Star.
London, England, 1818-10-28 00:00:00

.. . .

a(Z2rAehaTE.

. , ,

tfIikZAIGN Ortst.S, BY GERERIL GOURGAUD.
tr.
(liiseanNslon from our Pa:ler of Saturday.)
We resume our account of a Publication which can-
not fail to en7tge a great share,of the Public attention.
In nor Piper of Saturday, we could only enter on
the battle of Waterloo, which certainly assumes a
very diffa‘ent appearance in • the woik of General
Gourgaud from what it has done in the statements
which have hitherto appeared in this country.
With respect to one material point, the participa-
tion of the Prussians in Vie battle of Waterloo, the
dispatch of the Duke of Wellington is not only con-
tradicted by the Prussian official account, but it is
contradicted by Prince Bernard of Saxe-Weimar,
who commanded the Regiments of Nassau, Orange,
&c. which were stationed in the left wing of the Eng-
lish army, and which unfortunately suffered severely
from the Prussians. who at first mistook them for
French troops..

Before proceeding with our extracts from General
Gourgatid, we shah first vote from the Duke of
Wellington's dispatch the passage relating to Cie ar-
rival 'of the Prussians, and then a iassag from a let-
ter from Prince Bernard:

These attacks (says the Duke) were repeated till nearly seven
o'clock is tee etvsing, when the 4.temy made a desperate attack
with his cavalry and his infantry, support:A by the fire of hit
artillery, to loice the left of our centre, near the farm of La
Hale-Sainte. After an obstinate combat, he was defeated, and
having remarked that his troops withdrew in great confusion '
and that the corps ?Rubio and begun to march by Frischentoist on
Plana...Wit and Belle Alliance, u soon as I could perceivit the
Are of hiaguns, and that Marshal Blucher bad joined in person
with a corps of his ar.ny the left of our line by chain, I deter-
mined to attach the enemy, and order,d.he whole line of infan-*
try to advance, supported by the cavalry and atullery.
Prince Bernard of Saxe-Weimar wrote to his fa-
ther on the 19ilt : _ .

I commanded on the kft wing, and I was charged with the
defence of a village and a ;caution. I succetded, but with a great
loss of men. ne victory was still doubtful, what, absitt ftur
o'dxk, the: Prustisas, antler Generals Ilalow and lathers, arrived
an our left Sank,' and decided the battle. Unfortunately, the
Prussians, who were to support Inc iq my village, took my
Nassauers, who still have the French uniform, though their
acarta are sufficiently German, for Frenchmen, and opened a
terrible fire on them. They were driven from their position,
and I rallied them at a quarter of a league distance from the
geld of battle.

We now turn to the French account, which we left
off with at the description of the state of things on
the arrival of the Prussians, and we now proceed with
the subsequent part of the battle:

Napoleon seeing that the Prussians continued to turn the right
of the sixth corps, ordered to this point the division of young
guards of General Duhesme, wilt two batteries. It prolonged
our line as far as the first troops of the left of Bulow. At the
same time a division of the fitst corps, which formed our right.
and which was in reserve; made a brisk attack on the extreme
left of the Atigio-Datch line, took possession of the village of La
Bale, and thus cut off the communication between the Anglo-
Dutch army and the fourth Prussian corps. We hoped every
moment, and we expected with the keenest impatience, the arri-
ral of Marshal Grouchy on the rear of this carps, which would
then have been cut off from all retreat. It was six o'clock, and
still thtre were no new; of the Marshal. However, all these dis-
positions had the greatest success. The impetuusity of the young
guard, which )tad dune great mischief to the enemy—the faking
Of the village of La Ilate, which turned the right of Bulow, start
the progress of the latter—be ceased to act on the offensive—be
was no longer an object of alarm.

As soon as the Emperor had seen that the attack of Bulow
was in activity, and that ha was not arrested by Marshal Grou.
city, gout half-put four, he ordered Marshal Ney to maintain
himself in La Hale-Sainte, and to occupy It with several batta-
lions, bet to make no movement till the issue of the manoeuvre
Of the nus.iians was seen.
Half an hoar afterwards, about five o'clock, at the moment

the latter were attacking us most briskly, the English endea-
voured to retake La llaie-Sainte ; they were vigorously repulsed
.14 the fire of our infantry, and by a charge of cavalry; but
fdirshal Ney, carried away by his excessive ardour, forgot the
order which he had received. He debouchtd on the plateau,
which was immediately crowned by the two divisions of cuiras-
siers of Kilhaut, and by the light cavalry of the guard. All the
officers who stirroundel the Emperor, seeing this movement, the
success of the charges, the retreat of several English squares, and
the cessation of the fire of a part of the enemy:s batteries. sung
out " Victory !" and gave themsAves up to joy. The Emperor
slid not think in the same way. He said to Marshal Souk—
" That premature movement may have fatal results on this day."
Soult broke out into a passion against rey—u He commits us,"
said he, "as be did at Jena." The „Emperor sent orders to the
cuirassiers of I(ellerman to support the cavalry which we :lad on
the plateau, lest it should be repulsed by the enemy's cavalry,
which, in the then state of things, might have caused the ing.of
Rut battle; for we were at that important period when the
smallest incident may occasion important results. The advanee
At all this cavalry, which rushed forward at a gallop, with cries
if Vise rEntrtreur / awed the enemy, gave confidence to our
troops, and prevented them from being alarmed at the prolonga-
tion of the Ere of the Prussians on our rear.

About six o'clock we perceived that the Prussians had en-
gaged all their force. Their offensive march ceased ; their fire
remained stationary. Half an hour afterwards he retrograded
amt our troops advanced. Th.: Prussian bullets no longer reached
the causeway, nor even the first position which the troops of
D.thesme and the Count de Lobau had occupied; these troops
had advanced. The extreme left of the Prussians wheeled back-
wards and appeared as if they m.:ant to place themselves in a
line with the first brigade. Our cavalry maintained itself on
o.orplateau, notwithstanding all the fire to which it was exposed ;
it had broke through several squares, taken three colours, disor-
ganized a great number of batteries, &c. Fear anti terror pre-
vailed throughout the whole of the enemy's line. The fugitives
were already gaining Brussels; every thiug like orderly retreat
t:came impossible, and the whole army was on the point of
b-ing destroyed. In the course of half an hour the situation of
ths French was greatly changed ; the enemy wa.; no where me-
r ; we were masters of a part Of his-field of battle, in an
t.4sensive position on his centre. We were victorious, not only
over the Anglo-Dutch army of 85,M0 men, but also over the
corps of Billow of aOAOO Prussians. We had no news of Grouchy.
Tour is am 65 to 68,000 Frer.ch had beat 115,000 English, Bel-
gins, Prussians, &c. At half-past seven the cenonade of filar-
shal Grouchy was at length heard ; it was judged to be et a
distance of two leagues and a half on our right. The Emperor
thought that the moment was come fir making a decisive at-
tach and tercniaating the combat. lie recalled for that effect
divers battalions and batteries of the guard which had been de-
imbed towards Planchenoit. At this very moment the enemy's
army was informed of the arrival of Marshal Blucher, and of.
the first Prussian corps, which had quitted Wavres in the morn-
ing, and came by Oham to join the left of the Anglo-Dotch
army. It was not the only reinforcement; two brigades cf
English cavalry, consisting of ale te/rments, which had been
placed in reserve on that route, now rendered disposable by the
of :L.: 1'ICS:1311 troops, had joined the line. 'these news
glee. new tie to the Anglo-Dutch army : it plucked up courage
wad kept Its position.
- - • -

throe critical clreutnstance• throe battalions of infantry

n• second :Ire of ear right retreated in good order to the DS-
/lel-jai Guard, which the Emperor had rounited. This move-
ment, of which the motive cannot be explained, disorganised
oar liar. • The uddiers said they had not been driven, but acted
under orders. The Emperor barangned them, and they returned
to their post. The cavalry, who from their eleTated situation
could see the whole field, observed this retrograde movement of
the three battalions; they at the same time saw the arrival of Mar-
shal Blucher, and the two brigades of fresh cavalry who were
preparing to charge them. Fearing that they should he cut off,
several regiments made a retrograde movement.

The Emperor then formed his guard into columns to make
the meditated attack. but perceiving the hesitation hi which the
cavalry was, he judged that he ought to yield to circumstances,
and that without waiting till all the columns were formed. he .
ought instantly to support the cavalry, and make a movement
Which might calm the imaginations, aol arrest the indecision In
which the troopswere' whether they were to fight or retreat.
He advanced with the four first battalions on the left of La Haie
Sainte, and ordered General Reille to collect his whole corps,on
his extreme left, and to form it in columns of attack. On ar-
riving at La Haie Sainte, she Emperor met part of the troops
of Ney, who were retreating : he sent his Aid-de-Camp, Labe-
doyere to tell them, by way of reanimating them,' that the
corps Of Marshal Grouchy had arrived. He gave at the same
time to Marshal Ney the four battalions of Guards which he
was leading, and gave him orders to advance, in order to pre-
serve the position of the plateau. This produced the effect which
' the Emperor desired ; the whole stopt and returned to the po-
' sition. A quarter of an hour afterwards, the eight other batta-
lions arrived at the brink of the ravine; the Emperor made
them also form: die battalion in battle order, having two la
close columns on its flanks, which combined the advantages of
the thin and the deep order. Two of these brigades, thus formed
and marching at battalion distance, made a firs: liae, behind
which was the third brigade in reserve. " The batteries were
placed in the intervals. On his part, General RelUe assembled
his whole corps towards liougountont, crossed the ravine, and
attacked the enemy's slits.
In the mean time the four battalions of Middle Guards were
engaged; they repulsed every thing before them, and redtained
Immovable under the fire of a very considerable line. of the
enemy. General Friant, commanding the infantry of the Guard,
wounded in the hand, came to Inform the Emperor that all went
well on the plateau, and that on the arrival of the Old Guard
they would have the whole field of battle. This was 'between
half-past seven and eight o'clock : a cry of alarm was heard to
the tight—Blucher, with the whole corps of Ziethen, attacked
the village of La Hale, which waslrnmediately carried. A ge-
nera! movement of astonishment followed throughout the whole
of ocr right; by that Measure we found ourselves cut off from
the cot ps of Count de Lubau. The traitors and ill-disposed ?ar-
sons in the army, and those who had deserted, abiy availed
themselves of this opportunity to augment the disorder, which
was immediately propagated with the greatest rapidity over the
whole line. The eight battalions of Guards, amongst whom
were those of the Old Guard, instead of advancing to support
the four battalions engaged, ought to have made a movemen- on
the right to serve as a reserve, and to rally the troops driven
from La Haie—they obstructed the whole of this field of battle,
by forming themselves in square by battalions. The whole ea-
tremity of our right could still rally behind them. The sun was
set—nothing was desperate—when the two brigades of enemy's
cavalry, which had not yet moved, penetrated between La Hale
Sainte and the corps of General Reiile. They might have been
stopped by the eight squares of the Guard; but seeing the great
disorder which prevailed on the right. they turned them. These
three thousand fresh horst • prevented all rallying. The Emperor
ordered his four squadrons of service to charge them. Those
squadrons were not sufficiently numerous ; the whole division of
the cavalry of reserve of the Guard would have been requisite;
but by a misfortune which belonged to the fatality of that day,
tbts division of 2,000 horse grenadiers and dragoons, all picked
men, u.A engaged on the -plateau, without orders from the Em-
peror. There were no longer any means of rallying the troops;
the four squadrons having been overthrown, the confusion was
only augmented.

We will not follow General Gourgaud throughout
the remaining details of the action, which was now
decided. We arc informed by him that Naptleon at-
tributed the loss chiefly-Ist, To the uncertainty of
Marshal Grouchy on the 17th respecting the move-
ments of the enemy. If on the evening of the 17th
he had been at Wavres, in communication with the!
left of the a!my, Blucher would not have dared to
uncover himself before him, where Grouchy would
then have followed him To the misconception

of the instructions given t 3 this Marshal, and the
non-reception of the orders sent him on the night be-
tween the 17th and 18th, and on the morning of the
18th ; and on the :Aber part to the unseasonable at-
tack which Marshal Ney made with the cavalry, two
hours too soon, notwithstanding the reiterated orders
.of the Emperor.

The General maintains, that if it had not been for
the movement of Bulow, the battle would have been
gained by three o'clock in the afternoon ; for the corps
of Count Lobau, with the Young Guard, and sup-
ported by the whole of the Old Guard, was to attack
the enemy's centre at two o'clock. He blames Gene-
rals Blucher and Wellington for not having their
troops encamped by the begirring of June, and for
rot knowing the movements of the French army,
which concealed three matches from them. Blucher
is blamed for having rallied his army in the position
of his enemy, where he exposed himself to be beat in
detail. With an army of nearly 150,000 men, he
could only fight with 90,000.

The Duke of Wellington is blamed fornot having
known till one o'clock on the morning of the 15th,
that the whole French army had passed the Sambre
at twelve o'clock the preceding day, at Charleroi.—
He thinks the Duke of Wellington cannot be blamed
for what happened at Quatre Bras, which was a ne-
cessary consequence of the fault of Blucher for rally-
ing his army at Ligni. The choice of the field of
battle of Waterloo, in frcnt of a forest and a great
town, when Blucher had been beat, was a fault which
might have been attended with the most fatal results
to the English army and the whole coalition. The
nature of the roads which Blucher had to pass, ape-
cially in such bad weather as there had been for two
days, and the great losses experienced by the Prus-
sian army at Ligni, should have induced the Duke
of Wellington to unite his army with that of Blucher,
and march in the rear of Waterloo. The two armies
might have easily gained twelve or fourteen hours
advance, and been tallied on the same field of battle,
presenting a mass of more than 200,000 combatants
The surprise of the Prussian and English armies, he
says, proved the superiority of the French plan of
campaign ; ani if it had not been for accidents such
as, in spite of every probability, overturn the best
founded calculations, the English and Prussian
armies would have been totally destroyed.
General Gourgaud endeavours to shew that the
battle of Waterloo could not have decided the fate
of Trance, if Fouche and others had done their duty.
The French army under Paris was equal in numbers
to that of the allies; and if they had been attacked
when they marched through the valley of Montmo-
rency, towards St. Germain and Versailles, leaving
their left flank totally uncovered during the whole
operation, they would have been completely de-
stroyed. The capital was abandoned without a strug-
gle to an army only equal in force, whilst the Austrian
and Russian armies were still at a distance of more
than fifteen days march.—" This was undoubtedly,"
he says, "one of the most shameful tagnsactiolu re-'
corded in the History of Ezance."

FLANDERS MAIL.

.9 RUSsELS, OCTOBER 23.

Yesterday arrived here his Excellency General
Count Benningsen, in the service of the Emperor of
Russia, from Aix-la-Chapelle ; Count Schoenfeld,
Chamberlain of the Emperor of Austria, from ttix-
la-Chapelle ; the Marquis Charteries; M. Puysegur,
Major-General in the service of France' from Parts;
Mr. Smith, an English Courier, from London to Aix-
la-Chapelle.
We have already said, that the Count de Lobau,
and General Mouton, had obtained permission to re-
turn to France ; the same favour has just been granted
to Messrs. Courtin, Forbin Janson, Defermont, and
to General Lamarque.

SECOND CHAMBER OF THE STATES-GENERAL
' /MUGS or OCTOIIIM 23.

The President communicated to the Assembly, a
message from his Majesty, with the copy of a Treaty
concluded on the 4th of last May, with his Britannic
Majesty, for the abolition of the African Slave Trade;
as well as the project of a law, conformably to the
58th article of the fundamental law, containing legal
regulations to ensure the full execution of this Trea y.
These two pieces were read. The project contains
also several penal enactments for the repression of
this inhuman traffic. Those who, from the date of
the promulgation of the law, should still attempt to
carry it on, to be liable to a fine of 5,000 florins,
besides two years imprisonment. All those who should
make use of means become illicit, to encourage this'
prohibited traffic, to be punished with a confinement
of six months at least, and two years at the most.—
The Chamber ordered all these pieces to be printed.
distributed among the members, and referred to the
sections.—Another message from his Majesty intro-
duced a project of a law relative to the poor: and a
third was communicated by the Minister of the In-
terior, in the name of his Majesty, relative to the or-
ganization of the-army.
The Minister made a speech, first in Dutch, then
in French, explaining the nature of the law propo-
sed, the object of which is to form a good infantry,
and at the same time lessen the burden of the service
to the militia, and save the treasury about two mil-,
lions. This project of a law was also ordered to be
printed. The Assembly also appointed a COMlllitlar
of five Members, to prepare an address in answer to
his Majesty's speech at the opening of the Session.

1 ..
s
t.,
It
I
I .
i ;'+; •
• 'C
• !
'.,
t
c ,
1 1
i
f
0
t . it
i 1
1
1
(i
I
4
fr'
1
. t
• I ,
• i I
1
i
tr
I
1 t
I !‘ 'A,
it
. k .
1
1
1
I:
t
I ,
. ,
4 .