Part 6: June 15, 1245

MajGen Rebecque had just received an important message: The Prince of Orange has arrived on the field north of Belle Alliance and is currently making his way south towards Quatre-Bras to take personal command of his troops. This presented a certain kind of problem, since the only troops in the area around Quatre-Bras were the 3^rd Netherlands Division – all other troops had been ordered to concentrate to the south of Soignies – where he intended to decisively engage the French marching up from Mons. Now how should he, being the Chief of Staff of the 1^st Army Corps, tell his Corps Command that he would only be commanding one division? His troops would welcome this change in command, no doubt, since the Prince was a git, to put it bluntly, but courtesy demanded that he would inform his commanding officer of the developments involving his corps. Thus he reluctantly dispatched a courier that would slowly ride towards Quatre-Bras to inform the Prince that most of his corps were actually concentrated far to the West.

Hopefully the courier would take his time, his horse certainly was not the fastest available.

Charleroi:

The fight had been going on for over 2 hours now. The Infanterieregiment No. 28 put up a valiant rear guard action. Twice the French guard advanced against their position in a small crop of trees just outside the village, twice they were repulsed. However, everyone knew that this was only going to go well for as long as the French did not flank their position from the south-west, where cavalry had already been spotted earlier.

The detached skirmishers, who had set up camp I nearby a wind mill in order to delay this flanking maneuver, were soon faced with immediate destruction once the deployed cavalry brought forward a mounted battery. These 8 guns began reducing the wind mill with accurate fire at less than 250 yards, well out of musket range. The situation soon became impossible, and thus the few remaining men decided to fall back to the east. This move was thwarted by a quick cavalry charge, which completely annihilated any remaining skirmishers in the west.

The situation for the rear-guard and IR 28 got even worse, when the French guard brought up some 12 artillery pieces and set them up in the streets facing the Prussians.

The only reason that the French hadn't been able to make use of their superior numbers so far was that they were confined to the houses and thus unable to deploy in open ground. These guns, however, soon tore huge holes into the Prussian lines, especially into the Fusilier-Battalion, which had distinguished itself facing off two charges by Guard Voltigeurs!

Realizing that the situation soon became hopeless, Major Quadt II ordered a general retreat, hoping to give his troops enough time to avoid immediate capture. Yet this withdrawal soon turned into a rout, which included all 3 battalions of IR 28 and all skirmishers in the area. The scattered formations tried to make way north – not knowing whether cavalry would soon run them down or whether they would be able to reach the safety of the next fall back position less than a mile north of Charleroi!