Battle of Waterloo

Background

Napoleon escaped from Elba and landed in France on 1 March 1815, and within three weeks he was back in Paris and Louis XVIII had fled. The powers of the Seventh Coalition declared him an outlaw and began to mass armies against him. The nearest were in Belgium: the Duke of Wellington's Anglo-allied army around Brussels and Prince Blücher's Prussians to its east, with much larger Austrian and Russian forces still gathering on the Rhine.

Napoleon could not wait for the Coalition to concentrate. On 15 June he crossed the Sambre at Charleroi with the Armée du Nord, aiming at the seam between the two Allied armies so that he could beat each in turn. On 16 June he defeated Blücher at Ligny, where the Prussians lost some 16,000 killed and wounded and about 8,000 more who fled in the night, while Marshal Ney fought Wellington to a standstill at Quatre Bras. The Prussians fell back north towards Wavre rather than east along their own lines of communication, which kept them within reach of Wellington.

On 17 June Wellington withdrew to a ridge across the Brussels road at Mont-Saint-Jean, south of the village of Waterloo and about 12 miles from Brussels, on the promise that Blücher would join him there. Napoleon followed with the main army and sent Marshal Grouchy, with about 33,000 men, to pursue the Prussians. Heavy rain fell through the night, and the French attack next morning did not begin until late in the morning.

The armies

Napoleon brought some 72,000–74,500 men and around 250 guns to the field. The Armée du Nord was rich in veterans and included the Imperial Guard, but its command was uneven: Soult, an experienced marshal but a new chief of staff, replaced the absent Berthier, and Ney handled much of the tactical direction. The main formations were Reille's II Corps on the left, d'Erlon's I Corps on the right, Lobau's VI Corps and the Guard in reserve, and the cavalry corps of Milhaud and Kellermann.

Wellington's army of about 68,000 and 156 guns was a coalition in miniature: roughly 31,000 British, 17,000 Dutch-Belgians, 11,000 Hanoverians, 6,000 Brunswickers and 3,000 Nassauers. Many units were inexperienced, stiffened by Peninsular veterans. He posted most of his infantry behind the crest of the ridge, out of sight and partly out of reach of the French guns, and held three farms in front of it as breakwaters: Hougoumont on the right, La Haye Sainte in the centre and Papelotte on the left.

Blücher's army, rebuilt by its General Staff under Gneisenau within two days of Ligny, sent Bülow's IV Corps, Pirch's II Corps and Zieten's I Corps, about 48,000–50,000 men and 126 guns, while Thielmann's III Corps held Grouchy at Wavre.

The battle

CDB90 records the whole day as a single engagement, number 145 (WATERLOO), from 11:30 to 21:30. Times below are approximate; eyewitnesses and later accounts differ by up to an hour.

Hougoumont (from about 11:20–11:30). The battle opened on the French left, where Reille's corps, led by Prince Jérôme's division, attacked the walled château and farm of Hougoumont. Intended as a diversion, it drew in more and more French infantry through the afternoon. The garrison of British Guards, Nassauers and Hanoverians was driven from the wood and orchard and the buildings were set alight, but the château was never taken.

The Grand Battery and d'Erlon's attack (about 12:00–14:30). Around midday a massed battery opened on Wellington's centre-left, though the wet ground and the reverse slope blunted its effect. At about 13:15 Napoleon saw Prussian troops near Chapelle-Saint-Lambert, some miles to his right, and sent Lobau and cavalry to face them. At about 13:30 d'Erlon's I Corps advanced in large, deep formations against the Allied left-centre east of La Haye Sainte. It reached the hedged lane along the crest, where Picton's division met it and Picton was killed. The Earl of Uxbridge then launched the Household and Union cavalry brigades, which broke the French columns, took thousands of prisoners and two eagles, but galloped on into the Grand Battery and were cut up by French lancers and cuirassiers.

The cavalry charges (from about 16:00). Seeing Allied units shift back from the crest, Ney took it for the start of a withdrawal and led massed cavalry, first Milhaud's cuirassiers, then Kellermann's and the Guard cavalry, against the ground between Hougoumont and La Haye Sainte. Wellington's infantry formed squares. For around an hour and a half the horsemen charged again and again with little infantry or horse-artillery support, and failed to break a single square.

Plancenoit (from about 16:30). Bülow's IV Corps attacked Lobau and pushed into the village of Plancenoit, behind the French right and close to Napoleon's line of retreat. The village changed hands several times; Napoleon committed the Young Guard and then battalions of the Old Guard to hold it.

La Haye Sainte falls (about 18:00–18:30). The King's German Legion garrison of La Haye Sainte, running out of ammunition, was finally overrun. French guns and skirmishers pushed up close to Wellington's centre, which came under severe pressure. At about the same time Zieten's I Corps began arriving on Wellington's far left around Papelotte and Smohain, allowing Wellington's left-flank cavalry to move to the centre.

The Guard attacks (about 19:00–19:30). Napoleon sent battalions of the Middle Guard up the slope west of La Haye Sainte. They were stopped by British Guards, Halkett's brigade and Chassé's Dutch-Belgian division, and the 52nd Foot of Adam's brigade wheeled into their flank. The sight of the Guard falling back, with Zieten breaking in on the right, set off a collapse along the French line.

Rout (about 20:00–22:00). Wellington ordered a general advance, the Prussians took Plancenoit for good, and the French army dissolved, with Old Guard squares covering the retreat. Wellington and Blücher met near La Belle Alliance late in the evening, and Prussian cavalry kept up the pursuit through the night.

Aftermath

The French lost about 25,000 killed and wounded and 8,000 prisoners, with estimates of their total loss running up to nearly 40,000, along with most of their artillery. Wellington's army lost about 17,000 and the Prussians about 7,000. At least 7,000 horses were killed or wounded.

The Armée du Nord disintegrated. Napoleon abdicated for the second time on 22 June, the Allies entered Paris on 7 July, and he was exiled to St Helena, where he died in 1821. The National Army Museum calls it the decisive battle of its age: it ended Napoleon's imperial power and 23 years of almost continuous war, and the settlement that followed kept the peace among the great powers until the Crimean War.

The argument about who won it began almost at once. Wellington named the battle after his headquarters village; the Prussians preferred La Belle Alliance, and the French often call it Mont-Saint-Jean. British accounts long played down the Prussian role, and later historians have insisted that Wellington fought on that ridge only because Blücher had promised to come. The other perennial debates are French: why Napoleon started so late, why Ney's cavalry charged unsupported, and why Grouchy did not march to the sound of the guns. The battlefield, with the Lion's Mound raised by King William I of the Netherlands, is one of the most visited in Europe.

Wargaming it

Waterloo is compact enough to game whole. The fighting took place on a narrow front, and the full battle works at brigade level, with one base or unit per brigade and turns of 30 minutes to an hour, on a table that can also take the Prussian approach routes from the east. At battalion level the sectors stand alone well: Hougoumont, La Haye Sainte, d'Erlon's attack and the cavalry counter-charge, or the street fighting in Plancenoit.

The key terrain is subtle but decisive: the reverse slope that hid Wellington's infantry, the hedged lane along the crest, the three fortified farms and the soft ground after the night's rain. Rules need to make farm garrisons hard to dig out and to reward Wellington for keeping his men behind the crest.

Timing is the heart of the game. The French player is racing a Prussian arrival clock, and the scenario designer has to decide when Bülow, Zieten and Pirch appear and whether that is fixed or variable. The interesting what-ifs follow from it: an earlier French start, Grouchy marching to the guns, La Haye Sainte falling an hour sooner, or Ney's cavalry kept in hand until infantry and guns could support it. Balance is the main trap: played historically, the French lose, so victory conditions should reward them for holding Plancenoit or breaking Wellington's centre by a given hour. Wellington's choices are subtler: when to commit his reserve, and whether his detachment at Hal could have been recalled.

Maps and pictures

Paintings and prints

Paintings and prints of the battle, from the time and the century after, by year: free-to-use pictures from the battle's category on Wikimedia Commons. Each opens its file page there, with the full caption and source.