Battle of Waterloo

The Battle of Waterloo

The Battle of Waterloo took place on June 18, 1815 in Belgium. It marked the beginning of the end of The Hundred Days, Napoleon's attempt at regaining power after his initial defeat the previous year.

Once the United Kingdom's 67,000-strong army, under the Duke of Wellington, had forced a precarious stalemate against Napoleon's 73,000, Gebhard Leberecht von Blucher's Prussian forces arrived and were able to achieve decisive numerical superiority, forcing Napoleon out.

The battle marked the end of Napoleon's reign and his exile to the island of Saint Helena in the South Atlantic.

Preliminary

Napoleon's return from Elba marked the beginning of The Hundred Days and on March 18, 1815 he was declared an outlaw by the Congress of Vienna. This marked the mobilization of the Seventh Coalition armies. The British formed an army consisting of British, Nassau and Dutch troops to form an army. The Prussians created two armies, one under Prince Blucher and another under General Kliest with Prussian, and North German allied states. Russia assembled an army of 250,000 men under Prince Barcley de Tolly and the Austrians provided two additional armies under General Schwarzenburg and Archduke Charles. The King of Spain assembled an army placing it under English officers and began moving to the frontier.

The Waterloo Campaign

Napoleon began a massive call up and soon had Le Armie Du Nord (Army of the North) prepared. The Army of the North was about 117,000 strong. This was moved with great stealth to the northern border of Belgium. In this area the British had assembled an army of some 97,000 and the Prussians another army of 105,000. Both allied armies had been spread out in an effort to be easier on the population they depended on for assistance.

The Prussian Army

The Prussian army was in the throes of reorganization as its reserve regiments became line regiments along with many of the previous 1814 Landwehr regiments and its artillery was also reorganizing and would not give its best performance, though its militia, the Landwehr, was significantly better than other militias. It was under the command of Blücher, though in fact much of its operation was directed by his chief-of-staff, Gneisenau, who greatly distrusted Wellington. Two and a half Prussian army corps or 48,000 men, were engaged in the battle by about 18:00. (Two brigades under Friedrich von Bülow, commander of the IV Corps, attacked Lobau at 16:30, Georg von Pirch's II Corps and parts of Graf von Ziethen's I Corps engaged at about 18:00.)

June 16th

Despite the efforts at deception the Prussians quickly understood where the French army was and proceeded to interfere with it. The Prussian 1st Corp began an all day delaying effort while the Prussian army assembled. The British army was somewhat slower to react as Wellington's spy network was either interfered with or was actively giving him disinformation. Lord Wellington did not begin assembly of his army until the evening.

Battle of Quatra Bra

Marshall Ney in command of the French Army's left wing marched to Quatra Bra and found it defended by Dutch units who were determined to hold their ground. The Prince of Orange arrived and disregarded orders to retreat, choosing to reinforce the position. Marshall Ney believing that he was facing far more troops than was the case was tentative in his attacks at first. Lord Wellington was rushing formations to assist with all speed. As evening fell the British forces outnumbered the French and the position was held.

Battle of Ligny

Napoleon had wished to attack the British first but this was impossible as the Prussians were by now already assembled with 3/4 of their forces in and around the village of Ligny. In a four hour battle Napoleon would earn his last victory. The carnage was great with 11,000 French and 22,000 Prussians dead on the field. Great though the victory was (as the Prussians had more men on the field than the French) it contained all the seeds for the eventual defeat at Waterloo. While the Prussians were defeated they were not routed and proceeded to calmly march off the battlefield with some units not leaving until the next morning. This left a organized and determined army ready to act against the French army.

The retreat of the Prussians was never interrupted, and was seemingly unnoticed by the French. By nightfall, at about 2100, almost all of the Prussian formations had left the field. On the Prussian right, Lieutenant-General Ziethen's I Corps retreated slowly with most of its artillery, leaving a rearguard close to Brye to slow the French pursuit. On the left, Lieutenant-General Thielemann's III Corps retreated unharmed, leaving a strong rearguard at Sombreffe. The bulk of the rearguard held their positions until about midnight, before following the rest of the retreating army. In fact, Zieten's 1st Corps rearguard units only left the battlefield in the early morning of 17 June, as the exhausted French failed to press on. Pirchs II Corps followed the 1st Corp off the battlefield and Thielemans III Corps moved last with the armies various parks in tow. It should be noted that the last of III Corps was moved in the morning completely ignored. Von Bülow's IV Corps moved south of Wavre and setup strong rear guard positions for the army to quickly reasemble. General Blücher was already in communications with General Wellington

June 17th

This day saw the British forces move to the Mont Saint Jean (Waterloo) position and prepare to receive the French attack. The Prussian Army moved to the Village of Wavre with all 4 corps now assembled.

June 18th

Sources

Chesny, Charles A: Waterloo Lectures:A Study Of The Campaign Of 1815 ISBN 1428649883 Hofschröer, Peter: 1815, The Waterloo Campaign: The German Victory;Greenhill Books (London); ISBN 1-85367-368-4