The Battle of Waterloo, June 18 1815
Timeline: 1815
Era: Nineteenth century
Year: 1815
Campaign: Waterloo
Conflict: Napoleonic Wars
Country: Belgium
Region: Waterloo duh
Combatants: French Empire v Coaltion led by England (Prussia, Hanover, Holland, Nassau, Brunswick)
Commander(s): (French) Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte, Michel Levy (England) Arthur Wellseley, Duke of Wellington, Genhard Leberecht Blucher
Reason: To try to break the power of Napoleon and bring the war to an end
Objective: Defeat of the French empire
Casualties (approx): 65,000
Objective Achieved? Yes
Victor: England and her allies
Legacy: The power of Napoleon was broken forever, he exiled to St. Helena for the rest of his days. France returned to the authority of the monarchy; greatest and most famous of victories for the Duke of Wellington, and provided a Eurovision-winning song for a new group called ABBA.
Napoleon Bonaparte (1769 – 1821)
Who doesn't know about Napoleon? Well you may not know as much as you think, so before we head into the details of what would be his final battle, here's a brief potted history.
Okay, not so brief. You know me so well!
The first interesting thing about Napoleon is that he wasn't even French, born to Italian parents on the island of Corsica on August 15 1769, and even stranger, his father fought
against the French for the independence of his homeland, and later became the Corsican representative to the court of King Louis XVI. At the outbreak of the French Revolution in 1789, Napoleon became enamoured of the revolutionaries' ideals and fought on their side against the monarchy, where he distinguished himself, helping to put down the royalist counter-revolution called the Convention. He faced the British in Egypt, and here and in the Middle East he became famed both for his military prowess and his harsh treatment of the vanquished, particularly illustrated in his taking of the Israeli city of Jaffa, where he ordered all prisoners executed, but rather than waste bullets on them had them drowned or bayonetted, and the women and children raped and murdered. Despite these atrocities (or perhaps due to them) he was hailed as a hero when he returned to France in 1799, and set himself up its leader, proclaiming himself first consul.
This was all in line with Roman precedent (he was, after all, Italian-born): Julius Caesar had entered Rome in a triumph and declared himself as its dictator, and indeed it wasn't long before Napoleon took that title for himself too, in 1802. After the signing of the Treaty of Amiens that year, which brought the Revolutionary Wars to an end, Napoleon consolidated his power, extended his influence and a year later was back at war with the old enemy. In the wake of royalist assassination plots, Napoleon now had himself crowned emperor, an action that did not go down well with the English at all. After a long and protracted war which stretched out across the continent to Spain, Holland, Portugal and Germany, Napoleon was eventually defeated and officially deposed in April 1814, exiled to the island of Elba, off the Tuscan coast of Italy. He spent, however, less than a year in exile, escaping in February 1815 and heading back to France, where he was received with rapture and put to flight the unpopular King Louis XVIII. Napoleon was back in power. A coalition of nations headed by Britain and including Holland, Prussia, Austria and Russia then declared war on France.
It is against this background that we take up the story.
Napoleon knew his grasp on power this time was weak, and that his armies could not hope to stand against the combined might of the Coalition, so his plan was to break it up. If he could force the British out of Brussels he could knock Prussia out of the war, and gather his reinforcements. He hoped that a French victory would sway the Belgians – many of whom spoke and identified as French – to his side, restoring the balance a little. Also, with the War of 1812 in full swing, the crack British troops had been sent to America, so those serving in the coalition forces were of lower quality, and could not be expected to fight as well as would the top of the line soldiers. It was definitely an opportunity, if he could grasp it.
One man, of course, would be the obstacle in the way of that plan, would ensure its failure and lead to the ultimate and permanent defeat of the French Emperor.
Arthur Wellesley, Duke of Wellington (1769 – 1852)
An Irish Protestant, a member of the Ascendancy, Arthur Wellesley was born in Dublin but in one of those strange twists of fate moved when he was sixteen to Belgium, the country which was to be the scene of his most famous triumph. Far from showing any signs of the war hero he would later become, Arthur was a lazy, indolent boy right up to his twenties, showing little sign of interest in anything, or any career, and leading his mother to despair for her son's future. To her immense surprise and delight though, this changed entirely when he enrolled at the French Royal Academy of Equitation in Angers, where he distinguished himself and did so well that when he returned home on leave his mother found it hard to believe this was the same idler she had anguished over. Arthur had found his calling, and his destiny, in the military.
He gained a commission in the army, and began to rise through the ranks. He was elected as MP for Trim in 1789, just about the time of the Irish uprising, though he does not seem to have been involved in its repression, most of the action taking place around the Wexford area. He served in Flanders (his first experience of combat abroad), the West Indies and India, where he continued to make a name for himself, now promoted to lieutenant-colonel, later major-general, and was known for being one of the “new breed” of generals who refused to survey the battle from the safety of pavilions or tents, and demanded to be down among his men, fighting alongside them. During the Battle of Assaye, part of the Second Anglo-Marathan War of the Indian campaign, one of his men put it into words:
"The General was in the thick of the action the whole time ... I never saw a man so cool and collected as he was ... though I can assure you, 'til our troops got the order to advance the fate of the day seemed doubtful ..."
After winning fame and glory in India, Wellesley obtained permission to return home. Now knighted, he again came up against one of those weird coincidences of history when, on the way back, he stopped off at a small island in the Caribbean which would later house his greatest enemy, the defeated Napoleon Bonaparte, and even stayed in the same house in which the French emperor was fated to live out the last years of his life. On his return he briefly met Lord Nelson, less than two months before the great man lost his life at Trafalgar, and became MP for Newport, on the Isle of Wight before being made Chief Secretary for Ireland. He fought in the Battle of Copenhagen then, diverted from his original intention of sailing to South America to take on the Spanish, ended up in Portugal in 1808. Later that year he got his postponed chance to face the Spanish (though on their home soil and not in their South American colonies) and also fought the French. In both cases he was victorious. After his triumphs in Spain and Portugal he was elevated to the peerage, made Viscount Wellington. This was later upgraded to Earl in 1812 and six months later Marquess. Ironically perhaps, shortly afterwards he was forced to begin a series of retreats out of Spain and Portugal as the French army pressed forward.
He was soon on the attack again though, and this time won some victories, though fought to a stalemate at Toulouse. The news of the first defeat and forced abdication of Napoleon though knocked the heart out of the French and they agreed to a truce. Wellesley was made Duke of Wellington. On the escape and return to power of Napoleon, he left Vienna, where he had been holding a diplomatic post as Ambassador to France, and marched to Holland, preparatory to meeting England's old adversary on the fields of Waterloo.
It should be noted that, though I've really only scanned down through the account on the duke, I have not seen yet any indication that he previously faced Napoleon; indeed, while the French emperor was at large it seems Wellesley was abroad in the Iberian peninsula fighting, so I think I can safely say that, while the two of them are linked forever by history as bitter rivals and well-matched generals, Waterloo, which we now return to, was the first actual meeting of the two great men.
Although he had only been at large again for just over four months, the strength of feeling and support for Napoleon was such that he had already a force of 300,000 men fighting for him, though only a third of them had marched with him to Waterloo. Though this was still more than Wellington commanded, it was less than the combined forces of he and Blucher, so mindful of the power of propaganda and disinformation, Napoleon had spread rumours that Wellington's forces would be unable to access supplies, as their lines at the coastal ports would be cut. He then moved towards Charleroi, intending to get between the two forces and separate them, to allow him to take on first one then the other instead of having to face them both together. He struck in the small hours of the morning (I think I'm right in saying he may have gone against what would have been seen as chivalric rules here, which usually demanded combat during the day, but I could have got that wrong. Either way, I doubt they were prepared for such an attack) and pushed the Prussian forces back as morning turned to afternoon, and by midnight they had crossed the River Sambre, the only obstacle between them and Brussels, where Wellington was camped.
Perhaps it demonstrates how “civilised” war was seen as back then, but Wellington was actually at a ball when he got the news of the French breaking through. To be fair, he and Blucher had both expected, knowing Napoleon's tactics, that the emperor might make a feint on one side while attacking on the other, thereby drawing off their forces on the wrong side, so they were both reluctant to commit to any perceived attack until they were sure it was a genuine one. Once he learned this was “it”, so to speak, Wellington moved fast. He joined the Prince of Orange at Quatre Bras, which, although it sounds like an endorsement of a very heavily-endowed woman and how she has to restrain her cleavage, is in fact a small hamlet in Belgium. Marshal Ney was forcing back the Prince when Wellington arrived and drove him off, securing the crossroads. His arrival was too late to help the Prussians though, who had already been defeated. Napoleon, with his ingrained contempt for the English – he had once described them, famously, as “a nation of shop-keepers”, believed the army under Blucher the bigger threat, and so led the attack against Wellington's ally. The two armies clashed in what became known as the Battle of Ligny.
One thing that could not be said about the French under Napoleon was that they were lacking in experience. They were all brave men, fanatically loyal to their emperor, and most were veterans of his many campaigns. However, on the flip side of that, Napoleon had had to assemble his army rather hastily after his escape, and as a result few of the men had fought previously alongside each other, and so did not know each other. Trust in the emperor was total, trust among the ranks in each other was not so much so. Against this, the Prussians were also in a state of reorganisation, so much so that they were short of artillery and this continued to arrive even as the battle took place. Talk about your JIT! * As if that wasn't enough, many of the men, in contrast to their enemy, were new and untrained, and lacked weapons. Saxon and Rhinelander regiments, which had been recently part of the French Army, mostly deserted and fu
cked off home, unwilling to take part in a battle that was basically against their own people and really having nothing to gain by standing and dying with these
verdammt Prussians.
In addition to this, Napoleon brought his Imperial Guard, his crack troops to bear on Ligny and the fighting was intense. Like many battles, ground was won, lost, retaken, lost again and so on, but the main casualty of this battle was the loss – temporarily, but morally crushing – of Blucher, whose own horse fell upon him when it was shot, and who had to be carried from the field. Blucher, not his horse. His command was taken over by Lieutenant-General August von Gneisnau, who, rather than retreat and leave Wellington alone, instead pushed towards him, keeping lines of communication open.
As we learned in my History of Ireland journal, he who can select the terrain for a battle often wins it, and as Napoleon was approaching the site Wellington had chosen – Waterloo – the Duke was able to use the setting to his advantage. Neither were on home soil, of course, but Wellington knew how to use the terrain and his enemy was forced to come to him. In effect, Wellington was fighting a defensive action while the French attacked. Wellington was able to garrison troops in the large
Château d'Hougomont, which would be difficult for Napoleon's forces to take. He also garrisoned the hamlet of Papolotte, which covered his northern flank and also commanded the road along which his reinforcements from Gneisnau were due to approach. To the west he was covered by placing another garrison in the country house of
La Haye Sainte and sharpshooters – what we would call today snipers – across the road in a disused quarry.
The reinforcements, however, had to contend with heavy rain and even a fire breaking out in Wavre, slowing their movements as they tried to drag their artillery through thick muck and along narrow streets. Even so, they arrived far quicker than Napoleon expected. He had anticipated the Prussians would need two days at least to reach Waterloo; they began arriving five hours after he had sat down, apparently unconcerned and full of confidence (or arrogance) to breakfast like a man with no worries. The rain-sodden terrain affected him too, of course, and he opted to delay moving in his artillery and cavalry. Had he known how close the Prussians were, presumably he would have forced their deployment despite the less than ideal conditions.
Attacking on two fronts, Napoleon sent a brigade to take the forest and park around the Chataeau, and another to attack
Hougoumont itself. The force attacking the woods cleared it of all English and Coalition troops but its general was killed, and the companies forced back, as British artillery opened up. As they began an exchange of fire with the French guns, the assault on
Hougoumont allowed the French to force open the gate and they poured into the courtyard, but reinforcements from the Coldstream Guards and the Scots Guard trapped them there, and they were all killed. French artillery shelled the house, all but destroying it, as the battle heated up, but the defenders held out. Wellington was later to remark that
"the success of the battle turned upon closing the gates at Hougoumont"
Meanwhile, the King's German Legion defended the other bulding, the farmhouse
La Haye Sainte, which came under attack during the afternoon and fared worse. A charge by cavalry helped but ultimately left the British in a worse situation, as cavalry officers were well known for their “charge first, strategise later” attitude, and finding themselves more or less having been carried headlong beyond La Haye Sainte, and facing the French guns, charged at the artillery batteries with no real idea of what they were doing. Though they had some success, they were routed as the French retaliated, most of them trapped in the valley.
Wellington had little time or respect for cavalry, declaring
“Our officers of cavalry have acquired a trick of galloping at everything. They never consider the situation, never think of manoeuvring before an enemy, and never keep back or provide a reserve.” He also believed them inferior to those of the French, admitting
"I considered one squadron a match for two French, I didn't like to see four British opposed to four French: and as the numbers increased and order, of course, became more necessary I was the more unwilling to risk our men without having a superiority in numbers." Estimates vary about even the number of cavalry present at the battle, but even on a very basic reading of figures it seems they lost half their strength in men and horses.
Blunders and overexuberance were not however confined to the British side. At around 4pm, Marshal Ney mistook the movement of casualties to the rear of Wellington's forces as a sign they were retreating, and thought this a good time to bring in his own cavalry. The British formed up in squares, four ranks of men supporting each other and therefore impregnable to cavalry attack, and the French suffered great losses. However they were more successful back at La Haye Sainte, where the defenders had literally run out of ammunition, and were overrun. Setting this up now as an artillery spot, Ney was able to do great damage to the British lines from what had been one of their own strongholds. The Prince of Orange, never the greatest of tacticians and more about show than strategy, ordered a battalion to take it back, and only succeeded in having them all killed while trying to do so.