karimamarika456
Dołączył: 11 Mar 2024
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Pon Mar 11, 2024 04:57 |
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In fact, what he was concerned about was gathering the rest of his forces at the Quatre Bras crossing to attack the French forces of Marshal Ney who had opposed him the day before. Having written to the authorities in Brussels to confirm his intention to attack the enemy, Wellington had ridden back to the battlefield with his large retinue of staff officers. They reached Quatre Bras at around 5.00 and in less than an hour they were joined by the crown prince of Orange-Nassau. No information had been received from the Prussian high command and, after reconnoitring the French positions on his left flank, Wellington concluded that the line of communication with his allies, at Ligny , had been cut. Accordingly, he sent the Honorable Sir Alexander Gordon, his first aide-de-camp, with an escort of horsemen belonging to the 10th Hussars, to contact the Prussians and find out what the situation really was.
The withdrawal begins General Baron Jean-Victor de Constant-Rebècque , then chief of staff to the crown prince of Orange-Nassau, described what happened next in his extensive narrative of the Waterloo campaign : "About 9 o'clock in the morning, Colonel Gordon, who had been sent by the duke to obtain news of the Prussians, returned and reported B2B Email List
that Field Marshal Blücher was retreating to Wavre , where he would establish his headquarters. general that night. The messages he had sent to the duke at the end of the afternoon had been intercepted by the enemy. Upon receiving this news, the duke, who was sitting behind the Quatre Bras farm, dictated marching orders to Colonel DeLancey [acting quartermaster general]. They specified that the army must move at 10 o'clock to position itself in front of Waterloo, where the duke would establish his headquarters. Upon receiving Gordon's information, Wellington turned to Freiherr von Müffling, the Prussian officer attached to Allied Headquarters, to ask why he had not been informed of these events. Just then, however, Commander Friedrich von Massow arrived with a message from the Prussian leaders.
Realizing that he could not continue in Quatre Bras under pain of being isolated, the Duke asked for the map of Mont Saint Jean , a position he had previously inspected, and identified as a good site to carry out a defensive action . After studying the map intensely, he gave orders for the Allied army to concentrate at that point, where it would be aligned with the Prussians, although with 13 kilometers between both forces. That would allow them to act together against the French. Friedrich von Wachholtz of the Brunswick Corps recalled the retreat: The army set out at 10, dividing into three columns . The first, under the command of Lord Hill, formed by the English Division of Lieutenant-General Clinton and the Dutch Division of Baron Chassé, moved through Nivelles towards Braine l'Alleud; the second, or main column, under the command of Marshal Duke of Wellington, composed of the English divisions of Generals Cooke and Picton, and part of that of Colville, as well as the Dutch Division of Lieutenant General Perponcher and the troops of the Corps of Brunswick, marched towards Waterloo by Genappe; and the third, with the rest of Colville's English Division, the Dutch brigades of Stegmann [sic], the so-called Indian Brigade and the Hanoverian cavalry commanded by Colonel von Esdorf [sic], marched through Nivelles and Hal to cover a possible enemy advance towards Brussels along said road. |
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