Battle of Quatre Bras

Battle of Quatre Bras
Part of the Waterloo campaign
The Prince of Orange at the Battle of Quatre-Bras, by Jan Willem Pieneman
Date 16 June 1815[1] Location Quatre Bras, present-day Belgium 50°34′17″N 4°27′12″E / 50.57139°N 4.45333°E / 50.57139; 4.45333 Result Inconclusive
Belligerents
France	Seventh Coalition: Great Britain–Ireland  Netherlands Hanover Nassau Brunswick
Commanders and leaders
Michel Ney Jérôme Bonaparte	Duke of Wellington William of Orange
Strength
20,000–21,000[1]	32,000[1]–36,000
Casualties and losses
4,140–4,400[1] killed or wounded	4,800[2]–5,600[1] killed or wounded

Hundred Days:
Waterloo campaign

500km
300miles

Rochefort

7

Waterloo

6

5

4

3

Paris

2

Elba

1

  

  current battle

  Napoleon in command

  Napoleon not in command

The Battle of Quatre Bras was fought on 16 June 1815, as a preliminary engagement to the decisive Battle of Waterloo that occurred two days later. The battle took place near the strategic crossroads of Quatre Bras^[a] and was contested between elements of the Duke of Wellington's Anglo-allied army and the left wing of Napoleon Bonaparte's French Armée du Nord under Marshal Michel Ney. The battle was a tactical victory for Wellington (as he possessed the field at dusk), but because Ney prevented him going to the aid of Blucher's Prussians who were fighting a larger French army under the command of Napoleon Bonaparte at Ligny it was a strategic victory for the French.

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