BATTLE OF WATERLOO

The 'Battle of Waterloo', fought on 18 June 1815, was Napoleon Bonaparte's last battle. His defeat put a final end to his rule as Emperor of the French. Waterloo also marked the end of the period known as the Hundred Days, which began in March 1815 after Napoleon's return from Elba, where he had been exiled after his defeats at the battle of Leipzig in 1813 and the campaigns of 1814 in France.
After Napoleon returned to power, many states which had previously resisted his rule formed the Seventh Coalition and began to assemble armies to oppose him. The first two armies to assemble close to the French frontier were a Prussian army under the command of Gebhard von Blücher and an allied army under the command of Duke of Wellington. These armies were close to France's north-east frontier, and Napoleon chose to attack them in the hope of destroying them before they, with other members of the Seventh Coalition (who were not such an immediate threat), could join in a coordinated invasion of France.
The campaign consisted of four major battles, that of Waterloo proving decisive. Napoleon chose to delay the start of the battle of Waterloo until late in the morning of 18 June to give the ground time to dry out a little from the rain that had fallen during the night. The allied army positioned across the Brussels road on the Mont St. Jean escarpment withstood repeated attacks by the French until in the evening they counter-attacked and drove the French from the field. Simultaneously the Prussians – arriving in force – broke through Napoleon's right flank adding their weight to the attack.
The French army left the battlefield in disorder and was unable to prevent Coalition forces entering France and the restoration of King Louis XVIII to the French throne. Napoleon was exiled to the British island of St. Helena where he remained until his death in 1821.
The battlefield is in present-day Belgium, about 12 kilometres (7.5 mi) SSE of Brussels, and 2 kilometres (1.2 mi) from the town of Waterloo.

Prelude

Map of the 'Waterloo' campaign

As far back as 13 March 1815, six days before Napoleon reached Paris, the powers at the Congress of Vienna declared him an outlaw; four days later, the United Kingdom, Russia, Austria, and Prussia bound themselves to put 150,000 men each into the field to end his rule. Napoleon knew that, once his attempts at dissuading one or more of the Seventh Coalition Allies from invading France had failed, his only chance of remaining in power was to attack before the Coalition put together an overwhelming force. If he could destroy the existing Coalition forces south of Brussels before they were reinforced, he might be able to drive the British back to the sea and knock the Prussians out of the war.
Wellington expected Napoleon to try to envelop the Coalition armies, a manoeuvre that he had successfully used many times before,^[3] by moving through Mons to the south-west of Brussels. The roads to Mons were paved, which would have enabled a rapid flank march. This would have cut Wellington's communications with his base at Ostend, but would also have pushed his army closer to Blücher's. In fact, Napoleon planned instead to divide the two Coalition armies and defeat them separately, and he encouraged Wellington's misapprehension with false intelligence. Moving up to the frontier without alerting the Coalition, Napoleon divided his army into a left wing, commanded by Marshal Ney, a right wing commanded by Marshal Grouchy, and a reserve, which he commanded personally (although all three elements remained close enough to support one another). Crossing the frontier at Thuin near Charleroi before dawn on 15 June, the French rapidly over-ran Coalition outposts and secured Napoleon's favoured "central position" - at the junction between the area where Wellington's allied army was dispersed to his north-west, and Blücher's Prussian army to the north-east.
Only very late on the night of 15 June was Wellington certain that the Charleroi attack was the main French thrust, and he duly ordered his army to deploy near Nivelles and Quatre Bras. Early on the morning of 16 June, at the Duchess of Richmond's ball, on receiving a dispatch from the Prince of Orange, he was shocked by the speed of Napoleon's advance, and hastily sent his army in the direction of Quatre Bras, where the Prince of Orange, with the brigade of Prince Bernhard of Saxe-Weimar, was holding a tenuous position against the French left, commanded by Marshal Ney. ^[4] Ney's orders were to secure the crossroads of Quatre Bras, so that if necessary, he could later swing east and reinforce Napoleon.
As Napoleon considered the concentrated Prussian army the greater threat, he moved against them first. Lieutenant-General Graf von Zieten's I Corps rearguard action on 15 June held up the French advance, giving Blücher the opportunity to concentrate his forces in the Sombreffe position, which had been selected earlier for its good defensive attributes. On 16 June Napoleon, with the reserve and the right wing of the army, attacked and defeated Blücher's Prussians at the battle of Ligny. The Prussian centre gave way under heavy French attack, but the flanks held their ground.
Ney, meanwhile, advancing against Quatre Bras on the same day, found it lightly held by Saxe-Weimar and the Prince of Orange. The latter successfully repelled Ney's initial attacks, but were gradually driven back by overwhelming numbers of French troops. As the battle of Quatre Bras developed, the allies were steadily reinforced. Wellington arrived in the middle of the afternoon and took command of the Anglo-allied forces engaged in the battle. By late afternoon, Wellington was able to counter-attack and drive the French back from the crossroads. The Prussian defeat at Ligny on the same day made the Quatre Bras position untenable. Wellington spent 17 June falling back northwards, to a defensive position he had personally reconnoitred the previous year at Mont St. Jean, a low ridge south of the village of Waterloo and the Forest of Soignes.^[5] Napoleon, with the reserve and the right wing of the Army of the North, made a late start on the 17th and joined Ney at Quatre Bras at 13:00 to attack Wellington's army, but found the position empty. The French pursued Wellington, but the result was only a brief cavalry skirmish in Genappe just as torrential rain set in for the night.
The retreat of the Prussians was not interrupted, and was seemingly unnoticed, by the French.^[6] By nightfall, at about 21:00, almost all of the Prussian formations had left the field. Crucially, they retreated not to the east, along their own lines of communication and away from Wellington, but northwards, parallel to Wellington's line of march and still within supporting distance, and remained throughout in communication with Wellington. On the Prussian right, Graf von Zieten's I Corps retreated slowly with most of its artillery, leaving a rearguard close to Brye to slow any French pursuit. On the left, Lieutenant-General Thielemann's III Corps retreated unmolested, leaving a strong rearguard at Sombreffe. The bulk of the rearguard units held their positions until about midnight, before following the rest of the retreating army. In fact, Graf von Zieten's I Corps rearguard only left the battlefield in the early morning of 17 June, as the exhausted French had failed to press on.^[6] Pirch's II Corps followed I Corps off the battlefield and Thieleman's III Corps moved last with the army's various supply parks in tow. It should be noted that the last of III Corps moved out in the morning and was completely ignored by the French. ^[6] Von Bülow's IV Corps, which had not been engaged at Ligny, moved south of Wavre and set up a strong position on which the other elements of the Prussian army could reassemble.^[6] Before leaving Ligny, Napoleon gave Marshal Grouchy 33,000 men and orders to follow up the retreating Prussians. A late start, uncertainty about the direction the Prussians had taken, and the vagueness of the orders given to Grouchy meant that he was too late to prevent the Prussian army reaching Wavre, from where it could march to support Wellington.
By the end of 17 June, Wellington's army had arrived at its position at Waterloo, with the main body of Napoleon's army following. Blücher's army was gathering in and around Wavre, around eight miles' march to the east.

Armies

Three armies were involved in the battle: the French ''Armée du Nord'', a multinational army under Wellington, and a Prussian army under Blücher. The French army of around 69,000 consisted of 48,000 infantry, 14,000 cavalry, and 7,000 artillery with 250 guns.^[10] Napoleon had used conscription to fill the ranks of the French army throughout his rule, but he did not conscript men for the 1815 campaign. All his troops were veterans of at least one campaign who had returned more or less voluntarily to the colours.
Wellington said he had "an infamous army, very weak and ill-equipped, and a very inexperienced Staff".^[11] It consisted of 67,000 men - 50,000 infantry, 11,000 cavalry, and 6,000 artillery with 150 guns. Of these, 24,000 were British, with another 6,000 from the King's German Legion (7,000 of whom were Peninsular War veterans^[12]). All these were regular troops. In addition, there were 17,000 troops from the Netherlands, 11,000 from Hanover, 6,000 from Brunswick, and 3,000 from Nassau.^[13] These armies had been re-established in 1815 following the earlier defeat of Napoleon. Most of the professional soldiers in these armies had spent their careers in the armies of France or Napoleonic regimes, with the exception of some from Hanover and Brunswick who had fought with the British army in Spain. The main variation in the quality of troops was between regular troops and the militia troops in the continental armies, who were sometimes very young and inexperienced.^[14] The Duke of York imposed many of Wellington's staff officers on him, including his second-in-command, the Earl of Uxbridge. Uxbridge commanded the cavalry and had ''carte blanche'' from Wellington. A further 17,000 Anglo-allied troops were stationed at Hal, eight miles away to the west, and were not recalled to participate in the battle. This has been cited by some historians as evidence of Wellington's misplaced concern over a potential enveloping attack. Others have pointed out that these troops represented a strategic reserve. Hal was also one of two defensive positions identified by Wellington as suitable places to meet a French attack, the other being Waterloo.
The Prussian army was in the throes of reorganization. In 1815, its former Reserve regiments and various Freikorps volunteer formations from the wars of 1813-14 were in the process of being absorbed into the line, along with many ''Landwehr'' (militia) regiments (which were significantly better than other militias).^[15] Its artillery was also reorganizing and would not give its best performance. Nominally under the command of Blücher, in fact much of its operation was directed by his chief-of-staff, Gneisenau, who greatly distrusted Wellington.^[16] Two and a half Prussian army corps, or 48,000 men, were engaged in the battle by about 18:00. (Two brigades under Friedrich von Bülow, commander of the IV Corps, attacked Lobau at 16:30, Georg von Pirch's II Corps and parts of Graf von Zieten's I Corps engaged at about 18:00.)

Battlefield

The Waterloo position was a strong one. It consisted of a long ridge running east-west and perpendicular to the main road to Brussels. Along the crest of the ridge ran the Ohain road, a deep sunken lane. Near the crossroads was a large elm tree that served as Wellington's command post for much of the day. Wellington deployed his infantry in a line just behind the crest of the ridge following the Ohain road. Using the reverse slope, as he had many times previously, nowhere could Wellington's strength actually be seen by the French except for his skirmishers and artillery.^[17] The length of front of the battlefield was also relatively short at two and a half miles, allowing Wellington to draw up his forces in depth, which he did in the centre and on the right, all the way towards the village of Braine-l'Alleud, with the expectation that the Prussians would reinforce his left during the day.^[18]
In front of the ridge there were three positions that could be fortified. On the extreme right was the château, garden, and orchard of Hougoumont. This was a large and well-built country house, initially hidden in trees. The house faced north along a sunken, covered lane (or hollow way) along which it could be supplied. On the extreme left there was the hamlet of Papelotte. Both Hougoumont and Papelotte were fortified and garrisoned, and thus anchored Wellington's flanks securely. Papelotte also commanded the road to Wavre that the Prussians would use to send reinforcements to Wellington's position. On the western side of the main road, and in front of the rest of Wellington's line, was the farmhouse and orchard of La Haye Sainte, which was garrisoned with 400 light infantry of the King's German Legion.^[19] On the opposite side of the road was a sand quarry, where the 95th Rifles were posted as sharpshooters.
The challenge which this position presented to an attacker was formidable. Any attempt to turn Wellington's right would entail taking the entrenched Hougoumont position; any attack on his right centre would mean the attackers would have to march between enfilading fire from Hougoumont and La Haye Sainte. On the left, any attack would also be enfiladed by fire from La Haye Sainte and its adjoining sandpit, and any attempt at turning the left flank would entail fighting through the streets and hedgerows of Papelotte, and some very wet ground.^[20]
The French army formed on the slopes of another ridge to the south where there was an inn called ''La Belle Alliance''. Napoleon desired flexibility but could not see Wellington's positions, so he drew his forces up symmetrically about the Brussels road. On the right was I Corps under d'Erlon with 16,000 infantry and 1,500 cavalry and a cavalry reserve of 4,700; on the left II Corps under Reille with 13,000 infantry, and 1,300 cavalry, and a cavalry reserve of 4,600; and in the centre about the road south of ''La Belle Alliance'' a reserve including Lobau's VI Corps with 6,000 men, the 13,000 infantry of the Imperial Guard, and a cavalry reserve of 2,000. ^[21] On the right of the rear of the French position was the substantial village of Plancenoit, and at the extreme right, the wood ''Bois de Paris''. Napoleon initially commanded the battle south of ''La Belle Alliance'' at Rossomme farm where he could see the entire battlefield, but moved to the inn early in the afternoon. Command on the battlefield (which was largely hidden from him) was delegated to Ney.^[22]

Battle

Wellington was up very early, around 02:00 or 03:00 on the morning of 18 June, and wrote letters until dawn. He had written to Blücher confirming with him that he would give battle at Mont St Jean provided Blücher would provide him with at least a corps, otherwise he would retreat towards Brussels. At a late night council, Blücher managed to persuade Gneisenau to join Wellington's army and in the morning Wellington received dispatches promising him three corps.^[23] After 06:00 Wellington was out supervising the deployment of his forces.
Bülow's corps had not taken part at Ligny, but had been marching for two days. His corps had been posted farthest away from the battlefield and progress was very slow owing to the terrible condition of the roads because of the rain, having to pass through Wavre, and the 88 pieces of artillery they carried with them. As a result, the last part of the corps left six hours after the first part at 10:00.^[24]
Napoleon breakfasted off silver at the house where he had spent the night, ''Le Caillou''. Afterwards, when Soult suggested that Grouchy should be recalled to join the main force, Napoleon said "Just because you have all been beaten by Wellington, you think he's a good general. I tell you Wellington is a bad general, the English are bad troops, and this affair is nothing more than eating breakfast."^[25] Later on, on being told by his brother, Jerome, of some gossip between British officers overheard at lunch by a waiter at the King of Spain inn in Genappe that the Prussians were to march over from Wavre, Napoleon declared that the Prussians would need at least two days to recover and would be dealt with by Grouchy.^[26]
Napoleon had delayed the start of the battle owing to the sodden ground that would have made the manoeuvring of cavalry and artillery very difficult. In addition, many of his forces had bivouacked well to the south of ''La Belle Alliance''. At 10:00, he sent a dispatch to Grouchy in answer to one he had received six hours earlier, telling him to "head for Wavre [to Grouchy's north] in order to draw near to us [to the west of Grouchy]" and then "push before him" the Prussians to arrive at Waterloo "as soon as possible". ^[27]
At 11:00 Napoleon drafted his general order. He made Mont-St-Jean the objective of the attack and massed the reserve artillery of I, II, and VI Corps to bombard the centre of Wellington's army's position from about 13:00. A diversionary attack would be made on Hougoumont by Jerome's Corps, which Napoleon expected would draw in Wellington's reserves since its loss would threaten his communications with the sea. D'Erlon's corps then would attack Wellington's left, break through, and roll up his line from east to west. In his memoirs, Napoleon wrote that his intention was to separate Wellington's army from the Prussians and drive it back towards the sea.^[28]

Hougoumont

:Main articles: Hougoumont

Andrieux, ''The Battle of Waterloo''.

Wellington recorded in his despatches "at about ten o'clock [Napoleon] commenced a furious attack upon our post at Hougoumont"^[29]Other sources state that this attack was at about 11:30.^[30] The historian Andrew Roberts notes that, "It is a curious fact about the battle of Waterloo that no one is absolutely certain when it actually began." ^[31] The house and its immediate environs were defended by four light companies of Guards and the wood and park by Hanoverian ''Jäger'' and the 1/2nd Nassau.^[32] The initial attack was by Bauduin's brigade, which emptied the wood and park, but was driven back by heavy British artillery fire and cost Bauduin his life. The British guns were distracted into an artillery duel with French guns and this allowed a second attack by Soye's brigade and then by what had been Bauduin's. This succeeded in reaching the north gate of the house and some French troops managed to get into its courtyard before the gate was secured again. This attack was then repulsed by the arrival of the 2nd Coldstream Guards and 2/3rd Foot Guards.

Gate on the north side assaulted by the ''1st Legere'' who were led by ''sous-lieutenant'' Legros.^[33]

Fighting continued around Hougoumont all afternoon with its surroundings heavily invested with French light infantry and coordinated cavalry attacks sent against the troops behind Hougoumont. Wellington's army defended the house and the hollow way running north from it. In the afternoon Napoleon personally ordered the shelling of the house to cause it to burn, ^[34] resulting in the destruction of all but the chapel. Du Plat's brigade of the King's German Legion was brought forward to defend the hollow way, which they had to do without any senior officers, and were then relieved by the 71st Foot, a Scottish infantry regiment. Adam's brigade, further reinforced by Hew Halkett's 3rd Hanoverian Brigade, successfully repulsed further infantry and cavalry attacks sent by Reille and maintained the occupation of Hougoumont until the end of the battle.
The Hougoumont battle has often been characterised as a diversionary attack to cause Wellington to move reserves to his threatened right flank to protect his communications, which then escalated into an all-day battle that drew in more and more French troops but just a handful of Wellington's, having the exact opposite effect to that intended.^[35] In fact there is a good case that both Napoleon and Wellington thought Hougoumont was a vital part of the battle. Hougoumont was a part of the battlefield that Napoleon could see clearly ^[36] and he continued to direct resources towards it and its surroundings all afternoon (33 battalions in all, 14,000 troops). Similarly, though the house never contained a large number of troops, Wellington devoted 21 battalions (12,000 troops) over the course of the afternoon to keeping the hollow way open to allow fresh troops and ammunition to be admitted to the house. He also moved several artillery batteries from his hard-pressed centre to support Hougoumont.^[37]

First French infantry attack

Map of the battle. Napoleon's units are in blue, Wellington's in red, Blücher's in gray

Napoleon had drawn up 80 of his cannon together in his centre to form a ''grande batterie''. These opened fire between noon and 13:30.^[38] The battery was too far back to aim accurately, and the only other troops they could see were part of the Dutch division (the others were employing Wellington's characteristic "reverse slope defence";^[39] in addition, the soft ground prevented the cannon balls from bouncing far, and the French gunners covered Wellington's entire deployment, so the density of hits was low. However, the idea was not to cause a large amount of physical damage, but in the words of Napoleon's orders, "to astonish the enemy and shake his morale".^[40]
At about 13:00, Napoleon saw the first columns of Prussians around the village of Chapelle St. Lambert, four or five miles (three hours' march for an army) away from his right flank.^[41] Napoleon's reaction was to send a message to Grouchy telling him to come towards the battlefield and attack the arriving Prussians.^[42] However, Grouchy had been following Napoleon's previous orders to follow the Prussians "with your sword against his back" towards Wavre, and was by now too far away to get to the field at Waterloo. Grouchy was advised by his subordinate, Gérard, to "march to the sound of the guns", but stuck to his orders and engaged the Prussian III Corps rear guard under the command of Lieutenant-General Baron Johann von Thielmann at the battle of Wavre.
A little after 13:00, the infantry attack of the French I Corps began, with the advance of its first division under Donzelot on La Haye Sainte, which, with cavalry support, succeeded in isolating the farm house. At about 13:30 the corps commander, d'Erlon, started to advance his three other divisions, some 14,000 men over a front of about 1,000 metres (1,094 yd) against Wellington's weak left wing.^[43] They faced 6,000 men: the first line consisted of the Dutch 2nd division and the second of British and Hanoverian troops under Sir Thomas Picton. Both lines had suffered badly at Quatre Bras; in addition, the Dutch brigade under Bijlandt, posted towards the centre of the battlefield, had deployed on the forward slope and had been exposed to the artillery battery.^[44]
D'Erlon, like Ney, had also encountered Wellington in Spain, and was aware of the British commander's favoured tactic of using massed short-range musketry to drive off infantry columns. Rather than the use the usual nine-deep French columns deployed abreast of one another, therefore, each division advanced in closely-spaced battalion lines behind one another. This allowed them to concentrate their fire, ^[45]but it did not leave room for them to change formation.
The attack successfully pressured Wellington's troops. It was resisted at the centre of Wellington's position,^[46] but the left wing started to crumble. Bijlandt's brigade was withdrawn to the sunken lane, and then, with nearly all their officers dead or wounded, left the battle field with the exception of their Belgian battalion, the 7th.^[47] Picton had been killed and the British and Hanoverian troops were beginning to give way under the pressure of numbers.

Charge of the British heavy cavalry

At this crucial juncture, the two brigades of British heavy cavalry, formed unseen behind the ridge, were ordered by Uxbridge to charge in support of the hard-pressed infantry. Over twenty years of warfare had eroded the numbers of suitable cavalry mounts available on the European continent; this resulted in the British cavalry entering the 1815 campaign having the finest horses of any contemporary cavalry arm. The British cavalry had also received excellent mounted swordsmanship training. However, they were considered inferior to the French in manoeuvring in large formations, were cavalier in attitude and, unlike the infantry, had not had much experience in warfare. Also, according to Wellington, they had little tactical ability or nous (common sense).^[48] The Household Brigade (consisting of 'guards regiments': the 1st and 2nd Life Guards, the Royal Horse Guards (the Blues), and the 1st 'King's' Dragoon Guards) and the Union Brigade (so called as it consisted of an English (1st, 'The Royals'), a Scottish (2nd, 'Scots Greys'), and an Irish (6th, 'Inniskilling') regiment of dragoons) had a likely combined field strength of about 2,000, and charged with the forty-seven-year-old Uxbridge leading them and little reserve.^[49]
The Household Brigade charged down the hill in the centre of the battlefield. The French ''cuirassiers'' were still dispersed and so were swept over the deeply sunken main road and then routed.^[50] Continuing, they then destroyed Aulard's Brigade; however, despite attempts to then recall them, they continued past La Haye Sainte and found themselves at the bottom of the hill on blown horses facing Schmitz's brigade formed in squares.

The Sunken Road at Waterloo, by Stanley Berkley

On Wellington's left wing, the Union Brigade suddenly swept through the infantry lines (giving rise to the legend that some of the 92nd Gordon Highland Regiment clung onto their stirrups and accompanied them into the charge).^[51]From the centre leftwards, the Royal Dragoons destroyed Bourgeois's brigade, capturing the eagle of the 105th Ligne. The Inniskillings routed the other brigade of Quoit's division, and the Greys destroyed most of Nogue's brigade, capturing the eagle of the 45th Ligne.^[52] On Wellington's extreme left, Durutte's division had not yet committed themselves fully to the French advance, and so had time to form squares and fend off groups of Greys.
As with the Household Cavalry, the officers of the Royals and Inniskillings found it very difficult to rein back their troops, who lost all cohesion. The commander of the Greys, James Hamilton, (which were supposed to form a reserve) ordered a continuation of the charge to the French ''Grande Batterie'' and though they did not have the time or means to disable the cannon or carry them off, they put very many out of action as their crews fled the battlefield.^[53]
Napoleon promptly responded by ordering a counter-attack from his cavalry reserves by the ''cuirassier'' brigades of Farine and Travers. In addition, the two lancer regiments in the I Corps light cavalry division under Jaquinot also counter-attacked. The result was very heavy losses for the British cavalry. All figures quoted for the losses of the cavalry brigades as a result of this charge are estimates, as casualties were only noted down after the day of the battle and were for the battle as a whole.^[54] A view held by some historians is that the official rolls tend overestimate the number of cavalrymen present in their squadrons on the field of battle and that the proportionate losses were, as a result, considerably higher. Each part of the Union Brigade may have lost about a third killed (including its commander, Major-General William Ponsonby, and Colonel Hamilton the of the Scots Greys), and a third wounded (around 600 out of fewer than a thousand). The 2nd Life Guards and the King's Dragoon Guards of the Household Brigade also lost heavily, though the 1st Life Guards, on the extreme right of the charge, and the Blues, who formed a reserve, had kept their cohesion, and suffered significantly fewer casualties. A counter-charge, by British and Dutch-Belgian light dragoons and Hussars on the left wing and Dutch-Belgian carabiniers in the centre, repelled the French cavalry back to their positions.^[55]^[56]
Many popular histories indicate that the British heavy cavalry were destroyed as a viable force following their first, epic, charge. However, examination of eyewitness accounts reveal that, far from being ineffective, they continued to provide very valuable services. They counter-charged French cavalry numerous times (both brigades),^[57] halted a combined cavalry and infantry attack (Household Brigade only),^[58] and were used to bolster the morale of those units in their vicinity at times of crisis, and to fill gaps in the Allied line caused by high casualties in infantry formations (both brigades).^[59] This service was rendered at a very high cost, as close combat with French cavalry, carbine fire, infantry musketry and - more deadly than all of these - artillery fire steadily eroded the number of effectives ^[60] in the two brigades. At the end of the fighting the two brigades could only muster a few composite squadrons.
Meanwhile, the Prussians began to appear on the field. Napoleon sent his reserve, Lobau's VI corps and two cavalry divisions, some 15,000 troops, to hold them back. With this, Napoleon had committed all of his infantry reserves, except the Guard, and he now had to beat Wellington with inferior numbers.

The French cavalry attack

A little before four o'clock in the afternoon Ney noted an apparent exodus from Wellington's centre. This was simply the movement to the rear of casualties from the earlier encounters, but he mistook this for the beginnings of a retreat. Lacking an infantry reserve, as they had all been committed either to the futile Hougoumont attack or to the defence of the French right, Ney tried to break Wellington's centre with his cavalry alone.^[61]
Initially Milhaud's reserve cavalry corps of ''cuirassiers'' and Lefebvre-Desnoettes' light cavalry division of the Imperial Guard, some 4,800 sabres, were committed. Following the repulse of their initial attack, Kellerman's heavy cavalry corps and Guyot's heavy cavalry of the Guard were added to the massed assault, and a total of around 9,000 cavalry were involved, in no less than sixty-seven squadrons.^[62] Witnesses in the British infantry recorded suffering as many as twelve assaults, though this probably includes successive waves of the same general attack; the number of general assaults was undoubtedly far fewer. General Kellerman, apprehending the possible futility and wastefulness of the attacks, tried to reserve the elite ''carabinier'' brigade from joining in, though eventually Ney spotted them and enforced their involvement.^[63]
Wellington's army responded to this new attack by forming square - a formation four ranks deep and either literally a square or sometimes a rectangle formed with one of the longer sides facing towards the enemy. Squares were much smaller than usually depicted in paintings of the battle - a 500-man battalion square would have been no more than sixty feet in length on a side. Vulnerable to artillery or infantry, squares that stood their ground were deadly to cavalry, because they could not be outflanked and because horses would not charge into a hedge of bayonets. Wellington ordered his artillery crews, whose guns were dispersed along his line, to take shelter within the squares as the cavalry approached and to return to their guns and resume fire as they retreated.
A British eyewitness of the first French cavalry attack, an officer in the Foot Guards, recorded his impressions very lucidly and somewhat poetically:
In essence this type of massed cavalry attack relied almost entirely on psychological shock for effect.^[64] Close artillery support could disrupt infantry squares and allow cavalry to penetrate; at Waterloo, however, co-operation between the French cavalry and artillery was not impressive. The French artillery did not get close enough to the Anglo-allied infantry in sufficient numbers to be decisive.^[65] Artillery fire between charges did produce mounting casualties, but most of this fire was at relatively long range and was often indirect, at targets beyond the ridge. If infantry being attacked held firm in their square defensive formations, and were not panicked, cavalry on their own could do very little damage to them. The French cavalry attacks were repeatedly repelled by the steadfast infantry squares the harrying fire of British artillery as the French cavalry recoiled down the slopes to regroup, and the decisive counter-charges of the allied light cavalry regiments, the Dutch heavy cavalry brigade, and the remaining effectives of the Household Cavalry. After numerous fruitless attacks on the allied ridge, the French cavalry was exhausted and depleted.^[66]
Their overall casualties cannot easily be reckoned. The senior officers of the French cavalry, in particular the generals, experienced heavy losses. Four divisional commanders were wounded, nine brigadiers wounded and one killed; a testament to their courage and their habit of leading from the front.^[63] Musters taken after the battle reflect not only combat losses on 16 June and 18 June, but also subsequent desertions, prisoners lost to the Allied pursuit, and wounded troopers still with the army but no longer among its effectives. Illustratively, however, Houssaye ^[68] reports that the ''Grenadiers à Cheval'' numbered 796 of all ranks on 15 June, but just 462 on 19 June, while the Empress Dragoons lost 416 of 816 over the same period. The combined loss rate for Guyot's Guard heavy cavalry division was 47%.
Eventually it became obvious, even to Ney, that the cavalry on their own were achieving little. Belatedly, Ney organised a combined arms attack, using Bachelu's division (Reille's corps), and Tissot's brigade of Foy's division (about 6,500 infantrymen) plus the remaining French cavalry in a fit enough state. This attack was directed towards the centre-right of Wellington's position, along much the same route as was taken by the French cavalry earlier.^[69] The assault was brought to a halt by a charge of the Household Brigade cavalry led by Uxbridge, however, the British cavalry couldn't break the French infantry formations, and consequently the horsemen then fell back having suffered from musketry fire.^[70] Uxbridge then tried to lead the Dutch-Belgian heavy cavalry into the attack but they refused to charge.^[71] Meanwhile, Bachelu's and Tissot's men and their cavalry supports were being hard hit by artillery fire, and that of Adam's infantry brigade, and eventually fell back themselves.^[72] The Allied centre had not come out of the struggle with the French cavalry unscathed though few casualties were caused to the infantry by the French cavalry directly, the artillery fire suffered by the infantry squares between cavalry attacks had been severe. Also the Allied cavalry, with the exception of Vandeleur's and Vivian's brigades on the far left, had all been committed to the fight and had taken casualties eroding their subsequent effectiveness. The situation appeared so desperate that the Cumberland Hussars, the only Hanoverian cavalry regiment present, fled the field speading alarm all the way to Brussels.^[73]
Simultaneous with Ney's combined arms assault on the centre-right of the Allied line, elements of D'Erlon's Corps, spearheaded by the 13th ''Legere,'' renewed the attack on La Haye Sainte, and were ultimately successful. The fall of the farm was partly due to the defenders running out of rifle ammunition ^[74] . Ney then moved artillery up towards the allied centre and began to pulverise the infantry squares.^[61]

Arrival of the Prussian IV Corps: Plancenoit

Robinson Battle of Waterloo

The first Prussian corps to arrive was Bulow's IV Corps, whose objective was Plancenoit as a launch point into the rear of the French positions. It was Blücher's intention to secure his left upon Frichermont using the Bois de Paris road. Hofschröer References p. 116 Blücher and Wellington had been exchanging communications since 10:00 and had agreed to this advance on Frichermont if Wellington's centre was under attack.Hofschröer References p. 95^[76] General Bülow noted that Plancenoit lay open and that the time was 16:30. At about this time the 15th Brigade IV Corps linked up with the Nassauers of Wellington's left flank with the brigade artillery, horse artillery deployed to the left in support.Hofschröer References p. 117 Napoleon sent Lobau's Division to intercept Bülow's IV Corps. Therefore Napoleon sent his 10-battalion-strong Young Guard to beat the Prussians back. The 15th Brigade threw Lobau's troops out of Frichermont with a determined bayonet charge. The 15th proceeded up the Frichermont heights battering French Chasseurs with 12 pounder artillery fire and pushed on to Plancenoit. Napoleon had dispatched the entire 8 battalions of Young Guard and 2 battalions of the Old Guard to reinforce Lobau's Division. Hiller's 16th Brigade had 6 battalions available and pushed forward to attempt to take Plancenoit. The Young Guard counter-attacked and after very hard fighting, the Young Guard recaptured Plancenoit but were themselves counter-attacked and driven out.Hofschröer References p. 122 Napoleon sent two battalions of the Old Guard and after ferocious bayonet fighting - they did not deign to fire their muskets - they recaptured the village. The dogged Prussians were still not beaten, and approximately 30,000 troops under Bülow and Pirch attacked Plancenoit again. It was defended by 20,000 Frenchmen in and around the village.

Attack of the Imperial Guard

With Wellington's centre exposed by the French taking of La Haye Sainte, and the Plancenoit front temporarily stabilised, Napoleon committed his last reserve, the hitherto-undefeated Imperial Guard. This attack is one of the most celebrated passages of arms in military history, but it is unclear which units actually participated. It appears that it was mounted by five battalions of the Middle Guard, and not by the Grenadiers or Chasseurs of the Old Guard. Three Old Guard battalions did move forward and formed the attack's second line, though they remained in reserve and did not directly assault the Allied line.^[77] Marching through a hail of canister and skirmisher fire, the 3,000 or so Middle Guardsmen defeated Wellington's first line of British, Brunswick and Nassau troops. Meanwhile, elements of Prussian General Graf von Zieten's I Corps had finally arrived helping to relieve the pressure on Wellington's left flank, thus allowing Wellington to strengthen his shaken centre.^[78] The French guard battalions marched on, and the situation became critical. Chassé's Netherlands division was sent forward. Chassé brought up his artillery to halt the French advance and silence the opposing artillery. Its fire took the victorious grenadiers in the flank. This still could not stop the Guard's advance, so Chassé ordered his first brigade to charge the French. ^[79]
Meanwhile, to the west, 1,500 British Guards under Maitland were lying down to protect themselves from the French artillery. They rose as one, and devastated the shocked Imperial Guard with volleys of fire at point-blank range. The French chasseurs deployed to answer the fire. After 10 minutes of exchanging musketry the outnumbered French began wavering. This was the sign for a bayonet charge. But then a fresh French chasseur battalion appeared on the scene. The British guard retired with the French in pursuit, but the French in their turn were halted by flanking fire from the 52nd Light Infantry of Adam's brigade. ^[80]
The last of the Imperial Guard retreated headlong in disarray and chaos. A ripple of panic passed through the French lines - "La garde recule. Sauve qui peut!" ("The Guard retreats. Save yourself if you can!"). Wellington, judging that the retreat by the Imperial Guard had unnerved all the French soldiers who saw it, stood up in the stirrups of ''Copenhagen'', and waved his hat in the air, signalling a general advance. The long-suffering allied infantry rushed forward from the lines where they had been shelled all day, and threw themselves upon the retreating French.^[80]
After its unsuccessful attack on Wellington's centre, the French Imperial Guard rallied to their reserves of three battalions, (some sources say four) just south of ''La Haye Sainte'' for a last stand against the British. A charge from General Adam's Brigade and an element of the 5th Brigade (The Hanoverian Landwehr (Militia) Osnabruck Battalion), both in the second allied division under Lieutenant General Sir Henry Clinton, plus, to their right, Vivian's and Vandeleur's relatively fresh cavalry brigades, threw them into a state of confusion; those which were left in semi-coherent units fought and retreated towards ''La Belle Alliance''. It was during this stand that Colonel Hugh Halkett asked the surrender of General Cambronne. It was probably during the destruction of one of the retreating semi-coherent squares from the area around ''La Haye Sainte'' towards ''La Belle Alliance'' that the famous retort to a request to surrender was made "''La Garde meurt, elle ne se rend pas!''" ("The Guard dies, it does not surrender!").^[82]^[83]

Prussian advance

Throughout the late afternoon, Graf von Zieten's I Corps had been arriving in greater strength in the area just north of La Haye. Although ordered to march via Froidmont to Ohain the troops instead marched northwest to Genval and putting much more distance between I Corps and IV Corps than had been allowed in the plan ^[84] General Muffling, Prussian Liason to General Wellington, rode to intercept I Corps Chief of Staff Oberstlieutenant von Reiche who was at the time assembling 2nd Brigade alongside of 1st Brigade. Muffling informed von Reiche that Wellington was desparate for Prussian assistance and couldn't hold on for long.^[84] General Graf von Zieten had by this time brought up the 1st Brigade and was concerned watching straglers retreating from the Nassauers and the Prussian 15th Brigade and feared that his troops would be caught up in a general retreat and thereby started a move towards Placenoit when receiving an order from his commander General Blucher to move upon Placenoit I Corps began its movement. General Muffling at this point saw the movement away and talked Graf von Zieten into supporting Wellington's left flank. Graf von Zieten moved forward with all speed allowing Wellington to reinforce his center.^[86] At this time the Imperial Guard was preparing to attack Wellington's vunlerable center supported by portions of the French 1, and II, Corps By 19:30, the French position was bent into a rough horseshoe shape. The ends of the U were now based on Hougomont on the French left, Plancenoit on the French right, and the centre on La Haye.Hofschröer References p. 139 The French had retaken the positions of La Haye and Papelotte in a series of attacks by General Durutte's Division. Oberst von Hofmann's 24th regiment led an advance towards Le Haye and Papelotte; the French forces retreated behind Smohain without contesting the advance. The 24th Regiment advanced against the new French position but was seen off after some early success. The Silesian Schützen and the F/1st Landwehr moved up in support as the 24th regiment returned to the attack.Hofschröer References p. 140 The French fell back before the renewed assault without much of an attempt at defense. At this point, the French began to seriously contest ground, attempting to regain Smohain and hold on to the ridgeline along Papelotte and the last few houses of Papelotte. The 24th Regiment linked up with a Highlander battalion on its far right. Determined attacks by the 24th Regiment and the 13th Landwehr regiment with cavalry support threw the French out of these positions and further attacks by the 13th Landwehr and the 15th brigade expelled them from Fichermont.^[87] Durutte’s division was beginning to unravel under the assaults when General Graf von Zieten’s I Corps cavalry poured through the gap.Hofschröer References p. 144 Durutte's division, finding itself about to be charged by massed cavalry of Graf von Zieten's I Corps cavalry reserve, retreated quickly from the battlefield. I Corps then attained the Brussels road and the only line of retreat available to the French.

Capture of Plancenoit

At about the same time, the Prussians were pushing through Plancenoit, in the third assault of the day upon the town. The Prussian 5th, 14th, and 16th brigades, were involved in the attack. Each Prussian brigade would be about 9 battalions strong, roughly the size of a French division. The church was set on fire and house to house fighting left bodies from both sides lying about.^[88] The French Guard battalions, a Guard Chasseur and 1/2e Grenadiers were identified as holding the position. Virtually all of the Young Guard was now involved in the defence, along with remnants of Lobau's Division.^[89] The key to the position proved to be the woods to the south of Plancenoit. The 25th regiment's musketeer battalions threw the 1/2e Grenadiers (Old Guard) out of the Chantelet woods, flanking Plancenoit and forcing a retreat. The Prussians IV Corps advanced beyond Plancenoit to find masses of French retreating in a jumbled mass from pursuing British units. References p. 145 The Prussians were unable to fire for fear of hitting allied units. It was now seen that the French right, left, and centre, were failing.

Disintegration

The whole of the French front started to disintegrate under the general advance of Wellington's army and the Prussians following the capture of Plancenoit.Hofschröer References p. 146 The last coherent French force consisted of two battalions of the Old Guard stationed around the inn called ''La Belle Alliance''. This was a final reserve and a personal bodyguard for Napoleon. For a time, Napoleon hoped that if they held firm, the French army could rally behind them.^[90] But as the retreat turned into a rout, they were forced to withdraw and form squares as protection against the leading elements of allied cavalry. They formed two squares, one on either side of ''La Belle Alliance''. Until he was persuaded that the battle was lost and he should leave, Napoleon commanded the square which was formed on rising ground to the (French) left of the inn.^[91]^[92] The Prussians engaged the square to the (French) right, and General Adam's Brigade charged the square on the (French) left, forcing it to withdraw.Hofschröer References p. 149 As dusk fell, both squares retreated away from the battlefield towards France in relatively good order, but the French artillery and everything else fell into the hands of the Allies and Prussians. The retreating Guards were surrounded by thousands of fleeing Frenchmen who were no longer part of any coherent unit. Allied cavalry harried the fleeing French until about 23:00. The Prussians, led by General von Gneisenau, pursued them as far as Genappe before ordering a halt. By that point, some 78 guns had been captured along with about 2,000 prisoners, including more Generals.Hofschröer References p. 150 At Genappe, Napoleon's carriage was found abandoned still containing diamonds left in the rush. These became part of King Friedrich Wilhelm of Prussia's crown jewels, one Major Keller of the F/15th receiving the Pour le Mérite with oak leaves for the feat.Hofschröer References p. 151

Aftermath

Peter Hofschröer has written that Wellington and Blücher met at Genappe around 22:00 signifying the end of the battle. Other sources have recorded that the meeting took place around 21:00 near Napoleon's former headquarters ''La Belle Alliance''.^[93] Waterloo cost Wellington around 15,000 dead and wounded, and Blücher some 7,000. Napoleon lost 25,000 dead and injured, with 8,000 taken prisoner.
After the French defeat at Waterloo, the simultaneous battle of Wavre, was concluded 12 hours later. The armies of Wellington and Blucher and other Coalition forces advanced upon Paris. In the final skirmish of the Napoleonic Wars, Marshal Davout, Napoleon's minister of war, was defeated by Blücher at Issy on 3 July 1815.^[94] With this defeat, all hope of holding Paris faded, and Napoleon announced his abdication 24 June 1815. Allegedly, Napoleon tried to escape to North America but the Royal Navy was blockading the French ports to forestall such a move. He finally surrendered to the captain of HMS ''Bellerophon'' on 15 July. There was a campaign against hold out French fortresses that ended with the capitulation of Longwy on 13 September 1815. The Treaty of Paris was signed on 20 November, 1815. Louis XVIII was restored to the throne of France, and Napoleon was exiled to Saint Helena, where he died in 1821.Hofschröer References pp. 274-276,320
Waterloo was a decisive battle in more than one sense. It definitively ended the series of wars that had convulsed Europe, and involved many other regions of the world, since the French Revolution of the early 1790s. It also ended the political and military career of Napoleon Bonaparte, one of the greatest commanders and statesmen in history. Almost half a century of international peace in Europe was ushered in by the battle of Waterloo; no major conflict was to occur until the wars resulting from the unifications of Germany and Italy in the latter half of the 19th century.

The battlefield today

Lion's Mound at Waterloo, erected on the spot where it is believed the Prince of Orange was wounded

The current terrain of the battlefield is very different from how it appeared in 1815. In 1820, the Netherlands' King William I ordered the construction of a monument on the spot where it was believed his son, the Prince of Orange, had been wounded. The Lion's Hillock, a giant mound, was constructed here, using 300,000 cubic metres (392,000 cu yd) of earth taken from other parts of the battlefield, including Wellington's sunken road. Wellington, when visiting the site years later, allegedly complained "They've spoiled my battlefield!"

References

★ Adkin, Mark (2001); ''The Waterloo Companion''; Aurum; ISBN 1-85410-764-X

★ Barbero, Alessandro (2005); ''The Battle: A New History of Waterloo''; Atlantic Books (paperback 2006); ISBN 1-84354-310-9

★ Beamish, N.Ludlow (1832, reprint 1995); ''History of the King's German Legion''; Naval and Military Press; ISBN 0-952201-10-0

★ Booth, John (1815); ''The Battle of Waterloo: Containing the Accounts Published by Authority, British and Foreign, and Other Relevant Documents, with Circumstantial Details, Previous and After the Battle, from a Variety of Authentic and Original Sources''; available on Google Books

★ Chandler, David G. (1973); ''Campaigns of Napoleon''; Scribner; ISBN 0-02523-660-1

★ Chesney, Charles C. (1907); ''Waterloo Lectures: A Study Of The Campaign Of 1815''; Longmans, Green, and Co.

★ Creasy, Sir Edward (1877); ''The Fifteen Decisive Battles of the World: from Marathon to Waterloo,'' Richard Bentley & Son. ISBN 0-30680-559-6

★ Glover, Gareth.(2004); ''Letters from the Battle of Waterloo,'' Greenhill Books London.

★ Gronow, R. H. (1862); ''Reminiscences of Captain Gronow : being anecdotes of the camp, the court, and the clubs at the close of the last war with France / related by himself ; with illustrations,'' London; ISBN 1-40432-792-4

★ Longford, Elizabeth; ''Wellington the Years of the Sword''; Panther (1971); ISBN 0-58603-548-6

★ Hofschröer, Peter; ''1815, The Waterloo Campaign: The German Victory'';Greenhill Books (London); ISBN 1-85367-368-4

★ Hofschröer, Peter; ''Wellington's Smallest Victory: The Duke, the Model Maker and the Secret of Waterloo''; Faber & Faber (London, 2004); ISBN 0-571-21769-9

★ Roberts, Andrew (2005); ''Waterloo; June 18, 1815, the Battle for Modern Europe''; HarperCollins Publishers; ISBN 0-06-008866-4.

★ Siborne, HT. (1891); ''The Waterloo Letters''; Cassell; reprinted Greenhill Books; (1993).

★ Siborne, W: ''The Waterloo Campaign'' (1894); Birmingham; 4th edition; first published 1844.

★ Smith, Digby (1998); ''The Greenhill Napoleonic Wars Data Book'' ISBN 1-85367-276-9

★ Weller, J.(1992); ''Wellington at Waterloo,'' Greenhill Books, London ISBN 1-85376-339-0

★ Wellesley, Arthur Wellington's Dispatches 19 June 1815

External links

★ Official website of Waterloo Battlefield

Footnotes

1. Barbero, p.420
2. Barbero, p.419. Wellington's army: 3,500 dead; 10,200 wounded; 3,300 missing.
Blücher's army: 1,200 dead; 4,400 wounded; 1,400 missing.
3. D.Chandler, ''The Campaigns of Napoleon'' (1967)
4. E.Longford, ''Wellington the Years of the Sword'' Panther (1971)p.508
5. Longford p.527
6. Chesney, Charles C. p136
7. Chesney, Charles C. p136
8. Chesney, Charles C. p136
9. Chesney, Charles C. p136
10. A.Barbero, ''The Battle'', Atlantic Books (2005) p.75
11. Longford, p.485
12. Longford, p.484
13. Barbero, 75-76
14. An artillery captain, Mercer, thought the Brunswickers "perfect children". [1] On 13 June, the commandant at Ath requested powder and cartridges as members of a Hanoverian reserve regiment there had never yet fired a shot. (Longford p.486)
15. Barbero, p.39
16. Barbero, p.21
17. Barbero, pp. 78-79
18. Barbero, p.80
19. Barbero, p.149
20. Barbero, p.141, p.235
21. Barbero, pp. 83-85.
22. Barbero, p.91
23. Longford, pp.535-536.
24. Barbero, p.141
25. Longford, p.547
26. Barbero, p.73
27. Longford, p.548
28. Barbero, pp. 95-98
29. Wellesley, Arthur Wellington's Dispatches 19 June 1815
30. W. H. Fitchett (1897). ''Deeds that Won the Empire. Historic Battle Scenes'', Joun Murry (reprinted 1921), and (Project Gutenberg 2006) "The hour at which Waterloo began, though there were 150,000 actors in the great tragedy, was long a matter of dispute. The Duke of Wellington puts it at ten o'clock. General Alava says half-past eleven, Napoleon and Drouet say twelve o'clock, and Ney one o'clock. Lord Hill may be credited with having settled this minute question of fact. He took two watches with him into the fight, one a stop-watch, and he marked with it the sound of the first shot fired, and this evidence is now accepted as proving that the first flash of red flame which marked the opening of the world-shaking tragedy of Waterloo took place at exactly ten minutes to twelve."
31. Roberts, p. 55.
32. Barbero pp.113-114
33. The Great Gate of Hougoumont
34. Barbero, p.298. Seeing the flames, Wellington sent a note to the house's commander stating that he must hold his position whatever the cost.
35. See, for example, Longford pp.552-554.
36. Barbero p.298
37. Barbero, pp.305-306
38. Barbero p.131
39. Barbero, p.130.
40. Barbero, p. 130.
41. Barbero, p.136
42. Barbero, p.145
43. Barbero, p.164
44. Barbero, pp.166-168
45. Barbero, p.165
46. Barbero, p.174
47. Barbero, p.177. The Dutch were booed by some units as they left the battlefield, though some disagreed with this as they thought that they might be more Bonapartists than cowards. (Longford, p.556)
48. Barbero, pp.185-187
49. Three for the Household Brigade and none for the Union out of nineteen squadrons in total. Barbero, p.188, however, the total may have been 18 squadrons as there is an uncertainty in the sources as to whether the King's Dragoon Guards fielded three or four squadrons. There is evidence that Uxbridge gave an order, the morning of the battle, to all cavalry brigade commanders to commit their commands on their own initiative, as direct orders from himself might not always be forthcoming, and to "support movements to their front." It appears that Uxbridge expected the brigades of Vandeleur, Vivian and the Dutch-Belgian cavalry to provide support to the British heavies. Siborne, W., Letter 5 and Glover, Letter 16.
50. An episode famously used later by Victor Hugo in ''Les Miserables''. Barbero, note 18, p.426
51. This anecdote can be found in ''The Waterloo Papers'' by E. Bruce Low contained in ''With Napoleon at Waterloo,'' MacBride, M., (editor), London 1911. The tale was related, in old age, by a Sgt. Major Dickinson of the Greys, reputedly the last survivor of the charge.
52. Barbero, pp.198-204
53. Barbero, p.211
54. Losses from the official returns taken the day after the battle:
Household Brigade, numbering 1,319 (page 217 Adkin, Mark; ''The Waterloo Companion'' (London 2001)) killed - 95, wounded - 248, missing - 250, totals - 593, horses lost - 672.
Union Brigade, numbering 1,332 (Adkin) killed - 264, wounded - 310, missing - 38, totals - 612, horses lost - 631.
Losses from page 544 Smith, Digby; ''The Greenhill Napoleonic Wars Data Book'', (London 1998).
55. Siborne, W: "The Waterloo Campaign.", pages 329 and 349 (composition of brigades) pages 422-424 (actions of brigades). Birmingham, 4th edition. 1894 (first published 1844). Note: William Siborne was in possession of a number of eyewitness accounts from generals, such as Uxbridge, down to cavalry cornets and infantry ensigns. This makes his history particularly useful (though only from the British and KGL perspective); some of these eyewitness letters were later published by his son, a British Major General (HT Siborne)).
56. Barbero, pp.219-223.
57. Siborne, HT. The Waterloo Letters, Cassell, London 1891, reprinted Greenhill Books London, 1993. letters:18, 26, 104
58. Siborne, HT. p. 38 and Siborne, W. p.463
59. Siborne, HT. letters 9,18 and 36
60. In a cavalry unit an "effective" was an unwounded trooper mounted on a sound horse. The military term 'effective' describes a soldier, piece of equipment (eg. a tank or aircraft) or military unit capable of fighting or carrying out its intended purpose.
61. Siborne, W.: page 439.
62. Adkin, p. 356.
63. Adkin, p. 359.
64. Weller, J., ''Wellington at Waterloo'' Greenhill Books London (1992) pp. 211-212.
65. Adkin, pp. 252 and 361.
66. Weller p. 114.
67. Adkin, p. 359.
68. A. Houssaye, ''1815'', 1921, p 522, and ''La vieille Garde impériale'', 1932
69. Adkin p.361.
70. Siborne, H.T., pp.14, 38-39.
71. Siborne, H.T., pp. 14-15.
72. Adkin, p. 361.
73. Siborne, W., p. 465. The commander of this regiment, who was later court-martialled and cashiered, claimed that as his troopers (all well-to-do young Hanoverians) owned their own horses he could not order them to remain on the field. Following the battle the regiment was broken up and the troopers assigned duties they, no-doubt, considered ignominious.
74. Beamish, N.L.:page 367
75. Siborne, W.: page 439.
76. Chasney, Waterloo Lectures p-165
77. Adkin p. 391, the attacking battalions were 1st/3rd and 4th Grenadiers and 1st/3rd, 2nd/3rd and 4th Chasseurs of the Middle Guard, those remaining in reserve were the 2nd/2nd Grenadiers, 2nd/1st and 2nd/2nd Chasseurs of the Old Guard.
78. Howarth, David:Waterloo A near run thing: p152-p154
79. Chesny, Charles: p178
80. Chesny, Charles: p179
81. Chesny, Charles: p179
82. The retort to a request to surrender may have been "''La Garde meurt, elle ne se rend pas!''" ("The Guard dies, it does not surrender!") or the response may have been the more earthy "Merde!", but Letters published in ''The Times'' in June 1932 record that Cambronne said neither, as he was already a prisoner (held securely by the aiguillette, decorative shoulder cords, by Halkett in person), but that they may have been said by General Michel who was killed at Waterloo. The Guard dies, it does not surrender. Cambronne surrenders, he does not die
83. D.H. Parry (c. 1900) ''Battle of the nineteenth century'', Vol 1 Cassell and Company: London. Waterloo
84. Hofschröer References p. 124
85. Hofschröer References p. 124
86. Hofschröer References p. 125
87. Hofschröer References p. 141
88. Hofschröer References p. 145
89. Hofschröer References p. 144
90. Captain J.Kincaid, Rifle Brigade. Waterloo, 18 June 1815: The Finale
91. Drouet's account of Waterloo to the French Parliament
92. Edward Shepherd Creasy. Fifteen decisive battles of the world from Marathon to Waterloo. Chapter XV. Battle of Waterloo, A.D. 1815
93. Battle of Waterloo on the website of the British Ministry of Defence. See the link near the bottom called "here" (ppt) Slide 39
94. Nuttal Encyclopaedia: Issy

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