Atlas of Battles

battle, major, Revolutionary and Napoleonic

Battle of Ligny

Battle of Ligny was a battle fought on 16 June 1815 at Ligny, in what is now Belgium. It was part of the Napoleonic Wars, which ran from 1803 to 1815. The recorded result: French victory. Recorded strength: 62,882; 210 cannons against 83,417.

See it on the globe Read the article

Battle of Ligny by Theodore Jung
Battle of Ligny by Theodore Jung. Theodore Jung, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
Fought16 June 1815
WhereLigny, Belgium50.512N, 4.575E
OutcomeFrench victory
BelligerentsFirst French EmpireagainstPrussia
Part ofNapoleonic WarsHundred Days

Where it sits in the Napoleonic Wars

Battle of Platzberg, 1794Battle of Lodi, 1796Battle of Spinges, 1797Battle of Marengo, 1800Action of 10 December 1800, 1800Battle of West Kay, 1801British campaign in the Caribbean, 1803French capture of Gorée, 1804Battle of Pulo Aura, 1804Battle of Vizagapatam, 1804Raid on Boulogne, 1804Action of 5 October 1804, 1804Action of 10 August 1805, 1805Battle off Cape Palos, 1805Battle of Diamond Rock, 1805Battle of Memmingen, 1805Battle of Ulm, 1805Battle of Cape Ortegal, 1805Battle of Mariazell, 1805Atlantic campaign of 1806, 1806Action of 26 July 1806, 1806Battle of Blaauwberg, 1806Battle of San Domingo, 1806Action of 13 March 1806, 1806Action of 21 April 1806, 1806Action of 9 July 1806, 1806Action of 23 August 1806, 1806Action of 25 September 1806, 1806Battle of Jena–Auerstedt, 1806Action of 18 October 1806, 1806Raid on Batavia, 1806Battle of Golymin, 1806Adriatic campaign of 1807–1814, 1807Siege of Stralsund, 1807, 1807Battle of Eylau, 1807Siege of Crotone, 1807Capture of the Jeune Richard, 1807Java campaign of 1806–1807, 1807Raid on Griessie, 1807Invasion of Capri, 1808Action of 10 November 1808, 1808Battle of Kock, 1809Action of 22 January 1809, 1809Action of 10 February 1809, 1809Battle of Les Sables-d'Olonne, 1809Invasion of Martinique of 1809, 1809Action of 6 April 1809, 1809Troude's expedition to the Caribbean, 1809Battle of Ratisbon, 1809Battle of the Basque Roads, 1809Battle of Stralsund, 1809Action of 31 May 1809, 1809Raid on Saint-Paul, 1809Invasion of Guadeloupe, 1810Action of 13 September 1810, 1810Invasion of the Spice Islands, 1810Action of 3 July 1810, 1810Invasion of Île Bonaparte, 1810Action of 15 November 1810, 1810Invasion of Isle de France, 1810Battle of Lissa, 1811Action of 24 March 1811, 1811Invasion of Java, 1811Action of 29 November 1811, 1811Battle of Smolensk, 1812Action of 22 May 1812, 1812Battle of Pirano, 1812French invasion of Russia, 1812Battles of Vilnius (1812), 1812Siege of Riga, 1812Battle of Powiewiórka, 1812Battle of Mir, 1812Battle of Ekau, 1812Battle of Saltanovka, 1812Battle of Ostrovno, 1812Battle of Vitebsk, 1812Battle of Kobrin, 1812Battle of Klyastitsy, 1812First Battle of Polotsk, 1812Battle of Valutino, 1812Battle of Borodino, 1812Battle of Mesoten, 1812Battle of Tarutino, 1812Second Battle of Polotsk, 1812Battle of Maloyaroslavets, 1812Battle of Lyakhovo, 1812Battle of Czasniki, 1812Battle of Wolkowisk, 1812Battle of Vyazma, 1812Capture of Vitebsk, 1812Battle of Smoliani, 1812Battle of Krasnoi, 1812Battle of Berezina, 1812Action of 7 February 1813, 1813Action of 5 November 1813, 1813Battle of Varvažov, 1813Battle of Peterswalde, 1813Siege of Cattaro, 1813Siege of Zara, 1813Siege of Antwerp, 1814Siege of Ragusa, 1814Battle of Jobourg, 1814Siege of Ajaccio, 1815Battle of Montélimar, 1815Battle of Loriol, 1815Waterloo Campaign, 1815Battle of Ligny, 1815Battle of Quatre Bras, 1815Battle of Waterloo, 1815Battle of Wavre, 1815Battle of Rocheserviere, 1815Battle of La Suffel, 1815Battle of the Hospital, 1815Battle of Rocquencourt, 1815Battle of Issy, 181517941815Battle of Ligny, 1815
116 placed engagements of the Napoleonic Wars in time order; taller ticks are more widely documented. Each tick is a link.

Record

Date16 June 1815
PlaceLigny, Belgium
50.512N, 4.575E
KindBattle, Revolutionary and Napoleonic
Strength62,882; 210 cannons83,417
Commanders
Battle of LignyBattle of LignyBattle of FleurusBattle of FleurusBattle of FleurusSiege of CorroyBattle of LambusartBattle of FleurusBrusselsLilleCologneAntwerpenLuxembourgDüsseldorfBonnBrugge100 km50.512N, 4.575E
The recorded site, with the nearest other engagements in the atlas. Present-day coastlines, rivers and borders; towns from Natural Earth.

The ground today

Relief of the ground around the site of Battle of Ligny
Relief within about 10.0 km of the site, contours every 10 m. Copernicus DEM GLO-30, ESA.
Satellite view of the site of Battle of Ligny today
The same ground from Sentinel-2 on 2023-09-07. Contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data 2023.

The recorded site stands at about 137 m; within 10.0 km the ground runs from 115 to 196 m, 81 m of relief, gently rolling country and today it is 63% cropland, 17% grassland, 12% tree cover.

cropland: 63%grassland: 17%tree cover: 12%built-up: 8%cropland 63%grassland 17%tree cover 12%built-up 8%
west to east, 10.0 km125 to 163 mnorth to south, 10.0 km133 to 168 m
Elevation from the Copernicus DEM GLO-30 (ESA, Airbus); land cover from ESA WorldCover 2021 (CC BY 4.0), within about 5 km of the recorded site. Computed, not recorded.

Nearest engagements

Contested ground: this site was fought over 5 times between 1622 and 1815.

In the same war

Elsewhere in 1815

Combat data (CDB90)

Attacker: FR ARMY OF NORTH (ELEMENTS OF)Defender: PR ARMY (ELMS)
Strength67,56782,895
Casualties12,000 (17.8%)18,000 (21.7%)
Mission accomplishment, 1 to 1074
Outcomeattacker won
Duration1 day
Front width12 km12 km
Attacker advanced1 km

From the US Army Concepts Analysis Agency Database of Battles (CDB90, battle 143), public domain, in the CC0 tidy edition by Jeffrey B. Arnold. Figures are the database's estimates, compiled in 1990 from published histories, and may differ from the Wikipedia infobox above.

Battle of Ligny is one of 3,694 engagements of the 19th century in the atlas and one of 267 in present-day Belgium.

Sources

Identity, coordinates, dates and the war from Wikidata Q855429, released under CC0. Result, belligerents, commanders, strength and casualties from the infobox of the English Wikipedia article Battle of Ligny, revision 1371153023, read 2026-11-14, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0; the article's text is not reproduced here. Present-day country and state from Natural Earth. Dates before 1582 follow the Julian calendar as recorded.