WATERLOO, 18
June 1815 On February 26th
1815, barely ten months after the end of the Peninsular War, Napoleon
sailed from Elba to bring about the end of his brief period of exile. It
was the beginning of the final, momentous chapter of the Napoleonic Wars
that would culminate in the great battle of Waterloo and Napoleon's final
downfall. The campaign was also to result in a head to head between the
two great commanders of the age, Wellington and Napoleon, two men who had
yet to face each other in battle.
Napoleon landed in
France on March 1st and entered Paris on March 20th. He immediately set to
work raising an army, the so-called Army of the North which, by the time
of the Waterloo campaign consisted of 125,000 men. Facing Napoleon were
the armies of the Seventh Coalition - it had declared Napoleon `an enemy
and disturber of the world' - which numbered as many as 800,000 men. But
of the various armies opposed to him it would be the Anglo-Dutch army,
under Wellington, and Marshal Blucher's Army of the Lower Rhine that would
be the object of Napoleon's thrust in June 1815.
Wellington's
Anglo-Dutch army was a marked contrast to that which had triumphed in the
Peninsula, that particular army having been dispersed and scattered around
the world, mainly to America, and only a handful of his Peninsular
regiments would be present with him at Waterloo. Many of these were
already in Holland having served with Sir Thomas Graham's force which had
taken part in the campaign against Bergen-op-Zoom in 1813 and 1814. In
fact, only 34,000 of the 100,000 troops under Wellington were British, the
rest being Germans, Hanoverians and Brunswickers, all good troops, and a
large contingent of Nassauers, Dutch and Belgians. It was, as Wellington
was moved to write, `an infamous army, very weak and ill-equipped.' His
staff was very inexperienced, although he did have several `old heads'
from the Peninsula, such as Hill, Picton, Alten, Kempt, Pack and Somerset.
He also had the services of the Earl of Uxbridge as commander of the
Allied cavalry. Uxbridge had eloped with the latter's sister-in-law early
on in the Peninsular campaign and following the Corunna campaign of
1808-09 saw no further service. As a result of this the British cavalry in
the Peninsula was deprived of the only real cavalry commander the British
Army possessed. Nevertheless, old differences having been settled,
Uxbridge was to lead the cavalry with distinction during the Waterloo
campaign.
On June 15th 1815
Napoleon's army crossed the Sambre, catching Wellington, who was dancing
the night away with his officers at the now-famous ball, given by the
Duchess of Richmond, by surprise. His army had concentrated to the south
of Brussels with Blucher's Prussians on its left. Napoleon's plan was to
drive a wedge between the two and fight each army separately. It was
vital, therefore, to prevent co-operation between the two and on June 16th
the two battles designed to ensure this were fought. At Ligny, Napoleon
himself attacked Blucher and gave him a severe mauling while Ney, with
about 42,000 men, attacked Wellington at the crossroads at Quatre Bras.
The end result of a day of hard, confused fighting was that Blucher,
having been forced to retreat north, in turn forced Wellington to withdraw
in the same direction, marching parallel with the Prussians and keeping in
close contact with them throughout.
By the evening of
June 17th Wellington had drawn his army up along a ridge barring the road
to Brussels, just south of the village of Mont St Jean. The position was a
good one and afforded Wellington a `reverse slope', upon which the
majority of his troops were deployed, out of sight of the French. On
Wellington's left flank were the farms of Papelotte and La Haye and the
village of Frischermont. The centre was protected by the farm of La Haye
Sainte, and the right wing by the chateau of Hougoumont, a particularly
strong position held by the light companies of the Foot Guards. Both of
these latter two positions lay a good distance in front of the main Allied
position on the ridge. Wellington's troops numbered 68,000 including
12,000 cavalry. He had 156 guns with him also. A further 17,000 Allied
troops were left at Hal, a few miles away to the west, in order to protect
his right flank against any outflanking manoeuvre Napoleon might attempt
in order to cut him off from his base at Antwerp. Napoleon's army numbered
72,000 including 16,000 cavalry. With 256 guns at his disposal he
outnumbered Wellington by nearly 100.
Wellington's
decision to fight was based on assurances given him by Blucher that the
Prussians, rather than retreat away from him, would march west in order to
fall upon the French right flank. In order to prevent such a move Napoleon
sent Marshal Grouchy with 30,000 men to pursue the Prussians and keep them
from coming to Wellington's assistance The absence of these 30,000 troops
would be a significant factor in the outcome of the battle.
The battle of
Waterloo began at some time between 11.30 and noon on Sunday, June 18th,
with an assault by Jerome Bonaparte's division upon the chateau of
Hougoumont, held by the light companies of the Foot Guards. The attack was
intended to be merely a feint, the intention being to draw troops away
from the Allied centre which was to be the real target for Napoleon.
Jerome, however, threw more and more men into the attack until the fight
for Hougoumont became almost a battle within a battle, the Guards hanging
on grimly throughout the day in the face on intense French pressure. The
most dangerous moment for the defenders of Hougoumont came at around 12.30
when Jerome's men forced open the north gates of the chateau and were only
forced out after a desperate piece of defending led by Lieutenant Colonel
James Macdonnell, of the Coldstream Guards. The chateau would remain in
British hands for the rest of the day, even as flames burnt most of it to
the ground following French artillery bombardment.
At about 1.30pm the
second phase of the battle began when Napoleon launched D'Erlon's corps
against the Allied centre and left. The attack was preceded by a massive
artillery bombardment from 80 guns of Napoleon's `grand battery'. The
attack demonstrated that the French had learned little from the Peninsular
War as they came on in bulky, unwieldy columns. `They came on in the old
style and were driven off in the old style,' Wellington remarked later,
although at first D'Erlon was successful. Indeed, Bylandt's Belgian
brigade was broken and the steady volleys from both Pack's and Kempt's
brigades could not halt the columns. The French reached the top of the
ridge only to be met by Picton's division which burst through some hedges
and unleashed a terrific volley into the massed ranks of muddy,
blue-jacketed Frenchmen. The attack came shuddering to a halt in the face
of a withering fire from Picton's men, most of whom were veterans of the
Peninsula. Tragically, Picton was killed at the moment of triumph, for he
fell dead from his horse with a musket ball in his forehead. He died
cheering his men on, cursing them as usual as he had done so often in
Spain and Portugal. It is perhaps fitting that Picton, the veteran of so
many of Wellington's great victories in the Peninsula, should meet his end
at the greatest triumph of them all.
While Picton's men
stepped over his dead body to press home their attack, Uxbridge chose the
moment to launch his cavalry against the disorganised Frenchmen. D'Erlon's
commanders tried desperately to reorganise their men but were suddenly
swept away by an avalanche, formed of Uxbridge's Union Brigade, consisting
of the 1st (Royals), 2nd (Scots Greys) and the 6th (Enniskilling)
Dragoons. The Scots Greys had seen no active service since 1795 but made
up this absence with a vengeance as they smashed into the shocked ranks of
terrified Frenchmen who surrendered in their thousands. During the charge
Sergeant Ewart, of the Greys, captured the eagle of the French 45th Ligne
Regiment, whilst on the brigade's right the Household Brigade charged,
delivering an equally devastating attack against D'Erlon's battered
columns. During its attack the Household Brigade also took an eagle.
Unfortunately, the triumphant cavalrymen, the Union Brigade in particular,
became carried away with their success and charged on despite the sounding
of the recall. The Scots Greys charged right up to Napoleon's guns,
slaughtering the gunners and spiking many guns but their horses were soon
blown and the Scotsmen suffered a severe mauling following a
counter-attack by enemy cavalry, during which Major General Sir William
Ponsonby, the brigade commander, was killed. Nevertheless, the attack had
completely smashed D'Erlon's corps, some 3,000 Frenchmen being killed or
wounded, while a further 3,000 were herded over the ridge towards Brussels
as prisoners.
At about 4pm
Wellington ordered the Allied line to pull back a short distance in the
face the continuous heavy French artillery bombardment. This order was
perceived by Marshal Ney to be a withdrawal upon which he ordered a
massive cavalry attack by up to 10,000 French cavalry who cantered up -
charging was almost impossible over the muddy ground - time and time again
to engulf the Allied infantry squares which stood steady on the reverse
slope of the ridge. These attacks continued for about two hours and yet
achieved nothing, mainly due to the fact that the cavalry were unsupported
by artillery. In fact, the infantry squares welcomed the attacks as they
gave then some release from the tortuous artillery bombardment that rained
down upon them throughout the day and as long as the squares held firm
there was little danger.
Even as Napoleon's
cavalry thundered up the ridge of Mont St Jean the Emperor looked eastward
in dismay as dark columns of troops began to appear on his right flank.
They were Blucher's Prussians. Napoleon despatched his Young Guard and
Middle Guard to the village of Plancenoit where bitter fighting raged as
both French and Prussians fought to the death. The village changed hands
several times before Blucher's men finally held on to the place.
In the centre of
Wellington's position, meanwhile, a crisis had occurred with Ney's capture
of the farmhouse of La Haye Sainte. The defenders, the 2nd King's German
Legion Light Battalion, had put up a magnificent resistance all day but
when their ammunition finally ran out they were forced to abandon the
place. Major Baring, the commanding officer, and barely forty men made it
back to the main Allied position. The fall of La Haye Sainte enabled the
French gunners to bring their pieces to within just a few hundred yards of
the centre of Wellington's line which reeled under the weight of this new
onslaught and even Wellington's seasoned British troops found it difficult
to remember anything worse happening to them in the Peninsula. The climax
of the battle had finally arrived.
The effect that the
fall of the farmhouse had on the Allied line was not lost on Napoleon who
realised that now was the time to launch his Imperial Guard into the
attack. It was now or never, for if he could not defeat Wellington before
the Prussians made their presence felt then the consequences for him and
his empire would be catastrophic.
Napoleon duly turned
to his Imperial Guard, those faithful warriors who had been kicking at his
heels for years as together they had marched to glory after glory. The
Imperial Guard had yet to taste defeat and it was with great confidence
that seven battalions of the Guard, supported by guns, set out across the
muddy fields, churned up by the earlier cavalry attacks. It is somewhat
surprising that the Guard took this route as it would, possibly, have been
easier to march directly up the Brussels road and smash through
Wellington's centre. However, Napoleon's veterans turned off the main road
and headed for that part of the ridge held by Maitland's Brigade of
Guards. It is perhaps fitting that the decisive chapter of the final,
great battle of the Napoleonic Wars should come down to a clash between
the finest troops that both Napoleon and Wellington could offer, the
Imperial Guard and the 1st Foot Guards.
The Imperial Guard
advanced across the muddy ground in squares, the Guard not wanting to
taste what D'Erlon's troops had tasted earlier in the day. From ground
level, of course, these dense squares gave the appearance of being columns
and thus gave rise to the endless arguments as to just exactly what was
the Imperial Guard's formation. As the French approached the ridge they
separated into two, one body of troops heading for the 30th and 73rd
Regiments and the other heading straight towards Maitland's Foot Guards.
The attack was in many ways a repetition of so many of the French infantry
attacks in the Peninsula. To the Imperial Guard the ridge looked deserted
but just before it, lying in the corn, were two battalion's of the 1st
Foot Guards and just at the moment when the French saw victory within
their grasp Wellington shouted, `Up Guards, Make Ready, Fire!' All at once
the Imperial Guard saw its path blocked by a long red barrier which seemed
to spring up from the ground itself. The French hardly had time to gather
their wits about them before a series of devastating volleys tore them to
shreds, sending them reeling and staggering backwards. The Foot Guards
advanced to press home their attack, many of them `firing from the hip',
so close was the range. As the Imperial Guard began to fall back Sir John
Colborne's 52nd Light Infantry wheeled round to pour more musketry into
its shocked ranks, the enfilade fire of the Peninsular veterans finally
breaking the Frenchmen's resolve and sending them streaming away to the
rear.
We'd like to thank
Ian Fletcher, renowned military author on the Peninsula and Waterloo, for
his contribution to our website.
