DUKE OF WELLINGTON'S
DISPATCH,
TO EARL BATHURST.
My Lord,
BUONAPARTE having collected the 1st, 2d, 3d, 4th and 6th corps of the French army, and the Imperial Guards and nearly all the cavalry, on the Sambre, and between that river and the Meuse, between the 10th and the 14th of the month, advanced on the 16th and attacked the Prussian posts at Thuin and Lobez, on the Sambre, at day-light in the morning.
I did not hear of these events till the evening of the 15th, and I immediately ordered the troops to prepare to march; and afterwards to march to the left, as soon as I had intelligence from other quarters to prove that the enemy’s movement upon Charleroi was the real attack.
The enemy drove the Prussian posts from the Sambre on that day; and General Ziethen, who commanded the corps which had been at Charleroi, retired upon Fleurus; and Marshal Prince Blucher concentrated the Prussian army upon Sombreffe, holding the villages in front of his position of St. Amand and Ligny.
