Battle of Quatre Bras (1815): The Prelude to Waterloo

The Battle of Quatre Bras was fought on 16 June 1815 at a strategic crossroads south of Brussels, between part of Napoleon’s army under Marshal Michel Ney and the Anglo-Allied army of the Duke of Wellington. Ney failed to take the crossroads, while Napoleon beat the Prussians at Ligny the same day. Two days later, the same armies met again at Waterloo.

Background

During the Hundred Days, Napoleon decided to attack the allied armies in Belgium before the Austrians and Russians could arrive. Wellington’s Anglo-Allied army, made up of British, Dutch, Belgian, Hanoverian, Brunswick and Nassau troops, lay to the west around Brussels. Field Marshal Blücher’s Prussian army lay to the east around Namur.

On 15 June 1815 Napoleon crossed the frontier at Charleroi, aiming to drive between the two armies. He gave Ney command of his left wing and ordered him to push north along the Brussels road. The crossroads at Quatre Bras (“four arms”) mattered because the east-west road there was the main link between Wellington and the Prussians.

Holding the crossroads

Wellington was at first unsure where Napoleon’s main attack would fall. On the evening of 15 June he attended the Duchess of Richmond’s ball in Brussels, where news arrived that the French were further north than expected.

The crossroads was saved by the Netherlands army. Dutch and Nassau troops of General Perponcher’s division, under Prince Bernhard of Saxe-Weimar, had occupied Quatre Bras on 15 June, and the Netherlands chief of staff, Baron de Constant Rebecque, chose to reinforce them rather than withdraw. On the morning of 16 June about 8,000 men held the position.

Ney was slow to attack. He waited for his troops to come up and only launched a full assault in the early afternoon with General Reille’s corps, roughly 20,000 men. The Netherlands troops were pushed back through the fields and woods, but reinforcements began to arrive just in time.

The afternoon battle

Wellington, who had inspected the position in the morning and then ridden east to confer with Blücher near Ligny, returned in the afternoon and took command. Through the afternoon more troops marched in, including General Thomas Picton’s division and the Brunswick contingent. The Duke of Brunswick was killed while rallying his men.

The fighting took place among tall crops of rye that hid infantry and cavalry from each other. British and allied battalions formed squares to resist French lancers and cuirassiers, and some units caught in line suffered heavily; the 69th Foot lost one of its colours. In a desperate late attack, General Kellermann led a brigade of cuirassiers almost to the crossroads before it was driven back by heavy fire.

Ney expected help from the 1st Corps of General d’Erlon. But d’Erlon received conflicting orders from Ney and Napoleon and marched first towards Ligny and then back towards Quatre Bras, arriving too late to fight at either battle. By evening Wellington had about 36,000 men on the field and counter-attacked, regaining the ground lost earlier.

Results and casualties

At nightfall the two sides were roughly where they had begun. Casualties are uncertain, but the Anglo-Allied army is usually said to have lost about 4,500 to 5,000 men and the French about 4,000 to 4,300.

Ney had failed to take the crossroads and to help Napoleon at Ligny. On the other hand, Wellington could not help the Prussians, who were beaten at Ligny with heavy losses. On 17 June, learning that Blücher had retreated north towards Wavre rather than east, Wellington withdrew to the ridge of Mont-Saint-Jean, south of the village of Waterloo.

Legacy

Quatre Bras has often been overshadowed by the Battle of Waterloo. Yet it was essential to the final outcome: by holding the crossroads, the allied armies kept their line of communication open and were able to join forces on 18 June.

The battle is remembered especially for the stand of British squares in the rye, made famous by Elizabeth Thompson’s painting of 1875, and in Dutch and Belgian memory for the role of their own troops, whose initiative saved the position in the morning. A monument to the Duke of Brunswick stands near the crossroads.

Timeline

• 1815, 15 June: Napoleon crosses into Belgium at Charleroi; Netherlands troops occupy Quatre Bras.
• 1815, 15 June, night: The Duchess of Richmond’s ball takes place in Brussels.
• 1815, 16 June, early afternoon: Ney attacks the crossroads with Reille’s corps.
• 1815, 16 June, afternoon: Allied reinforcements arrive; the Duke of Brunswick is killed.
• 1815, 16 June, evening: Kellermann’s cuirassiers are repulsed; Wellington counter-attacks.
• 1815, 17 June: Wellington withdraws to Mont-Saint-Jean.
• 1815, 18 June: The Battle of Waterloo is fought.

Why it matters

Quatre Bras was the hinge of the Waterloo campaign. Ney’s failure to seize the crossroads, and the wasted march of d’Erlon’s corps, cost Napoleon the chance to destroy one allied army before the other could come to its aid.