Editing Battle of Waterloo (section)

===Preparation===
[[File:Waterloo Campaign map-alt3.svg|thumb|upright=1.35|A map of the Waterloo campaign]]
[[File:Battle of Waterloo, 18 June 1815 - sheet 1st, morning of the battle (Alison).jpg|thumb|upright=1.35|Morning of the battle, initial disposition of opposing forces (''Atlas to Alison's history of Europe'')]]
Wellington rose at around 02:00 or 03:00 on 18 June, and wrote letters until dawn. He had earlier written to Blücher confirming that he would give battle at Mont-Saint-Jean if Blücher could provide him with at least one corps; otherwise he would retreat towards Brussels. At a late-night council, Blücher's chief of staff, [[August Neidhardt von Gneisenau]], had been distrustful of Wellington's strategy, but Blücher persuaded him that they should march to join Wellington's army. In the morning Wellington duly received a reply from Blücher, promising to support him with three corps.{{sfn|Longford|1971|pp=535–536}}

From 06:00 Wellington was in the field supervising the deployment of his forces. At Wavre, the Prussian IV Corps under Bülow was designated to lead the march to Waterloo as it was in the best shape, not having been involved in the Battle of Ligny. Although they had not taken casualties, IV Corps had been marching for two days, covering the retreat of the three other corps of the Prussian army from the battlefield of Ligny. They had been posted farthest away from the battlefield, and progress was very slow.{{sfn|Barbero|2005|p=141}}<ref name="Gre2015">{{cite book |last=John Grehan |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_0KuCAAAQBAJ&pg=PA342 |title=Voices from the Past: Waterloo 1815: History's most famous battle told through eyewitness accounts, newspaper reports, parliamentary debate, memoirs and diaries |year=2015 |publisher=Frontline Books |isbn=978-1-78383-199-9 |pages=105–}}</ref>

The roads were in poor condition after the night's heavy rain, and Bülow's men had to pass through the congested streets of Wavre and move 88&nbsp;artillery pieces. Matters were not helped when a fire broke out in Wavre, blocking several streets along Bülow's intended route. As a result, the last part of the corps left at 10:00, six hours after the leading elements had moved out towards Waterloo. Bülow's men were followed to Waterloo first by I Corps and then by II Corps.{{sfn|Barbero|2005|p=141}}<ref name="Gre2015"/>

Napoleon breakfasted off silver plate at Le Caillou, the house where he had spent the night. When [[Jean-de-Dieu Soult|Soult]] suggested that Grouchy should be recalled to join the main force, Napoleon said, "Just because you have all been beaten by Wellington, you think he's a good general. I tell you Wellington is a bad general, the English are bad troops, and this affair is nothing more than eating breakfast".{{sfn|Longford|1971|p=547}}<ref name="Gre2015" />

Napoleon's seemingly dismissive remark may have been strategic, given his maxim "in war, morale is everything". He had acted similarly in the past, and on the morning of the battle of Waterloo may have been responding to the pessimism and objections of his chief of staff and senior generals.{{sfn|Roberts|2001|pp=163–166}}

[[File:Napoleon.Waterloo.jpg|thumb|upright=1.35|The [[Mont-Saint-Jean, Belgium|Battle of Mont-Saint-Jean]]]]

Later on, being told by his brother, [[Jérôme Bonaparte|Jerome]], of some gossip overheard by a waiter between British officers at lunch at the King of Spain inn in Genappe that the Prussians were to march over from Wavre, Napoleon declared that the Prussians would need at least two days to recover and would be dealt with by Grouchy.{{sfn|Barbero|2005|p=73}} Surprisingly, Jerome's overheard gossip aside, the French commanders present at the pre-battle conference at Le Caillou had no information about the alarming proximity of the Prussians and did not suspect that Blücher's men would start erupting onto the field of battle in great numbers just five hours later.{{sfn|Roberts|2001|p=xxxii}}

Napoleon had delayed the start of the battle owing to the sodden ground, which would have made manoeuvring cavalry and artillery difficult. In addition, many of his forces had [[Bivouac shelter|bivouacked]] well to the south of La Belle Alliance. At 10:00, in response to a dispatch he had received from Grouchy six hours earlier, he sent a reply telling Grouchy to "head for Wavre [to Grouchy's north] in order to draw near to us [to the west of Grouchy]" and then "push before him" the Prussians to arrive at Waterloo "as soon as possible".{{sfn|Longford|1971|p=548}}<ref name="Gre2015" />

At 11:00, Napoleon drafted his general order: Reille's Corps on the left and d'Erlon's Corps to the right were to attack the village of Mont-Saint-Jean and keep abreast of one another. This order assumed Wellington's battle-line was in the village, rather than at the more forward position on the ridge.{{sfn|Bonaparte|1869|pp=292–293}} To enable this, Jerome's division would make an initial attack on Hougoumont, which Napoleon expected would draw in Wellington's reserves,{{sfn|Fletcher|1994|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=US-QQxjHnn8C&pg=PA20 20]}} since its loss would threaten his communications with the sea. A ''[[Grand Battery|grande batterie]]'' of the reserve artillery of I, II, and VI Corps was to then bombard the centre of Wellington's position from about 13:00. D'Erlon's corps would then attack Wellington's left, break through, and roll up his line from east to west. In his memoirs, Napoleon wrote that his intention was to separate Wellington's army from the Prussians and drive it back towards the sea.{{sfn|Barbero|2005|pp=95–98}}