squadron of the Eighth New York Cavalry, of General Buford's command, all praise is due. ”