Battle of Waterloo
18 June 1815 · in Battle View, played out step by step on the ground where it was fought
On 18 June 1815 Wellington's Anglo-allied army and Blücher's Prussians defeated Napoleon near Waterloo in present-day Belgium, ending the Napoleonic Wars.
The sides
- France, led by Napoleon: about 73,000 men
- Allies, led by Wellington: about 68,000 men
- Prussia, led by Blücher: about 50,000 men
States that fought: First French Empire, Kingdom of Great Britain, Kingdom of Prussia, Netherlands.
How it went
Battle of Waterloo
Napoleon is back from exile and Europe is at war with him again. Two days after beating the Prussians at Ligny he faces Wellington's British, Dutch and German army on the ridge of Mont-Saint-Jean, south of Brussels. The Prussians have promised to come.
The armies deploy
A night of rain has turned the fields to mud, and Napoleon waits until late morning for the ground to dry. Wellington keeps most of his men behind the crest, out of sight, with farms in front as strongpoints.
Hougoumont
At half past eleven Reille's corps attacks the walled farm of Hougoumont, meant as a feint. It becomes a battle of its own, swallowing more and more French troops all day.
d'Erlon's attack
After a bombardment from the grand battery, d'Erlon's 18,000 men march up the slope against the Allied left in great dense columns.
The Union Brigade charges
Uxbridge's heavy cavalry crashes into the columns and sends them reeling, then gallops on into the grand battery, where French lancers cut it to pieces.
Ney's cavalry charges
Ney mistakes Allied movements for a retreat and sends wave after wave of cavalry against the Allied centre. The infantry forms squares and holds. To the east, the first Prussians appear.
Plancenoit
La Haye Sainte falls, and French guns open on Wellington's centre from close range. Behind the French, Bülow's Prussians storm into the village of Plancenoit; Napoleon has to send Lobau and part of his Guard to stop them.
The Guard attacks
At half past seven Napoleon sends in the Imperial Guard, unbeaten in a decade, up the slope against the Allied right centre. Zieten's Prussians arrive at Papelotte on Wellington's left.
The Guard falls back
"La Garde recule!" The Guard breaks under point-blank volleys, and the whole French army comes apart as Wellington's line advances and the Prussians pour in. France loses some 25,000 dead and wounded and 8,000 captured; the Allies 17,000, the Prussians 7,000. Napoleon abdicates four days later.
Numbers rounded from the usual modern counts. Units are whole corps and wings, drawn where they stood for most of each phase.
People and wars
- Napoleon (1769 CE – 1821 CE): Corsican-born general who seized power in France in 1799 and crowned himself Emperor in 1804. He conquered much of Europe before his defeat in 1815 and died in exile on Saint Helena.