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
The Field of Waterloo Critical Review" judged it as "absolutely the poorest, dullest, least interesting composition that has hitherto issued from the author of "Rokeby". Even the gazette of the battle contains more information, and the style of the poem is very little, if at all, superior to that of Marshal Wellington's modest dispatches." The poor reception of the poem led to widespread joking about Sir Walter Scott like Napoleon meeting his greatest defeat at Waterloo, as in the widely circulated squib attributed to Lord Erskine: The Field of Waterloo The Field of Waterloo is a poem by Sir Walter Scott, written and published