Everything about Battle Of Waterloo totally explained
The
Battle of Waterloo, fought near the town of
Waterloo (pronounced [watəʀˈloː]) in
Belgium on Sunday
18 June 1815, was the decisive battle of the
Waterloo Campaign, and
Napoleon Bonaparte's last. Waterloo marked the end of the period known as the
Hundred Days, which began in March 1815 after Napoleon's return from
Elba, where he'd been exiled after his defeats at the
Battle of Leipzig in 1813 and the campaigns of 1814 in France. The defeat put a final end to Napoleon's rule as
Emperor of the
French.
After Napoleon returned to power in 1815, many states which had previously resisted his rule formed the
Seventh Coalition and began to mobilise armies to oppose him. The first two assembled close to the French north eastern border. They consisted of a
Prussian army under the command of
Gebhard von Blücher, and an Anglo-allied army under the command of the
Duke of Wellington. Napoleon chose to attack in the hope of destroying them before they, with other members of the Seventh Coalition, could join in a coordinated invasion of France. The campaign consisted of four major battles:
Quatre Bras (
16 June),
Ligny (
16 June), Waterloo (
18 June), and
Wavre (
18 June –
19 June). According to the
Duke of Wellington, the battle was "The nearest-run thing you ever saw in your life.
It rained heavily overnight on
17 June, so Napoleon delayed giving battle until noon on
18 June to allow the ground to dry. Wellington's army, positioned across the Brussels road on the
Mont St Jean escarpment, withstood repeated attacks by the French, until in the evening when they counter-attacked and drove the French from the field. Simultaneously the Prussians arrived in force and broke through Napoleon's right flank. Finally, the French army left the battlefield in disorder, allowing Coalition forces to enter France and restore
Louis XVIII to the French throne. Napoleon abdicated to the British and was exiled to
Saint Helena, where he died in 1821.
The battlefield is in present-day
Belgium, about eight miles (12 km) SSE of
Brussels, and about a mile (2 km) from the town of
Waterloo. The site of the battlefield is today dominated by a large mound of earth, the
Lion's Hillock. As this mound used earth from the field itself, the original topology hasn't been preserved.
Prelude
On
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 mobilised armies to defeat Napoleon. 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 mobilised. 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's initial dispositions were intended to counter the threat of Napoleon enveloping the Coalition armies by moving through
Mons to the south-west of Brussels. This would have cut Wellington's communications with his base at
Ostend, but would have pushed his army closer to Blücher's. Napoleon manipulated Wellington's fear of this loss of his supply chain from the channel ports with false intelligence. He 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 near
Charleroi before dawn on
15 June, the French rapidly over-ran Coalition outposts, securing Napoleon's favoured "central position" between Wellington's and Blücher's armies.
Only very late on the night of
15 June was Wellington certain that the Charleroi attack was the main French thrust. In the early hours of
16 June, at the
Duchess of Richmond's ball in Brussels, he received a dispatch from the
Prince of Orange, and was shocked by the speed of Napoleon's advance. He hastily ordered his army to concentrate on
Quatre Bras, where the Prince of Orange, with the brigade of
Prince Bernhard of Saxe-Weimar, was holding a tenuous position against the troops of Ney's left wing. Ney's orders were to secure the crossroads of Quatre Bras, so that, if necessary, he could later swing east and reinforce Napoleon.
Napoleon moved against the concentrated Prussian army first. On
16 June, with the reserve and the right wing of the army, he 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, found the crossroads of
Quatre Bras lightly held by the Prince of Orange, who successfully repelled Ney's initial attacks, but was gradually driven back by overwhelming numbers of French troops. First reinforcements and then Wellington himself arrived. He took command and drove Ney back, securing the crossroads by early evening, but too late to send help to the Prussians, who were defeated at the
Battle of Ligny on the same day. The Prussian defeat made Wellington's position at Quatre Bras untenable, so the next day he withdrew northwards, to a defensive position he'd personally
reconnoitred the previous year – the low
ridge of Mont St Jean, south of the village of
Waterloo and the
Forest of Soignes.
The Prussian retreat from Ligny went uninterrupted, and seemingly unnoticed, by the French. The bulk of their rearguard units held their positions until about midnight, and some elements didn't move out until the following morning, completely ignored by the French. Napoleon had used conscription to fill the ranks of the French army throughout his rule, but he didn't 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. The cavalry in particular was both numerous and formidable, and included fourteen regiments of armoured
heavy cavalry and seven of highly versatile
lancers. Neither Coalition army had any armoured troops at all, and Wellington had only a handful of lancers.
Wellington admitted he'd "an infamous army, very weak and ill-equipped, and a very inexperienced Staff". His troops 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. All of the
British Army troops were regular soldiers and 7,000 of them were
Peninsular War veterans. In addition, there were 17,000 troops from the Netherlands, 11,000 from
Hanover, 6,000 from
Brunswick, and 3,000 from
Nassau. These Coalition 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. Many of the troops in the continental armies were inexperienced
militia. Wellington was also acutely short of heavy cavalry, having only seven British and three Dutch-Belgian regiments. The
Duke of York imposed many of his staff officers on Wellington, including his second-in-command, the
Earl of Uxbridge. Uxbridge commanded the cavalry and had
carte blanche from Wellington. Wellington stationed a further 17,000 troops at
Halle, eight miles (11 km) away to the west; they were not recalled to participate in the battle but were to serve as a fall back position should the battle be lost. They were mostly composed of Dutch-Belgian troops under
Prince Frederik of the Netherlands.
The Prussian army was in the throes of reorganisation. In 1815, the former Reserve regiments, Legions, and
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. The
Landwehr were mostly untrained and unequipped when they arrived in Belgium. The Prussian cavalry were in a similar state. Its artillery was also reorganising and wouldn't give its best performance – guns and equipment would continue to arrive during and after the battle. Offsetting these handicaps, however, the Prussian Army did have excellent and professional leadership in its General Staff organisation. These officers came from four schools developed for this purpose and thus worked to a common standard of training. This system was in marked contrast to the conflicting and vague orders issued by the French army. This staff system ensured that before Ligny, three-quarters of the Prussian army concentrated for battle at 24 hours' notice. After Ligny, the Prussian army, although defeated, was able to realign its supply train, reorganise itself, and intervene decisively on the Waterloo battlefield within 48 hours. Two and a half Prussian army corps, or 48,000 men, were engaged at Waterloo – two brigades under
Friedrich von Bülow, commander of IV Corps, attacked
Lobau at 16:30, while
Zieten's I Corps and parts of
Georg von Pirch's II Corps engaged at about 18:00.
Battlefield
The Waterloo position was a strong one. It consisted of a long ridge running east–west, perpendicular to, and bisected by, the main road to Brussels. Along the crest of the ridge ran the
Ohain road, a deep
sunken lane. Near the crossroads with the Brussels road was a large
elm tree that was roughly in the centre of Wellington's position and served as his 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'd many times previously, nowhere could Wellington's strength actually be seen by the French except for his skirmishers and artillery. The length of front of the battlefield was also relatively short at two and a half miles (4 km). This allowed 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, in the expectation that the Prussians would reinforce his left during the day.
In front of the ridge, there were three positions that could be fortified. On the extreme right was the chateau, 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 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. On the opposite side of the road was a disused sand quarry, where the
95th Rifles were posted as sharpshooters.
This position presented a formidable challenge to an attacker. 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.
The French army formed on the slopes of another ridge to the south. Napoleon couldn't 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, plus a cavalry reserve of 4,700. On the left was II Corps under
Reille with 13,000 infantry, and 1,300 cavalry, and a cavalry reserve of 4,600. In the centre about the road south of the inn
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. In the right rear of the French position was the substantial village of
Plancenoit, and at the extreme right, the
Bois de Paris wood. Napoleon initially commanded the battle from Rossomme farm, where he could see the entire battlefield, but moved to a position near
La Belle Alliance early in the afternoon. Command on the battlefield (which was largely hidden from his view) was delegated to Ney.
Battle
Wellington rose around 02:00 or 03:00 on the morning of
18 June, and wrote letters until dawn. He had earlier written to Blücher confirming that he'd give battle at Mont St Jean provided Blücher would provide him with at least a corps, otherwise he'd retreat towards Brussels. At a late-night council, Blücher's chief of staff,
August Neidhardt von Gneisenau, was distrustful of Wellington, but Blücher persuaded him that they should march to join Wellington's army. In the morning Wellington received dispatches from Blücher promising him three corps. After 06:00 Wellington was out supervising the deployment of his forces. The Prussian IV Corps under Bülow was designated to lead the march to Waterloo as it was in the best shape, having not been involved in the
Battle of Ligny. Although they hadn't taken casualties, IV Corps had been marching for two days covering the retreat of the other three corps of the Prussian army from the battlefield of Ligny. They had been posted farthest away from the battlefield and progress was very slow. The roads were in poor condition after the night's heavy rain, and Bülow's men had to pass through the congested streets of Wavre, along with 88 pieces of corps artillery. Matters were not helped by a fire which broke out in Wavre and blocked several streets along Bülow's intended route. As a result, the last part of the corps left at 10:00, six hours after the leading elements had moved out towards Waterloo. Bülow's men would be followed to Waterloo first by I Corps and then by II Corps.
Napoleon breakfasted off silver at
Le Caillou, the house where he'd spent the night. When Soult suggested that Grouchy should be recalled to join the main force, Napoleon said, "Just because you've 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." Later, on being told by his brother,
Jerome, of some gossip between British officers (overheard by a waiter at a lunch at '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.
Napoleon had delayed the start of the battle waiting for the sodden ground, which would have made manoeuvring cavalry and artillery difficult, to dry. In addition, many of his forces had bivouacked well to the south of
La Belle Alliance. At 10:00, in answer to a dispatch he'd received from Grouchy six hours earlier, he sent a dispatch telling Grouchy to "head for Wavre [toGrouchy's north] in order to draw near to us [tothe west of Grouchy]" and then "push before him" the Prussians to arrive at Waterloo "as soon as possible".
At 11:00, Napoleon drafted his general order. Jerome's corps would make an initial attack on Hougoumont, which Napoleon expected would draw in Wellington's reserves, since its loss would threaten his communications with the sea. A
grande batterie of the reserve artillery of I, II, and VI Corps was to bombard the centre of Wellington's position from about 13:00. 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.
Hougoumont
»
Wellington recorded in his dispatches that at "about ten o'clock [Napoleon] commenced a furious attack upon our post at Hougoumont". Other sources state that the attack began around 11:30. 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". 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. The initial attack by Bauduin's brigade emptied the wood and park, but was driven back by heavy British artillery fire, and cost Bauduin his life. As the British guns were distracted by a duel with French artillery, a second attack by Soye's brigade and what had been Bauduin's succeeded in reaching the north gate of the house. Some French troops managed to enter its courtyard before the gate was resecured. The 2nd
Coldstream Guards and 2/3rd Foot Guards then arrived and repulsed the attack.
Fighting continued around Hougoumont all afternoon. Its surroundings were heavily invested with French light infantry, and coordinated attacks were made 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 house to be shelled to set it on fire, 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'd to do without senior officers. They were then relieved by the 71st Foot, a Scottish infantry regiment. Adam's brigade were further reinforced by
Hugh Halkett's 3rd Hanoverian Brigade, and successfully repulsed further infantry and cavalry attacks sent by Reille, and Hougoumont held out until the end of the battle.
The Hougoumont battle has often been characterised as a diversionary attack to draw in Wellington's reserves but which escalated into an all-day battle and drew in French reserves instead. In fact there's a good case that both Napoleon and Wellington thought Hougoumont was key to the battle. Hougoumont was a part of the battlefield that Napoleon could see clearly, and later stated that "the success of the battle turned upon closing the gates at Hougoumont".
First French infantry attack
The 80 guns of Napoleon's
grande batterie drew up in the centre. These opened fire at 11:50, according to
Lord Hill (commander of the Anglo-allied II Corps), while other sources put the time between noon and 13:30. The
grande batterie 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". 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. The idea wasn't to cause a large amount of physical damage, however, but in the words of Napoleon's orders, "to astonish the enemy and shake his morale". Napoleon's reaction was to send a message to Grouchy telling him to come towards the battlefield and attack the arriving Prussians. Grouchy, however, had been executing Napoleon's previous orders to follow the Prussians "with your sword against his back" towards Wavre, and was by now too far away to reach 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, I Corps' attack began. D'Erlon, like Ney, had 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 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, but it didn't leave room for them to change formation.
The formation was initially effective. Its leftmost division, under Donzelot, advanced on La Haye Sainte. While one battalion engaged the defenders from the front, the following battalions fanned out to either side and, with the support of two brigades of
cuirassiers, succeeded in isolating the farmhouse. The Prince of Orange saw that La Haye Sainte had been cut off, and tried to reinforce it by sending forward the Hanoverian Lüneberg Battalion in line. Cuirassiers concealed in a fold in the ground caught and destroyed it in minutes, and then rode on past La Haye Sainte almost to the crest of the ridge, where they covered d'Erlon's left flank as his attack developed.
At about 13:30, 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. They faced 6,000 men: the first line consisted of the Dutch 2nd division, the second of British and Hanoverian troops under
Sir Thomas Picton, who were lying down in dead ground behind the ridge. All had suffered badly at Quatre Bras; in addition, the Dutch brigade under Bijlandt, posted towards the centre of the battlefield, had been ordered to deploy on the forward slope and had been exposed to the artillery battery. Receiving no orders they'd remained in this dangerous position.
As the French advanced, Bijlandt's brigade withdrew to the sunken lane, and then, with nearly all their officers dead or wounded, left the battlefield, leaving just their Belgian battalion, the 7th. D'Erlon's men began to ascend the slope, and as they did so, Picton's men stood up and opened fire. The French infantry returned fire and successfully pressured Wellington's troops; although the attack faltered at the centre of Wellington's position, the left wing started to crumble. Picton was killed and the British and Hanoverian troops began to give way under the pressure of numbers.
Charge of the British heavy cavalry
Continuing their attack, the squadrons on the left of the Household Brigade then destroyed Aulard's brigade. Despite attempts to recall them, however, 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.
To their left, 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). From the centre leftwards, the Royal Dragoons destroyed Bourgeois' 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. On Wellington's extreme left, Durutte's division 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.
James Hamilton, commander of the Greys (who were supposed to form a reserve) ordered a continuation of the charge to the French
grande batterie. Though the Greys had neither the time nor means to disable the cannon or carry them off, they put very many out of action as the gun crews fled the battlefield.
Napoleon promptly responded by ordering a counter-attack by the cuirassier brigades of Farine and Travers and Jaquinot's two lancer regiments in the I Corps
light cavalry division. 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. Some historians believe the official rolls tend to 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 than the numbers on paper might suggest. The Union Brigade lost heavily in both officers and men killed (including its commander, William Ponsonby, and Colonel Hamilton of the Scots Greys) and wounded. The 2nd Life Guards and the King's Dragoon Guards of the Household Brigade also lost heavily (with Colonel Fuller, commander of the King's DG, killed). However, the 1st Life Guards, on the extreme right of the charge, and the Blues, who formed a reserve, had kept their cohesion and consequently 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.
Many popular histories suggest that the British heavy cavalry were destroyed as a viable force following their first, epic charge. Examination of eyewitness accounts reveals, however, that far from being ineffective, they continued to provide very valuable services. They counter-charged French cavalry numerous times (both brigades), halted a combined cavalry and infantry attack (Household Brigade only), and were used to bolster the morale of those units in their vicinity at times of crisis, and to fill gaps in the Anglo-allied line caused by high casualties in infantry formations (both brigades). 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 in the two brigades. At the end of the fighting, the two brigades could muster only a few composite squadrons.
Some 20,000 French troops had been committed to this attack. Its failure cost Napoleon not only heavy casualties – 3,000 prisoners were taken – but valuable time, as the Prussians now began to appear on the field to his right. 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 not only quickly, but with inferior numbers.
Initially
Milhaud's reserve cavalry corps of cuirassiers and
Lefebvre-Desnoëttes' light cavalry division of the Imperial Guard, some 4,800 sabres, were committed. When these were repulsed,
Kellermann's heavy cavalry corps and Guyot's heavy cavalry of the Guard were added to the massed assault, a total of around 9,000 cavalry in 67 squadrons.
Wellington's army responded by forming
squares (hollow box-formations four ranks deep). Squares were much smaller than usually depicted in paintings of the battle – a 500–man battalion square would have been no more than 60 feet (18 m) in length on a side. Vulnerable to artillery or infantry, squares that stood their ground were deadly to cavalry, because they couldn't be outflanked and because horses wouldn't charge into a hedge of bayonets. Wellington ordered his artillery crews to take shelter within the squares as the cavalry approached, and to return to their guns and resume fire as they retreated.
Witnesses in the British infantry recorded as many as 12 assaults, though this probably includes successive waves of the same general attack; the number of general assaults was undoubtedly far fewer. Kellermann, recognising the futility of the attacks, tried to reserve the elite
carabinier brigade from joining in, but eventually Ney spotted them and insisted on their involvement.
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. Close artillery support could disrupt infantry squares and allow cavalry to penetrate; at Waterloo, however, co-operation between the French cavalry and artillery wasn't impressive. The French artillery didn't get close enough to the Anglo-allied infantry in sufficient numbers to be decisive. 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 Wellington's light cavalry regiments, the Dutch heavy cavalry brigade, and the remaining effectives of the Household Cavalry. At least one artillery officer disobeyed Wellington's order to seek shelter in the adjacent squares during the charges. Captain Mercer, who commanded 'G' Troop,
Royal Horse Artillery, thought the Brunswick troops on either side of him so shaky that he kept his battery of six 9-pounders in action against the cavalry throughout, to ruinous effect:
At approximately the same time as Ney's combined-arms assault on the centre-right of the Wellington's line, rallied elements of D'Erlon's I Corps, spearheaded by the 13th
Légère, renewed the attack on La Haye Sainte, and this time were successful (partly because the defenders' ammunition ran out). Ney then moved
horse artillery up towards Wellington's centre and began to pulverise the infantry squares at short-range with
canister.}}
Arrival of the Prussian IV Corps: Plancenoit
The first Prussian corps to arrive was Bülow's IV Corps. His objective was Plancenoit, which the Prussians intended to use as a springboard into the rear of the French positions. Blücher intended to secure his right upon Frichermont using the Bois de Paris road. Blücher and Wellington had been exchanging communications since 10:00 am and had agreed to this advance on Frichermont if Wellington's centre was under attack. General Bülow noted that the way to Plancenoit lay open and that the time was 16:30. Napoleon sent Lobau's corps to intercept the rest of Bülow's IV Corps proceeding to Plancenoit. The 15th Brigade threw Lobau's troops out of Frichermont with a determined bayonet charge, then proceeded up the Frichermont heights, battering French Chasseurs with 12-pounder artillery fire, and pushed on to Plancenoit. This sent Lobau's corps into retreat to the Plancenoit area, and in effect drove Lobau past the rear of the
Armee Du Nord's right flank and directly threatened its only line of retreat. Hiller's 16th Brigade also pushed forward with six battalions against Plancenoit. Napoleon had dispatched all eight battalions of the Young Guard to reinforce Lobau, who was now seriously pressed. The Young Guard counter-attacked and, after very hard fighting, secured Plancenoit, but were themselves counter-attacked and driven out. Napoleon sent two battalions of the Middle/Old Guard into Plancenoit and after ferocious bayonet fighting – they didn't deign to fire their muskets – this force recaptured the village. I Corps proceeded to attack the French troops before Papelotte and by 19:30, the French position was bent into a rough horseshoe shape. The ends of the line were now based on Hougoumont on the left, Plancenoit on the right, and the centre on La Haie. Durutte had taken the positions of La Haie and Papelotte in a series of attacks, The French initially fell back before the renewed assault, but now began seriously to contest ground, attempting to regain Smohain and hold on to the ridgeline and the last few houses of Papelotte. Durutte's division, finding itself about to be charged by massed squadrons of Zieten's I Corps cavalry reserve, retreated from the battlefield. I Corps then advanced to the Brussels road and the only line of retreat available to the French.
Attack of the Imperial Guard
Meanwhile, with Wellington's centre exposed by the fall of La Haye Sainte, and the Plancenoit front temporarily stabilised, Napoleon committed his last reserve, the hitherto-undefeated Imperial Guard. This attack, mounted at around 19:30, was intended to break through Wellington's centre and roll up his line away from the Prussians. Although it's one of the most celebrated passages of arms in military history, it's 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 didn't directly assault the Anglo-allied line. Marching through a hail of canister and skirmisher fire, the 3,000 or so Middle Guardsmen advanced to the west of La Haye Sainte, and in so doing, separated into three distinct attack forces. One, consisting of two battalions of Grenadiers, defeated Wellington's first line of British, Brunswick and Nassau troops and marched on. Chassé's relatively fresh Netherlands division was sent against them and its artillery fired into the victorious Grenadiers' flank. This still couldn't stop the Guard's advance, so Chassé ordered his first brigade to charge the outnumbered French, who faltered and broke.
Further to the west, 1,500 British Foot Guards under
Maitland were lying down to protect themselves from the French artillery. As two battalions of Chasseurs approached, the second prong of the Imperial Guard's attack, Maitland's guardsmen rose and devastated them with point-blank volleys. The Chasseurs deployed to answer the fire, but began to waver. A bayonet charge by the Foot Guards then broke them. The third prong, a fresh Chasseur battalion, now came up in support. The British guardsmen retired with these Chasseurs in pursuit, but the latter were halted as the 52nd Light Infantry wheeled in line onto their flank and poured a devastating fire into them.
Capture of Plancenoit
At about the same time, the Prussian 5th, 14th, and 16th Brigades were starting to push through Plancenoit, in the third assault of the day. Five Guard battalions were deployed in support of the Young Guard, virtually all of which was now committed to the defence, along with remnants of Lobau's corps.}}
Disintegration
The French right, left, and centre had all now failed. but as retreat turned into rout, they too were forced to withdraw, one on either side of
La Belle Alliance, in square as protection against Coalition cavalry. Until persuaded that the battle was lost and he should leave, Napoleon commanded the square to the left of the inn. Adam's Brigade charged and forced back this square while the Prussians engaged the other. As dusk fell, both squares withdrew in relatively good order, but the French artillery and everything else fell into the hands of the allies. The retreating Guards were surrounded by thousands of fleeing, broken French troops. Coalition cavalry harried the fugitives until about 23:00, with Gneisenau pursuing them as far as Genappe before ordering a halt. There, Napoleon's abandoned carriage was captured, 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. By this time 78 guns and 2,000 prisoners had also been taken, including more generals.
Aftermath
Historian
Peter Hofschröer has written that Wellington and Blücher met at Genappe around 22:00 signifying the end of the battle. Waterloo cost Wellington around 15,000 dead and wounded, and Blücher some 7,000 (810 of which were suffered by just one unit, the 18th Regiment, which served in Bulow's 15th Brigade, fought at both Frichermont and Plancenoit, and won 33 Iron Crosses.). Napoleon lost 25,000 dead or injured, with 8,000 taken prisoner.
At 10:30 on
19 June General Grouchy, still following his orders, defeated General Thielemann at
Wavre and withdrew in good order though at the cost of 33,000 French troops that never reached the Waterloo Battlefield. Wellington, Blücher and other Coalition forces advanced upon Paris. Napoleon announced his second abdication on
24 June 1815. 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. Allegedly, Napoleon tried to escape to North America, but the
Royal Navy was blockading French ports to forestall such a move. He finally surrendered to
Captain Frederick Maitland of
HMS Bellerophon on
15 July. There was a campaign against French fortresses that still held out;
Longwy capitulated on
13 September 1815, the last to do so. 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.
Maitland's
1st Foot Guards, who had defeated the Chasseurs of the
Guard, were thought to have defeated the Grenadiers; they were awarded the title of
Grenadier Guards in recognition of their feat, and adopted bearskins in the style of the Grenadiers. Britain's Household Cavalry likewise adopted, in 1821, the cuirass in recognition of their success against their armoured French counterparts. The effectiveness of the lance was noted by all participants and this weapon subsequently became more widespread throughout Europe; the British converted their first light cavalry regiment to lancers in 1816.
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. Finally, it ushered in almost half a century of international peace in Europe; 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.
A French view of the reasons for Napoleon's defeat
General Baron
Jomini, one of the leading French writers on the Napoleonic art of war had a number of very cogent explanations of the reasons behind Napoleon's defeat at Waterloo.
The battlefield today
The current terrain of the battlefield is very different from how it appeared in 1815. Tourism began the day after the battle, with Captain Mercer noting that on
19 June "a carriage drove on the ground from Brussels, the inmates of which, alighting, proceeded to examine the field". 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.
Further Information
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