Battle of

Quatre Bras

The Battle of Quatre Bras (June 16th 1815)

 

The Battle of Quatre Bras was fought between Anglo-Dutch forces commanded by the Duke of Wellington and a French army under Marshal Ney. It was fought for a strategic objective. Wellington needed to keep open his communications with Marshal Blucher, whose Prussian army was further east. Napoleon knew that his best chance of victory in the campaign would be to keep apart and then separately defeat the two armies opposing him. While he advanced to Ligny to take on Blucher, therefore, he despatched Ney to Quatre Bras to defeat Wellington.

 

The topography of the Quatre Bras battlefield did not ideally suit the Duke’s preferred battle strategy of defence first, counter attack later, which had proved so effective in the Peninsular War and which would be the undoing of the French at Waterloo two days later. It was essential, however, to retain possession of the crossroads at Quatre Bras and the Namur Road, along which the Prussians were located at Ligny in order to keep in touch with Blucher and thus prevent Napoleon from achieving his objective.

 

At the start of the battle Ney’s forces outnumbered Wellington’s by around 2:1 and he had an overwhelming superiority in artillery and cavalry. The longer the battle went on, however, more and more Allied units arrived from the north to swing the balance. By the end of the battle Wellington had superior numbers of infantry and artillery at his disposal, but he had won the day with virtually no cavalry at all.

 

The battle began with a general French advance which pushed back the Dutch forces holding ground to the south of the crossroads, including the farm of Gemioncourt, and also forced them back through the Bossu Wood on the Allied right.

 

On the arrival of Lieutenant General Sir Thomas Picton’s Division, the 95th Rifles were sent east to establish a strong position along the vital Nivelle/Namur road. The French then threw forward a mass of tirailleurs and, with artillery support, had some degree of success in pushing back the Riflemen. This flank position was, however, held throughout the battle and it provided Wellington with a pivot from which to launch an effective counter attack later in the day.

 

Ney then launched a massed infantry attack against the Allied centre and, at the same time, sent reinforcements to aid the expulsion of Allied forces from the Bossu Wood. The French columns were met by a textbook echelon extended line attack by the British 32nd and 79th Regiments. Once again, as had been the case on numerous occasions during the Peninsular War, the superior firepower afforded by the British line over the dense French column formation proved decisive and the attack was repulsed.

 

The Brunswick Corps under the command of the Friedrich Wilhelm, Duke of Brunswick or the “Black Duke”, as he was known, began to arrive at the crossroads. The Duke led a cavalry charge forward, but it was ineffective against the French infantry, who had formed square to resist the charge, and the Brunswickers retired. Shortly after the Black Duke was fatally wounded whilst attempting to rally his troops.

 

The Prince of Orange then led forward another cavalry attack, but the Allied horsemen were confronted by French cavalry and could not be induced to charge. They retired and were pursued by the French, who managed to get in behind the British 42nd and 44th Regiments in the confusion. The French then wheeled around and attacked. The 42nd were caught in the act of forming square and were attacked by the French cavalry. The Highlanders did, however, manage to complete their formation, trapping a number of French cavalrymen inside. All were killed, but the Black Watch commanding officer, Macara, was severely wounded in the fighting. As he was being carried out of the square to the rear he and his bearers were attacked and killed by French lancers, something which the Highlanders did not forget and two days later at Waterloo they gave no quarter to the French.

 

At the same time that the 42nd were subject to attack, the 44th were also assailed from the rear by the French cavalry. They had no time to form square and the order was given for the rear rank of the line to about face. They volley fired into the French and succeeded in driving them off, but not before Ensign James Christie had heroically saved the King’s colour, despite receiving an appalling lance wound.

 

The Allies was then subjected to further attacks by cavalry, as well as bombardment from the French artillery and assault by the French tirailleurs who pushed forward from the Gemioncourt area.  Lieutenant General Picton then formed the 1st and 28th Regiments into column and drove back the tirailleurs. He then reformed them into square formation and succeeded in beating off three cavalry attacks.

 

Shortly afterwards a monumental blunder was perpetrated by the Prince of Orange. Whilst Wellington was absent over on the eastern flank of the Allied line, Picton had formed four newly arrived regiments into square formation. The Prince then appeared and countermanded Picton’s orders. He ordered four British regiments to reform into line. Moments later French heavy cavalry under the command of General Kellerman struck. The 69th Regiment were badly cut up and their King’s colour captured, the first time a battalion under Wellington’s direct command had ever lost its colours in battle. Their Regimental colour was saved thanks to the bravery of Christopher Clarke, a gentleman volunteer, who killed three cuirassiers and received 22 sabre wounds in the process. Clarke was later rewarded for his bravery with a commission in the Black Watch. The 33rd and the 73rd were also assailed but they fled to the safety of the Bossu Wood where they quickly rallied. The French cavalry pressed on to the Quatre Bras crossroads, but then came under close range artillery and musket fire and were forced to retreat.

 

By now the Guards Division was beginning to arrive from the west. The Guardsmen were sent into the Bossu Wood to retake lost ground. Fighting from tree to tree they forced the French out within half an hour. Wellington now counter attacked. The 92nd drove the French back from their position at La Bergerie. This was followed by a general advance on both sides of the Charleroi Road. At the same time the Guards moved forward from the southern fringes of the Bossu Wood. The French fell back. The crossroads of Quatre Bras and the all important Namur Road had been held.

 

Quatre Bras was a classic Napoleonic battle and a spectacular victory for Wellington, not the stalemate that some historians would have us believe. Alas for the Battle of Quatre Bras, however, it was completely overshadowed by Waterloo two days later!

 

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