{
 "slug": "ligny",
 "title": "Battle of Ligny",
 "status": "draft",
 "era": "1775–1815",
 "date_text": "16 June 1815",
 "start": "1815-06-16",
 "end": "1815-06-16",
 "war": "Napoleonic Wars",
 "cdb90_war": "THE NAPOLEONIC WARS",
 "place": {
  "name": "Ligny, Saint-Amand and Sombreffe, near Fleurus, Belgium (then the United Kingdom of the Netherlands)",
  "lat": 50.5203,
  "lon": 4.5814,
  "wikidata": "Q855429"
 },
 "lede": "On 16 June 1815 Napoleon beat Blücher's three Prussian corps along the Ligny brook in his last victory. But d'Erlon's corps never joined in, the Prussians got away in good order, and they retreated north towards Wavre, which let them reach Waterloo two days later.",
 "result": "French victory; the Prussian army retreated in good order",
 "result_cdb90": "attacker win",
 "belligerents": [
  {
   "role": "attacker",
   "name": "French Armée du Nord (centre and right wing)",
   "commanders": [
    "Napoleon I",
    "Marshal Grouchy",
    "General Vandamme",
    "General Gérard"
   ],
   "strength": {
    "value": 72000,
    "low": 58000,
    "high": 76800,
    "source": "s2"
   },
   "casualties": {
    "value": 11500,
    "low": 7000,
    "high": 12000,
    "source": "s1"
   }
  },
  {
   "role": "defender",
   "name": "Prussian army",
   "commanders": [
    "Prince Blücher",
    "General Gneisenau",
    "General Zieten",
    "General Pirch I",
    "General Thielmann"
   ],
   "strength": {
    "value": 83417,
    "low": 78000,
    "high": 86569,
    "source": "s2"
   },
   "casualties": {
    "value": 16000,
    "low": 12000,
    "high": 25000,
    "source": "s1"
   }
  }
 ],
 "sections": {
  "background": "Napoleon crossed the Belgian frontier before dawn on 15 June 1815, at Thuin and Charleroi, aiming to strike the two Allied armies in Belgium before they could combine: Wellington's Anglo-allied army around Brussels and Blücher's Prussian Army of the Lower Rhine to its east. Zieten's I Corps fought a delaying action back from the Sambre on the 15th and bought time for the Prussians to concentrate.\n\nThe Prussian staff had chosen and surveyed a position behind Fleurus long before: the heights of Brye, Sombreffe and Tongrinne, behind the marshy Ligny brook and its chain of stone-built villages. It stood astride the Namur–Nivelles road, which joined it to Wellington at Quatre Bras seven miles away. The plan assumed all four corps, but Bülow's IV Corps, coming from Liège, received its orders late and could not arrive until the night of the 16th. Blücher fought anyway with three corps. He expected Wellington's support down the Namur road, and an orderly retreat while the two armies' lines of communication pointed in opposite directions looked hardly less dangerous than a battle.\n\nNapoleon reached Fleurus late in the morning and decided to fall on the Prussians, whom he took to be the greater threat, while Ney held off Wellington with the left wing at Quatre Bras. He believed Blücher's line faced the wrong way and exposed its right flank, and at 14:00 had Soult write to Ney to beat whatever was in front of him and then turn on the Prussian right and rear. At about 13:00 Wellington rode over from Quatre Bras, met Blücher at the Bussy windmill and promised the support of at least one corps; then he rode back to face Ney.",
  "forces": "Napoleon brought the centre and right wing of the Armée du Nord. Vandamme's III Corps, with Girard's division detached from Reille, faced the western villages of Saint-Amand, Saint-Amand-la-Haye and Wagnelée. Gérard's IV Corps faced Ligny. Grouchy, with Pajol's and Exelmans' cavalry corps, held the long right flank opposite Thielmann. In reserve stood the Imperial Guard and Milhaud's cuirassiers, and Lobau's VI Corps marched up from Charleroi during the afternoon. These were mostly veterans, and the Guard and the cuirassiers were fresh when they were finally thrown in.\n\nBlücher's army was larger but younger. Zieten's I Corps held the villages and the Bussy heights, Pirch I's II Corps stood behind it, and Thielmann's III Corps held the left from Sombreffe to Balâtre. A large part of the infantry were Landwehr and newly raised regiments, many under fire for the first time, and the Rhenish and Westphalian drafts were of doubtful loyalty. Gneisenau, the chief of staff, and Grolman, the quartermaster-general, ran the army's staff work.\n\nThe ground favoured the French. Their side of the valley was higher and its folds hid their reserves, while the Prussian supports and reserves stood on open, forward slopes in full view of the French batteries. The villages, with stone farms, walled courtyards and hollow lanes, made the battle a street fight.",
  "course": "CDB90 records the battle as engagement 143 (LIGNY), from 14:00 to 21:30. Times below come from Siborne, Clausewitz and Wikipedia and are approximate; they differ by up to an hour.\n\n**Opening (11:00–14:30).** French light troops took Fleurus between 11:00 and noon, and Röder's Prussian cavalry fell back across the brook. The French corps deployed in front of Fleurus: Vandamme on the left opposite Saint-Amand, Gérard in the centre opposite Ligny, Grouchy's cavalry on the right, the Guard and Milhaud in reserve.\n\n**Saint-Amand and Ligny (14:30–16:00).** At about 14:30 Lefol's division of Vandamme's corps stormed Saint-Amand and drove out its defenders. Steinmetz's brigade retook it with the help of canister from the heights, then lost it again, suffering about 2,300 casualties in a short time. Gérard sent three columns against Ligny from about 15:00; the Prussian battalions behind its walls and hedges threw them all back. Further attacks, with skirmishers creeping up through the tall corn, carried the outer gardens and the churchyard, and the village became a burning ruin, fought over house by house. Girard's division took Saint-Amand-la-Haye on the French left.\n\n**Blücher's counter-attacks (16:00–18:00).** Blücher went to his right in person to retake Saint-Amand-la-Haye with Pirch II's brigade; Girard was mortally wounded in its defence. He meant to turn the French left from Wagnelée, but Tippelskirch's young battalions were broken by fire from the corn. Saint-Amand-la-Haye changed hands repeatedly, and one by one Blücher fed in Pirch I's brigades until he had almost no reserve. Napoleon sent the Young Guard to support Vandamme. On the left Thielmann and Grouchy fought little more than outpost actions around Tongrinne and Boignée.\n\n**D'Erlon (about 17:00–19:00).** Napoleon had his Guard moving on Ligny when Vandamme reported a large column approaching his left rear. It was d'Erlon's I Corps, which a staff officer carrying Napoleon's order had turned towards Saint-Amand on its way to Quatre Bras. Vandamme took it for an enemy, Girard's division fell back to cover Fleurus, and Napoleon halted the Guard while he found out. By the time his aide reported, at about 19:00, d'Erlon had received Ney's peremptory recall and was marching away, leaving only his light cavalry and part of his infantry near Wagnelée.\n\n**The Guard breaks the centre (about 19:45–21:00).** With the Prussian reserves drawn to the right, Napoleon launched the Old Guard and Milhaud's cuirassiers against Ligny behind a heavy bombardment from the Guard batteries, with Gérard's men renewing the attack inside the village. In the rain and failing light the Guard crossed the brook and the cuirassiers came round the village; the Prussian infantry fell back towards Brye in squares. Blücher led a last cavalry charge. His horse was shot, fell and pinned him; French cuirassiers rode past him twice in the dusk, and his aide Nostitz got him away on a uhlan's horse, half-conscious.\n\n**Retreat (21:00–03:00).** Gneisenau took command and ordered I and II Corps back on Tilly, covered by rearguards at Brye and Sombreffe that held until after midnight. Thielmann, who still held his ground, fell back on Gembloux at about 03:00, where Bülow had arrived. The French bivouacked on the field.",
  "aftermath": "The French lost about 7,000–12,000 men and the Prussians 12,000–16,000 killed and wounded, with 21 guns. Another 8,000 or so recently raised troops from the Rhineland and Westphalia ran for Liège and Aachen in the night. Clausewitz, who served with the Prussian army in the campaign, called Ligny a battle 'which 78,000 men lost to 75,000 by a very slight tipping of the scales'.\n\nIt was Napoleon's last victory, but not a decisive one. He did not pursue that night, and Grouchy's pursuit with about 33,000 men did not start until the late morning of the 17th. The Prussians did not retreat east along their own communications towards Namur and Liège, but north by Tilly and Mont-Saint-Guibert to Wavre, where Bülow's fresh IV Corps joined them. From there Blücher could march to Wellington's aid at Waterloo on the 18th, while Thielmann held Grouchy at Wavre.\n\nWho decided on Wavre is still argued. The usual story credits Gneisenau, who ordered the retreat on Tilly while Blücher was missing; Siborne says the Wavre decision was made later that night, and Clausewitz praises Blücher for turning towards Wellington on the 17th. Wellington's promise at the Bussy windmill, and whether he could have kept it, is a second debate; d'Erlon's march between two battles is a third.",
  "wargaming": "Ligny is a big, grinding battle: over 150,000 men, but most of the fighting packed into a line of villages along one brook. At brigade or division level the whole day fits a large table. At battalion level Saint-Amand, Saint-Amand-la-Haye and Ligny each make a good scenario, with house-by-house fighting, fresh battalions fed in as others burn out, and village sectors that change hands again and again.\n\nThe terrain sets the puzzle. The villages are fortresses for whoever holds them, but the Prussian reserves stand on open slopes that the French guns can see, while the French reserves are hidden. Tall corn hides skirmishers, and the brook's bed is soft and swampy in places. Thielmann's wing is mostly a waiting game against Grouchy's cavalry, so the player there has to decide whether to attack.\n\nThe decisions are about timing. The Prussian player must decide how long to feed the villages and whether to counter-attack the French left; the French player when to commit the Guard. The great what-if is d'Erlon: an arrival table for I Corps that might fall on the Prussian right at 17:00, appear and leave, or never come keeps both players guessing. Others are Wellington sending help down the Namur road, or Bülow arriving during the afternoon. Judge the Prussian player on getting the army away intact, not only on holding the field."
 },
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 "sources": [
  {
   "id": "s1",
   "title": "Battle of Ligny",
   "url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Ligny",
   "kind": "web"
  },
  {
   "id": "s2",
   "title": "William Siborne, The Waterloo Campaign, 1815 (5th ed., ed. Edward Arber, 1900; abridged from History of the War in France and Belgium in 1815, 1844), Project Gutenberg",
   "url": "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/58268",
   "kind": "book"
  },
  {
   "id": "s3",
   "title": "Carl von Clausewitz, The Campaign of 1815 (1835), tr. and ed. Christopher Bassford, Daniel Moran and Gregory W. Pedlow, On Waterloo (Clausewitz.com, 2010), chapters 20–39",
   "url": "https://clausewitzstudies.org/readings/1815/five30-39.htm",
   "kind": "primary"
  },
  {
   "id": "s4",
   "title": "Battle of Ligny (napoleon-empire.org)",
   "url": "https://www.napoleon-empire.org/en/battles/ligny.php",
   "kind": "web"
  },
  {
   "id": "s5",
   "title": "Peter Hofschröer, 1815: The Waterloo Campaign. Wellington, His German Allies and the Battles of Ligny and Quatre Bras (Greenhill, 1998)",
   "url": null,
   "kind": "book"
  },
  {
   "id": "s6",
   "title": "Battle of Quatre Bras",
   "url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Quatre_Bras",
   "kind": "web"
  },
  {
   "id": "s7",
   "title": "Andrew Uffindell, The Eagle's Last Triumph: Napoleon's Victory at Ligny, June 1815 (Greenhill, 1994); publisher's description on napoleon.org",
   "url": "https://www.napoleon.org/en/magazine/publications/the-eagles-last-triumph-napoleons-victory-at-ligny-june-1815/",
   "kind": "book"
  }
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 "cdb90": [
  143
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 "order": 77,
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   "caption": "Plan of the Battlefelds of Ligny and Quatre Bras, facing page 150",
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   "caption": "Bataille de Ligny : Le carré du 4e régiment des grenadiers à pied de la Garde face aux uhlans de von Lützow",
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  "slug": "ligny",
  "query": "Ligny",
  "from": "1815-06-16",
  "to": "1815-09-14",
  "total": 22,
  "rights": "Library of Congress, Chronicling America: newspapers published before 1931, in the public domain. Text machine-read from the scanned page.",
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   {
    "date": "1815-08-04",
    "paper": "The Rhode-Island American, and general advertiser (Providence [R.I.])",
    "place": "Providence, Rhode Island",
    "url": "https://www.loc.gov/resource/sn83025442/1815-08-04/ed-1/?sp=1",
    "snippet": "... position of St. Amimd and [[tag]]Ligny[[/tag]]. The enemy continued his march along the road from Charleroy towards Bruxelles, and on the same evening, the 15th, attacked a brigade of (be army of the Netherlands, under the Prince de Weimar, ousted at Frasne, and forced it back to the fiwin-house ou the same road, called Les Quartre Dias. The Prince ofOrauge immediately reinforc ed this brigade with another of the same divis ion under General Perponcher, and in the Morning early regained part of the ground Which had been lost so as to have the com wind of the communication leading from Niv elles and Bruxelles, with Marshal Blucher’s position. In the mean time I bad ..."
   },
   {
    "date": "1815-08-07",
    "paper": "Portland gazette, and Maine advertiser (Portland, Me.)",
    "place": "Portland, Maine",
    "url": "https://www.loc.gov/resource/sn83016082/1815-08-07/ed-1/?sp=2",
    "snippet": "... poii ion of Amard and [[tag]]Ligny[[/tag]]. 1 i.c enemy continue 1 his march a long the road from Chdrleioy towards Bruxelles and an the fame evening, the 15th, attack d a brigade of rhe Nether lands under he Prime de Wicm-r, f *:ted at Fratn and forcea it back to j th 1 lrm houfe 0 the fame road, called Lc Quartres dras. iLePiinceo* Orange immediately, reinforceo -hie brigs je with another of; tlie lame divifion, und r Gen. Perpon cher, a«d in ih_* filing ejrly regained pait oi .he j^round which had been loit, fo to have the command of the com manici ion leaui.g f',*rn Livelies ana bruxtVns% with Pii ice Biucher's pofnion ..."
   },
   {
    "date": "1815-08-08",
    "paper": "Alexandria gazette, commercial and political (Alexandria [Va.])",
    "place": "Alexandria, Virginia",
    "url": "https://www.loc.gov/resource/sn84024014/1815-08-08/ed-1/?sp=2",
    "snippet": "... Army. “In ibe rear of [[tag]]Ligny[[/tag]], h at night, June 1 The Emperor has just pained a com plete victory over the English and Prus sian army, commanded bv the Duke of Wellington and Marshal Blucher. The army is debouching at this ^moment by [[tag]]Ligny[[/tag]] and in front of Fleurusto pursue the enemy.” The Monitcur of the 18th contains the following;— Lyons, July 17. j Snchet to the minister of war. Mont- Imiiliac, 17th June, 9 M. The enemy t were attacked this morning, we have made 600 prisoners including a col. am! major, and killed from £U0 to 300 men, (Signed) Duke of ALHDFL'RA. .London, June 2 k We copy the fallowing articles from ..."
   },
   {
    "date": "1815-08-08",
    "paper": "Portland gazette, and maine advertiser (portland, me.)",
    "place": "Portland, Maine",
    "url": "https://www.loc.gov/resource/sn83016082/1815-08-08/ed-1/?sp=1",
    "snippet": "... announced to them, that at [[tag]]Ligny[[/tag]] his troops had gained a victory on the 16I1, and that the following day the Lngliflialfo were defeated on the bruf fels road their deleat was complete, and 6 flandards were taken from them. But during the night fon.e ill difpefed petfons lpread an alarm, and incalculable difatters followed ihe emperor order ed a retreat upon Avefne* atid Philippe* ville. The lofsof material was very con* fideiable. i he emperor, continued M* Rcgnault, palTed to Laon, and put the national guard in motion to it p the fug itives thence he came to Paiis, to con fult with the minUters upon the means of renewing the mat rial of ..."
   },
   {
    "date": "1815-08-16",
    "paper": "The enquirer (Richmond, Va.)",
    "place": "Richmond, Virginia",
    "url": "https://www.loc.gov/resource/sn84024736/1815-08-16/ed-1/?sp=2",
    "snippet": "... su.ccas of the battle of [[tag]]Ligny[[/tag]]. It was fought with fury, and the greatest enthusi asm on the part of die troops. Wc wore cue to three. At e;ght o’clock in the evening, the Empe ror marched with his guard six battalions of the old guard, the dragoons and horse grenadiers, anti the csircssicrs of Gen. De lot, debouched by [[tag]]Ligny[[/tag]], and executed a charge which seperated the enemies line. Wellington and Blucher saved themselves with difficulty the effect was theatrical. In an instant the tiring ceased, and the enemy was routed in all directions. We have alrr a :ly several thousand prisoners, and ten pieces of cannon. The fth and 1st corps were not ..."
   },
   {
    "date": "1815-08-22",
    "paper": "The New Hampshire gazette (Portsmouth [N.H.])",
    "place": "Portsmouth, New Hampshire",
    "url": "https://www.loc.gov/resource/sn83025588/1815-08-22/ed-1/?sp=2",
    "snippet": "... 15th, June 16— Battle of [[tag]]Ligny[[/tag]]. The Prussian army was .posted on the heights of Brie and Sambreff, and in front of the Jatter place, and occupied with imposing forces the villages of [[tag]]Ligny[[/tag]] and St. Amand situated undn itg front. In the mean time the 3d corps only effected its junction. The 4ih, which hag Leca Stationed between Liege and Hannuye hat been retarded in its march by many circumstan. cesand had not yet arrived. Nevertheless the Ficid Marshal Blucher resolved on giving bat tl-, believing that Lord Wellington had already pt in motionto support him 2 strong divison of his army, s well as all his reserve, stationed in the vicinity of Brussels, ..."
   },
   {
    "date": "1815-08-22",
    "paper": "Daily national intelligencer (Washington City [D.C.])",
    "place": "Washington, District Of Columbia",
    "url": "https://www.loc.gov/resource/sn83026172/1815-08-22/ed-1/?sp=2",
    "snippet": "... villages of St. Amand and [[tag]]Ligny[[/tag]]. The right appeared to extend a little beyond St. Amand, the left stretched considerably beyond [[tag]]Ligny[[/tag]]. About noon, the 3d corps of infantry, supported by its cavalry, attacked the vil lage of St. Amand, took possession of a wood in front of the village, and penetrated as far as the first houses. Soon after it was vigorously repulsed. Supported by new batteries, it recommenced the attack, and after several very obstinate attempts, it re mained master of the wood and the village, which it found filled with dead and wound ed Prussians. At the same time the 4th corps attack ed the village of [[tag]]Ligny[[/tag]]. It met with great ..."
   },
   {
    "date": "1815-08-30",
    "paper": "Virginia Argus (Richmond, Va.)",
    "place": "Richmond, Virginia",
    "url": "https://www.loc.gov/resource/sn84024710/1815-08-30/ed-1/?sp=1",
    "snippet": "... of the encmv opposed tohimat [[tag]]Ligny[[/tag]] and St. Amand, at more than 130,000 men, and the force which attacked the British army at Waterloo, at an equal number 1 his estimate is probably not much exaggera ted. Carnot, in a report made to the House of Peers, stated that the Imperial guard alone was composed of twenty-four regiments of infantry, 5 of cavalry, several of gens ri’arrae, artillery, etc. amount ing in all to 40.CG0 men. The five corps of the army of the line proba bly averaged 25,000 men tacit, and perhaps more, amount ing with the guard to at least 165 GOO men.—Daily »ltivertiser. Marthtd Witcher'* account of the battle* of the 10th ..."
   }
  ]
 }
}