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Dawn of 18 June 1815 found the French Army of the Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte seemingly on the verge of its greatest victory. After a mere twelve days of marching and fighting, the French had succeeded in splitting the Prussian Army under Blucher from Wellington's Army for what looked to be the decisive battle of the campaign. Along a frontage of 15,000 yards, some 72,000 French troops (many of them veterans of long service) supported by 246 guns faced a motley collection of 68,000 British recruits, Hanoverian and Brunswicker levies, and barely-serviceable Netherlander militia feebly supported by a mere 156 guns. In appraising the possibilities of the situation, Napoleon dismissed the coming battle as 'an affair of a morning'. He was never more wrong.

Despite the brittleness of his army, Wellington had a number of factors working in his favor that day in Belgium. One was the strength of his position on the reverse slope of a slight ridge. Another was the weather. The rains of the previous day and night had left the fields and pastures separating the two armies sodden and slippery, putting the French (who would be advancing) at a disadvantage and delaying the start of the battle for some hours. Most importantly, Wellington had arranged with Blucher for the Prussians (whom Napoleon believed to be retreating eastward after their mauling at Ligny two days previous) to advance in support of the soon-to-be-beleaguered Anglo-Allied Army.

The battle opened at 1150 with a cannonade and one-division assault on Hougomont, a walled manor constituting a sort of natural redoubt guarding the approach to the Allied right. Designed as a diversion to draw Wellington's reserves away from the real point of attack, this assault miscarried and had to be supported. As the day wore on, more and more of the French II corps was fed into the assault on this almost impregnable position, and gradually the battle for Hougomont came to take on a life of its own, separate from the rest of the battle. In any event, Wellington fed troops into this isolated battle piecemeal, a company at a time, and it thus failed in its purpose.

By 1334, Napoleon was ready to launch his main effort, an attack by D'Erlon's corps on the Allied center. Four divisions advanced, overrunning the Allied advanced positions. An entire Allied division broke in the face of the onslaught. All seemed to be going as planned. With the commitment of Picton's 5th division, however, the line was stabilized. After an hour long firefight, the French admitted defeat in the assault and withdrew.

Meanwhile, the Prussians had been sighted advancing on the French right and Napoleon was forced both to hurry his attack on Wellington and to detach forces to fight a holding action against the new threat. During the next several hours, the French fought a fierce action against the Prussians around Plancenoit while vainly trying to break the Anglo-Allied line with cavalry alone. Both actions ultimately failed and the emperor on a gambler's throw committed his last reserve, the Imperial Guard, against Wellington's severely stressed line in an effort to break the Allied center before the Prussians could organize to crush his right. At 1930 the Guard advanced to be met by the massed fire of the British Guards. After a brief firefight, it was the French who broke, engendering cries of 'Le Guard recule!' from the shocked rankers who promptly fled themselves. Seeing the effect of the repulse on French morale, Wellington ordered a general advance which swept the demoralized enemy from the field. The day which had begun with the promise of Napoleon's greatest victory ended in his most decisive defeat.

David Ritchie

From: Napoleon of Waterloo, 2nd Edition, December 1979.