page_title: Waterloo campaign: Quatre Bras to Waterloo
section_title: Hussar brigade at Quatre Bras
hierarchical_section_title: Waterloo campaign: Quatre Bras to Waterloo / Hussar brigade at Quatre Bras
caption_attribution_description: Detail of Portrait of Sir Arthur Wellesley, Duke of Wellington
context_page_description: After the fighting at Quatre Bras the two opposing commanders Marshal Ney and the Duke of Wellington initially held their ground while they obtained information about what had happened at the larger Battle of Ligny. They received intelligence that the Prussian army under the command of Prince Blücher had been defeated by the French Army of the North under the command of Napoleon Bonaparte.
  Upon receiving this news Wellington organised the retreat of the Anglo-allied army to a place he had identified a year before as the best place in Belgium for him to be able to employ his reverse slope tactics when fighting a major battle: the escapement close to the village of Waterloo.
  On the 17th, aided by thunderstorms and torrential rain and before the arrival of Napoleon, Wellington's army successfully extricated itself from Quatre Bras and passed through the defile of Genappe. The infantry marched ahead and were screened by a large cavalry rearguard. The French harried Wellington's army, but were unable to inflict any substantial casualties before night fell and Wellington's men were ensconced in bivouacs on the plain of Mont-Saint-Jean.
context_section_description: It was not long before Wellington, who had slept at Genappe, arrived at Quatre Bras, where he found Major General Sir Hussey Vivian, whose Brigade of Light Cavalry, consisting of the British 10th Hussars (Quentin's), of the British 18th Hussars (Murray's), and of the 1st Hussars of the King's German Legion (KLG, Wissell's), was posted on the left of that point with two strong pickets thrown out; one, of the 18th Hussars (under Captain Croker) on the Namur road, and the other, of the 10th Hussars, under Major Frederick Howard, in front — with a picket from the latter, under Lieutenant Arnold, on the right of the Namur road.
  Vivian, on being asked what account he could give of the French, communicated to Wellington the result of his observations, which were necessarily very limited, as, with the exception of the firing that had taken place, as before mentioned, along the line of pickets, the French had continued perfectly quiet, and had as yet given no indication of any offensive movement.
caption: The 1st Duke of Wellington by Thomas Lawrence (1814)
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