Waterloo Ebook

Waterloo HISTORYHIT.
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Waterloo HISTORYHIT.COM
In Spring of 1815 the exiled Napoleon Bonaparte, one of history's most

accomplished generals, escaped his jailers and returned to Paris in what is known as
the 'Hundred Days'. After receiving the news, the powers of Europe formed the
Seventh Coalition to remove Napoleon from the French throne and raised a huge
army.
Napoleon responded by marching into Belgium with the objective of splitting Allied
forces and capturing Brussels. He pushed a Prussian army back at the Battle of
Ligny on 15 June 1815, and three days later attacked an Anglo-Allied force led by
the Duke of Wellington near the village of Waterloo. The battle that followed would
be a watershed moment in European history, finally ending Napoleon's military
career and ushering in a new era of relative peace.
From Salamanca to Saint Helena this eBook explores the stories of Napoleon and
Wellington and their titanic clash at Waterloo. Detailed articles explain key topics,
edited from various History Hit resources. Included in this eBook are articles written
for History Hit by some of the world’s most notable Napoleonic Wars historians,
including the well-known father and son team Peter and Dan Snow. Features written
by History Hit staff past and present are also included. You can access all these
articles on historyhit.com. Waterloo was compiled by Tristan Hughes.
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Contents
Wellington Before Waterloo ........................................................................................ 4
Why Did Wellington Consider his Victory at Assaye his Finest Achievement? ....... 4
How the Duke of Wellington Masterminded Victory at Salamanca ......................... 9
The Battle of Waterloo.............................................................................................. 14
A Face-off Between Two of History’s Great Military Commanders ....................... 14
The British Army’s Road to Waterloo .................................................................... 17
How Napoleon Failed to Properly Prepare for the Battle of Waterloo ................... 20
How the Battle of Waterloo Unfolded .................................................................... 23
Was There a Single Moment in the Battle of Waterloo That Could Have Changed
the Outcome? ....................................................................................................... 26
How Significant Was the Battle of Waterloo? ........................................................ 28
How Was Napoleon Treated in Exile on Saint Helena? ........................................ 30
The Battle of Waterloo by Clément-Auguste Andrieux.
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Wellington Before Waterloo
Why Did the Duke of Wellington Consider his

Victory at Assaye his Finest Achievement?
Before they met at Waterloo, Napoleon contemptuously scorned the Duke of

Wellington as a “sepoy general,” who had made his name fighting with and against
illiterate savages in India. The truth was somewhat different and throughout his long
career the battle of Assaye – where the 34 year-old Wellesley commanded an army
against the Maratha Empire – was the one that he considered to be his finest
achievement, and one of the most closely fought.
Aside from shaping his burgeoning reputation, Assaye also paved the way for British
domination of central India, and eventually the entire subcontinent.
Trouble (and opportunity) in India

It had greatly helped Wellesley’s career prospects that Lord Mornington, the
ambitious Governor-General of British India, was his elder brother. By the turn of the
19th century the British had a firm foothold in the region and had finally defeated the
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Tipoo Sultan of Mysore in 1799, leaving the Maratha Empire of central India as their
main rivals.
The Marathas were a coalition of fierce kingdoms of horse-riding warriors, who had
emerged from the Deccan plain in central India to conquer huge swathes of the
subcontinent throughout the 18th century. Their underlying weakness by 1800 was
the size of the empire, which meant that many of the Maratha states had reached a
level of independence that allowed them to quarrel with one another.
A civil war at the turn of the century between Holkar – a powerful ruler who would
become known as “the Napoleon of India” and Daulat Scindia proved particularly
destructive, and when Scindia was defeated his ally Baji Rao – the nominal overlord
of the Marathas – fled to ask the British East India company for support in restoring
him to his ancestral throne in Poona.
The British intervene

Lord Mornington sensed an ideal opportunity to extend British influence into Maratha
territory, and agreed to assist Baji Rao in exchange for a permanent garrison of
British troops in Poona, and control over his foreign policy.
In March 1803 Mornington commanded his younger brother Sir Arthur Wellesley to
enforce the treaty with Baji. Wellesley then marched from Mysore, where he had
seen action in the fight against the Tipoo. Backed by 15,000 troops of the East India
Company and 9000 Indian allies he restored Baji to the throne in May.
The other Maratha leaders, including Scindia and Holkar, were outraged by this
British interference in their affairs and refused to acknowledge Baji as their leader.
Scindia in particular was furious and, though he failed to convince his old enemy to
join him, he did form an anti-British alliance with the Rajah of Berar, the ruler of
Nagpur.
Between them and their feudal dependents they had enough men to more than
trouble the British, and they began to mass their troops – which were organised and
commanded by mercenary European officers – on the border of Britain’s ally the
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Nizam of Hyderabad. When Scindia refused to back down war was declared on the
3rd August, and the British armies began to march into Maratha territory.
Wellesley marches to war

While Lieutenant General Lake attacked from the north, Wellesley’s army of 13,000
headed to bring Scindia and Berar to battle. As the Maratha army was mostly cavalry
and therefore much faster than his own he worked in conjunction with a second force
of 10,000, commanded by Colonel Stevenson, to outmanoeuvre the enemy – who
were commanded by Anthony Polhmann, a German and a former sergeant in the
East India Company’s forces.
The first action of the war was the taking of the Maratha city of Ahmednuggur, which
was a quick decisive action using nothing more sophisticated than a pair of ladders.
Young and impetuous, Wellesley was aware that with only small armies, much of the
British success in India depended on an aura of invincibility, and therefore quick
victory rather than long drawn-out war.
The forces meet at the Juah River

After this, Scindia’s army, which was around 70,000 strong, slipped past Stevenson
and began to march on Hyberabad, and Wellesley’s men rushed south to intercept.
After days of pursuit he reached them at the Juah River on 22 September.
Pohlmann’s army had a strong defensive position on the river, but he did not believe
that Wellesley would attack with his small force before Stevenson arrived, and
temporarily abandoned it.
The British commander, however, was confident. Most of his troops were Indian
sepoys but he also had two superb highland regiments – the 74th and the 78th – and
knew that out of the Maratha ranks only around 11,000 troops were trained and
equipped to European standard, though the enemy cannon were of concern. He
wanted to press the attack straight away, always maintaining momentum.
The Marathas had trained all their guns on the only known crossing place of the
Juah, and even Wellesley admitted that attempting to cross there would be suicide.
As a result, despite being assured that no other ford existed, he searched for one
near the small town of Assaye, and found it.
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The Battle of Assaye

The crossing was spotted quickly and the Maratha guns were trained on his men,
with one shot decapitating the man next to Wellesley however. He had achieved his
wildest hopes, and completely outflanked his foe.
The Martha response was impressive as Pohlmann wheeled his whole army around
to face the threat and allow his formidable line of cannon a clear shot. Knowing that
they had to be taken out as a matter of priority the British infantry marched steadily
towards the guns, despite the heavy pounding that they were taking, until they were
close enough to fire a volley and then fix bayonets and charge.
The impressive courage which the big highlanders of the 78th in particular had
shown disheartened the Maratha infantry, which began to run as soon as the heavy
cannon in front of them had been taken. The battle was far from over however, as
the British right began to advance too far towards the heavily fortified town of Assaye
and suffered shocking losses.
The survivors of the other highland regiment – the 74th – formed a hurried square
which dwindled quickly but refused to break. It was saved by a charge of the British
and Native cavalry, which put the rest of the huge but unwieldy Maratha army to
flight. Still however the fighting was not done as several of the gunners who had
been feigning death turned their guns back on the British infantry, and Pohlmann
reformed his lines.
Wellesley lead a charmed life during the battle. He had one horse killed under him
and lost another to a spear. In the second charge he had to fight his way out of
trouble with his sword. This second fight was brief however, as the Marathas lost
heart and abandoned Assaye, leaving the exhausted and bloodied British as masters
of the field.
Greater than Waterloo

Wellesley said after the battle – which had cost him over a third of the troops who
had been involved – that
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“I should not like to see again such a loss as I sustained on the 23rd September,
even if attended by such a gain.”
It cemented his reputation as a bold and talented commander, and further

commands in Denmark and Portugal lead to him being given leadership of the British
armies on the Iberian Peninsula, which would do more than anyone else (except
perhaps the Russian winter) to finally defeat Napoleon.
Even after Waterloo, Wellesley, who became the Duke of Wellington and later Prime
Minister, described Assaye as his finest achievement. His war against the Marathas
was not done after the battle, and he went on to besiege the survivors at Gawilghur,
before returning to England. After Holkar died in 1811 British domination of India was
all but complete, greatly aided by the result and decisiveness of Assaye, which had
scared many local states into submission.
Major General Wellesley (mounted) commanding his troops at the Battle of Assaye.
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How the Duke of Wellington Masterminded Victory

at Salamanca
Perhaps the most successful general in British history, Arthur Wellesley, the Duke of
Wellington, enjoyed his greatest tactical triumph on a dusty Spanish field at
Salamanca in 1812. There, as one eyewitness wrote, he “defeated an army of
40,000 men in 40 minutes” and opened the road towards the liberation of Madrid in a
victory that helped turn the tide of the war against Napoleon Bonaparte‘s French
Empire.
Set against the extraordinary drama of Napoleon’s Russian Campaign, which ran
parallel to Wellington’s advances in 1812, the latter can often be overlooked.
The British, Portuguese and Spanish resistance in Spain, however, would prove to
be just as crucial as Russia in bringing down a man and an empire that had seemed
invincible in 1807.
Pride before a fall

Following a series of stunning victories for Napoleon, only Britain remained in the
fight against the French in 1807, protected – at least temporarily – by its vital naval
victory at Trafalgar two years before.
At that time, Napoleon’s empire covered most of Europe, and the British army – then
largely composed of drunks, thieves and the unemployed – was considered far too
small to pose much of a threat. But despite this, there was one part of the world
where the British high command reckoned that its unloved and unfashionable army
could be put to some use.
Portugal had been a long-standing ally of Britain and was not compliant when
Napoleon tried to force it into joining the continental blockade – an attempt to
strangle Britain by denying it trade from Europe and its colonies. Faced with this
resistance, Napoleon invaded Portugal in 1807 and then turned on its neighbour and
former ally, Spain.
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When Spain fell in 1808, Napoleon placed his elder brother Joseph on the
throne. But the struggle for Portugal was not yet done and the young but ambitious
General Arthur Wellesley was landed on its shores with a small army, going on to
win two minor but morale-boosting victories against the invaders.
There was little the British could do to halt the emperor’s response, however, and in
one of his most brutally efficient campaigns Napoleon arrived in Spain with his
veteran army and crushed Spanish resistance before forcing the British – now
commanded by Sir John Moore – to the sea.
Only a heroic rearguard action – which cost Moore his life – stopped a complete
British annihilation at La Coruna, and the watching eyes of Europe concluded that
Britain’s brief foray into a land war was over. The Emperor clearly thought the same
for he returned to Paris, considering the job to be done.
The “people’s war”

But the job was not done, for though the central governments of Spain and Portugal
were scattered and defeated, the people refused to be beaten and rose up against
their occupiers. Interestingly, it is from this so-called “people’s war” that we got the
term guerilla.
With Napoleon once again occupied in the east, it was time for a British return to
assist the rebels. These British forces were once again commanded by Wellesley,
who continued his immaculate winning record at the battles of Porto and Talavera in
1809, saving Portugal from imminent defeat.
This time the British were there to stay. Over the next three years, the two forces
see-sawed over the Portuguese border, as Wellesley (who was made Duke of
Wellington after his 1809 victories) won battle after battle but lacked the numbers to
press his advantage against the enormous forces of the multi-national French
Empire.
Meanwhile, the guerillas conducted a thousand small actions, which along with
Wellington’s victories, began to bleed the French army of its best men – leading the
emperor to christen the campaign “the Spanish ulcer”.
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Things look up
In 1812, the situation was beginning to look more promising for Wellington: after
years of defensive warfare it was finally time to attack deep into occupied Spain.
Napoleon had withdrawn many of his best men for his looming Russian campaign,
while Wellington’s extensive reforms of the Portuguese army meant that the disparity
of numbers was smaller than before.
In the early months of that year the British general assaulted the twin fortresses of
Ciudad Rodrigo and Badajoz and, by April, both had fallen. Although this victory
came at a terrible cost of Allied lives it meant that the road to Madrid was finally
open.
Standing in the way, however, was a French army commanded by Marshal Marmont,
a hero of Napoleon’s 1809 Austrian campaign. The two forces were evenly matched
– both standing at around 50,000 strong – and, after Wellington captured the
university city of Salamanca, he found his way further north blocked by the French
army, which was constantly being swelled by reinforcements.
Over the next few weeks of high summer the two armies tried to tilt the odds in their
favour in a series of complex manoeuvres, both hoping to outflank the other or seize
their rival’s supply train.
Marmont’s canny performance here showed that he was Wellington’s equal; his men
were having the better of the war of manoeuvres to the extent that the British general
was considering returning to Portugal by the morning of the 22 July.
The tide turns

That same day, however, Wellington realised that the Frenchman had made a rare
mistake, allowing the left flank of his army to march too far ahead of the rest. Seeing
an opportunity at last for an offensive battle, the British commander then ordered a
full-out assault on the isolated French left.
Quickly, the experienced British infantry closed in on their French counterparts and
began a ferocious musketry duel. Aware of the threat of cavalry the local French
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commander Maucune formed his infantry into squares – but this only meant that his
men were easy targets for the British guns.
As the formations began to unravel the British heavy horse charged in what is
considered the single most destructive cavalry charge of the entire Napoleonic Wars‘
era, utterly destroying the French left with their swords. The destruction was so great
that the few survivors resorted to taking refuge with the red-coated British infantry
and pleading for their lives.
The French centre, meanwhile, was all confusion, as Marmont and his second-in-
command had been wounded by shrapnel fire in the opening minutes of the battle.
Another French general named Clausel took up the baton of command and directed
his own division in a courageous counter-attack at General Cole’s division.
But, just as the British red-coated centre began to crumble under the pressure,
Wellington reinforced it with Portuguese infantry and saved the day – even in the
face of the bitter and unyielding resistance of Clausel’s brave men.
With this, the battered remnants of the French army began to retreat, taking more
casualties as they went. Though Wellington had blocked their only escape route –
across a narrow bridge – with an army of his Spanish allies, this army’s commander
inexplicably left his position allowing the French remnants to escape and fight
another day,
The road to Madrid

Despite this disappointing ending, the battle had been a crushing victory for the
British, which had taken little more than two hours and really been decided in less
than one. Often derided as a defensive commander by his critics Wellington showed
his genius at a completely different type of battle – where the fast movement of
cavalry and quick-witted decisions had bewildered the enemy.
A few days later the French General Foy would write in his diary that “up to this day
we knew his prudence, his eye for choosing good positions, and the skill with which
he used them. But at Salamanca he has shown himself a great and able master of
manoeuvring”.
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Seven thousand Frenchman lay dead, as well as 7,000 captured, compared to only
5,000 total Allied casualties. Now, the road to Madrid was truly open.
The eventual liberation of the Spanish capital in August promised that the war had
entered a new phase. Though the British wintered back in Portugal, the regime of
Joseph Bonaparte had suffered a fatal blow, and the efforts of the
Spanish guerillas intensified.
Far, far away on the Russian steppes, Napoleon saw to it that all mention of
Salamanca was prohibited. Wellington, meanwhile, continued his track record of
never losing a major battle, and, by the time Napoleon surrendered in 1814, the
British general’s men – along with their Iberian allies – had crossed the Pyrenees
and were deep into southern France.
There, Wellington’s scrupulous treatment of civilians ensured that Britain did not face
the kind of uprisings that had characterised France’s war in Spain. But his struggles
were not quite over. He still had to face Napoleon’s final gamble in 1815 which
would, at last, bring these two great generals face-to-face on the battlefield.
Wellington at Salamanca.
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The Battle of Waterloo
The Battle of Waterloo: A Face-off Between Two of

History’s Great Military Commanders
History Hit Podcast with Peter Snow
Waterloo was the decisive battle that finally brought the Napoleonic Wars to an end
after 15 years of near constant conflict.
An epic showdown between France and a coalition of European nations, the battle
was Napoleon Bonaparte’s last stand and, ultimately, the moment that his epoch-
defining leadership of France came to an end.
It’s also remembered as a face-off between two of history’s great military

commanders, Napoleon and Britain’s Duke of Wellington.
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Two very different characters

Wellington had fought across India, Portugal, Spain and southern France as a
commander, and achieved a string of stunning victories against many of Napoleon’s
senior generals, but never against Napoleon Bonaparte himself. Waterloo was the
first time that the two men would meet on the battlefield.
He was known to his officers as the “Peer”, because he was very grand, very
aristocratic, and he rode a horse called Copenhagen. And, whereas Napoleon was
very lavish with praise and lavish with rewards, Wellington was very tight, very
disciplined, very cold and very hard.
As an old man, he was asked, “Do you have any regrets,” and he said, “Yes, I should
have given more praise”.
Wellington was austere, intelligent and remote, but a hugely respected commander.
By contrast, Napoleon was hugely charismatic and extremely popular with his troops.
He had been comprehensively defeated in Moscow in Russia, 1812, at Leipzig in
1813 and, of course, he had abdicated in 1814.
But he bounced back in 1815, only 100 days before Waterloo. Indeed, such was his
popularity that, upon arriving back in France, he was immediately carried on the
shoulders of his army all the way back to Paris.
On returning to Paris, Napoleon was greeted by a great surge of popularity. There he

was, back again, and, unbelievably, he was gathering an army to attack a formidable
coalition of allies.
The outlaw vs. the duke

All of the enemies of France came together, declaring Napoleon an outlaw. The
Spanish, some of the Italian kingdoms, the Austrians, the Russians, the Prussians,
many of the German nations and the British – all formed armies to face Napoleon.
But Wellington’s army, together with that of his Prussian allies, was Napoleon’s first
target.
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The setting was southern Belgium. Marshal Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher led the
Prussians and Wellington commanded an allied army made up of British, Dutch and
Belgian troops, and many German troops as well. Only one-third of Wellington’s
army was British and Irish.
Blücher’s substantial Prussian force was spread out across southern Belgium,
waiting for Napoleon to make his move. And it was pretty surprised by the speed and
secrecy with which he did so. He crossed the border while the British and the
Prussian armies were still coalescing.
The date of 15 June 1815 is an extraordinary moment in history.
Napoleon crossed the Belgian frontier with a 100,000-strong army, knowing that he
faced an enormous Coalition army of something like a million men. It’s hard not to
admire his chutzpah. Napoleon was undoubtedly a gambler.
On 16 June 1815, he attacked Blücher in the Battle of Ligny, and succeeded in

significantly damaging the Prussian army. Then, having removed Blücher from the
field, he turned his attention to Wellington.
Napoleon surrounded by his staff surveying the battlefield at Ligny.
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The British Army’s Road to Waterloo: From Dancing

at a Ball to Confronting Napoleon
When he heard the news that France’s Napoleon Bonaparte had crossed the border
into what is now Belgium, Britain’s Duke of Wellington was at a big party in Brussels,
the most famous ball in history. Many of the finest dandies in the British army were
dancing the night away with their girlfriends or wives at the the Duchess of
Richmond’s Ball when Wellington received the news.
The Battle of Quatre Bras

Wellington ordered Picton, one of his best subordinate generals, to march south as
fast as he could to try and hold the crossroads at Quatre Bras. Meanwhile, he would
try and confirm the movements of the Prussians and attempt to join forces so that,
together, they might overwhelm Napoleon.
But by the time Wellington’s men got to Quatre Bras in enough force, Napoleon was
already giving the Prussians a good beating at Ligny, and there were elements of
Napoleon’s army pressing up the roads of Brussels at Quatre Bras.
The British were unable to go and help the Prussians to the extent that they might
otherwise have done, however, because they were by then involved in their own
battle at Quatre Bras.
Napoleon’s plan was working. He had occupied the Prussians and his troops, led by
the formidable Marshal Michel Ney, were confronting Wellington at Quatre Bras.
But then things began to go wrong. Napoleon sent General Charles Lefèbvre-
Desnoëttes to reinforce Ney with 20,000 men. Lefèbvre-Desnoëttes, however,
marched backwards and forwards, never joining Ney and never re-joining Napoleon
to attack the Prussians. Consequently, Ney was desperately under-resourced when
he faced Wellington at Quatre Bras.
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Wellington was very distrustful of many of the elements of his army. He called it an
infamous army, and considered it very weak and ill-equipped. Two-thirds were
foreign troops and many of them had never fought under his command before.
Consequently, Wellington approached the Waterloo campaign with caution. Not only
was he uncertain about the army under his command, but it was also the first time
that he’d come up against Napoleon.
Napoleon’s critical error

On the night of 16 June, it was clear that the Prussians had been driven back.
Therefore, though Wellington had held his own against Ney, he knew he couldn’t
stay there because Napoleon could have swung around and smashed into his
army’s flank.
So Wellington withdrew, a very hard thing to do in the face of the enemy. But he did
it very effectively. Ney and Napoleon made a terrible mistake letting him withdraw so
easily.
Wellington marched his men 10 miles north, through terrible weather, from Quatre
Bras to Waterloo. He arrived at a ridge that he’d identified the year before while
surveying the landscape for useful defensive features.
The ridge, which is just south of the village of Waterloo, is known as Mont-Saint-
Jean. Wellington had decided to retreat to the ridge if he couldn’t hold the enemy at
Quatre Bras. The plan was to hold them at Mont-Saint-Jean until the Prussians could
come and help.
Napoleon had missed a trick by allowing Wellington to withdraw to Mont-Saint-Jean.

It was foolish of him not to attack Wellington as soon as he’d destroyed the Prussian
army.
The day after the Battle of Ligny, which saw Napoleon defeat the Prussians, was a
wet and miserable one and Napoleon didn’t take the opportunity of hitting
Wellington’s troops as they pulled back to Waterloo. It was a big mistake.
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Nonetheless, as Napoleon’s men pulled their guns slowly across the muddy terrain
towards Waterloo, he remained confident that he could hit Wellington. He was also
confident that the Prussians were now eliminated from the battle.
Michel Ney, ‘Bravest of the Brave’
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How Napoleon Failed to Properly Prepare for the

Battle of Waterloo
On 18 June 1815, the day of the Battle of Waterloo, Britain’s Duke of

Wellington woke up at 3am. The first thing he did was write to his mistress, saying,
“I’m feeling fairly confident about the battle, but you may wish to head to the
Channel, get on a ship and head back to Britain, just in case”.
At 6am he mounted his horse, Copenhagen. He would spend the next 16 hours in
the saddle.
At the end of the battle, when Wellington finally dismounted, Copenhagen gave him
a kick. By then the duke had managed to get just nine hours’ sleep during the
previous 72 hours, and spent 57 of those in the saddle. It was an extraordinary
physical performance. Far more impressive, it must be said, than Napoleon
Bonaparte’s.
Though the two adversaries were the same age, 46 (Wellington was three months
older), there’s no question that, by Waterloo, Napoleon was past his best.
He’d been defeated in Russia and in the Battle of Leipzig and had lost some of the
shine and flair that had characterised his career.
In fact, Napoleon would spend most of the Battle of Waterloo behind the front line,
sitting in a big chair and watching what was going on.
He left a lot of the decision making to two relatively second-rate generals, Marshal
Jean-de-Dieu Soult and Marshal Michel Ney. Ney was a notoriously reckless, hot-
headed character and yet Napoleon left him to manage most of the command and
arrangement of the Battle of Waterloo. That was perhaps Napoleon’s biggest
mistake.
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Nonetheless, despite his declining physical capacity, not least his piles, which made
sitting on a horse rather unpleasant, Napoleon was seen riding up and down the
front line and remained enormously popular with his troops.
Wellington’s final deployments

Having risen and mounted his horse, Wellington started making his final
deployments.
Interestingly, his second-in-command, the Earl of Uxbridge, who was in charge of his
cavalry, asked him if he had a plan. Wellington replied:
“Well, Bonaparte has not given me any idea of his projects. As my plans depend on
his, how can you expect me to tell you what mine are?”
The plan, it seems, was simply to fight a defensive battle and respond to situations
as they arose.
Wellington had 70,000 men; about 50,000 infantries, just under 15,000 cavalry and
about 150 guns – roughly half the number of guns that Napoleon had.
Napoleon was a gunner, had trained as a gunner. He once said that “it is with guns
that one makes war”. He was going to blast a big hole in Wellington’s lines, and
Wellington knew it.
Wellington placed most of his infantry behind the crest of Mont-Saint-Jean, a ridge
near Waterloo, so they were hidden from the French.
Thirty per cent of his army were British and only 7,000 of them were Peninsular war
veterans. So only one in 10 of Wellington’s troops were his trusted veterans, who
had followed him across the Peninsula.
He made sure that experienced units were mixed in with inexperienced units and
that foreign units were mixed in with British units, so there was less chance of
collective panic taking hold and ripping through his army.
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The front line was only about 3,000 metres long, so Wellington, in the saddle all day,
could be everywhere – wherever the action was hottest. Waterloo was one of the last
great battles in which the action was compressed into such a tiny bit of land.
Nothing more than eating breakfast

After dreadful rain all night, Napoleon awoke to a mercifully sunny morning, had
breakfast, then summoned his generals together. He expressed his confidence in no
uncertain terms, telling them that Wellington was a bad general and that the English
were bad troops. “This affair”, he said, “is nothing more than eating breakfast”.
Napoleon declared that they would go straight at Wellington. No mucking about, no

manoeuvres, no clever tactics. He decided that they would start off with his grande
batterie.
Eighty of Napoleon’s guns were lined up facing the Mont-Saint-Jean ridge, behind
which Wellington’s men were positioned. At 11.30am the grande batterie opened fire
and the Battle of Waterloo commenced.
An re-enactment of Napoleon’s artillery opening up at the Battle of Waterloo.
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How the Battle of Waterloo Unfolded
By Dan Snow
At around 11.30am Napoleon’s guns opened up, 80 guns sending iron cannonballs
hurtling into allied lines. An eye witness described them as being like a
volcano. Then the French infantry assault began.
The allied line was pushed back. Wellington had to act fast and he deployed his
cavalry in one of the most famous charges in British history.
The cavalry crashed into the French infantry; 2000 horsemen, some of the most
illustrious units of the army, elite Life Guards as well as dragoons from England,
Ireland and Scotland. The French scattered. A mass of fleeing men surged back to
their own lines. The British cavalry, in high excitement, followed them and ended up
among the French cannon.
Another counter attack, this time by Napoleon, who sent his legendary
lancers and armour clad cuirassiers to drive off the exhausted allied men and
horses. This hectic see-sawing ended with both sides back where they had began.
The French infantry and allied cavalry both suffered terrible losses and corpses of
men and horses littered the battlefield.
Marshal Ney orders the charge

Around 4pm Napoleon’s deputy, Marshal Ney, the ‘bravest of the brave’, thought he
saw an allied withdrawal and launched the mighty French cavalry to try and swamp
the allied centre which he hoped might be wavering. 9,000 men and horses rushed
allied lines.
Wellington’s infantry immediately formed squares. A hollow square with every man
pointing his weapon outwards, allowing for all round defence.
Wave after wave of cavalry charged. An eyewitness wrote,
“not a man present who survived could have forgotten in after life the awful grandeur
of that charge. You discovered at a distance what appeared to be an overwhelming,
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long moving line, which, ever advancing, glittered like a stormy wave of the sea
when it catches the sunlight.
On they came until they got near enough, whilst the very earth seemed to vibrate
beneath the thundering tramp of the mounted host. One might suppose that nothing
could have resisted the shock of this terrible moving mass.”
But the British and allied line just held.
“Night or the Prussians must come”

By the late afternoon Napoleon’s plan had stalled and he now faced a terrible threat.
Against the odds, Wellington’s army had held firm. And now, from the east, the
Prussians were arriving. Defeated two days before at Ligny, the Prussians still had
fight in them, and now they threatened to trap Napoleon.
Napoleon redeployed men to slow them down, and redoubled his efforts to smash
through Wellington’s lines. The farm of La Haye Sainte was captured by the French.
They pushed artillery and sharp shooters into it and blasted the allied centre at close
range.
Under terrible pressure Wellington said,
“Night or the Prussians must come.”
Committing the Old Guard

The Prussians were coming. More and more troops fell upon Napoleon’s flank. The
emperor was under assault almost from three sides. In desperation, he played his
final card. He ordered his last reserve, his finest troops to advance. The imperial
guard, veterans of dozens of his battles, marched up the slope.
Dutch artillery pounded the guardsmen, and a Dutch bayonet charge put one
battalion to flight; others trudged towards the crest of the ridge. When they arrived
they found it strangely quiet. 1,500 British foot guards were lying down, waiting for
the command to jump up and fire.
24
When the French army saw the Guard recoil, a shout went up and the entire army
disintegrated. Napoleon’s mighty force was instantly transformed into a rabble of
fleeing men. It was over.
“A spectacle I shall never forget”

As the sun set on 18 June 1815 bodies of men and horses littered the battlefield.
Something like 50,000 men had been killed or wounded.
One eyewitness visited a few days later:
The sight was too horrible to behold. I felt sick in the stomach and was obliged to
return. The multitude of carcasses, the heaps of wounded men with mangled limbs
unable to move, and perishing from not having their wounds dressed or from hunger,
as the Anglo-allies were, of course, obliged to take their surgeons and wagons with
them, formed a spectacle I shall never forget.
The wounded, both of the Anglo-allies and the French, remain in an equally
deplorable state.
It was a bloody victory, but a decisive one. Napoleon had no choice but to abdicate a
week later. Trapped by the Royal Navy, he surrendered to the captain of HMS
Bellerophon and was taken into captivity.
25
Was There a Single Moment in the Battle of Waterloo

That Could Have Changed the Outcome?
By Dan Snow
Battles like Waterloo are full of moments when the result appears in the balance. I
think that’s why we are drawn to military history. Climactic moments of drama which
dramatically alter an outcome are as obvious on the battlefield as they are obscure in
the courts, the boardrooms, the labs and the committees that shape our world.
An even fight
Waterloo was an evenly matched struggle. Napoleon could have blasted
Wellington’s allied army off their ridge and marched on Brussels before the
Prussians caught him in the famous pincer that ended his dreams of an empire
reborn.
If Napoleon’s subordinates had been as reliable as Massena, Dabout and Berthier

had been in past campaigns, if the allied centre had collapsed under the massive
cavalry assault of Marshal Ney, ‘bravest of the brave’, if the Imperial Guard had
managed to punch through the thin red line late in the day.
Château d’Hougoumont
One moment, though, was regarded by Wellington and many contemporaries as
truly decisive. On the western edge of the battlefield was the Chateaux
d’Hougoumont. It was a strongly built, walled farm house which the Duke of
Wellington had garrisoned with a mixture of British Guardsmen and German allies.
Napoleon’s first move at Waterloo was to launch a feint against Hougoumont,

playing on the anxiety felt by every British commander, the security of his lifeline to
the Channel Coast. The Emperor would tempt Wellington to protect his west flank by
weakening his centre, which would then be subjected to a massive Napoleonic
assault.
26
French troops hurled themselves at the Chateau in the opening clash of Waterloo.
One group managed to work their way around to the north gate and break in to the
courtyard.
A giant of a man, Sous-Lieutenant Legros, broke through the gate with an axe and
dozens of French soldiers stormed in. They were met by British Guardsmen and a
brutal hand to hand battle followed.
The men fired their muskets at close quarters and then used the 15 inch razor sharp
bayonet on the end to thrust, while using the barrels and stocks to club the enemy or
parry their blows. In a dazzling display of leadership, Lieutenant Colonel
James Macdonell, the Coldstreamer in command of Hougoumont, fought his way to
the gate helped by fellow officers and Corporal James Graham, and managed to
shut and bar the gate.
30 or so Frenchmen were now trapped inside. One by one they

were massacred, only a young drummer boy was spared.
Closing the gates

Wellington nominated Coporal Graham as the “most deserving soldier at Waterloo”
for his bravery. He also declared afterwards that “the success of the battle turned
upon the closing of the gates at Hougoumont.”
It was not quite that simple, but if Legros’ men had seized Hougoumont, it would
have put perhaps intolerable pressure on Wellington’s flank. Still early in the day,
Napoleon would have had a major advantage. Instead, after that initial assault the
fighting around Hougoumont bogged down into a brutal slog which drew in men and
artillery which Napoleon desperately needed elsewhere on the battlefield.
The allies held Hougoumont, Wellington did not greatly weaken the rest of his line to
reinforce it; Napoleon’s opening move had failed. Despite this, the Emperor
unleashed attack after attack, only to find that the same spirit of stubborn
resistance that had saved Hougoumont was present throughout the allied army.
27
How Significant Was the Battle of Waterloo?
By Harry Atkins
The significance of the Battle of Waterloo on 18 June 1815 is inextricably linked to

the incredible story of one man: Napoleon Bonaparte. But, while it is in the context of
Napoleon’s remarkable life and military career that the famous battle is best
remembered, Waterloo’s wider impact should not be underestimated.
Make no mistake, the events of that bloody day changed the course of history. As
Victor Hugo wrote, “Waterloo is not a battle; it is the changing face of the universe”.
An end to the Napoleonic Wars

The Battle of Waterloo brought an end to the Napoleonic Wars once and for all,
finally thwarting Napoleon’s efforts to dominate Europe and bringing about the end of
a 15-year period marked by near constant warring.
Of course, Napoleon had already been defeated a year earlier, only to escape exile
in Elba and mount a stirring effort to revive his military aspirations over the course of
the “Hundred Days”, a last gasp campaign that saw the outlawed French emperor
lead the Armée du Nord into battle with the Seventh Coalition.
Even if his efforts were never likely to succeed, given the military mismatch his
troops faced, the boldness of Napoleon’s revival undoubtedly set the stage for
Waterloo’s dramatic denouement.
The development of the British Empire

Inevitably, the legacy of Waterloo is interwoven with competing narratives. In Britain
the battle was heralded as a gallant triumph and the Duke of Wellington was duly
lauded as the hero (with Napoleon taking the role of arch-villain of course).
In the eyes of Britain, Waterloo became a national triumph, an authoritative

glorification of British values that was instantly worthy of celebration and
commemoration in songs, poems, street names and stations.
28
To some extent Britain’s response was justified; it was a victory that positioned the
country favourably, bolstering its global ambitions and helping to create the
conditions for the economic success that lay ahead in the Victorian era.
Having laid the final, decisive blow on Napoleon, Britain could command a leading
role in the peace negotiations that followed and thus shape a settlement that suited
its interests.
While other coalition states claimed back sections of Europe, the Vienna Treaty gave
Britain control over a number of global territories, including South Africa, Tobago, Sri
Lanka, Martinique and the Dutch East Indies, something that would become
instrumental in the development of the British Empire’s vast colonial command.
It is perhaps telling that in other parts of Europe, Waterloo — though still widely
acknowledged as decisive — is generally accorded less significance than the Battle
of Leipzig.
“A generation of peace”
If Waterloo was Britain’s greatest military triumph, as it is often feted, it surely does
not owe that status to the battle itself. Military historians generally agree that the
battle was not a great showcase of either Napoleon’s or Wellington’s strategic
prowess.
Indeed, Napoleon is commonly believed to have made several important blunders at

Waterloo, ensuring that Wellington’s task of holding firm was less challenging than it
might have been. The battle was a bloodbath on an epic scale but, as an example of
two great military leaders locking horns, it leaves a lot to be desired.
Ultimately, Waterloo’s greatest significance must surely be the role it played in

achieving lasting peace in Europe. Wellington, who did not share Napoleon’s relish
for battle, is said to have told his men, “If you survive, if you just stand there and
repel the French, I’ll guarantee you a generation of peace”.
He was not wrong; by finally defeating Napoleon, the Seventh Coalition did bring
about peace, laying the foundations for a unified Europe in the process.
29
How Was Napoleon Treated in Exile on Saint

Helena?
By Sophie Gee
They needed a prison for the most dangerous man in the World. Napoleon had
seized supreme power in France. He’d marched his armies from Portugal to
Moscow. But now he was a prisoner.
The British were determined that the former Emperor’s place of exile be secure. With
this in mind a tiny island in the South Atlantic was chosen, over one thousand miles
from the African mainland. This was Saint Helena.
It was on this remote Atlantic island that Napoléon spent his final six years.
Arrival in exile
On the 15 October 1815 Bonaparte disembarked the HMS Northumberland at dusk,

having decreed that he would not come ashore on Saint Helena whilst it was still
light. He did not wish to be observed arriving in exile. Nonetheless around 400
islanders stood by as Napoleon entered Jamestown. 'It is an unlovely place’ he had
remarked bitterly.
For the first few weeks of his exile Napoleon lived in Briar’s Pavilion, as a guest of
William Balcombe.
Saint Helena’s trade and security
Balcombe was an employee of the East India Company, for as well as being an ideal
location for the secure imprisonment of Napoléon Saint Helena was an important
landing point in Transatlantic trade.
Discovered by the Portuguese in 1502, the island was used as a rendezvous and
provisions stop between Asia and Europe. Saint Helena was increasingly used by
30
the Dutch, who claimed it in 1633 before it was taken over by the East India
Company in 1657.
The British presence on the island extended even to Arthur Wellesley, the Duke of
Wellington, who defeated Napoléon at Waterloo. Ten years earlier Wellington had
stayed on Saint Helena in the very same building where his foe spent his first night in
exile.
Saint Helena's strategic importance makes it no surprise that High Knoll Fort was
constructed, overlooking Jamestown 600 metres above sea level.
Once Napoléon arrived, however, High Knoll was used to defend against possible
French rescue missions. While he was living in Briar’s Pavilion at the base of the hill,
the former emperor was under constant surveillance by the fort’s sentries.
In addition the British stationed an entire garrison on Ascension Island, a fellow

volcanic island north-west of Saint Helena, as a precaution against any possibility of
Napoléon escaping.
Numerous plans were hatched to rescue the exiled Emperor,

including an audacious plan involving two early submarines and a
mechanical chair.
Conditions of exile
Bonaparte was not alone under these circumstances. He had been voluntarily
accompanied into exile by several of his aides, including former adjutants and their
wives.
Notably missing from the group, however, were Napoléon’s son (later Napoléon II)
and wife Marie-Louise, who had declined to join him in his previous exile on Elba and
had since become estranged.
After just a couple of months as a welcome guest of Balcombe and his family,
Bonaparte was moved to Longwood House in December 1815. His new residence
31
was more spacious and private but it was also reportedly damp and cold and had the
benefit, for the British, of being more secure.
Whilst he was permitted to go anywhere on the island as long as he was in the

presence of a British officer, Napoléon chose to remain at the house for much of his
remaining years.
Throughout this time, though, the ex-Emperor stubbornly expressed his right to be a
prisoner of State, rather than of War, and thus to be afforded superior treatment.
Bonaparte ate well, had daily long baths and spent his time gardening in the grounds
of Longwood. He also spent time reading, writing, dictating, and learning English.
Amongst the products of Napoléon’s exile was Le Mémorial de Sainte-Hélène,

written by Emmanuel, comte de Las Cases. This was a transcription from their daily
conversations about the former’s career, political philosophy and exile conditions.
Whilst the book was not published until 1823, Las Cases was arrested and expelled
from the island in 1816.
General Gaspard Gourgaud also left the island before Napoléon’s death, but the
comte Charles de Montholon remained. Both later published separate books about
their leader’s ruminations whilst in exile.
Napoléon’s treatment was lenient in the case of receiving packages of books from
Britain. Sent by Lady Holland, the wife of a member of the British opposition
parliament who saw the prisoner as one of State rather than War, these parcels
could not be rejected. As such Bonaparte had a sizeable collection of books in
addition to maps.
Napoléon had a difficult relationship with the Governor of Saint Helena, Sir Hudson
Lowe. Lowe treated his prisoner with less respect than the latter felt he deserved,
ruling that he should not be addressed by his imperial titles.
It was, and is, often suggested that the conditions in which Napoléon was kept
attributed somewhat to his death. At the signs of illness, two doctors - Barry O’Meara
32
and John Stokoe - were dismissed after advocating for better conditions, an
argument later presented by O’Meara in a book published in 1822.
The Governor was persuaded, however, to build a new Longwood. But its famous
resident would not live to see it finished.
Death and burial
Napoléon Bonaparte died on the 5 May 1821, aged 51, having reconnected with the
Catholic Church and been granted confession, extreme unction and viaticum by a
Father Angelo Vignali. Autopsies were carried out by both the British and the French,
with the conclusion that the former Emperor had died of damage to his stomach,
intestines and liver.
He was buried in the Sane Valley on Saint Helena, where he had been known to
walk among the geranium bushes, after two days on public view. This was his
second choice of burial site, the first being:
‘I wish my ashes to rest on the banks of the Seine, in the midst of that French people
which I have loved so much.’
His wishes were later granted and on the request of the ‘Bourgeois Monarchy’ which
revitalised France in 1830, Napoléon’s body was returned to France in 1840, 19
years after his death. His final resting place is under the dome of the Place des
Invalides.
There have been many voices of dissent calling Napoléon’s death a murder as many
hypothesise that he was slowly poisoned, which would account for reports of the
unusual preservation of his body noted when it was moved.
The French have since bought Longwood House and Napoléon’s former burial place
to commemorate their ex-Emperor’s final exile. They were also determined to
prevent trophy hunting, as even branches from the trees in the Sane Valley were
reportedly being taken as souvenirs.
33

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Waterloo HISTORYHIT.

In Spring of 1815 the exiled Napoleon Bonaparte, one of history's most

Wellington Before Waterloo ........................................................................................ 4

How the Duke of Wellington Masterminded Victory at Salamanca ......................... 9

The Battle of Waterloo.............................................................................................. 14

A Face-off Between Two of History’s Great Military Commanders ....................... 14

The British Army’s Road to Waterloo .................................................................... 17

How the Battle of Waterloo Unfolded .................................................................... 23

How Significant Was the Battle of Waterloo? ........................................................ 28

How Was Napoleon Treated in Exile on Saint Helena? ........................................ 30

The Battle of Waterloo by Clément-Auguste Andrieux.

Wellington Before Waterloo

Why Did the Duke of Wellington Consider his

Before they met at Waterloo, Napoleon contemptuously scorned the Duke of

Trouble (and opportunity) in India

The British intervene

Wellesley marches to war

The forces meet at the Juah River

The Battle of Assaye

Greater than Waterloo

It cemented his reputation as a bold and talented commander, and further

How the Duke of Wellington Masterminded Victory

Pride before a fall

The “people’s war”

The tide turns

The road to Madrid

The Battle of Waterloo

The Battle of Waterloo: A Face-off Between Two of

History Hit Podcast with Peter Snow

It’s also remembered as a face-off between two of history’s great military

Two very different characters

On returning to Paris, Napoleon was greeted by a great surge of popularity. There he

The outlaw vs. the duke

The date of 15 June 1815 is an extraordinary moment in history.

On 16 June 1815, he attacked Blücher in the Battle of Ligny, and succeeded in

Napoleon surrounded by his staff surveying the battlefield at Ligny.

The British Army’s Road to Waterloo: From Dancing

History Hit Podcast with Peter Snow

The Battle of Quatre Bras

Napoleon’s critical error

Napoleon had missed a trick by allowing Wellington to withdraw to Mont-Saint-Jean.

Michel Ney, ‘Bravest of the Brave’

How Napoleon Failed to Properly Prepare for the

History Hit Podcast with Peter Snow

On 18 June 1815, the day of the Battle of Waterloo, Britain’s Duke of

Wellington’s final deployments

Nothing more than eating breakfast

Napoleon declared that they would go straight at Wellington. No mucking about, no

An re-enactment of Napoleon’s artillery opening up at the Battle of Waterloo.

How the Battle of Waterloo Unfolded

Marshal Ney orders the charge

Wave after wave of cavalry charged. An eyewitness wrote,

But the British and allied line just held.

“Night or the Prussians must come”

Under terrible pressure Wellington said,

“Night or the Prussians must come.”

Committing the Old Guard

“A spectacle I shall never forget”

Something like 50,000 men had been killed or wounded.

One eyewitness visited a few days later:

Was There a Single Moment in the Battle of Waterloo

If Napoleon’s subordinates had been as reliable as Massena, Dabout and Berthier

Napoleon’s first move at Waterloo was to launch a feint against Hougoumont,