Brianify
Welcome
editHello, Brianify, and welcome to Wikipedia. Thank you for your contributions. I hope you like the place and decide to stay. If you are stuck, and looking for help, please come to the Wikipedia Teahouse, where experienced Wikipedians can answer any queries you have! Or, you can just type {{helpme}} and your question on this page, and someone will show up shortly to answer. Here are a few good links for newcomers:
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We hope you enjoy editing here and being a Wikipedian! By the way, you can sign your name on talk and vote pages using four tildes, like this: ~~~~. If you have any questions, see the help pages, add a question to the village pump or ask me on my talk page. Again, welcome! -- PBS (talk) 09:30, 20 June 2017 (UTC)
Battle of Ligny
editThank you for your comments on the talk pages of the Battle of Ligny and Waterloo Campaign: Quatre Bras to Waterloo. The expansion of the Battle of Ligny article was done because of a dispute/request on the talk page of the Battle that is now archived (Talk:Battle_of_Ligny/Archive 1#Details of the retreat and the next few sections). Although much more detailed the Battle of Ligny article is still smaller than the Battle of Waterloo article.
The " Quatre Bras to Waterloo" article was created by me in time for the 200 anniversary, because there were no details of that phase of the campaign on Wikipedia and not much easily accessible on line. This was true for the Waterloo campaign in general, let alone the minor campaigns of 1815.
Most information on the campaign tends to be Napoleon advanced out of France, he fought two battle on the 16th, he was defeated at the battle of Waterloo on the 18th, and that is all there is to say about the conflict of 1815. Yet leaving aside the four main battles, there were 1,000 of other deaths in battles and the in storming of fortified positions. For example how much can you find on-line about the battles Austrian left wing (consisting of about 70,00) men who fought a battle, and also stormed Montbéliard with the of 25 officers and 1,000 men, killed and wounded. Or of the combined Austrian and Russian force under the Crown Prince of Württemberg, who fought General Rapp's in several minor engagements as well as the Battle of La Suffel. It is my intention to write a much more detailed account of that campaign, because at the moment there is less than a sentence on some of these minor battles.
I make no apologies for using text PD sources, the consensus among Wikipedia editors is that this is acceptable providing it is attributed (see WP:PLAGIARISM). It is quick way to produce balanced well sourced articles. Yes the text my be stilted by 21st century but articles are always works in progress, and if you think that paragraphs can be improved with a rewrite into more contemporary text than do so (Wikipedia is an encyclopaedia that anyone can edit).
I will leave you with this question. Is the article Waterloo Campaign: Quatre Bras to Waterloo with all its faults better than no article at all? -- PBS (talk) 09:30, 20 June 2017 (UTC)