The
100 Days
This was the last campaign of the Napoleonic Wars and finally ended
Napoleon’s dreams of remaining emperor of France.
It began with Napoleon’s now legendary escape from his exile on
the island of Elba to a France that had quickly become disenchanted
with the returned Bourbon king Louis XVIII.
The former emperor landed near Cannes with 1000 guardsmen of his bodyguard
and moved towards Grenoble where he was confronted by men of the 5th
Regiment, which had been sent to arrest him. Advancing alone Napoleon
said: "Soldiers of the 5th. You can shoot your emperor if you dare."
None did.
As he advanced on Paris his military force grew with thousands of old
soldiers and regular troops flocking to his banner.
On March 19, the Bourbons fled for Belgium and a day later Napoleon
took government and began preparations for the Allied military onslaught
he knew would come.
Two months after his return to France Napoleon had an army of 280,000
men, with half again due within another two months.
Impressive though that force was, it would be moved upon by Allied armies
filled with almost 1,000,000 men.
Initially, however, only England's Duke of Wellington (110,000 men)
and Prussia's Field Marshal Blucher (120,000) were close enough to threaten
France and so Napoleon decided to strike before the numbers told against
him.
Moving with stunning speed, he invaded Belgium with 125,000 men in a
bid to split Wellington and Blucher's armies and defeat each separately.
The strategic plan worked brilliantly and, picking the Prussians as
his first target, he dispatched Marshal Ney to hold off the Anglo-Allied
force and himself attacked the Prussians at Ligny
(16 June 1815).
The battle of Ligny was Napoleon’s last victory.
He surprised his British and Prussian foes and had his army almost on
them before they had time to react.
The Prussians lost 25,000 men to Napoleon’s 11,000.
Meanwhile Wellington had been caught on the hop by Napoleon’s
brilliant surprise march that brought the French emperor within a few
days march of Brussels and a potential political victory.
Wellington, as the commander of the Anglo-Allied army, had to buy himself
time to regroup.
An advance French unit had been delayed at a vital crossroads at Quatre
Bras by a small force of 8000 men from Saxe-Weimar and it was imperative
that they were reinforced immediately.
The crossroads was the link between the mainly British Anglo-Allies
and the Prussians. Maintaining an impassive front at a ball being held
in his honour in Brussels, Wellington dispatched troops towards Quatre
Bras as quickly as they became available.
What followed was a drawn clash tactically, but a major strategic blow
for Napoleon - In the event Ney's failure to move quickly to take the
vital crossroads had fatally injured Napoleon’s campaign.
With both Wellington and Blucher retreating on parallel courses the
chance to force them away from each other had gone, but Napoleon then
set his sights on smashing the British who had retreated just south
of Waterloo.
Sending a corps under Marshal Grouchy to pursue the Prussians, Napoleon
caught up with Wellington and on June 18 the battle of Waterloo began.
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