Waterloo, one of the most famous battles in history, ending Napoleon's dramatic return to power. The Emperor himself commanding the french forces and the Duke of Wellington commanding the British with Wellington's cool calculation winning out over Napoleons arrogant brilliance. But I won't be talking about either of those today I will be talking about the man that really won the battle.
Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher of the Prussian Army
When Napoleon returned to France from Elba, Blücher, at age 73, was called out of retirement and put in command of the Army of the lower Rhine.
It was Blücher's and Wellington's armies that Napoleon choose to attack first, in the hopes of knocking one or both of them out of the war before his many other adversaries were able to coordinate their forces against him.
Battle of Ligny
On the 16th of June the French forces engaged the British and the Prussians with Napoleon commanding the right flank facing Blücher leaving Marshal Ney to command the left against Wellington. The left was a stalemate but on the right Napoleon roundly defeated the Prussians forcing them to retreat and separating the two allies.
During this battle, known as the Battle of Ligny, the 73 year old field marshal was unhorsed and lay trapped beneath his dead steed for hours before finally been rescued. His second in command General August von Gneisenau obeyed his commanders last order to retreat perpendicular to the british forces rather than in the opposite direction to them. This was to keep alive the hope of rejoining the armies together at a future date. Gneisenau did this despite in his own opinion it was safer to retreat directly away because he did not trust Wellington and felt they could not rely on the British.
The long March
Napoleon ordered a force of 30,000 men to follow and harass the Prussians. Or in his words "with your sword against his back". This Napoleon thought would give him enough time to defeat the British.
To this end the French forces advanced on the British who retreated throughout the 17th before turning to fight at Waterloo on the 18th. Assured of the fact that the Prussians were out of way for at least another day, Napoleon accepted the fight.
Even with a bruising defeat as well as an aged and injured commander the Prussians marched on, first to Wavre then to Waterloo, covering 62 km in the 38 hours since their defeat. A hard task for one man, more difficult for an entire army, down right micaceous for one that had just fought a day long losing battle. But do it they did, with historians crediting Blücher with keeping up the morale. Saying to them
I hear you say it's impossible, but it has to be done! I have given my promise to Wellington, and you surely don't want me to break it? Push yourselves, my children, and we'll have victory!
Victory
So history was made. The Prussians arrived in time to turn the battle against Napoleon once again banishing him to exile, for good this time.
I will finish with a quote from Wellington
I should not do justice to my own feelings, or to Marshal Blücher and the Prussian army, if I did not attribute the successful result of this arduous day to the cordial and timely assistance I received from them.
Resources
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Waterloo#Views_on_the_reasons_for_Napoleon.27s_defeat
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gebhard_Leberecht_von_Bl%C3%BCcher#Napoleonic_Wars
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Ligny#Movements.2C_17_June.3B_and_the_Battle_of_Waterloo.2C_18_June_1815
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