Waterloo

  Davout, Marshal 27

  Deacon, Martha 105–6, 111

  dead, disposal of the 325

  de Lancey, Colonel William 314, 315

  Delort, Lieutenant-General 232

  Duthilt, Captain 184, 186, 189, 191, 192, 197, 233

  Dyle, River 115, 250, 288

  Elba 8, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 22, 27, 114, 192, 347

  d’Erlon, Count 66, 68–9, 72, 73, 74, 76, 99, 128, 170, 172, 176, 181–5, 200–1, 208, 212, 215, 217, 231, 248, 258–9, 286–7, 293, 299, 328, 340

  Ewart, Sergeant Charles 197, 198, 199, 205, 213, 222

  Foy, General 119, 152, 159, 172, 242, 251, 252, 253, 286, 287, 290

  François, Captain Charles 69–70

  French Chasseurs 237

  French Grenadiers 297

  French Revolution 8–9, 27, 55, 70, 73, 272

  Frichermont 139, 275

  Gale, Elizabeth 223–4

  Garcia Hernandez, battle of 94, 237

  Genappe 105, 111–12, 114–17, 130, 288, 315–16, 318

  Girod de l’Ain, Colonel 23–4

  Gneisenau, August von 28–30, 50, 58, 75, 106, 126–7, 149, 219, 250, 315–16, 318–19, 329, 330–2, 340, 341

  Gordon, Sir Alexander 108

  Goya, Francisco 35

  Grand Battery, Napoleon’s 165, 166, 167, 168, 169, 170, 172, 176, 187, 212, 286, 305

  Grande Armée 21, 346

  Grant, Colquhoun 41–2

  Gronow, Rees Howell 238, 239, 240, 241, 247

  Grouchy, Marquis de 27, 28, 68, 113, 119, 120, 128, 140, 145, 146, 147, 150, 153, 173, 174, 175, 193, 220, 249, 250, 285, 287, 288, 317, 340

  Hal (village) 125, 140

  Halkett, General 265, 290, 293–7, 299, 306

  Hanoverians 31, 100, 187, 192, 294, 296, 336

  Hardinge, Colonel 76

  Heavy Cavalry Pattern sword 194

  HMS Griffon 8

  HMS Partridge 17

  horse artillery 112, 113, 114, 234, 241, 263, 286, 291

  Hougoumont 5, 11, 139, 140, 141, 144, 148, 153, 155, 156, 158–64, 167, 172–3, 175–6, 187, 201, 207–11, 216, 221, 225, 231–2, 234–5, 242, 251, 252, 254, 258–9, 267, 278, 287, 290, 299, 304, 325, 334

  French incursions 207–10

  Household Brigade 194, 200, 201, 212

  Imperial Guard 5, 6, 7, 17, 51, 54, 57, 67, 73, 74, 109, 130, 232, 240, 265, 272–4, 278, 285–6, 289, 290–1, 293, 295, 296, 298–301, 309, 316–17, 326–8, 332, 334, 343, 348

  Inconstant 16, 17

  Inniskilling Dragoons 194, 200, 212, 214, 223

  IV Corps (von Bülow) 6, 148–9

  Josephine, Empress of France 16, 18, 36–7, 317

  Kellerman, General François Etienne de 90, 92, 93, 95, 101, 138, 242

  Kincaid, John 61, 135, 140, 144, 148, 185, 186, 192, 200, 222, 234, 302, 341, 347

  King’s German Legion (KGL) 30–1, 32, 94, 137, 148, 155, 182, 184, 187, 201, 209, 212, 237, 259, 262, 264, 268, 282, 290, 293

  La Haie Sainte 5, 11, 12, 139–40, 148, 167, 182, 186–7, 190, 192, 201, 232, 235–4, 258, 258–65, 266, 268–9, 277–8, 282, 287, 289, 322, 334

  lancers 90, 145, 191, 198, 214, 250

  French 48, 50, 114, 117, 135, 215

  Polish 17, 176, 304

  Landwehr, Prussian 29

  Larrey, Dominique Jean 109, 110, 116, 130, 348

  ambulance 109–110, 130

  Lasne, River 138, 147, 149, 193, 218, 219, 220, 248, 273

  Le Caillou 120, 121

  Leeke, Reverend William 229, 229–230, 230, 231, 234, 266, 268, 300, 302, 303, 326, 327, 328, 329, 347

  Legros (l’Enfonceur) 207, 208, 209, 210, 222

  Lennox, Lady Georgiana 46

  Les Invalides 164, 165, 317, 339

  Lieber, Franz 29, 30, 34, 71, 249, 340, 347

  Ligny 54, 56, 57, 64–70, 72, 74–6, 78–9, 83, 99, 100, 106, 109, 112, 119, 128, 137, 148–9, 156, 164–5, 168, 218, 248, 250, 274, 324, 329–31, 347

  Battle begins 67–69

  Piraumont 83

  victory for Napoleon 75

  Lobau, General 220, 250, 272, 288

  Louis XIV 164

  Louis XVI 9

  Louis XVIII 8, 16, 17, 18, 19, 22, 24, 26, 27, 37, 40, 192, 193, 339, 340

  Lowe, Sir Hudson 339

  Macara, Sir Robert 87, 88, 89

  Macdonell, Lieutenant-Colonel James 144, 156, 160, 162, 164, 173, 208, 209, 210, 211, 221, 225, 299

  Mauduit, Hippolyte de 51–52, 53–4, 67, 117

  Mellery (village) 106, 127

  Menzies, Captain Archibald 88

  Metternich, Count 20–2, 36

  Middle Guard 285, 286, 289, 292, 293, 297

  Mont St Jean 6, 12, 109–11, 113, 116, 118, 120, 126, 136, 144, 147–50, 156, 164, 173–6, 223, 248, 285, 315, 317, 319, 330, 335, 342

  Mornington, Earl and Countess of 9

  Müffling, General Baron von 28, 49, 50, 144, 149, 152, 156, 220, 276, 277, 303, 318, 330, 340, 347

  muskets

  Brown Bess 141–2, 151

  inaccuracy 142–3

  Nassauers/Nassau 56, 63, 116, 158, 162, 208, 209, 210, 275, 322

  National Guard, French 25, 316

  Nelson, Horatio 44, 105

  Netherlands, Kingdom of the 8, 10, 19, 26, 30, 43, 122

  Ney, Marshal Michel 27–8, 54–7, 63, 64, 65–8, 70, 73, 76, 81, 86, 90, 99, 101, 111–13, 119, 128, 159, 217, 224, 231–4, 237, 241–2, 245, 247, 249–51, 258–60, 264–5, 270, 275, 278, 286–7, 289, 297, 299, 334, 340

  execution 340

  Nivelles 53, 55, 56, 63, 73, 82, 83, 93, 97, 100, 107, 111, 112

  Nivelles road 53, 55, 56, 73, 82, 83, 93, 100, 107, 111

  Old Guard (French Grenadiers) 51, 119, 156, 274, 285–6, 291, 301, 305–6

  Ordener, Colonel Michel 232, 233

  organisation/structure of armies 6–7

  Ostend 40, 49, 125

  Papelotte 138–9, 140, 167, 182, 187, 194, 201, 275

  Peninsular War 8, 30, 31, 45, 55, 108, 136, 146, 164, 171, 183, 212, 230, 243, 251, 264, 278, 290, 293, 298–9, 300, 301, 315, 322, 327, 345, 346

  Percy, Honourable Henry 319–21

  Picton, Sir Thomas 4, 45, 83, 85, 103, 110, 173, 189–90, 192, 204, 217, 314, 339

  Plancenoit 139, 173, 219, 248, 250, 257–8, 265, 271–4, 276–9, 285, 288, 295, 305–6, 324, 332

  Ponsonby, Sir Frederick 214–15

  Ponsonby, William 214

  Princess Borghese 17, 157

  Prussian army

  arrival at Waterloo 287–288

  left flank 68

  march to join Wellington 248–250

  right flank 30, 66, 67, 68, 74, 99, 128

  Quatre-Bras 51, 53, 54–7, 61–8, 73–4, 76, 81–6, 89, 90, 92, 94–5, 97, 101–2, 105–6, 108–14, 138, 150, 158, 187, 189, 194, 223, 231, 238, 248, 269, 275, 293, 315–16, 321, 324, 329–30, 334, 339

  Wellington victory 99

  rain and mud 117–18, 136–7

  Rebecque, Major-General Baron Jean-Victor Constant- 51, 55, 58, 83

  Reille, General 32, 121, 158, 159, 251, 287, 290, 293, 300

  Reuter, Captain von 72

  Richmond, Duchess of 39, 43, 46, 48, 53, 56, 58, 319, 334

  ball on eve of war 43–47

  Richmond, Duke of 51

  rifle, Baker 84

  Roberts, Andrew 121

  rocket troop 114–15, 131

  Royal Artillery 171, 341, 344

  Royal Horse Artillery 33, 131, 277, 304

  Royal Scots Greys 145, 193, 194–8, 200, 212, 214

  Russia 6, 10, 22, 23, 29, 36

  Saint-Amand 67, 73

  Saint Helena 16, 317, 339

  Saltoun, Lord 298

  Sambre, River 41, 47, 48–9, 53, 56, 288

  Saxe-Weimar, Prince Bernhard of 56, 63, 81, 83, 275

  Shelley, Lady 306, 307, 313, 319, 334, 348

  skirmishers 84–5

  British 188, 208, 252

  Dutch 83, 85, 183

  French 8
3–5, 94, 102, 183, 187, 259, 267, 268, 276, 278, 302

  Prussian 249

  skirmish line 63, 72, 84, 85, 246, 249, 286

  voltigeurs, French 84, 151, 266, 268, 278

  Smohain 139

  Sombreffe 53, 54, 55, 61

  Soult, Marshal Nicolas Jean de Dieu 26–7, 27, 28, 32, 121–2, 131, 144, 146, 174–5, 188, 192, 339, 340

  Sourd, Colonel 116

  Stuart, Sir Charles 122–3

  Suchet, Marshal 27

  Talleyrand, Charles-Maurice de 16, 22

  troop formation/deployment

  column and line 69–70, 252

  square 93–4, 233–4, 236

  Tuileries Palace 18, 19, 37

  Uxbridge, Lord 46, 115–16, 125–6, 131, 194, 222, 305, 314

  injury 305

  Vandamme, General 20, 73

  Vitoria, battle of 32, 39, 45, 82, 143, 212, 230

  Waldie, Miss Charlotte 62

  Wavre 107, 108–9, 113, 120, 127, 146–50, 153, 173–5, 220, 249, 250, 274, 285, 317, 324, 330

  Wellington, Duke of

  British ambassador 8

  centre of forces 96, 139, 156, 162, 201, 264, 269, 278

  Copenhagen (horse) 92, 93, 217, 297, 313

  early life 9

  later career 341–2

  left flank 94, 158, 172, 259, 287

  meeting with Blücher at La Belle Alliance 306

  meeting with Blücher before battle 65

  promise of help to Blücher at Ligny 330

  ‘reverse slope’ tactic 64–5, 67, 137

  right flank 5, 140, 156, 172, 181, 201, 245, 290, 299

  Wedderburn-Webster, Lady Frances (mistress) 45–6

  William of the Netherlands, Prince (Slender Billy) 8, 43–4, 51, 55, 94–5, 102, 124, 187, 208, 210, 262–4, 268, 293, 326, 341, 343

  Zieten, General von 49–50, 248, 270, 274–6, 277

  ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

  NO ONE CAN WRITE ABOUT WATERLOO without leaning on the labours of other historians. I am particularly indebted to Mark Adkin, whose book, The Waterloo Companion, is indispensable. It is a magnificent compilation of almost everything you might ever wish to know about the battle. The book is lavishly illustrated, the maps are superb, the research exhaustive and the opinions judicious. Whenever I found myself confused, usually by contradictory eyewitness accounts, I discovered that Mark Adkin had already cleared a path through the disagreements. I owe him thanks.

  The battlefield today is dominated by the enormous Lion Mound, a memorial erected by Slender Billy’s father on the spot where his son was wounded. The Duke of Wellington, on seeing the mound, remarked, ‘They have ruined my battlefield,’ and so they had because, to make this monstrous lump, tons of soil were removed from the crest of the ridge so that visitors today cannot see the land as it was when the Imperial Guard made their final attack. Nevertheless the battlefield is well worth a visit, and the best guide is David Buttery’s Waterloo Battlefield Guide, which not only leads the visitor around the locations of the campaign, but tells the story of those four momentous days. The book is an essential companion for anyone visiting the battlefields of the campaign.

  Nothing can take us closer to the battle than the words of the men who were there, and no one has done more to preserve those accounts than Gareth Glover. By far the majority of the quotations I used in the book are drawn from Gareth Glover’s compilations, either Letters from the Battle of Waterloo or his three volumes of The Waterloo Archive. I am enormously grateful for his painstaking work.

  I was fortunate to meet the late Jac Weller and so had the privilege of listening to his robust opinions on Wellington, Napoleon and the battle of Waterloo. Peter Hofschröer’s opinions are just as robust, and the debate he sparked with his writings has broadened our knowledge of the battle. I am grateful to him, and to all the authors whose work has made mine so much easier. Patrick McGrady generously gave me his research on Elizabeth Gale, the five-year-old girl who witnessed the battle.

  I have been fortunate, too, in having the same publisher for all my writing career. The support I have received from Susan Watt, Helen Ellis, Liz Dawson, Kate Elton, Jennifer Barth, Jonathan Burnham, Myles Archibald and Julia Koppitz has been extraordinary, thank you! And thank you to my agent, Toby Eady, who has been with me from the first book and without whom there might have been no books.

  There would certainly have been no books without my wife’s support. Judy has been an inspiration throughout. It can be said of her, as Wellington remarked of the British infantry at Waterloo, that she is ‘the best of all instruments’. She is.

  Insignia derived from shako plates, buttons and regimental badges appear on the following pages: p. 5 & 8 – Royal Artillery shako plate (1813); p. 15 – Chap. 1, French Imperial eagle; p. 39 – Chap. 2, French Imperial Guard, shako plate; p. 61 – Chap. 3, 95th Rifles 1st Battalion; p. 81 – Chap. 4, bronze totenkopf worn on shakos by Prussian black Hussars; p. 105 – Chap. 5, French Life Guard shako plate; p. 133 – Chap. 6, King’s German Legion shako plate; p. 155 – Chap. 7, French 9th Hussars shako plate; p. 181 – Chap. 8, Gordon Highlanders insignia; p. 207 – Chap. 9, Royal Artillery shako plate; p. 229 – Chap. 10, 52nd Foot Infantry insignia; p. 257 – Chap. 11, Saxe Weimar badge; p. 285 – Chap. 12 – French Imperial Guard, shako plate; p. 313 – Aftermath, Royal Scots badge; p. 339 – Afterword – Royal Artillery shako plate.

  PICTURE CREDITS

  The listed page numbers and image credits relate to the hardback edition of this publication and should therefore be referenced in accordance with a copy of the physical edition.

  All reasonable efforts have been made by the author and publishers to trace the copyright owners of the material quoted in this book and of any images reproduced in this book. In the event that the author or publishers are notified of any mistakes or omissions by copyright owners after publication, the author and publishers will endeavour to rectify the position accordingly for any subsequent printing.

  BRIDGEMAN IMAGES: p. 35: National Gallery, London, UK – p. 36: (top left) Louvre, Paris, France / Giraudon; (top right) Musee de l’Armee, Paris, France / Giraudon; (bottom right) Musee National du Chateau de Malmaison, Rueil-Malmaison, France / Giraudon; (bottom left) Royal Collection Trust © Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, 2014 – p. 37: (top) Musee de l’Armee, Brussels, Belgium; (bottom left) De Agostini Picture Library / G. Costa – p. 58: (top) The Trustees of the Goodwood Collection – p. 77: Private Collection / Giraudon – p. 78/9: (top) Private Collection / The Stapleton Collection; (bottom) Musee de l’Armee, Brussels, Belgium / Patrick Lorette / Giraudon – p. 101: (top) Private Collection / The Stapleton Collection; (bottom right) Private Collection / © Look and Learn – p. 102: (top left) Private Collection / The Stapleton Collection; (bottom) National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, Australia – p. 103: (top) Private Collection / The Stapleton Collection; (bottom) Brown University Library, Providence, Rhode Island, USA – p. 129: Private Collection / Photo © Mark Fiennes – p. 130: (top) Private Collection / The Stapleton Collection; (bottom right) Château de Versailles, France; (bottom left) Musee du Val-de-Grace, Paris, France / Archives Charmet – p. 131: (top left) Private Collection / Photo © Christie’s Images; (top right) © The Bowes Museum, Barnard Castle, County Durham, UK; (bottom) Private Collection / The Stapleton Collection – p. 151: (top) Private Collection / The Stapleton Collection; (middle) R.S.A.F. Enfield Lock, Middlesex, UK – p. 152: (top) Musee des Beaux-Arts, Bordeaux, France / Giraudon – p. 153: (top) Château de Versailles, France; (bottom) Private Collection / The Stapleton Collection – p. 177: (middle) National Army Museum, London; (bottom right) Musee des Beaux-Arts, Reims, France / Roger-Viollet, Paris; (bottom left) © The Bowes Museum, Barnard Castle, County Durham, UK – p. 178/9: Private Collection – p. 202/3: Leeds Museums and Galleries (Leeds Art Gallery) U.K. – p. 204: (top) © Samuel Courtauld Trust, The Courtauld Gallery, London, UK; (bottom right) Royal Collection Trust © Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, 2014 – p. 225: (top left) Private Collecti
on / Topham Picturepoint; (bottom) National Army Museum, London – p. 254: (top) Bibliotheque Marmottan, Boulogne-Billancourt, Paris, France / Giraudon; (bottom) National Army Museum, London – p. 255: (top) Apsley House, The Wellington Museum, London, UK; (bottom) Private Collection / Photo © Christie’s Images – p. 279: Private Collection / Photo © Bonhams, London, UK – p. 280/1: Hamburger Kunsthalle, Hamburg, Germany – p. 282/3: (bottom) Apsley House, The Wellington Museum, London, UK / © English Heritage Photo Library – p. 308: Musee de l’Armee, Brussels, Belgium / Patrick Lorette – p. 309: (top) Brown University Library, Providence, Rhode Island, USA – p. 309: (bottom) National Army Museum, London – p. 310/11: Palace of Westminster, London, UK – p. 312: Deutsches Historisches Museum, Berlin, Germany / © DHM – p. 337: (top) Musee de l’Armee, Brussels, Belgium; (bottom) © Royal Hospital Chelsea, London, UK – p. 338: (top) Pushkin Museum, Moscow, Russia; (bottom) De Agostini Picture Library / G. Dagli Orti.