Battle of Waterloo

battle_name=Battle of Waterloo

Battle

At Waterloo, Wellington had the reinforced farm Hougomont anchoring his right flank, and several other farms on his left. Napoleon faced his first major problem even before the battle began. Unsure of the Prussian Army's position since its flight from Ligny two days previously, Napoleon was all too aware of the need to begin the assault on Wellington's positions. The battle commenced at about 10:00 with an attack upon Hougoumont{{ref|start}}, but the main attack, with the most feared weapon of the era, the French field artillery, was delayed for hours until the sodden ground from the previous nights's downpour had dried out sufficiently to take the weight of the French ordnance. The mud also hindered infantry and cavalry as they trudged into position. When the French artillery eventually opened fire on Wellington's ridge at around 11:35, the expected impact on the Allied troops was diminished by the soft terrain that absorbed the impact of many of the hurtling cannon balls. In addition, Wellington had characteristically placed the majority of the Allied army behind the ridgeline so as to shield the army from the expected barrage.

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A crucial element of the French plan of battle was to draw Wellington's reserve to his right flank in defense of Hougomont. At one point, they succeeded in breaking into the farm's courtyard before being repulsed, but their attacks on the farm were eventually unsuccessful. Hougomont became a battle within a battle and, throughout that day, its defence continued to draw thousands of valuable French troops, under the command of Jerome Bonaparte, into a fruitless attack while all but a few of Wellington's reserves remained in his centre.

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At about 13:30, after receiving news of the Prussian advance to his right, Napoleon ordered Marshal Ney to send d'Erlon's infantry forward against Wellington's centre left passing to the east of the farm La Haye Sainte. The attack centred on the Belgian-Dutch 1st Brigade commanded by Major-General Willem Frederik van Bylandt, which was one of the few units placed on the forward slope of the ridge. After suffering an intense artillery bombardment and exchanging volleys with d'Erlon's leading elements for some nine minutes, van Bylandt's outnumbered soldiers were forced to retreat over the ridge and through the lines of General Thomas Picton's division. Picton's division included veteran regiments from the Peninsular campaign among which were the Highland regiments, some of the few battle-hardened regiments that remained with Wellington's British contingent at Waterloo. Picton's division moved forward over the ridgeline to engage d'Erlon. The British were likewise mauled by volley-fire and close-quarter attacks, but Picton's soldiers stood firm, eventually breaking up the attack by charging the French columns.

Related Topics:
D'Erlon - La Haye Sainte - Willem Frederik van Bylandt - Thomas Picton - Peninsular campaign

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Cavalry formations were ordered to charge in support of the infantry attack; the Household Brigade (1st and 2nd Life Guards and Royal Horse Guards), the Union Brigade (Royals, Scots Greys and Inniskillings) and Vivian?s Hussar Brigade (10th and 18th Hussars and 1st Hussars, King?s German Legion). The French assault was then driven off by the British heavy cavalry commanded by Uxbridge in the famous charge of the Scots Greys. The cavalry charge destroyed d'Erlon's column, but, rather than reform, they galloped on to attack French guns and were in turn counterattcked by French cavalry. Major-General William Ponsonby, commanding the Union Brigade was killed. This spectacular event cost the heavy cavalry so dearly that, collectively, they played little part in the remainder of the battle.

Related Topics:
Scots Greys - Uxbridge - William Ponsonby

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Meanwhile, the Prussians began to appear on the field. Napoleon sent his reserve, Lobau's VI corps and 2 cavalry divisions, some 15,000 troops, to hold them back. With this, Napoleon had committed all of his infantry reserves, except the Guard.

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When Napoleon unexpectedly left the field in the early afternoon (an incident disputed among historians), Ney, the epitome of French , mistook an Allied manoeuvre to reposition further back from the ridge as a general retreat. With no consultation, and without any participation by infantry or artillery, he ordered one cavalry regiment to advance, then another, then another until a massed assault of over 5,000 cavalry was thundering - and struggling - up the steep slope. The attacks were repeatedly repelled by the solid Allied infantry squares (four ranks deep with fixed bayonets--vulnerable to artillery or infantry, but deadly to cavalry), the harrying fire of British artillery as the French cavalry recoiled down the slopes to regroup, and the decisive counter-charges of the Allied Light Cavalry regiments and the Dutch Heavy Cavalry Brigade. After numerous fruitless attacks on the Allied ridge, the French cavalry was exhausted.

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The Prussians were already engaging the Imperial Army's right flank when La Haye Sainte fell to French combined arms (infantry, artillery and cavalry) in the early evening. The Prussians had driven Lobau out of Plancenoit, which was on the extreme (Allied) left of the battle field. Therefore Napoleon sent his 10 battalion strong Young Guard to beat the Prussians back. But after very hard fighting the Young Guard was beaten back. Napoleon sent 2 battalions of Old Guard and after ferocious fighting they beat the Prussians out. But the Prussians had not been forced away far enough. Approximately 30,000 Prussians attacked Plancenoit again. The place was defended by 20,000 Frenchmen in and around the village. The Old Guard and other supporting troops were able to hold on for about one hour before a massive Prussian counter-attack kicked them out after some bloody street fighting lasting more than a half hour. The last to flee was the Old Guard who defended the church and cemetery. The French casualties at the end of the day were horrible; for example the 1er Tirailleurs of the Young Guard had 92% losses.

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With Wellington's centre exposed by the French taking La Haye Sainte, Napoleon committed his last reserve, the undefeated Imperial Guard. After marching through a blizzard of shell and shrapnel, the already outnumbered 5 battalions of middle guard defeated the allied first line, including British, Brunswick and Nassau troops. Meanwhile elements of General von Ziethen's 1st Prussian Army Corps had finally arrived helping to relieve the pressure on Wellington's left flank, thus allowing Wellington to strengthen his shaken centre. The French guard battalions marched on, and the situation became critical. Chassé's Netherlands division was sent forward. Chassé sent forward his artillery to halt the French advance. Their fire took the victorious grenadiers in the flank. This still couldn't stop the Guard's advance, so Chassé ordered his first brigade to charge the French.

Related Topics:
La Haye Sainte - Imperial Guard

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Meanwhile, to the west, 1,500 British Guards under Maitland were lying down to protect themselves from the French artillery. They rose as one, and devastated the shocked Imperial Guard with volleys of fire at point-blank range. The French chasseurs deployed to answer the fire. After 10 minutes of exchanging musketry the outnumbered French began wavering. This was the sign for a bayonet charge. But then a fresh French chasseur battalion appeared on the scene. The British guard retired with the French in pursuit - though the French in their turn were attacked by fresh British troops of Adam's brigade.

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The Imperial Guard, for the first time in history, fell back in disarray and chaos. A ripple of panic passed through the French lines--"La garde receuil. Sauve qui peut!" Wellington, judging that the retreat by the Imperial Guard had unnerved all the French soldiers who saw it, stood up in the stirrups on Copenhagen, his favourite horse, and waved his hat in the air, signalling a general advance. The long-suffering Anglo-Allied infantry rushed forward from the lines where they had been shelled all day, and threw themselves upon the retreating French.

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After the Guard's unsuccessful attack on the Allied centre, the French Imperial Guard rallied to their reserves of three battalions, (some sources say four) just south of La Haye Sainte for a last stand against the British. A charge from General Adam's Brigade and an element of the 5th Brigade (The Hanoverian Landwehr (Militia) Osnabruck Battalion), both in the second Anglo-allied division under Lieutenant General Sir Henry Clinton, threw them into a state of confusion; those which were left in semi-coherent units fought and retreated towards La Belle Alliance. It was during this stand that Colonel Hugh Halkett took the surrender of General Cambronne. It was probably during the destruction of one of the retreating semi-coherent squares from the area around La Haye Sainte towards La Belle Alliance that the famous retort to a request to surrender was made "La Garde meurt, elle ne se rend pas!" "The Guard dies, it does not surrender!"{{ref|Cambronne}}.

Related Topics:
Last stand - Adam - Henry Clinton - Hugh Halkett - Cambronne - La Belle Alliance

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At about the same time the Prussians finally drove the French out of the village of Plancenoit.

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The whole of the French front started to disintegrate under the general advance of the Anglo-allied army and the Prussians following the capture of Plancenoit. The last coherent French force were 2 battalions of the Old Guard stationed around the inn called La Belle Alliance. These were a final reserve and a personal body guard for Napoleon. For a time Napoleon hoped that if they held firm the French Army could rally behind them. But as the retreat turned into a rout, they were forced to form squares as protection against the leading elements of allied cavalry. They formed into two squares, one on either side of La Belle Alliance. Until he was persuaded that the battle was lost and he should leave, Napoleon commanded the square which was formed on rising ground to the (Allied) right of La Belle Alliance. The Prussians engaged the square to the left and General Adam's Brigade charged the square on the right forcing it to withdraw. As dusk fell both squares retreated away from the battle field towards France in relatively good order, but the French artillery, and everything else belonging to them fell into the hands of the British and Prussians and they were surrounded by thousands of fleeing Frenchmen who were no longer part of any coherent unit. British and Allied cavalry harried the fleeing French until about 23:00 hours. The Prussians, led by General von Gneisenau, pursued them throughout the night.

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