Status Updates From Waterloo: Four Days that Ch...

For the moment the British right was secure, with the last veteran reserves now in the front line. The centre was under very great strain (after the fall of La Haye Sainte) with the best regiments destroyed and held by young, inexperienced Hanover & Nassau troops.

Guard artillery grapeshot weakened the centre, curassiers sabred, but a full combined attack by all 3 French arms didn't materialise.

Nevertheless the Duke had won the 1st round. Napoleons attack, intended to be decisive, had been soundingly defeated. The battle became a race against time in 3 locations. Could Napoleon break Wellington? Could Blücher get enough troops onto the battlefield to deliver against Napoleon's flank? And could Thielmann hold the Dyle bridges at Wavre to prevent Grouchy rolling up the Prussians on the march?

In the event of a French attack [from the border fortress Maubeuge] through Charleroi [with the main bridge over the Sambre] the Prussian staff had determined to make a stand above the village of Ligny, in front of the cobbled highway from Namur to Nivelles [the main unification artery for the Allies ] they had reconnoitered this potential battlefield & distributed the resulting survey to senior officers on 22 May.