June 16th: Today in 1815 two battles occurred that almost gave Napoleon the major victory he needed to reestablish himself as Emperor of France, the battles of Ligny and Quatre Bras. The battles were Napoleon’s attempts to keep his main enemies, the English and the Prussians from joining up to defeat him. He won both battles, but failed to deliver the knockout blow he had to acheive to drive off either of his enemies and as a result they joined up two days later to crush his army at Waterloo. History is full of tantalizing what ifs, but his failure at Ligny and Quatre Bras haunted Napoleon in his exile as the one that got away.

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