Waterloo Campaign: Ligny through Wavre to Waterloo Waterloo Campaign: Ligny through Wavre to Waterloo After their defeat at the Battle of Ligny (16 June 1815) the Prussians successfully disengaged and withdrew to north to Wavre where they reorganised and then three corps advanced westward to attack the right flank of the French army at the Battle of Waterloo. The French were desultory in the aftermath of Ligny. Napoleon wasted the morning of 17 June by taking a late breakfast and going to see the previous day's battlefield before organising a pursuit of the two Coalition armies. He took the reserves and marched with Marshal Ney in pursuit
Waterloo Campaign: Ligny through Wavre to Waterloo in line, with the third in support. It was 17:30 when this took place and the moment when the Prussians became fully engaged in the Battle of Waterloo. Grouchy's movements, on 17–18 June, form so striking a feature in the history of the Waterloo Campaign, and exercised so important an influence upon the fate of the decisive Battle of Waterloo, that it becomes an essential point in the study of that history, to examine how far he complied with, and carried into effect, the instructions received from Napoleon, and to what degree his proceedings, consequent upon his ascertaining the direction