Battle of Quatre Bras
Quatre Bras — the name in French means 'four arms' — was a crossroads, an otherwise insignificant spot where the road running between Nivelles and Namur cuts across the road between Charleroi and Brussels. It briefly however became of huge importance to both Napoleon and Wellington once the former launched his attack upon the allied armies. Strategically, whoever controlled the crossroads would control the movement of troops along the roads: there was thus a great danger that if the French took Quatre Bras they would be able to divide the allied forces and pick them off piecemeal. Heavy fighting therefore took place there, and at a nearby farm and wood, some two days before the decisive battle of the campaign occurred at the more famous Waterloo.
The fighting around Quatre Bras cost the lives of several thousand men without either side achieving a decisive victory. The Allies avoided catastrophe, however, largely due to the failure of the troops under General d'Erlon to arrive at the battleground in time to give the French forces decisive superiority. Mr Strange's critical role in this outcome was not clearly understood at the time — even by Strange himself — until an account of his actions in disturbing the normal geography of the approaches to Quatre Bras was revealed by John Segundus in his The Life of Jonathan Strange. The perpetual alteration of the position of lanes, woods and familiar landmarks so confounded General d'Erlon that his forces were delayed, to the advantage of the Allies[40].