The battle marked a turning point. The latter half of the eighteenth century had been a long struggle for supremacy between France and Britain. The Seven Years War drove the French from North America, but France had its revenge in the American Revolution when its army, allied with George Washington’s forces, decisively defeated the British and so secured independence for the United States. Ten years later the Revolutionary Wars began, and except for one brief respite in 1802, those wars would last till 1815. Waterloo ended the struggle and ensured that Britain would dominate the nineteenth century, a domination that was sealed by the Duke of Wellington’s defence of the ridge at Mont St Jean.
‘The Duke of Wellington and officers and soldiers of the Allied army at the end of the Battle of Waterloo’, by Jan Willem Pieneman in the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam. Prince William of Orange lies wounded on a stretcher in the left foreground.
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INDEX
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1st Corps (d’Erlon) 74, 181, 274, 277
1st Foot Guards 32, 95, 97, 238, 267, 297
1st Life Guards 143
2nd Life Guards 335
4th Chasseurs 299, 300, 301, 327
7th Chasseurs 24
7th Hussars 117, 143
14th Foot (Bedfordshire) 243, 263, 264, 319
15th Hussars 143
18th Hussars 271, 296, 304, 335
28th Foot (Gloucester) 62, 89, 102, 185
30th Foot (Cambridgeshire) 91, 265, 266, 292, 293
30th Regiment of the Line 69, 70, 295
32nd (Cornwall) 84, 190, 324
33rd 95, 96, 266, 293, 295, 296
40th (Somersetshire) 335
42nd Highlanders 62, 85, 86, 87, 88, 89, 92, 94, 95, 204
42nd Highlanders, Black Watch 85, 86, 98
44th (East Essex) 90, 91, 94, 98
45th Regiment of the Line 197
51st Yorkshire 32, 108, 242, 243, 245, 263
52nd Oxfordshire Light 6, 32, 229, 230, 231, 266, 267, 268, 278, 290, 300, 301, 302, 306, 326, 327, 328, 329, 346, 347
69th (Lincolnshire) 94, 95, 96, 98, 293, 295
71st (Highland) Regiment of Foot 236, 246, 301, 306
73rd Highlanders (Black Watch) 95, 106, 269, 293
92nd Gordon Highlanders 88, 92, 96, 143, 169, 190, 192, 194, 304, 328
95th Rifles 6, 48, 61, 62, 83, 84, 86, 89, 94, 111, 135, 222, 223, 271, 303, 335, 344
Adam, General Sir Frederick 135, 290, 297, 300, 301, 328
Adkin, Mark 167
Álava y Esquivel, General Don Miguel Ricardo de 44, 45, 126
Alexander I, Czar of Russia 10, 23, 36, 126
Alexander the Great 20
allied advance/victory 302–304
Antwerp 123, 124, 315
l’Armee du Nord 25, 27, 40, 42, 48, 73
artillery
British guns 171
canister 67, 84, 184, 185, 186, 187, 218, 233, 237, 240, 241, 246, 252, 263, 264, 271, 279, 290, 293, 296, 306
French guns 167–8
howitzers 162, 167, 169, 171, 216, 221, 277
shells 171–2
technique 137, 165–70
Augereau, Marshal 20
Austria 6, 21, 22, 23
Bachelu, General 251, 252, 253, 286, 287, 290
battlefield, description of 10–12
Batty, Ensign Robert 32, 97, 98
Belle Alliance, La 10, 138, 139, 148, 151, 216, 247, 302, 306, 319
Bernard, Baron Simon 19, 192, 193
Berthier, Marshal 26
Black Legion (Brunswick)
85, 86, 87
Blücher, Prince Gebhard Leberecht von 7, 28–30, 34, 40, 42, 50, 51, 53–8, 65, 66, 106–9, 112–13, 120, 125–8, 136, 140, 146–50, 164, 168, 173–5, 218–20, 314, 317–19, 326, 330–4, 341, 348
Ligny, at 68, 74–6, 78, 82–3, 99
‘Marschall Vorwärts’ 28, 58
Plancenoit 250, 271, 280–1, 288, 306
Prussian arrival at Waterloo 248–50
race to join Wellington 148–50, 174–5, 206, 218–19
retirement 341
unhorsed/injury 74, 78
Waterloo, at 248–50, 257, 271, 273, 276, 277, 288, 306
Bonaparte, Jérôme 99, 156, 157, 158, 159, 161, 176, 216
Bonaparte, Napoleon
1814 campaign 25–28
Désirée (horse) 114
early life 19
Bonaparte, Napoleon cont.
escape from Elba 17–18
exile to St Helena 339
left flank 158
preparations for war 24–27
retreat to Paris 317
return to Paris from Elba 18–20
right flank 7, 173, 175, 219, 274, 286
violets as symbol 18, 37
Bossu Wood 82, 83, 85, 91, 94, 95, 97, 98
Braine l’Alleud 140
Brigade of Guards 290, 296, 297, 298
British–Dutch army 6, 53, 54, 61–5, 67, 76, 106, 113, 115, 117, 121–3, 127, 136, 138, 140, 145, 148, 156, 158, 165–7, 169, 175, 176, 183, 193, 201, 217–19, 231, 233, 248, 251, 253, 257, 259, 263, 264, 266, 269, 277, 286, 288–9, 315, 324
Brown Bess 141–2, 151
Brunswick, Duke of 86, 100, 101
Brunswickers 83, 86, 87, 100, 243, 270
Brussels 10–12, 23, 30, 31, 39–46, 48, 49, 53, 55, 57, 61–3, 82, 96, 106–7, 110, 123–4, 136, 174, 181, 189, 196, 198–9, 223–4, 238, 250, 258, 265, 269, 289, 306, 323, 329, 335
Brye, village of 65, 82, 330, 331
windmill 65, 82, 330, 331
Bülow, General von 40, 75, 149, 173, 248–9, 271, 273–4, 279, 331
Busaco, battle of 63–64, 70, 81
Butler, Lady 193, 194, 201
Bylandt’s Brigade, Count 170, 188, 189, 191, 194
Cambronne, General Pierre 305, 306, 309
Cameron, Colonel 96–97
Campbell, Sir Neil 16, 17, 22
Castlereagh, Lord 16, 17, 21, 23
casualties, total 324
Charleroi 11–12, 41–2, 47–9, 50–5, 258, 265, 288, 316
Chasseurs of the Guard 297, 299, 301
Clay, Private Matthew 135, 141, 162, 163, 209, 221
Colborne, Sir John 300, 301, 303, 306, 327
Colour-Sergeants 190
column and line, fighting deployment 69–70, 183
Colville, Sir John 267, 326, 327, 328, 341
controversy, historical 329–32
Costello, Edward (Rifleman) 86, 89, 111, 124, 223, 323, 341, 345, 346
crisis of the battle, the 217, 332
crops, obstacle on battlefield 11, 47, 48, 64, 82, 83, 85, 94, 95, 109, 139, 169, 185, 186, 188, 235, 285, 289, 303
cuirassiers 88, 90, 92, 95, 96, 98, 101, 117, 145, 172, 182, 187, 192, 199–201, 215, 222, 232, 235–6, 238–9, 242–3, 244, 253, 255, 263, 269, 278, 322, 325, 335