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
Battle of Waterloo Holy Roman Empire into a German Confederation increasingly marked by the political dominance of Prussia. The bicentenary of Waterloo prompted renewed attention in the geopolitical and economic legacy of the battle and in the century of relative transatlantic peace which followed. General Antoine-Henri, Baron Jomini, one of the leading military writers on the Napoleonic art of war, had a number of very cogent explanations of the reasons behind Napoleon's defeat at Waterloo. The Prussian soldier, historian, and theorist Carl von Clausewitz, who as a young colonel had served as chief-of-staff to Thielmann's Prussian III Corps during the Waterloo campaign, expressed