Editing Battle of Ligny (section)

===Ligny===
At 15:00 Gérard's IV French Corps opened the battle around Ligny. Under heavy Prussian artillery fire [[Marc Nicolas Louis Pécheux|Pécheux's]] 12th Infantry Division succeeded in capturing the church in the village of Ligny.  With this success, however, came a price as the division now found itself under a violent bombardment from three sides.  In a short time, Pécheux's division lost 20 officers and 500 men and had to withdraw.  Napoleon sent a battery of 12-pounders to support another attack and with the IV Corps artillery set numerous buildings in Ligny aflame. Another attack followed with vicious [[urban warfare|house-to-house fighting]], then Jagow's 3rd Prussian Brigade counter-attacked and recaptured the town.

The Prussian second lieutenant, Gerhard Andreas von Garrelts, later gave an eye-witness account of the agonies of the Belgian civilian population, caught unexpectedly in the centre of battle:

{{Blockquote|Ligny stood half on fire, locked in bright flames [...] on this occasion we found we were in a house, where all windows were destroyed, two old people, a man and a woman, showing no emotion and dazed sat at the hearth, without moving, his elbows on his knees and his head supported by his hands; the vision made us cry! Probably they had seen armed combat and were not surprised, how else could they distance themselves with death so near; we too were familiar with death, we felt compassion for these old people, but they could not be convinced to move from their home.| Gerhard Andreas von Garrelts.{{sfn|Garrelts|1856|p=172}} }}