LESSON FOUR: THE BATTLE OF WATERLOO

 

The Beau Monde Regency Academe

 

THE BATTLE THAT RESHAPED EUROPE:

BEFORE DURING AND AFTER THE BRITISH VICTORY AT WATERLOO

 

Lesson Four:  Quatre Bras; Ligny; The British at Waterloo; The French at Waterloo; The Battle in Five Phases

 

The perspective of 200 years brought to bear on the events of June 16-18, 1815, is much different than the forecast made by the participants those fateful days. No one knew a single series of battles would prove decisive. Napoleon expected the encounters with the Anglo-Allied (mainly Dutch, with Hanoverian troops as well) and Prussian forces to be the first of the defeats he would have to impose on the Seventh Coalition.  He wanted to finish them off quickly, before his armies had to fight the Austrian and Russian armies, still mobilizing elsewhere for the fight.

Napoleon’s objective was to take Brussels. He needed to keep separate the Anglo-Allied and Prussian armies on Belgian territory (at that time part of the newly established Kingdom of the Netherlands), and defeat each of them in turn. The Coalition Allies meant to support each other and unite in defeating Napoleon.

Napoleon was in personal command of his troops in the Armee du Nord. He had several of his leading generals from previous victories (and losses). 

The Anglo-Allied army was led by the Duke of Wellington, headquartered in Brussels.  As required by the monarch of the United Kingdom of the Netherlands, a nation created by the settlement of the Congress of Vienna and in existence for only a few months, Wellington needed to put the King’s eldest son, William, the Hereditary Prince of Orange, as commander of part of his army. The young Royal, age 22, had served as an ADC to Wellington in the Peninsula, and the Duke was concerned at his lack of experience.  

The Prussian Army led by General Blucher, an experienced General known as Marschall Vorwärts – Marshal Forward! ‒ was in Liege, about 55 miles or 90 kilometers from Brussels.

I.  Quatre Bras

Let’s go back to the night of the Duchess’s ball

When the Duke of Wellington heard that the French were approaching rapidly, he sent various parts of the army marching south from Brussels.  They moved quickly during the early morning hours of June 16th to meet the French at the crossroads of Quatre Bras, Four Arms.

Wellington needed to protect both the road north to Brussels and west to the sea, so that in case of disaster, he would be able to withdraw his troops to the ports of the North Sea to be rescued by the navy.

The Battle of Quatre Bras was fought during the day on June 16, with control of the hamlet at the crossroads moving back and forth between various elements of the forward units of the Allied Anglo-Allied and French  armies.

Eventually as more and more Allied troops reached the battle, they were able to hold the crossroads.

The Black Duke of Brunswick, cousin of the Prince Regent, brother of his wife and nephew of George III was killed in the battle.

II.  Ligny and the Prussians

Meantime, Napoleon had made an important error. He divided his army into three parts.  One group, under Ney, went to fight at Quatre Bras, another under Grouchy, went east to face the Prussians.  Napoleon himself commanded the center reserves which marched to the village of Ligny, headquartering at the nearby town of Fleurus. From there, Napoleon could support either wing of the army as well as block any effort of the Anglo-Allied and Prussian troops to join together. The battle for the village raged for hours, and in the evening the Prussians withdrew to the north. The French were the decisive winners but failed to follow the retreating Prussians.

Although the French routed the Prussians, it was Napoleon’s last victory. He never quite got it all back together. A large part of his army, under Grouchy, wandered around the next two days trying to find the retreating Prussians and did not engage in the battle on June 18^th.

The French, and Napoleon himself, thought the Prussians would withdraw to the east so he sent troops in that direction. Instead the Prussians withdrew to the north to Wavre from which they could assist Wellington, and for a significant period of time, escaped the French. This lull allowed the Prussian Army to regroup effectively. 

Learning of the Prussians withdrawal to the village of Wavre, Wellington withdrew his troops from the area of Quatre Bras on June 17 in heavy rain, moving north to the battlefield he had previously scoped out on the ridge of Mount St. Jean, a mile south of the village of Waterloo, skirmishing all the way.

Napoleon and his troops moved westward and met up with Ney’s forces, who were pursuing the Anglo-Allied army, moving north.

III.  The Battle of Waterloo

Be sure to consult the Google Earth pictures and maps on the blogsite:

http://baronessvicky.blogspot.com

Wellington’s troops encamped just south of Waterloo, on the slopes of Mount St. Jean. Napoleon’s army followed the retreating Allies toward Waterloo and set up camp near the little farm of le Caillou (the pebbles).

In the early morning of June 18, 1815, the rain had stopped but the ground was soaked. It was dreary and cold. Before the battle, Napoleon is reputed to have told General Soult, “Just because Wellington has defeated you, you think he is a great general. I tell you that Wellington is a bad general, that the English are bad troops and that this is going to be a picnic.”

Instead of attacking at dawn, the traditional time for beginning such a major battle of armies facing each other, Napoleon waited.  It was mainly to let the ground dry as the heavy mud makes it almost impossible to move the cannons, as well as being hard to march in. What he did was to organize a review of his troops on the hill opposite the Allied troops with bands playing and shouts of “vive le Empereur.” It was meant to be an impressive and terrifying sight to his enemies.

However, and here is one of those significant ifs, if Napoleon had known that General Grouchy was not actually pursuing the Prussians but had missed them altogether, and that the Prussian Army was by now on its way to Waterloo from Wavre, he probably would have attacked much earlier. He thought time was on his side.  It wasn’t. There is also the excuse that Napoleon was not in the best of health, suffering from painful hemorrhoids.

The battlefield has a series of undulating shallow hills and valleys, the kind of pasture land we might describe as gently rolling. Some of the fields are still planted with tall growing rye that both hides troops and impedes their progress. The area has several farms with their clusters of buildings and two or three nearby hamlets.

Battle on Sunday, June 18, 815.

The three elements of 18^th century army strategy were still in effect,
little changed from Battle of Blenheim  in1704.

The three main elements of an army needed to work together: cavalry, infantry, and artillery.  Each had advantages and disadvantages. Several times throughout the battle the attacking French, for one reason or another, did not use these three elements in support of one another.

Part of the problem was the difficulty of communication – it was a relatively small battlefield for armies of the size of Waterloo’s opponents. One analyst estimates the soldiers of the two armies were only about a thousand yards apart as they cooked breakfast. This is the distance of about eight football fields. Once the shooting started, it was muddy, noisy, smelly and smoky from all the firing cannons. Vision was limited.

Messages from one unit to another had to be carried by hand and many times messengers were intercepted and/or shot before delivery.  No walkie-talkies or cell phones. For much of the day, troops had to fight among the bodies of dead or dying men and horses as the fight moved back and forth.

No one knows exactly what time the battle began. People didn’t have atomic clocks in those days nor did they carefully coordinate their timings.  Probably it started around 11 am, perhaps 11:30 or even later. 

Most analysts of the battle divide it into five phases, though they overlapped and were not as neatly divided as they appear. Skirmishing went on all over without pause.

Traditional five phases overlapping and timing iffy
1. Bombardment and attack on Hougoumont (continued all day)
2. D’Erlon infantry assault, columns repulsed; Allied Cavalry Charge
3. French cavalry charges meet the Allied squares
4. French successes: Le Haye Sainte
5. The Imperial Guard  charges…and retreats; Allies attack

Phase one

The Lion Mound and cluster of shops at today’s battlefield are approximately the position of the ridge along which the Duke of Wellington rode to direct the battle. He was often under the famous tree, which long ago disappeared.

Probably the sound of the first cannonade was somewhat of a relief to both sides. At last things were getting underway. Many eyewitness accounts talked about how the cannonballs were less effective in the mud. They went splat, and sank into to the ground, instead of rolling and knocking into more people.

The continuing cannonades from heavy artillery on both sides was extremely noisy and caused huge clouds of smoke to rise; in the damp air, the acrid-smelling smoke hung in the air all day.

The attack on the Chateau of Hougoumont continued in waves all day. The chateau is a substantial brick and stone building surrounded by a thick brick wall and outside, orchards and woods.

Wellington put his best troops here, British Foot Guards, some Hanoverians and others. At one point in the day, the gate was open to resupply the troops inside when the French attacked and the Allied troops struggled to close the gates. When they did, a number of French were trapped inside and all killed except one young drummer boy who was spared.

Years later, a vicar’s will left a legacy to the bravest man at Waterloo and the Duke of Wellington chose  Corporal James Graham of the Coldstream Guards who was at least partly responsible for getting that gate closed.  The French attacked from every direction, but the substantial nature of the buildings and constant fire repelled all. 

Only when part of it was burned did the troops waver a little. Some observers say that the French attacks on Hougoumont were basically diversions trying to weaken the center of Wellington’s lines by sending troops to reinforce the chateau, but it never worked.

Wellington is supposed to have said that holding the chateau was the key to his victory.

Phase Two

D‘Erlon attacked in infantry columns, following further bombardment from the cannons which Napoleon thought would have weakened the center of Wellington’s line. But Napoleon had not heeded the warnings of generals who had faced the Duke before.

Wellington often placed large numbers of troops just behind the crest of the hill, even having them lie down. The French thought that the lack of strength visible in various parts of Wellington’s line made them vulnerable; to their surprise suddenly large numbers of Anglo-Allied troops came over the hill and counterattacked.

D’Erlon’s four divisions trudged through the mud into the canons of the Allies and facing their fire. They had some successes but among other valiant efforts, the bayonet charge led by General Picton and the charge of the cavalry wiped out D’Erlon’s troops or sent them fleeing back to their lines. Lt. Gen. Picton died in the battle, the highest ranking British officer to be killed.

The Allied cavalry charge, while initially effective, went way too far. Instead of reining up and returning after they had the attackers on the run, the riders kept going, right into the French artillery and in some cases through the French lines, only to be massacred from the rear. Of the 2,500 attacking cavalry, 1,000 did not return.  Commander of the Union (2^nd) Brigade -- made up of the Royals, the Scots Greys and the Inniskilling from England, Scotland and Ireland -- was Major-General Sir William Ponsonby, who died in the attack. Also wounded (among hundreds, perhaps thousands of others) was his cousin, Sir Frederick Ponsonby, son of the 3^rd Earl of Bessborough and his wife, Harriet, nee Spencer (sister of the late Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire).

Frederick served in the 12^th Light Dragoons, sent to help the Union Brigade withdraw from the French lines. He was left severely wounded in the field, then robbed. A French Imperial Guardsman gave him help, but he was further mistreated by others before he was found in the night; a soldier stood guard over him until he was taken to a field hospital where he was treated for seven wounds. His sister, the infamous Lady Caroline Lamb, nursed him in Brussels until his recovery was complete. He later married and had six children; he served his country until his death in 1837.

One of the most horrible aspects of the battle was the fact that so many horses were killed, for both sides tried to repel cavalry attacks by shooting the horses as well as the men.

By 1:30 pm, a Prussian soldier was captured by the French and it was clear to Napoleon that troops under the command of General Grouchy had gone the wrong direction.  IF Grouchy had marched toward the sound of the guns, he might have cut off the Prussians, but he followed the express commands of Napoleon, against the advice of some of his aides. He missed action until the next day.

During a lull between about 2:30 and 3:30, Napoleon got a message from General Grouchy that he was still on the way to Wavre. Again, the observers say that IF Napoleon had withdrawn at this moment, he could have re-grouped to fight another day. Grouchy was too far away, the Prussians were coming closer and the battle was a draw at that moment. But Napoleon was not a quitter.

Phase Three Attack La Haye Sainte and massive French Cavalry Charges 

There was continued bombardment by the Grand Battery on and off all day.

The French renewed their attack on the farm of La Haye Sainte, defended by the King’s German Legion, which actually ran out of ammunition

When the French Cavalry Charges by Ney’s troops began, the Allied forces formed squares, the best defense against such an attack. Horses simply won’t gallop into a bayonet- and human-wall.

Like the Union Brigade on the Allied side, the cavalry chargers were decimated; the horses veered between the squares and were caught in cross fire; for both sides, cavalry over-action can be attributed to excitement, adrenalin flowing, esprit de corps, and blood lust, heading straight into disaster.

The British formed their squares which were very efficient protection again cavalry. Squares are vulnerable to infantry (as well as artillery) but Ney ordered no infantry attacks to follow up on the cavalry. Eight Squadrons of cavalry attacking in a confusing melee went on for two hours and not a single square broke.

Wellington mounted on Copenhagen rode back and forth sending reinforcements where needed, directing ammunition resupply, rearmament and sending in fresh reserve troops.

In the words of a present-day battlefield marker, “On Sunday, June 18, 1815, nearly 180,000 men confronted each other for over ten hours, with more than 35,000 horses and with 500 cannons firing. We are on the side of the main line of English defence, established by the Duke of Wellington  over 3 km. Starting at 1600 and coming from the south, it was mainly here that seven or eight charges of more than 8,000 French cavalrymen, led by Marshal Ney, poured through for two hours under the fire of allied infantrymen, without nonetheless  succeeding in breaking the English defence squares. Each of these squares consisted of around 600 men in three ranks, shoulder to shoulder, and all pointing their muskets and bayonets toward the outside.”

As the attacks came on, the men pulled the light artillery into the midst of the squares and Wellington wanted them to stay there. But Captain Mercer disobeyed. When the attacks let up for a little, he’d take his men and small cannons outside and start firing again

He was a great hero of the battle and his battle accounts have been published.

Phase Four French successes and Fall of La Haye Sainte

Le Haye Sainte fell when the King’s German Legion ran out of ammunition

Heaps of dead surrounded and filled the farmyard; it finally fell between 6 and 6:60 pm; of the original 400 defenders, only 42 were fully operational and escaped at the end. The others were dead, wounded or captured.

Phase Five The final battle

This was the most dangerous moment for Wellington and the best chance for the French to break the Allied line; Ney’s horse artillery poured fire into the line and into the 95^th Rifle Regiment. Artillery was very effective against the squares,  unlike cavalry attack.

And here is another decisive IF.  If Napoleon had put the Imperial Guard forward at this moment, it might have worked for him, but it was more than an hour later that the Guard was in the battle (Napoleon liked to save the Guard for the moment he could turn a victory onto a rout). Nearby the French had also regained the hamlet of Placenoit from the Prussians, if only temporarily.

Eventually, the Guards formed three lines and proceeded to fife and drum music, flags flying …described as sublime and unsurpassed in pride and discipline.

Wellington tightened up his lines. Prepared the artillery, and brought in reserves. Waiting for the French were thirty cannons, firing at close range plus lighter artillery, and still they came.

In the final phase, the Allies repelled the Imperial Guard. Wellington urged his troops to arise and meet the enemy. Imagine the French coming up the hill, climbing over thousands of bodies of dying and dead men and horses, ruins of artillery, in the heavy mud and in the fading light – the smoke, the smell, the sounds of guns, cannons, cries of the wounded. Not a pretty sight.  As the Imperial Grenadiers reached the top of the hill, just twenty yards away, the Duke of Wellington cried out, “Up Guards, Ready,” and hundreds of troops in their red coats stood and faced the Grenadiers, shooting point blank into their ranks.

The Guards eventually were turned by bayonets charges from the Allied lines, including some of the Dutch and Belgian forces that usually get a short shrift in the bravery category. La Guard Recule – the cry the French had never heard before. BACK!! It was Retreat.

It was too late for Napoleon. Too many Prussians had arrived on Wellington’s far left flank, so that the Duke could bring in far-flung troops to reinforce his center where the French concentrated their attacks. The first ranks of the French fell and the followers could hardly climb over them –the assault failed. This carnage went on until the Duke waved his hat for a general advance with bayonets. And it was almost over.

Napoleon should have kept the guards back to protect his retreat – it could have been much more orderly, but he believed in his invincibility and it led to disaster for the French. Worse, some sources say that Napoleon spread the story that Grouchy’s forces had arrived from the West, a ruse to build morale and to inspire the troops to achieve the coup d’grace, which sent many to their death.

In truth the fighting in the west was not the arrival of the French but marked the arrival of the Prussians in force. This cinched catastrophe for the French. Wellington expected the attack and was well prepared. Some believe a deserter from the French gave the British commander an accurate account of the French plan.

Many legends exist about what happened – bravery, foolishness, pleas for surrender. Shouts of “Merde”, as the Grenadiers refused to give up and fought to the death --- or fled. It must have been incredibly confusing and to me, gallantry had nothing to do with it by this time. It was full retreat.

Meanwhile The Prussians retook the hamlet of Placenoit from the French. The Prussians had not been fighting all day, but marching, so they were relatively fresh.

The Prussians gave a murderous chase and the French fled. They captured Napoleon’s Carriage, but without the emperor. Napoleon got back to Caillou (pebbles) and escaped back down the road to Charleroi and across the river into France.

The battlefield today has been significantly altered from its look in 1815. The Lion Mound was finished by 1826 as a monument to the Prince of Orange, near the spot where he was wounded. The material to construct the hill was scraped from the ridge where the allied troops were set up, both before and behind the high ground.

The Battle of Waterloo left 9,500 dead; 32,000 wounded.

After it was over, the Duke of Wellington said,  “I hope to God I have fought my last battle…I am wretched even at the moment of victory, and I always say that next to a battle lost, the greatest misery is a battle gained.”

It was the first battle in which Napoleon faced Wellington, and for both men, indeed their last military battle.

Next week: the Aftermath