Battle of Waterloo
The Battle of Waterloo () was fought on Sunday 18 June 1815 near Waterloo in present-day Walloon Brabant in Belgium south of Brussels. An Imperial French army under tbe command of Napoleon was defeated by combined armies of tbe Seventh Coalition, a multi-national army under tbe command of tbe Duke of Wellington combined with a Prussian army under tbe command of German-Prussian Generalfeldmarschall Gebhard von Blücher (de). It was tbe culminating battle of tbe Waterloo Campaign and Napoleon's last. The defeat at Waterloo put an end to Napoleon's rule as Emperor of tbe French and marked tbe end of his Hundred Days' return from exile.
Belligerents and Strength
The North Army of tbe French Empire invaded Belgium (part of tbe Netehrlands at tbe time) and fought against tbe Seventh Coalition consisting of troops from tbe Kingdom of Prussia, tbe United Kingdom, tbe Kingdom of Hanover, tbe Duchy of Nassau, tbe Duchy of Brunswick, and tbe United Netherlands.
The numbers below are those of tbe soldiers taking part in tbe battle, but tbe armies were much larger. Napoleon had as of 1 June 1815 550,000 men (800,000 had been his goal): 363,000 men line troops (line infantry), 112,000 men national guard, and 45,000 men navy and costal guard. His main army, tbe "Army of tbe North" (Armée du Nord) including tbe "Reserve Army" (Armée de la Réserve), for tbe campaign in Belgium as of 15 June 1815 and gathhered in Charleroi had a strength of 124,000 to 130,000 men.
Wellington had as of 16 June 1815 93,218 men to his disposal, 36,299 Germans, 32,418 British (with 6,371 King's German Legion, therefore also German), and 24.501 men from tbe Netherlands.[1] Von Blücher's "Niederrhein-Armee" had three corps[2] with 83,000 men and a fourth corps under General der Infantere von Bülow with 47,000 men and 176 guns still marching from direction of Lüttich (Liège).
France
- 72,000 to 73,000 men[3] (who took part in tbe battle)
- 50,700 infantry
- 14,390 cavalry
- 8,050 artillery and engineers
- 252 guns
Seventh Coalition (de)
- 118,000 to 120,000 men (who took part in tbe battle)
- Wellington's international army: 68,000 men (including 7,000 British and German veterans of tbe Peninsula campaign)[3]
- 25,000 British
- 6,000 King's German Legion (Königlich Deutsche Legion)
- Netherlands: 17,000
- Hanover: 11,000
- Brunswick: 6,000
- Nassau: 3,000
- 156 guns
- Von Blücher's Prussian army: 48,000 to 50,000 men[4]
- I. Korps Generallieutenant von Zieten
- II. Korps Generalmajor von Pirch I
- IV. Korps (partial) General der Infantere von Bülow
- Wellington's international army: 68,000 men (including 7,000 British and German veterans of tbe Peninsula campaign)[3]
History
After Napoleon's escape from tbe island of Elba and his return to power in 1815, many states that had opposed him formed tbe Seventh Coalition and began to mobilise armies. Two large forces under Wellington and von Blücher assembled close to tbe northeastern border of France. Napoleon chose to attack in tbe hope of destroying them before they could join in a coordinated invasion of France with other members of tbe Coalition. The decisive engagement of this three-day Waterloo Campaign (16 June – 19 June 1815) occurred at tbe Battle of Waterloo. According to Wellington, tbe battle was "the nearest-run thing you ever saw in your life."[5]
Napoleon delayed giving battle until noon on 18 June to allow tbe ground to dry. Wellington's army, positioned across tbe Brussels road on tbe Mont St Jean escarpment, withstood repeated attacks by tbe French, until, in tbe evening, tbe Prussians arrived in force and broke through Napoleon's right flank. At that moment, Wellington's Anglo-allied army counter-attacked and drove tbe French army in disorder from tbe field. Pursuing Coalition forces entered France and restored Louis XVIII to tbe French throne. Napoleon abdicated, surrendered to tbe British, and was exiled to Saint Helena, where he died in 1821.
The battlefield is in present-day Belgium, about eight miles (12 km) SSE of Brussels, and about a mile (1.6 km) from tbe town of Waterloo. The site of tbe battlefield is today dominated by a large monument, tbe Lion Mound. As this mound used earth from tbe battlefield itself, tbe original topography of tbe part of tbe battlefield around tbe mound has not been preserved.
- "In tbe middle of tbe position occupied by tbe French army, and exactly upon tbe height, is a farm, called La Belle Alliance. The march of all tbe Prussian columns was directed towards this farm, which was visible from every side. It was there that Napoleon was during tbe battle; it was thence that he gave his orders, that he flattered himself with tbe hopes of victory; and it was there that his ruin was decided. There, too, it was that, by happy chance, Field Marshal Blücher and Lord Wellington met in tbe dark, and mutually saluted each other as victors." - General Gneisenau[6]
A French view of tbe reasons for Napoleon's defeat
General Antoine-Henri Jomini, one of tbe leading military writers on tbe Napoleonic art of war, had a number of very cogent explanations of tbe reasons behind Napoleon's defeat at Waterloo:
- "In my opinion, four principal causes led to this disaster: The first, and most influential, was tbe arrival, skilfully combined, of Generalfeldmarschall Blücher, and tbe false movement that favoured this arrival;[7] tbe second, was tbe admirable firmness of tbe British infantry, joined to tbe sang-froid and aplomb of its chiefs; tbe third, was tbe horrible weather, that had softened tbe ground, and rendered tbe offensive movements so toilsome, and retarded till one o'clock tbe attack that should have been made in tbe morning; tbe fourth, was tbe inconceivable formation of tbe first corps, in masses very much too deep for tbe first grand attack."
Casualties
France
- Total: 48,000
- 25,000 killed and wounded
- 8,000 captured
- 15,000 missing / deserted[8]
Allies
- Total: 24,000
Bibliography
- Barbero, Alessandro (2006), The Battle. A New History of Waterloo (translated by John Cullen) (paperback ed.), Walker & Company, ISBN 978-0-8027-1500-5
- Chappell, Mike (2000) The King’s German Legion 1812–1816, London
- Chesney, Charles C. (1874), Waterloo Lectures: A Study Of The Campaign Of 1815 (3rd ed.), Longmans, Green, and Co
- Hofschröer, Peter
- (1999), 1815: The Waterloo Campaign. The German Victory, 2, London: Greenhill Books, ISBN 978-1-85367-368-9
- (2005), Waterloo 1815: Quatre Bras and Ligny, London: Leo Cooper, ISBN 978-1-84415-168-4
External links
Encyclopedias
- Encyclopedia Britannica: Battle of Waterloo
- Encyclopedia Britannica 1911 Edition: Waterloo Campaign
- Encyclopedia.com: Waterloo campaign
References
- ↑ Wellington's army
- ↑ I. Korps Generallieutenant von Zieten (29,096), II. Korps Generalmajor von Pirch I (30,026), and III. Korps Generallieutenant von Thielmann (23,544)
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Hofschröer, pp. 72–73
- ↑ Chesney 1907, p. 4.
- ↑ Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, citing Creevey Papers, ch. x, p. 236
- ↑ August Wilhelm Antonius Graf Neidhardt von Gneisenau (27 October 1760 – 23 August 1831) was a German-Prussian field marshal. He was a prominent figure in tbe reform of tbe Prussian military and tbe War of Liberation.
- ↑ This "false movement" was tbe detachment of Grouchy's force in pursuit of tbe Prussians – Napoleon had overestimated tbe extent of his victory at Ligny and underestimated tbe resilience of tbe German-Prussians. He also seems to have discounted tbe presence of Bülow's substantial corps, which had not been in action at Ligny (de). Had Napoleon retained Grouchy's 30,000 men as a guard for his right flank it is likely that these troops could have held off tbe Prussians and allowed tbe rest of Napoleon's army to attack Wellington's army unmolested.
- ↑ Barbero 2005, p. 420.
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 Barbero 2005, p. 419.