WAVRE: The Mistake that Lost Waterloo

Added: 2026-05-08

[00:00:20]The battle of Wavre is often discounted in accounts of the Waterloo campaign with much of the focus being on Croshi's failure to march to the sound of the guns. It was however a significant engagement in its own right and the Prussian defense enabled the rest of the Prussian army to march to Wellington at Waterloo. The battle took place around the villages of Wavre Bavra Ber and Limal.

[00:00:50]The position is to the east of Waterloo where the main French forces under Napoleon confronted Wellington's Anglo Dutch army. The events that took place at Wavra were directly related to certain events that took place on the day of the battle of Lingi 2 days prior.

[00:01:10]Blush's Prussian forces were battling mold at Lingi on the 16th of June. felt Marshall Naisenau took command after Bluya's horse rolled on top of him and incapacitated him for some time during the final assault. Marshall Naisenau gave orders at the close of the battle of Nini Fort Titan's first and pig's second core to retreat upon Telle and Fort Tieleman's third core to cover the withdrawal until the center and right were clear of the field. He was then to retire upon Tilly or should he not be able to make for that point to retreat upon Jeanlau and unite there with a fourth core under Bolo. Tieleman and Bolo were then to affect their junction with the main army. The next morning, Tieleman's third core began their retreat at first light. However, the French were still slumbering heavily in the bivwax. Barely any effort was made on the French part to gather information as soon as they broke. This let the Prussians slip away from the deadly grasp of the French after wasting a lot of precious time only at 11:00 a.m. Napoleon put Marishal Deusi in command of a third of his army and sent him in pursuit of the Prussians from Lini. Deushi was to prevent the Prussian army from uniting with Wellington's left, but by then it was pretty late and the Prussians had quite a head start. Deushi was and had been a brilliant leader of cavalry and a soldier of 20 years war experience and he had distinguished himself at a lot of battles. He was rightfully given the command of the fourth core of reserve cavalry, bajol, milords, exelmans and kellmans early in June 1815. But after Lingi, he was appointed to a higher and more responsible post. Commander of the right wing charged with the duty of following up the Prussians and preventing them from joining Wellington.

[00:03:21]Deushi, however, was not a fit man for independent command. In spite of his exploits in former days, he had never before exercised such a graced responsibility.

[00:03:33]However, at the time, it was not possible for Napoleon to make an alternative selection and dei was the only man available. Also, up to this point, there had been no reason to doubt his capabilities, and it is not fair to criticize the man until his faults have been clearly proved. It must be remembered that mistakes in war are inevitable, and the general who makes no mistakes in war has not waged war for long. The onethird of French army, which was placed under the command of Marishal de Roshi, consisted of the two French core that fought at Lini. It was Vanam's third and Gart's fourth core. Dester's division was a detachment from Mon Lobo's sixth core and marched under the Rushi. Bul's first reserve cavalry and Exelman's second reserve cavalry were attached to Deushi. This total roughly 32 to 33,000 men and 80 guns.

[00:04:44]The Prussian rear guard under Tieleman left Sreff between 2 and 4:00 a.m. Bul and Exelman prepared their pursuit with cavalry after 4:00 a.m. without any information of the route taking by the Prussians. The French infantry remained in their tents. Bajol made his way across to the Namu road under the impression that this was the true line of retreat. But after continuing his march for quite some time and having found no trace of the Prussians, he suspected that he was leading a wild goose chase, Bajel was joined by Tesa's vision at Sandeni and continued marching north.

[00:05:26]When Exxelman discovered the Prussians resting at Jimlau, he neglected to send backward to the Groi immediately. Nor did he inform Pul of his discovery. In spite of having a cavalry force of 3,000 troopers and 12 guns, Exelman made no attempt to harass the resting Prussians.

[00:05:48]At around 11:30 a.m., Deushi received the written orders from Napoleon to pursue the Prussians. He then sent orders to Vanam to march at once with a third core from Saint Aman to Bojour on the way to Jimlau.

[00:06:04]Deushi had to send an aam towards Jimlau to obtain news from Excel. He then went himself to Lingi to give Gak his orders.

[00:06:15]Vanam marched with incredible slowness which in turn limited the marching speed of Jerard's core.

[00:06:24]Vanam's advanced guard did not reach point deour until 300 p.m. Tieleman was by this time an hour's march beyond Jimlau. The roads were in a very bad state and the heavy rain that was falling made marching difficult. Also, the passage of the Prussians had made the roads worse, but point dour is less than 4 miles from Saint Amand.

[00:06:48]Deushi reached Jamblau at 700 p.m. when he was supposed to be already vigorously pressing the Prussians. Deushi decided to halt at Jamblau for the night. There was still 2 hours of daylight left when Vanam's core reached the village. Pou in the meantime finding that he was mistaken in his conclusions marched back from Sandeni along the same route the point from which he had started in the morning from the scouts dispersed to different locations exelment at 10 p.m.

[00:07:23]knew with comparative certainty that the enemy were marching on Wavra, but he did not report anything concrete to Deushi.

[00:07:35]By nightfall of the 17th, while Dei was still at Jimlau, the whole of Plushia's army had reached Wav and its neighborhood. The second and third core bivwacked on the left bank of the deal beyond wavra and the first and fourth on the right bank was between zan and aon balau was at don. The reared guards were posted at var and mount sanj. These troops fell back next day as the French advanced.

[00:08:07]It was only when Bluca had made sure of his concentration and the refilling of his wagons and limbers that he replied to Wellington, "I shall not come with two cores only, but with my whole army.

[00:08:21]Upon this understanding, however, that should the French not attack us on the 18th, we shall attack them on the 19th."

[00:08:30]About midnight of the 17th, a message from Wellington reached Blua. it ran.

[00:08:35]The Anglo Allied army is posted with its right upon pre lud and its center upon Monzanj and its left upon the high with the enemy in front.

[00:08:48]The Duke awaits the attack but calculates on Prussian support. Nisenau was very suspicious of the sincerity of Wellington's intentions. He believed that the Duke would fall back at the last moment and involve the Prussian army in a serious disaster.

[00:09:05]But Blush had a greater idea of the honor of the words of generals and finally overcome the reluctance of his chief of staff. He thereupon replied to Wellington that Bolo's core will set off marching tomorrow at daybreak in your direction. It will be immediately followed by the second core. The first and third core will also hold themselves in readiness to proceed towards you. The exhaustion of the troops, part of whom have not yet arrived, does not allow me to commence my movement earlier.

[00:09:41]An order to this effect, was at once sent to Balo at Dion. The next day, Balo commenced his march on Don Mo at daybreak. The safe arrival of Balo's core at San Lambburg and the reports from his scouts made Blua resolved to hasten the march of the first and second corps.

[00:10:06]Blush himself rode to San Lambber at 11:00 a.m. While Pik's core was passing through Wav and Lebor's detachment retired on the town from Mon Sanjar, the enemy cavalry appeared in sight.

[00:10:21]It was Excelman's cavalry. However, the French did not press their advance hard and at 3:00 the Prussians retired across the deal. Pier's core then continued its march on to San Lambbear, leaving Tieleman in defense of Wavra. Let's now move to the French camp on the previous night.

[00:10:44]Vanam was ordered to march at 6:00 a.m.

[00:10:47]and Gard at 8:00 a.m. Now, at that time of the year, it was light enough to march at 3:30 a.m. Hence, the Gorushi wasted another valuable 2 and 1/2 hours when time was all important. On the morning of June the 18th 1815, the soldiers of the French right column under Deosi were delayed in their march towards Wava. They had remained bivawak at Jamblur for the last 12 hours and yet their breakfasts were not ready. After a 2-hour delay, Vanam's troops started their march at 8:00 a.m. They were followed by Gart. Deusi himself left Jembleur at 8:30 a.m. He overtook Vanam's core at Valet at about 10:00 a.m. and dismounted for breakfast allowing the troops to march on.

[00:11:42]There was joined by Gard who rode ahead of his men. During their breakfast, the sound of heavy firing in the direction of Monsan was heard from the garden of the house where they had stopped. This was the opening canonade of the battle of Waterloo which began at 11.

[00:12:03]Gard at once urged Deushi to change his direction and marched to the sound of the canonate. But Deusi refused to take the responsibility of disobeying the orders he had received from Napoleon to pursue and attack the Prussians and on no account to lose sight of them. Having finally received a report from Exelman's from the front a few minutes ago, Deushi considered that they were in pursuit of the entire Prussian army and not just of a single core. Around 200 p.m., the Prussian rear guard at Mount Sanji came in contact with Vanam's vanguard. The Prussian rear guard then retreated towards Wava through the woods, avoiding the French cavalry. By this time, Tieleman had failed that the French would not attack Wafra in force. He judged this owing to the inactivity of Axelman's cavalry. Tieleman therefore prepared his entire core, then acting as a rear guard to march towards Waterloo, leaving only a small detachment as a rear guard at Wavra. The divisions had only started their march when the rear guard from Mount Sanche reached Wavra and alerted Tieleman of the imminent French assault. Tieleman then redirected the marching divisions back to Wra. This was surely a complex maneuver to execute and the Prussians had done it just right.

[00:13:31]Vanam's vanguard started to arrive at Wavra towards 3:00 in the afternoon and the ensuing clash boiled up into the battle of Wavra.

[00:13:43]The Prussian defense of Wava. Tieleman had three infantry and two cavalry brigades under his command in addition to five batteries of artillery. It was not much, but well posted, such a force was likely to detain the French for a considerable length of time.

[00:14:02]The two bridges at Wra were quickly barricaded. Bora's ninth division was left stranded on the French side of Wava. The division moved to the right to Ba Wava and cross the bridge and destroyed it before Exelman's draons positioned at the only lemon could capture it and make a crossing. As soon as Vanam's core plainly showed signs of attacking, Tieleman immediately halted all his divisions and began to dispose them for defense.

[00:14:34]Tieleman stretched the Prussians from Ba to the village of Beer.

[00:14:39]Sharpshooters and skirmishers were stationed at the riverbank. A mill was situated on the south bank of Beer.

[00:14:47]Advanced skirmishers occupied this post.

[00:14:51]Three battalions under Colonel Teppeline were stationed at Wavra on the north bank of the bridge of Christ. They prepared for the coming fight by knocking loopholes in the houses of the north bank at joining the river.

[00:15:06]The rest of Tieleman's forces were stationed in the rear of this front line as a reserve. Behind Wavra and Bavra was Slack's 11th brigade, consisting entirely of inexperienced land troops.

[00:15:21]Directly behind Wavra, Tieleman had stationed Campan's 10th brigade while finally Nagal's 12th brigade was formed in support of the advanced skirmishes in Ber.

[00:15:35]The Prussian commander's own headquarters were to be found at the chatau of Labavet 2 kilometers to the north of Wava. Nearby were positioned almost the whole of the Prussian cavalry force under General Von Hobber. Hasars Ulans draons and land militia horsemen.

[00:15:56]Attached to this force were two batteries of horse artillery, 16 bronze guns mounted on mud spattered carriages painted light blue. Further forward with the infantry brigades, each of which had two cavalry squadrons and an and an artillery battery attached to it. Limal was defended by a small force commanded by those Prussians left in the area were ready for action.

[00:16:26]Captain Sibourne concluded by writing, "Tieleman's position was certainly a very favorable one, and the occupation of it was arranged with great skill."

[00:16:38]Towards 3:00, French skirmishes were observed by the Prussian on the heights opposite of Wava. Deushi's forces were arriving. Vanam's French Third Infantry Corps rolled up in strength between three and four with greencoated draons protecting its right flank at Bavra.

[00:16:59]Three batteries were drawn up just south of the town of Wavra and immediately opened fire. Cannonballs soared into the air before plunging into the streets of the town in the valley beneath. One such missile crashed through a window into the church of San John the Baptist, embedding itself into a stone pillar inside and remaining there to this day.

[00:17:25]This fire was less of a bombardment and more of a show of strength in support of the first wave of French attackers.

[00:17:33]Vanam was a hot-headed and fiery general. Hussein rightly commented that he launched his attack without reconoitering the position or preparing for the action by his artillery and without waiting for Deushi to arrive in person. French skirmishes threaded their way down the slopes to the suburb of the South Bank followed by a whole division commanded by Haber and formed up in heavy assault columns. It is a steep hill and the French poured down it and the Prussians quickly evacuated the suburb. The French followed them closely, storming up to the two bridges.

[00:18:13]Both appear to have been strongly barricaded, both to have had a crossfire poured on them from Prussians hidden in loopholed houses on the north bank and both to have been impassible.

[00:18:26]The stone bridge of Christ became clogged with bodies.

[00:19:03]The stone bridge of Christ became clogged with bodies.

[00:19:08]Hay mentioned in his account that there were Prussian cannons established at various altitudes up the steep streets leading down to the river. These poured a withering fire on the attackers. The French divisional commander Habar and 600 rank and file were put out of action in a few minutes. The survivors could not advance. The Prussian barrage hitting the slopes behind them meant that they couldn't or wouldn't retreat.

[00:19:40]Deushi who arrived at that moment summed the situation up. They were wedged into a kind of culdeac.

[00:19:49]More French units had now arrived on the battlefield and were committed to the ongoing fight. Excelment's raccoons were in front of Bavra protecting that flank.

[00:20:00]Gar's second infantry core under Dusi's command was approaching fast.

[00:20:07]Another division from the Bandams Corps Le went into Wavra.

[00:20:13]Skirmishes of the two armies extended along each bank of the deal. All along the battlefront from Beer to Ba Wava.

[00:20:21]They sniped and reloaded, hid behind trees and hedges. Another French assault on the bridge of Christ was launched and failed. A battalion was detached from Lef force to attempt to cross at Beer.

[00:20:37]This attack failed too. With the recent storms, the deep brought ditches running parallel to the river oil were filled with water between four and six feet deep. Musk balls fired from behind trees on the northern riverbank whis around their heads as the discouraged Frenchmen fell back.

[00:21:00]It was 5:00. Sometime ago, an order had arrived from Napoleon directing Deushi to establish operational and leazison contact with a main French force at Wataloo. Deushi therefore sent orders to those of his formation still marching towards Wavra to head towards the bridge at Limal upstream from Ber. The securing of a crossing at Limal would result in the opening of a more direct route to Waterloo. Puls and Valin's cavalry regiments together with Tesa's infantry division headed for Limal.

[00:21:41]Gerard in a foul temper following recent disagreement with Deosi arrived with another battalion to storm forward. The assault was about to go in when Gag was hit in the chest by a musk ball and was carried to the rear.

[00:21:59]Baltus, an artillery general, was next requested by Deosi to lead the attack, but he refused.

[00:22:08]Deushi dismounted.

[00:22:11]The third French assault was hence led by the gallant French Marishal in person and yet it failed just as gallantly as the other two. It was by now clear that no crossing could be forced at either Beer or Wavra. Deushi left exelman's vanam and hulah in front of bawavra wav and beeres respectively to maintain frontal pressure and detain the prussian forces in this area. He himself set off with the other two divisions of Gard to Limal.

[00:22:45]During the Beer's fighting, Vanam had continued to lead assault waves onto Wava.

[00:22:52]13 separate attacks were made before the conflict gradually flickered out. Their action is a superb example of fighting in a builtup area extremely costly in men and ammunition.

[00:23:07]One of Vanam's regiment, the second Swiss, bore distinctive red coats and a tradition of carriage. Before the campaign, they had numbered 700. After the repeated and bloody attacks on the bridge of Christ, they no longer as a unit existed.

[00:23:27]French troops Bajour and Valin's cavalry and Tes infantry division arrived at Limal at around 7 in the evening together with three artillery batteries.

[00:23:39]The Prussian commander here was Obas Lloyd Nanchangle with his force of three battalions of the 19th regiment and three cavalry squadrons. No attempt had been made to either barricade or destroy the wooden bridge. There was another factor as well. Stangle's detachment was not part of Tieleman's force but left behind as a rear guard by Teton's first core which was by now at Waterloo.

[00:24:07]Stangle thought that his proper post was with Teton and not at Limal with another core. This would explain his reluctance to hold on to the bridge and also his marching off to Waterloo later on in the battle. The French General Pure on the other hand was an expert at capturing bridges. He had done so at Montterau in 1814 at Shlea on the 15th of June of 1815. And now he launched Valins Hus Shasser Sial and Rago at Limal Bridge which was accessible to only four horses at a time. Stangle gave way. Bolantest followed Vali over onto the other side of the Gil. The French at last had their bridge head which compared to Wava and Beer had come at extremely little cost.

[00:25:07]Now Tieleman shifted the whole of the reserve line of his infantry stationed behind Wava and Beer to the west. This freed Nagel's infantry and Hobber's cavalry to rush southwest towards Limal to plug the hole in the Prussian defense line. Deushi was meanwhile marching two divisions of Gagard's core to the Limal bridge head along the opposite bank of the deal. Deushi arrived at the Limal bridge head at dusk towards 9:00 and before the Prussian reinforcements. He organized the dispositions of his forces with great skill. Despite the obscurity of the darkness, he hurried his troops up the heights by a narrow, rugged road.

[00:25:55]The French line was perpendicular to the deal. Light cavalry covered the left flank while the right consisted of infantry inside the houses of Limal. The crest of the plateau above the village now became a battleground.

[00:26:12]Stubnagal had brought up six of his nine Prussian battalions to support.

[00:26:18]They were launched at the French along with the support of five cavalry squadrons.

[00:26:25]The Prussians rushed to reinforce Limal or to recapture it, but they headed directly towards the Kushi's trap in the darkness.

[00:26:36]Two of Schulagle's Prussian battalions were about to pass a hollowway when they received a devastating volley from the French on the other side. Their advance was checked. The other three battalions of the Prussian brigade inclined too far to the east and were pinned down by French skirmisher fire. Stangle in the west was checked by French cavalry and since these threatened his right flank he fell back. Stubnagle followed suit leaving only a chain of advanced posts.

[00:27:13]Thus the Limal bridge head was consolidated and a route was open. But wrote Jose for a long time the emperor's cannon had ceased to be heard. The Prussians settled down for the night in the woods of Rickens. The French bivwacked in squares to the south. It was an uneasy night. In the early hours of the 19th of June, Tieleman was unnecessarily weakened and overstretched as a result of action.

[00:27:47]Some unconfirmed news of the victory at Waterloo had reached the Prussian commander who therefore expected the French to retreat. To hasten them on their way, he renewed the fight at daybreak around 4:00 with a cavalry attack by Horb's horsemen. The French, however, displayed no intention of retreating as no word of the outcome of Wataloo had yet reached their ears.

[00:28:16]Indeed, the fierce artillery jewel which developed resulted in five Prussian guns being lost. Deosi organized a general offensive on the west bank of the deal.

[00:28:29]Three columns of attack were organized.

[00:28:32]The French plowed forward and a Prussian counterattack was thrown back. 22 French battalions grappled with 10 Prussian.

[00:28:43]Six more French were in support.

[00:28:46]Still Nagal eventually gave way and the French seized part of Ricken's woods. At 8:00, Tieleman was positively informed of the Waterloo victory and that Prussian troops were on the way to cut off Deushi's line of retreat. As morale rose, Rickens's woods were retaking momentarily before the French flooded back in. T's column meanwhile had opened an attack on Beer's village. It was a fierce fight. Test himself was wounded and one of his brigaders, General Pen, had his head crushed by a Prussian shell before the village finally fell. The fall of Beer was a turning point of the fighting on the 19th of June. This severely weakened the Prussian defense.

[00:29:40]Tieleman soon after towards 1:00 in the afternoon ordered a general retreat so as to avoid a crushing defeat. Losing five cannons and a number of wounded, Colonel Tapilene pulled out of Wava and was hardly attacked by Vanam's core in the process. Later in the day, Vanam started to advance out of the abandoned Wava.

[00:30:06]Some French battalions were halted by a rear guard action to the north of the town. Lieth gallantry and steadiness displayed in this affair by the Kerma Gland acquired for the latter great and wellmerited renown. Tieleman pulled back in several columns to St. Actton Roder via Utenberg.

[00:30:28]The French did not pursue fiercely. Soon indeed a messenger would arrive stuttering out a half incoherent message of the disaster at Waterloo.

[00:30:41]Deushi commenced his retreat to France on the same day. Successfully eluding Prussian forces sent to intercept him.

[00:30:49]He safely led his troops back to Perry via.

[00:30:56]At first glance the battle of Wavra was a French victory.

[00:31:01]Traditionally, however, the victor is he who has possession of the battlefield after the fight. The Prussians were the real victors and won the battle on the 18th of June. By the time Deushi had opened a route to Waterloo at Limal, he was hours too late to intervene in the battle.

[00:31:23]Casualties were not excessively heavy.

[00:31:26]The Prussians suffered around 2400 and the French 2600.

[00:31:32]Wavre may lack strategical importance when compared with the battle of Waterloo, but it is a magnificent example of Napoleonic battle tactics. In addition, as Sibour commented, it was one of the brightest examples of the defense of a town and of the passage of a river recorded in military history.

[00:31:54]Nor should Peel's storming of the Limal Bridge be omitted. That feat of arms, perhaps ranks with a capture of Reagan Bridge during the Second World War. In addition, enough relics, monuments, and views will be found today at Wavra Battlefield to make a visit worthwhile.

[00:32:19]Heat. Heat.