THE HUNDRED DAYS' WAR

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue LXVIII, 28 August 1914, Page 6

THE HUNDRED DAYS' WAR

The present Titanic struggle in Belgium naturally draws the mind back to the scenes of a hundred years ago, when the fate of Europe hung trembling in the balance, and the greatest military genius of modern times, met his final reverse. Dr. Fitchett thus summarises the events of those stirring days: "Napoleon's plan for what* was to prove the last, campaign in his own wonderful career was daring and subtle. He had to face two armies, each almost equal in strength to his own; and though the forces of Blucher and of Wellington were scattered over a very wide front, yet their outposts touched each other where the great road from Charleroi ran northwards to Brussels. Napoleon, with equal audacity and genius, resolved to smite at the point of junction betwixt the two armies, and overthrow each in" turn. The risks of this strategy were immense, for if his enemies succeeded in concentrating and fighting in concert, he would be overwhelmed and destroyed—as actually happened at Waterloo. Napoleon, however, calculated to win by the swiftness and suddenness of his stroke, destroying Blucher before Wellington could concentrate for his help, and then, in tarn, overwhelming Wellington. By what a narrow interval that great plan failed of success is not always realised.

Both Blucher and Wellington were off their guard. On June 15th, at the very moment when Napoleon's columns were orossing the Belgian frontier, Wellington was writing a leisurely despatch to the Czar explaining his intention to take the offensive at the end of the month. Blucher, oaly a few days before (as Houssage records), had written to his wife: "We shall soon enter France. We might remain here another year, for Bonaparte will never attack us." Yet, with miraculous energy and skill, Napoleon, in ten days, had gathered a host of 124,000 rueu, over distances ranging from 30 bo 300 miles, and held them, almost unsuspected, within cannonshot ot the allied outposts! On June 15th, while the stars in the eastern summer sky were growing faint in the ooming dawn, the French columns were crossing at three separate points the Belgian frontier, and the great campaign had begun. Its history is compressed into three furious days. On the 16th, Napoleon defeated Blucher at Ligny, while Wellington, with obstinate ooura_e and fine skill, aided by many blunders on his enemy's part, and much good luck on his own, succeeded in holding Quatre Bras against Ney. On the 17th, Wellington fell back before the combined armies of Napoleon and Ney to Waterloo. On the 18th, the _reat battle which sealed the fate of Napoleon, and gave a long peace to Europe, was fought. Napoleon's strategy had fatally broken down. He aimed to separate the English and the Prussian armies while keeping his own concentrated. The exact opposite happened. Bluchers bold westward , march from Wavre to Waterloo united the allied forces, while Napoleon's force was fatally divided—Grouchy, with 30,000 troops, being 'left in the air' far to the east. Napoleon, in a word, suffered the exact strategic disaster he sought to inflict on his opponents." A few words in "amplification" of Dr Fitchett's sketch may not be out of place at the present juncture. He errs somewhat when he gives Wellington the credit of holding Quatre Bras against the fiery Ney. It was really Picton on whom the brunt of that stern fray fell, and had the chivalrous and somewhat galleryplaying Marshal brought up all his command of 40,000 men, instead of cnly employing half that number, Quatre Bras mirht have been a very serious defaet. As it was, Picton had the greatest difficulty in holding his ground till nightfall,' Milhaud's splendid cavalry riding repeatedly through his squares, this being the first time on record on which a British square had been broken. The same day, Friday. June 16th, the Emperor had Fallen on Blucher at Ligny, and dented him with great loss, thus getting in. in »yXXZ rSrl^ce, "one leg of his double." It is on record that Lord Wellington, who had gone over to view Bluchers position in the morning, remarked to his staff: "If Napoleon be what I think he is, the Prussians will get a d d good licking to-day." The prophecy was fully fulfilled as above stated, and the hopes of the "Great Adventurer" seemed likely to be. fulfilled. However, he committed a fatal mistake in detaching Marshal Grouchy to pursue the flying Prussians, for that officer, either treacherously or stupidly, failed to keep pace with "Old Vorwarts," who wheeled round to the west and joined Wellington, just before sunset, on the battlefield of Waterloo two days afterwards. After Picton's retreat from Quatre Bras on the Friday night, a strong force, with artillery, was left behind to cover the movement, and this corps had an extremely anxious time on the fcaturday morning, as the French, headed by Napoleon in nerson strove hard to cut them off. There can be no doubt that the Emperor personally conducted this attack, he beinp- piqued with Ney owing to the latter's dilatonness. Picton. having joined Wellington, the latter retreated to the little village of \\ aterloo, remarking, ''I will retreat no further." The idea that Waterloo had been a chosen battleground for weeks previous cannot therefore be credited to the great British general, and that he made so much of such a poor field of action redounds more to his skill as commander than had he chosen an impregnable position. Napoleon, viewing with his (staff his enemy's disposition and the dangerous proximity of. a thick forest with the river Sambre at his rear, remarked: "At last I shall encounter this Wellington!" On the fateful Sunday morning of June 18th. 1815, he reviewed his army' on the slopes of Mont St. Jean opposite the British position. The spectacle of these numerous battalions .coming up like clockwork and spreading out fan-wise over the field at the diction of their great captain might well appal the silent host opposite. As each company passed the Emneror the cry of "Vive i'Empereur!" "rent the air, and demonstrated the remarkable devotion, and even affection, which this remarkable man inspired in his adherents. "The stern fight and carnage drear" that followed lias often been described, . but .a. few outstanding facts may well be committed to memory. Th© battle began At 11 o'clock in the morning, and at 3 p.m. the advantage certainly lay with the French. The repeated anil headlong charges of D'Erlon and Ney had decimated the allies, and well might their commander have prayed for "night or Blucher." The splendid valor of the Britfch troops alone saved the eituaiton, and their obstinate refusal to give ground at length told on the more ardent spirit of the French. Stay's last charge of the Gld Guard — «, Column seventy men wide by seventy deep—was the last great effort made hy them. The famous marshal, havifcg had three horses already killed umder him. led the charge on foot, his face blackened with powder and his hair and beard 6inged and smoke■Btained. Bow that great column of warriers was met on ihe susnmit of the kill fey the "thin red Ifee" of waiting imfmmArtmmU and practically _a?»~«.r-..- -„..-'<a,-^_ft^-ia_y-.'-.i.ft.. ~-..,-.a1.,: _^ ..^_t____j_-as-/X_~i

until the signal sound of the Prussian guns was heard on the left was the general order to "advance" _iven by the Iron Duke. The whole force rapidly got into motion against the now dissolving French, and the Prussians, 110,000 strong, were deputed to follow in pursuit. The remnant of the Old Guard formed square some 20 or 30 times before darkness finally fell, their commander, Cambrorne, being credited with the reply to a request to surrender: "The Guard dies, but never surrenders!" The fallen Emperor, having handed over the command to Ney, was already on the road to Paris. He had had no sleep for four days, and now, "his great head sunk on his chest," and supported on either side by staff officers, dossed in the saddle, oblivious alike of the ghastly battlefield behind him and of his own terminated career. Lord Byron, in the "Age of Bronze," is unduly severe regarding the Allies' plan of campaign. Says he: "0 bloody and most bootless WaterT .loo! Wbich proves how fools may have their fortune too, Won half by blunder, half by treachery." Bloody Waterloo certainly was, hut assuredly not bootless, seeing that it set bounds at length to the overmastering ambition of the Great Corsican. And certainly neither Wellington nor Blucher could rightly be classed "fools," even if there was an element of luck in their great success. But Byron seems to look upon the result of the great battle as the triumph of mediocrity over genius, and is clearly dazzled by* the mentality of the "Man of Destiny." He is more happy, and indeed prophetic, when he speaks (from the French standpoint) thus: "We do not curse thee, Waterloo! '# Though freedom's blood thy plain bedew ; There 'twas shed, hut is not sunk — Rising from each gory trunk, Like the waterspout from ocean, With a strong and growing motion; A crimson cloud it spreads and glows, But shall return to whence it rose; When 'tis full 'twill buret asunder— Never yet was heard such thunder As then shall shake the world with derNever yet was seen such lightning As o'er Heaven shall then be bright'ning; Like the Wormwood star foretold By the sainted seer of old Showering down a fiery flood, Turning rivers into blood!" W. A. Q.