The Battle of Waterloo: Europe in the Balance

by Rupert Matthews

  Seeing the French hesitate, the British guards cheered, then charged with the bayonet. The 2/3rd Chasseurs fell back in some disorder, with the British Guards after them. As the two battalions of the 4th Chasseurs came up the British Guards fell back in disorder, their light companies skirmishing in an effort to cover their withdrawal. The 4th Chasseurs now crested the ridge, firing a volley to cut down the Dutch gunners who had done so much damage to the Grenadiers, while firing steadily at the retreating British Guards.

  At this point John Colborne – in command of the British 52nd Light Infantry, to the right of the British guards – realized that there were no French units in front of his men. Without orders he marched his regiment down the slope then wheeled to the left to bring his men in line facing the left flank of the 4th Chasseurs. It was now that the professional training of the British infantry proved crucial. Able to fire four volleys a minute, compared to the two or three of other armies, the British could put down a massive volume of fire. Colborne now poured this awesome fire into the flank of the Chasseurs.

  The Prince of Orange is wounded while a British dragoon carries a captured French standard past him. Despite the heroic stance of the Prince in this picture, the impact of the bullet in his left shoulder actually threw him from his horse and dumped him on his back in the mud.

  Recognizing a crucial moment when he saw one, Wellington spurred over. ‘Go on, Colborne,’ he shouted. ‘They won’t stand.’

  Colborne’s men fixed bayonets and charged as a regiment of Hanoverians came up on their right to threaten the rear of the Chasseurs. With that, the Chasseurs turned and retreated, pursued down the slope by Colborne, the Hanoverians and the British guards.

  Prussians confer

  Meanwhile, Müffling had been called to the extreme left flank beyond Papelotte, where the Dutch 28th Foot was in difficulties. This regiment was still dressed in the blue jackets and wide-topped shakos they had worn when in French service. Some Prussian artillery had, perhaps understandably, thought that they were French – and opened fire. Müffling went galloping over to order the Prussians to cease fire.

  Having restored order, Müffling met Reiche, chief of staff to Zeiten and the Prussian I Corps. Muffling explained the dire situation in Wellington’s centre with the Imperial Guard advancing, and urged Reiche to march directly west to reinforce Wellington. Reiche promised to do so, at which Müffling rode off to report to Wellington. Reiche sent an order to General Steinmetz, who commanded the lead units of I Corps, to halt until the rest of the corps came up and then himself went to find Zieten who was in the rear hurrying his slower units.

  The unfortunate Reiche had ridden only three-quarters of a kilometre when one of Blücher’s personal staff officers galloped up from Plancenoit. This officer told Reiche that the I Corps had to turn south to help Blücher who was under attack from Napoleon’s Guard. As the two men talked, Steinmetz galloped up in angry mood. He demanded to know why he had been ordered to halt just as he was about to attack the French. A furious row between the three men then ensued. It ended when Steinmetz demanded to know if either man had specific orders addressed to him in person from either Blücher or Zeiten. Neither man had.

  Steinmetz leads flank attack

  ‘Right’, declared Steinmetz. ‘Then I am going to attack the French that I can see in front of me. You two can do what you like.’ With that, he galloped back to his men and gave the order to advance. He led them along the banks of the Smohain stream so that they would be out of the line of fire of the cannons ahead of them. Fortuitously this also meant that they were out of sight of the French as well.

  When Steinmetz’s column marched up out of the Smohain dip they found themselves on the flank of the reeling French attack on Wellington’s ridge. There could be no mistaking the Prussian flags, which were over 1.75 m square, boldly patterned in black and white and dominated by a great black eagle. The unexpected sight of dense columns of Prussian infantry appearing out of the hidden valley just as the Imperial Guard was falling back was too much for the battered French.

  The men of d’Erlon’s corps turned and ran, all formation and cohesion utterly lost. The panic spread rapidly as the shouts of ‘The Guard retreats!’ mingled with those of ‘The Prussians are here!’ Within just ten minutes the French army collapsed into a fleeing mob.

  Chapter 12

  ‘Merde’

  Word shouted by members of Napoleon’s Old Guard when called upon to surrender towards the end of the Battle of Waterloo.

  Seeing the French army collapse into confusion and rout, Wellington spurred his horse to the top of the ridge where he could be seen more easily. He then stood up in his stirrups and waved his hat forwards three times to indicate that he wanted the entire army to chase the French.

  Many units formed up and began to advance, but others did not. Several infantry regiments that had been fighting all day simply sat down where they were. The heavy cavalry had been badly battered, and had charged again and again to drive the French cavalry off the defensive squares in the afternoon. They, too, failed to move. The fresher light cavalry of Vivian and Vandeleur, however, spurred forward to disrupt any efforts by the French to reform or stand.

  French take flight

  Amidst the chaos, Ney was on foot. He sought to rally retreating infantry by shouting at them ‘Come and see how a marshal of France dies!’ He managed to put together a small force, but then an officer rode up and shouted, ‘The Prussians are here,’ whereupon they all fled again.

  Napoleon watched the rapidly unfolding disaster with dismay. He stationed the four battalions of the Old Guard drawn up in square to block the main road, supported by four squadrons of Guard cavalry. He took refuge in one of the squares for a while. Then he mounted a horse and, taking one squadron of light Guard cavalry with him, rode off to the south. His last orders were that the Guard was to slow down the British advance while he rallied the fleeing army and linked up with Grouchy. Then he was off.

  Soon afterwards, Ney arrived at the four squares and took refuge in them. A Major Rullière put him on a horse and told him to find Napoleon. The dazed Ney did not seem to hear him properly. He was still gripping in his hand the hilt of his broken sword. Rullière shouted again, this time Ney nodded and spurred away.

  Wellington was watching the pursuit develop from his horse on the top of the ridge. Beside him sat the earl of Uxbridge. One of the last cannon balls fired by the French that day struck the ground in front of them, splattering both men with mud. Feeling something strike him, Uxbridge looked down to see that the ball had bounced up and smashed his right leg to a bloody pulp.

  ‘Good God, Sir,’ he gasped. ‘I’ve lost my leg.’

  Wellington turned and after a quick glance replied ‘Good God, Sir. So you have,’ before summoning men to carry the stricken earl to the temporary hospital behind the army.

  Old Guard in retreat

  The four squares of the Old Guard were now facing the advancing British army. The British were almost as disorganized as the fleeing mob of Frenchmen that they were chasing. The squares drove off disorganized assaults by British infantry, though musketry caused casualties. Attacks by the light cavalry of Vandeleur were more serious, but when the three squadrons of Guard cavalry showed themselves, Vandeleur pulled his men away to go after easier prey.

  The Guard now began to march south along the main road, stopping every now and then to fire at their pursuers or redress their lines. By 9pm they were the only organized French units left standing. Artillery fire reduced their numbers dramatically, but still they retreated in good order.

  The confusion of the closing stages of the battle is shown here. British hussars in red shakoes hack their way through the red-jacketed lancers of Napoleon’s Guard while British infantry bayonet French Guardsmen. In the background more British cavalry push forward while the French army fragments.

  When the squares reached La Belle
Alliance they were approached by Lord Hill, commander of Wellington’s II Corps. He called on them to surrender, politely doffing his hat as he did so. The response is disputed, but it seems that an officer shouted back ‘The Guard dies, it does not surrender.’ Others called out simply the swear word ‘merde’. Hill then opened fire with artillery and sent in his light cavalry to complete the slaughter.

  Amazingly the square of the 2/3rd Grenadiers managed to escape and as darkness gathered it retreated further down the main road. It finally broke up around 11pm and the men joined the fleeing mob.

  Soon after dark, Blücher and Wellington met at La Belle Alliance. Wellington said that his army was too battered to pursue the French, so the chase was taken up by the Prussians.

  Blücher gave orders that no mercy was to be shown to the French, and his men enthusiastically put the orders into practice. Wounded men were killed where they lay, no prisoners were taken and any Frenchman who could not run fast enough was killed.

  At Genappe the Prussians ran into a barricade of wagons and other debris manned by French firing muskets. There was a delay while the Prussians brought up artillery to blast the obstacle apart, then the chase went on.

  Just beyond the barricade the Prussians found Napoleon’s hastily abandoned carriage. Inside were found the emperor’s hat, sword, writing book and a pouch containing a bag of top-quality diamonds. Clearly Napoleon had left only minutes earlier. Try as they might, the vengeful Prussians could not find him. If they had, they would undoubtedly have killed him.

  Wellington’s dispatch

  After talking to Blücher, Wellington returned to his quarters in Waterloo. He could not go to bed as that was occupied by his aide Colonel Gordon, dying slowly of his wounds. Although exhausted, Wellington sat down to write his official despatch to London. The document ran to more than 2,300 words. Wellington handed it to Major Henry Percy, the only aide de camp who was still with him, to carry to London.

  Percy had, in fact, been shot in the foot and had been hiding the wound from Wellington. He rode as far as Brussels before hiring a fast carriage to take him on. After crossing the Channel, Percy hired another carriage to take him to London. He arrived at 10pm on 21 June and hurried to deliver the letter to Lord Bathurst, minister for war. Bathurst was not in his office, but having supper in Grosvenor Square. Bathurst did not bother to read the letter, but as soon as Percy announced that Napoleon was defeated he bundled the young man into a coach and hurried to St James’s Square where the Prince Regent was attending a ball.

  Percy arrived at the ball in the same clothes that he had been wearing to the duchess of Richmond’s ball. He had not had time to change in the intervening six days, and was caked in mud and blood as he limped in. The room fell silent as the bloodied young man staggered in carrying two captured French eagles. Recognizing the prince, Percy fell to one knee and handed over the eagles.

  The Prince Regent was jubilant and invited Percy to join an impromptu celebration. It was soon clear, however, that Percy was utterly exhausted. Instead the Prince Regent sent Percy to his father’s house, where he collapsed into bed and slept for 18 hours.

  Chapter 13

  ‘To throw myself upon the hospitality of your prince’

  Words spoken by Napoleon on surrendering to Captain Maitland of HMS Bellerophon.

  Fleeing south from Waterloo, Napoleon at first hoped to rally some of his men the next day, then link up with Grouchy. It was quickly obvious that none of the soldiers were likely to reform. The ruthless brutality of the Prussians meant that all anyone wanted to do was run away. Nor was Grouchy going to be any use. He was far to the north-east at Wavre and would take some time to rejoin Napoleon.

  Instead Napoleon rode to Paris as quickly as he could. He knew that France had somewhere between 200,000 and 300,000 men under arms and hoped that he would be able to get a new army into the field before the Allies reached Paris. He sent Soult to find Grouchy and order him to fight a rearguard campaign to slow Wellington and Blücher. This Grouchy did with rather more skill than he had displayed when chasing the Prussians, but to no avail.

  Napoleon reached Paris on 21 June to find that the National Assembly and government had turned against him. He had promised them a quick and spectacular victory that would disrupt the enemy alliance and ensure peace for France. He had failed to deliver, and nobody in Paris had the taste for a long, drawn-out war. After several days of tense negotiations, Napoleon admitted defeat. He abdicated as emperor on 22 June and three days later vanished from Paris in a carriage with a small escort.

  Austrian and German movements

  While the Waterloo campaign was unfolding, Engelhardt and his German corps had reached their first objective of Arlon in the southern Netherlands. He then pushed cavalry patrols out to the west and north to try to locate the armies of Napoleon, Wellington and Blücher, which he knew to be in the Netherlands, but did not know where. On 21 June a message came from Blücher announcing the victory at Waterloo and urging Engelhardt to advance into France as planned. The next day the Germans were on the move to lay siege to the fortresses of Sedan, Bouillon, Montmédy, Laon and Rheims. Sedan fell quickly, surrendering on 25 June, but the other two places held out.

  Meanwhile, the Austrian commander Prince Schwarzenberg was waiting on the Rhine with a large army of Austrians and Germans. He had been ordered to await the arrival of the vast Russian army of Tolly before commencing his advance in the first week of July. However, on 17 June he heard that Napoleon had entered the Netherlands two days earlier. Schwarzenberg at once disproved his reputation for caution by ordering an immediate invasion of France by whichever troops were ready to do so. His aim was to defeat the French forces facing him – which he knew must be a fairly small force if the main French army was with Napoleon – and to cause as much trouble as possible in the hope of causing Napoleon to detach forces from his main army and so relieve the pressure on Wellington and Blücher.

  On 19 June, the day after the Battle of Waterloo but before news of that battle reached the Rhine, the Bavarian army crossed the Rhine on barges, then marched west towards the Sarre river. Four days later, after some minor skirmishing, the Bavarians secured bridges over the Sarre at Saarbrucken and Sarreguemines. More severe fighting took place on 24 June as the Bavarians moved toward Luneville, and when they reached the fortress of Bitche they found a strong garrison under Brigadier-General Creutzer, who refused to surrender.

  Meanwhile a column of Austrians, with some forces of the Russian advance guard, was marching towards Nancy. They reached that city on 28 June and made it their headquarters. Forces were sent out toward Metz and Chalons-sur-Marne. The Russians in Schwarzenberg’s army set out about systematically plundering the entire area, causing him a good deal of trouble as he was seeking to keep the French civilians content in the hope that they would turn against Napoleon. The Austrian advance ground to a halt.

  Württemberg engages Rapp

  The rest of the large Austrian army had meanwhile been getting moving and was advancing on a broad front from the Rhine. On 28 June the III Corps under the command of Crown Prince Wilhelm of Württemberg reached La Suffel (now Souffelweyersheim), where they found the French V Corps under Marshal Jean Rapp blocking their path. Württemberg quickly realized that with his 40,000 men he outnumbered Rapp by more than two to one, and launched an attack.

  The Austrian attack pushed the French back across the open ground, though the French did not lose cohesion as they retreated. Rapp, standing with his reserves on the nearby hill of Hiderhausbergen, noticed that the Austrian left flank was becoming exposed as it advanced. Ordering his reserve infantry to follow on as quickly as possible in column, Rapp led two regiments of cavalry down the hill and charged headlong in to the Austrian flank. The crashing impact of the French cavalry threw the Austrians into confusion. When the French infantry came up and opened fire, the Austrians collapsed and fled. The panic spread along the line and so
on the entire Austrian army was in retreat.

  So rapid was the Austrian collapse that Rapp’s cavalry were able to capture Württemberg’s carriage, paperwork and most of his supplies and baggage. The pursuit went on for more than 15 km, but came to a sudden halt when large numbers of soldiers were spotted in the distance. This was a force of 30,000 Russians hurrying forward to the sound of guns. Rapp halted the pursuit, and marched back to his start lines to prepare a rearguard action. The Russians then proceeded to loot every village within reach and set fire to the houses and churches.

  Appalled by the behaviour of the Russians, and aware of the advance of Wellington and Blücher, Rapp sent a messenger to Württemberg, suggesting an armistice. He asked for time to send a messenger to Paris for orders, and that the Russians be withdrawn until an answer was received. Württemberg, smarting from this defeat, refused.

  Knowing from his scouts that some 70,000 Austrians and Russians were advancing against him, Rapp fell back to the fortified city of Strasbourg and prepared to endure a long siege. Before entering Strasbourg, Rapp put garrisons into Strasbourg, Landau, La Petite-Pierre, Huningue, Sélestat, Lichtenberg, Phalsbourg, Neuf-Brisach and Belfort with orders to hold out for as long as possible.