The Battle of Waterloo was the last battle of the Napoleonic Wars to see the ambitions of the French Emperor crushed in one fell swoop. Despite his former genius in campaign, Napoleon was unable to defeat the Allied armies, and the Prussians finally determined their fate by coming to Wellington's aid on June 18, rather than retreating after their setback at Ligny. /P>
Waterloo data
- Who: Emperor Napoleon (1769-1821) with 72,000 men of the French Armée du Nord attacked a 60,000-man Anglo-Dutch army under the command of the Duke of Wellington (1769-1852), who was joined by the Prussian army of Prince Gebhard von Blücher that afternoon.
- How: In a superb defensive battle, Wellington's army was able to repulse Napoleon's disjointed attacks with great difficulty until the arrival of the Prussian army.
- Where: The crest of Mont St. Jean, near the town of Waterloo, 16 km south of Brussels, Belgium.
- When: June 18, 1815.
- Why: Napoleon's flight from Elba and the restoration of the empire could not be tolerated by the allies, who were trying to crush this threat to European peace.
- Result: The defeat at Waterloo forced Napoleon to his second abdication, after which he was finally exiled to St. Helena in the South Atlantic.
Revolutionary and later Napoleonic, France had been fighting Britain and its allies for 20 years when Napoleon finally abdicated in April 1814 and was exiled to the island of Elba. However, discontent in France with the Bourbon king, Louis XVIII, led Napoleon to risk a 1,000-man voyage from the island to France, where he landed on March 1, 1815> . Louis was forced to flee to Belgium as the Allies began to mobilize their armies. Napoleon sincerely wanted peace, but the other European powers would never allow him to threaten it again, and so he was forced to mobilize eight corps. The French were tired of war and bloodshed, as were the soldiers and officers, and even Napoleon's own marshals were reluctant to fight. This especially applied to Ney, who detested Napoleon. Ney, who had first promised Louis to bring Napoleon back in an iron cage before coming over to his side, felt deep down that Napoleon was a spent force and that France, faced with a hostile European coalition, could not prevail. . Unfortunately for Napoleon, his irreplaceable chief of staff from the old days, Marshal Berthier, had died in an accident and his replacement, Marshal Soult, was not as talented . The combination of Napoleon's physical and mental deterioration, together with the clumsiness of his subordinates Soult and Ney, would lead him to defeat at Waterloo.
The allied armies
On the opposite side, Wellington did not have it easy either. His peninsular veterans were scattered around the world or had been demobilized. Consequently, Wellington was reduced to fighting Napoleon with a motley army of Dutch, Belgian and German mercenaries (from Hess and Nassau) and a small force of English soldiers . He had 68,800 infantry and 14,500 cavalry, which, with other troops, totaled 92,300 soldiers divided into three infantry corps under his command, that of General Hill, and that of the Dutch Prince of Orange. The cavalry was under the command of the Earl of Uxbridge, who also acted as Wellington's lieutenant. Relations between the two were frosty (Uxbridge had eloped with Wellington's sister-in-law) and Wellington had been appointed against Wellington's express wishes.
The allies therefore trusted the Prussians, with 130,000 men, to contain Napoleon. Its legendary commander, Field Marshal and Prince Gebhard von Blücher (1742-1819), might never have been the greatest of strategists, but he could be trusted to fight the French and come to the aid of Wellington, who he expected Napoleon to try to drive a wedge between their separate armies.
Four bras and ligny
On June 15 Napoleon crossed the Belgian border with 123,000 men of his Armée du Nord at Charleroi, exactly where Wellington had not expected him to attack . Wellington hastened to the aid of his soldiers, who were holding Marshal Ney at the Quatre Bras crossroads. Ney had shown unusual apathy in failing to occupy this vital position, compounding this mistake when he did not start the battle until the afternoon, and then using 4,000 cuirassiers to charge the English infantry squares. Evidently Ney completely lost his memory when he repeated this mistake three days later at Waterloo:charging into intact infantry formations without infantry support from him.
On the same day, June 16, the central battle at Ligny took place between Napoleon's main army of 71,000 men and Blücher's 84,000 Prussians . The Prussians had decided to spread out over marshy ground, but Napoleon was not at his tactical best either. He delayed the battle until the afternoon, when he was forced to merely pound the Prussian lines into submission. For nearly two hours, the savage fighting continued, often hand-to-hand, with bayonets and shooting at close range. Prussian losses reached 19,000 troops, and although Blücher left the field, Napoleon had suffered heavy losses (some 14,000 men) that he could ill afford. Napoleon sent Marshal Grouchy after the Prussians with 30,000 men, but Grouchy did not press the enemy closely and, far from retreating back to Germany, Blücher marched west to back Wellington, as he had promised.
After defeating the Prussians, Napoleon proceeded to Quatre Bras, where he found that the English, having held off Ney's attacks, were withdrawing from the battlefield in an orderly fashion, with no effort on the part of the French to pursue them or harass them . Instead, Ney and his staff sat down to dinner. Napoleon could not believe his eyes, and gave his officers a violent scolding that, although deserved, did not help to raise Ney's morale.
Mont st. jeans
The next day there was a much-needed pause as Wellington's army, numbering 74,300, took up position around the farm of Mont St. Jean and the town of Waterloo, where Wellington established his headquarters.** Wellington faced to a French army of 74,500 men who had camped south of the Brussels road, while Napoleon had established his headquarters at the inn of La Belle Alliance**.
The two armies were closely matched numerically. This, however, did not take into account the qualitative differences between the two armies. Napoleon's soldiers were hardened veterans, while Wellington's troops had been recently recruited, and only 28,000 of them were English. In addition, the French not only had more cavalry and artillery, but these were of a much higher quality than Wellington's. Not only did the French 12-pounders have a longer range than the English 9-pounders, but the servants who serviced them had more experience and better command.
Layouts
As a battlefield, Waterloo, compared to Borodino (1812) in Russia, was very compact and dense, and intense action was to take place there in the course of a single day. A day, June 18, that would forever change the course of European history.
Wellington had formed his army based on divisions distributed in three corps. The extreme left flank of him was defended by the Prince of Saxe-Weimar's German division, supported by Uxbridge's cavalry behind him. On the opposite side was the Dutch and Belgian division of the Prince of Orange, then came Clinton's division (behind the Braine l'Allend road), Cooke's division, at the confluence of the Brussels road the division of Alten (opposite La Haie farm) with Wellington's reserve corps and finally lined up along the Ohain road, General Picton's division. Napoleon's army was aligned along a line parallel to Wellington's, perpendicular to the Charleroi-Brussels road, with the left flank on the Nivelles road .
Piré's cavalry was on the far left, with Kellerman's III Cavalry Corps and guard cavalry, under Guyot, bringing up the rear, while Prince Jerome Bonaparte's infantry faced the walled estate of Piré. Hougoumont. The center was formed by the divisions of General and Count J. B. d'Erlon's I Army Corps, with Milhaud's cavalry behind. The right flank was supported by La Haie's position.
Faced with the possibility that Blücher might intervene at any moment, Napoleon had to make the first move and achieve a quick and decisive victory over Wellington before he had to turn and face the Prussians. If the two armies were to meet, it would be the end, not only for his army, but for his restored empire as well. Curiously, Napoleon's plan, as at Borodino in 1812, was unimaginative and relied on the use of brute force in a frontal attack rather than trying to outmaneuver the Allied army. Napoleon intended simply to break through Wellington's line through La Haie Sainte farm in the center and occupy the crossroads behind, continue to advance and occupy Mont St. Jean farm.
The battle begins
Napoleon had prepared the attack for 1030, but a downpour fell during the night leaving the ground too soft for cavalry and artillery fire . The main assault was postponed, with fatal consequences, until 1:00 p.m., and the French began a preliminary artillery bombardment at 10:50 a.m. against Hougoumont Castle on Wellington's right, defended by the tough Hanoverian soldiers of the King's German Legion and by a detachment of troops from Nassau.
To divert Wellington's attention from his left flank, where Napoleon's main attack was to be launched, Napoleon ordered his brother, Prince Jerome, to attack Hougoumont, to draw in Wellington's reserves> . However, the prince sent wave after wave of his infantry against the firmly defended estate to little effect, holding down his own troops while Wellington sent only minimal reinforcements. He launched a full four regiments of his and half of Foy's division to boot. It was vital for Wellington to defend this crucial turning point in the line of battle at all costs, so he sent his strongest soldiers, the Coldstream and Scots Guards, to back up the German defenders.
At one o'clock in the afternoon, while Napoleon was preparing to attack, a messenger brought the bad news that the Prussian corps under the command of General Bülow (30,000 men) was approaching from the direction of Wavre . A cautious man would have withdrawn; however, Napoleon made a bet that Grouchy, who was supposedly on his way to the battlefield, would take an hour to arrive and intercept the Prussians; it took four, and by then the Prussians had helped Wellington defeat Napoleon. As an additional guarantee against the appearance of the Prussians, Napoleon stationed Count Lobau, with 20,000 men, on his right flank, facing east and the Prussians. Although this was a sensible move, it also meant a considerable weakening of the main attack against Wellington.
D'erlon's attack
At 13:30 some 84 guns located at La Belle Alliance opened fire for the next half hour . As the ground was soft and wet, this fire was ineffective, because the bullets hit the ground and sank, instead of ricocheting among the Allied infantry. Even if they had, Wellington had placed most of his soldiers a little behind the ridge, rather than on it. It was not until 14:00 that Napoleon launched D'Erlon's I Army Corps. The latter, hoping to pierce the Allied lines by sheer sheer weight, formed his divisions into three huge battalion columns arrayed one after another. Although highly vulnerable to Allied artillery and musketry in this formation, the rush of blue-clad infantry proved almost irresistible, once the I Corps assault got underway, sweeping aside the unprotected 1st Dutch Brigade. (Dutch and Belgian) by Van Biljandt.
Wellington's centre-left position collapsed under this huge wave of attacking infantry, forcing him to send in every soldier he could spare . The best he had was Sir Thomas Picton's 5th Infantry Division (6,745 men) made up of English (8th and 9th Brigades) and Hanoverian (5th Brigade) troops.
Fierce counter-attacks from Picton, backed by Uxbridge's cavalry, including Sir William Ponsonby's 2nd (Union) Brigade, held off the French; albeit with difficulties, and at enormous cost. Both Picton and Ponsonby were killed, Uxbridge lost a leg to a cannonade, while approximately 40% of his men were left dead, captive or wounded. However, his sacrifice was worth it, as the French attack was stopped in its tracks. They began to withdraw, finally fleeing and leaving some 3,000 prisoners in the hands of the English. An hour later (around 3:00 p.m.) the English had defeated the first French assault.
The ney cavalry attacks
At 15:30 Napoleon ordered his artillery to hit La Haie Sainte and Ney to prepare a new assault which he would lead in person. However, without informing Napoleon, Ney ordered 5,000 of his cavalry to attack what he believed to be retreating enemy soldiers; but Wellington was simply moving some of his units out of artillery range and reorganizing the rest. Lacking infantry and artillery support, Ney's cavalry launched their assault only to be met by a hail of artillery and heavy musket fire at close range. Hundreds of horsemen perished as the English foot soldiers (formed in squares for their defence) repelled wave after wave of cuirassiers, dragoons and spearmen coming towards them.
Ney retreated, regrouped and charged again, again failing to break the English. At 17:00 General Francois Kellerman joined the attack with his III Cavalry Corps. Neither Ney nor Kellerman had thought to ask Napoleon's permission before going after the "retreating" Allied troops. The intensity of the fighting was such that Ney lost four horses, dead under the saddle, while some of the English squares were close to breaking point after Kellerman's addition. However, all was in vain and by 18:00 even Ney was fed up and simply walked back to the French ranks, his last horse having been wounded .
Napoleon could not believe what Ney had done, or that Wellington's 'half-breed' soldiers had been able to withstand this onslaught. To atone for his reckless action, Ney finally took La Haie Sainte, defended to the last by the KGL. After losing the 2nd Regiment and its commander, Baron Ompteda, they had been powerless and withdrew with the
broken 1st Hanoverian Brigade. Wellington's center was in a state close to collapse, which threatened to undo his entire army.
The final attack
The Prussians had begun to appear on the edge of the battlefield (the Bois de Paris) by 16:00, and an hour later Napoleon was forced to reinforce Lobau's VI Army Corps (now reduced to 7,000 men) by sending 4,000 men of the Young Guard. By 19:00, Von Zeithen's I Corps had arrived to back up Bülow's men. In a last attempt to break through the center of Wellington, Napoleon ordered the Old Guard, soldiers who had never been defeated, to attack in two columns 75 men deep .
Once again the English soldiers, concealed behind the ridge, were able to surprise the columns before they could spread out in line, and tore them apart with point-blank musket fire. When the Old Guard withdrew, the morale of the French army finally broke, and the soldiers disbanded and fled, shouting "Sauve qui peut!":"Every man for himself!" and "Trahison!":"Treason!" . Napoleon fled in a stagecoach and at 20:30 Wellington met his rescuer Blücher at La Belle Alliance .
Aftermath
The French had lost 30,000 men. Wellington had lost 15,000 and the Prussians 6,700. At 5:00 the next day, Napoleon was back in Charleroi, on his way to Paris. On June 22 he abdicated for the second time, fled from Paris and on July 15 he embarked on HMS Bellerophon at Plymouth. Four months later he landed on the island of Sta. Elena, his “home” until his death.