Battle of Waterloo

Battle of Waterloo
	Part of the Napoleonic Wars (Seventh Coalition 1815)
	; The Battle of Waterloo by William Sadler
Date	June 18, 1815
Location	Waterloo, present-day Belgium
Result	Decisive Coalition victory
Belligerents
France	Prussia; United Kingdom; United Netherlands
Commanders and leaders
Napoléon Bonaparte ; Michel Ney	Duke of Wellington; Gebhard von Blücher
Strength
73,000	67,000 Coalition; 60,000 Prussian (48,000 engaged by about 18:00)
Casualties and losses
25,000 dead or wounded	22,000 dead or wounded

The Battle of Waterloo, fought on June 18, 1815, was Napoleon Bonaparte's last battle. After his exile to Elba, he had reinstalled himself on the throne of France for a Hundred Days. During this time, the forces of the rest of Europe, the United Kingdom, Prussia and the Russian Empire converged on him, commanded by the United Kingdom's Duke of Wellington, and Prussia's Gebhard von Blücher.

The battlefield is in present day Belgium, about 12 km (7.5 miles) SSE of Brussels, and 2 km (1.2 miles) from the town of Waterloo, at 50°40′45″N 4°24′25″E / 50.67917°N 4.40694°E / 50.67917; 4.40694.

Prelude

See main article Waterloo Campaign

As far back as 13 March 1815, six days before Napoleon reached Paris, the powers at the Congress of Vienna declared him an outlaw; four days later the United Kingdom, Russia, Austria and Prussia bound themselves to put 150,000 men each into the field to end his rule. Napoleon knew that, once his attempts at dissuading one or more of the Seventh Coalition allies from invading France had failed, his only chance of remaining in power was to attack before the Coalition put together an overwhelming force. If he could destroy the existing Coalition forces in Belgium before they were reinforced, he might be able to drive the British back to the sea and knock the Prussians out of the war.

Napoleon divided his army into a left wing, commanded by Marshal Ney, a right wing commanded by Marshal Grouchy, and a Reserve, which he commanded personally (although all three elements remained close enough to support one another). Crossing the Netherlands' frontier at Thuin near Charleroi, the French drove in Coalition outposts and secured Napoleon's favoured "central position" - at the junction between Wellington's army to his north-west, and Blücher's to his north-east. Although the Coalition members were well informed of Napoleon's movements, Wellington did not react to the news of the outbreak of hostilities until the evening of June 15. As Napoleon considered the Prussians the greatest threat, he moved against them first, attacking their outposts at Thuin near Charleroi before advancing through Charleroi, his scouts reaching Quatre Bras that evening. Ziethen's rearguard action held up Napoleon's advance, giving Blücher the opportunity of concentrating his forces in the Sombreffe position, which had been selected earlier for its good defensive attributes. Napoleon sent Marshal Ney, in charge of the French left, with the task of securing the crossroads of Quatre Bras, towards which Wellington was hastily concentrating his dispersed army. Once Quatre Bras was secured, Ney could swing east and reinforce Napoleon.

Ney, advancing on June 16, found Quatre Bras lightly held by Anglo-Allied troops, but having previously experienced Wellington's skill at concealing his strength, he overestimated the forces opposing him. Despite outnumbering Wellington heavily throughout the day, he fought a cautious and lacklustre battle which failed to capture the crossroads of Quatre Bras. By the late afternoon Wellington, who had been reinforced steadily throughout the day as his troops concentrated, was able to advance and drive Ney's troops back.

Napoleon, meanwhile, took the reserves and the right wing of the army and defeated the Prussians, under the command of General Blücher, at the Battle of Ligny on the same day. The Prussian centre gave way under heavy French attack, but the flanks held their ground. Had Ney intervened at this point as planned, the Prussians would have been partially encircled from the west and would almost certainly have been forced to try to extricate themselves by falling back to the east, along their lines of communication.

The Prussian defeat at Ligny made the Quatre Bras position untenable, and on June 17, Wellington duly fell back to the north. His control of Quatre Bras enabled the Prussians to fall back in support of Wellington - that is, parallel to his line of retreat and not, as Napoleon had hoped, away from him.

This was part of Napoleon's strategy to split the much larger Coalition force into pieces that he could outnumber if he was allowed to attack them separately. His theory was based on the assumption that an attack through the centre of the Coalition forces would force the two main armies to retreat in the direction of their respective supply bases, which were in opposite directions.

The general retreat of the Prussian army had taken it to the town of Wavre, and this by default became the marshalling point of the army. The Prussian chief of staff, General August von Gneisenau, planned to rally the Prussian Army at Tilly, from where it could move to support Wellington, but control was lost, with part of the army falling back towards the Rhine, but the majority of it falling back to Wavre, where it rallied. Here, Gneisenau decided to march upon Wellington's left flank at dawn with the I, II and IV Corps. The IV Corps, under the command of General Bülow von Dennewitz, had not been present at Ligny, but arrived to reinforce the Prussian army during the night of the 17th and 18th. III Corps formed the rearguard, tasked with hindering the pursuing French.

Wellington, meanwhile, spent the 17th falling back to a previously reconnoitred defensive position at Mont St. Jean, a low ridge south of the village of Waterloo. He was followed by the left wing of the French Army of the North under the command of Marshal Ney. Napoleon joined Ney with most of the reserves which (along with the right wing of the Army of the North) had defeated the Prussians at Ligny.

Ambiguous orders by Napoleon on the June 17 to his subordinate Marshal Grouchy, to pursue the Prussians with 30,000 men, contributed to Napoleon's eventual defeat. Because Napoleon took his time issuing orders on the morning of June 17, Grouchy started the pursuit late on June 17, by which time the Prussians had disengaged. Precious time was lost locating the main body of the Prussian Army, by which time it was too late to prevent it reaching Wavre, from where it could march to support Wellington. On the 18th, with the right wing of the Army of the North, reinforced with a cavalry corps, Gérard engaged the Prussian rearguard under the command of Lieutenant-General Baron Johann von Thielmann at the Battle of Wavre.

Order of battle

See main article Order of Battle of the Waterloo Campaign

The battle was to involve 71,947 French soldiers; while the Coalition army from Britain, Brunswick, Hanover, Nassau and the Netherlands were 67,661 men strong. (Of the 26 infantry brigades in Wellington's army, 9 were British; 7 of the 12 cavalry brigades were British. The remainder were Hanoverian, Netherlands, Nassau and Brunswick troops. Half the 29 batteries of guns were Hanoverian or Netherlands).

Two and a half Prussian army corps were engaged in the battle, attacking the French right flank, bringing the number of Prussians fully engaged by about 18:00 to 48,000 men. (Two divisions under Friedrich von Bülow, commander of the IV Corps, attacked Lobau at 16:30, Georg von Pirch's II Corps and parts of Graf von Ziethen's I Corps engaged at about 18:00.)

Conclusion

At around 21:00 Wellington and Blücher met, signifying the end of the battle. Waterloo cost the Anglo-Allied forces around 15,000 dead and wounded, and the Prussians some 7000. Napoleon lost 25,000 dead and injured. 8000 of his troops were taken prisoner.

After the French defeat at Waterloo and the final battle of the Napoleonic Wars at the Battle of Wavre, Napoleon was deposed and remained at large for some time in France before surrendering to the British. Allegedly, Napoleon tried to escape to North America but the British ship Bellerophon caught up to him where he promptly surrendered. He was subsequently exiled to Saint Helena, where he died in 1821.

The battlefield today

The current terrain of the battlefield is very different from what it would have been in 1815. In 1820, the Dutch 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. A giant mound was constructed here, using 300,000 cubic meters of earth taken from other parts of the battlefield, including Wellington's sunken road. Wellington, when visiting the site years later, allegedly complained "they've spoiled my battlefield!"

Waterloo in popular culture

The phrase to meet one's Waterloo (or similar) has entered the English language as a word signifying a great test with a final and decisive outcome- usually a negative one, in recognition of Napoleon's defeat; e.g. [1], [2].
The battle of Waterloo was the final battle listed in Edward Shepherd Creasy's book The Fifteen Decisive Battles of the World.
The Waterloo Medal was issued to all ranks who participated, including supposedly a baby born on the field to one unit's auxiliary woman aide. It was one of the first general medals issued. One can be seen with Wellington's uniform in the basement at Apsley House.
The final mission of Starcraft's Brood War expansion, "Omega" is a scenario similar to Waterloo, except the forces in the position similar to Napoleon emerge victorious.
"The Adventures of Gerard" (1903) by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle contains a chapter "How the Brigadier Bore Himself at Waterloo", about his fictional hero Brigadier Etienne Gerard. The chapter consists of two short stories which were originally published separately. Project Gutenberg:The Adventures of Gerard (Audio Book)
"Sharpe's Waterloo" or "Waterloo: Sharpe's Final Adventure Campaign" is a novel by Bernard Cornwell, which sets his fictional hero Richard Sharpe at the battle on the staff of the non-fictional Prince of Orange. The book was later adapted for television by the ITV and starred Sean Bean as Sharpe.
Waterloo was a 1970 Italian-Russian film, directed by Sergei Bondarchuk. It was the story of the preliminary events and the battle, and is remembered for its lavish battle scenes.
The band ABBA made a song titled "Waterloo" that won the Eurovision Song Contest in 1974.
The famous quote attributed to Wellington ("The battle of Waterloo was won on the playing fields of Eton") was certainly an invention; unlike his older brother, Wellington got poor grades at Eton; on one of his rare visits back there, the only athletic activities he could remember were skipping across a brook, and fisticuffs with a fellow student.
In the video game Psychonauts, Fred Bonaparte, an insane asylum employee turned inmate and descendant of Napoleon Bonaparte, loses his sanity after continuously losing a game of "Waterloo" with a patient, Crispin Whytehead, and develops a split personality between himself and his forefather.
In Blackadder: Back & Forth, Lord Blackadder travels back in time and accidentally kills Wellington before the battle of Waterloo; when he returns to the future England is full of French culture, so he time-travels once again to ensure that the Duke lives.
"Waterloo" is a song by American metal band Iced Earth, that is about the battle at Waterloo. It appears on the album The Glorious Burden, but is not available on the regular American release.
"The Battle of Waterloo" is a song by the German Metal Band Running Wild off their Death or Glory album.
"Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell" is a fantasy novel by Susanna Clarke in which the battle of Waterloo is described from the point of view of a magician who aids the Duke of Wellington. For example, it is thanks to the magician's weather control that heavy rain falls before the battle, aiding the Coalition forces.
Waterlube is a fictitious water park visited by Napoleon in the film Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure.
In the movie Jaws, Captain Quint, while recounting his experience as a seaman aboard the USS Indianapolis, likens the sailors' grouped formations to avoid sharks as "something you would see in a calendar, like the Battle of Waterloo."
"Waterloo" was a 1959 country song recorded by Stonewall Jackson. The chorus is:

Waterloo, Waterloo

Where will you meet your Waterloo?

Every puppy has its day

Everybody has to pay

Everybody has to meet his Waterloo.

The battle is mentioned in the 2004 film The Alamo, where it is compared to the Battle of San Jacinto, the final battle of the Texas Revolution.
"You're My Waterloo" is an unrealeased song by The Libertines.
"Waterloo to Anywhere" is the debut album by Dirty Pretty Things, though this is more likely a reference to the London railway station.
The entire battle between Julius Caesar and the Belgians in Asterix in Belgium is a parody of the battle of Waterloo. The arrival of Caesar and his troops is resembles a similar painting depicting Napoleon and his army. In the French version the text which accompanies the battle on paper is a parody on Victor Hugo's poem about the Battle of Waterloo. Asterix, Obelix and Vitalstatistix lead a surprise attack on Caesar's troops just when the Romans seem to win the battle. This is of course, exactly what happened to Napoleon in Waterloo.
When French President Jacques Chirac visited the UK to celebrate the centenary of the Entente Cordiale, the Waterloo Room in Windsor Castle was renamed the Music Room, and then renamed the Waterloo Room following Chirac's departure.
"The Battle of Waterloo" is a traditional tune for great Highland bagpipe.
In the video game Psychonauts, Waterloo is a game that Fred Bonaparte played with former inmate Crispin Whytehead. However, Crispin exposed Fred to a number of crushing defeats, causing Fred to develop an inferiority complex that forced him into an unending game with his ancestor, Napoleon Bonaparte, until Razputin helped him win.

Battle of Waterloo Simulators

There are two simulators on the internet, one at PBS.org ^[1], and one at the BBC online^[2] it is generally considered that the PBS edition is superior because in the BBC version people can memorize the steps to win the game, and there are only two outcomes - Napoleon wins or Napoleon loses. In the PBS version, there are seven possible outcomes, varying from complete Coalition victory (Napoleon dies on the battlefield) to early French major victory (Napoleon crushes Wellington before Blucher arrives, and when Blucher arrives Napoleon crushes him as well. After that, with two Coalition allies knocked out of the war, Russia and Austria sign peace treaties with France. Note, the second part about Napoleon crushing Blucher is not shown on the simulator, but a player with this outcome receives a message that Blucher was defeated after Wellington was defeated.)

References

Notes

External links

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[1] ttp://www.pbs.org/empires/napoleon/flash/n_war/ibs/index.html

[2] ttp://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/empire_seapower/launch_gms_battle_waterloo.shtml

[1]

[2]