Quatre Bras: Wellington holds the crossroads

At 17:00 Alten's 3rd Division arrives from Nivelles and gives the allies the larger numbers. Ney learns that d'Erlon's I Corps has marched off towards Ligny without his knowledge, receives an unclear order from Napoleon to take Quatre Bras and then turn on Blücher, and sends d'Erlon orders to come back at once. To keep up the pressure he sends Kellermann with the one cuirassier brigade at hand to break Wellington's line.

The cuirassiers catch Halkett's brigade in line, maul the 69th Foot and take its King's colour, and reach the crossroads before artillery and musket fire at close range drive them back. With the arrival of Cooke's Guards Division Wellington counter-attacks, and the Guards take the Bossu wood from Jérôme, though Piré's lancers catch them in line as they come out of it.

The 28th Regiment in square at Quatre Bras, painting by Elizabeth Thompson, Lady Butler, 1875Wikimedia Commons, Elizabeth Thompson, Lady Butler, Public domain (Butler Lady Quatre Bras 1815.jpg)

By 21:00 the French are back where they started. Ney loses about 4,000 men and Wellington 4,800. The allies keep the crossroads, but they have sent no help to the Prussians at Ligny.

Sources

William Siborne, The Waterloo Campaign, 1815 (1848).
Peter Hofschröer, Waterloo 1815: Quatre Bras and Ligny (2005).
Bernard Cornwell, Waterloo: The History of Four Days, Three Armies and Three Battles (2015).

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