Waterloo

Richard Sharpe and Patrick Harper survive the downfall of Napoleon, June 1815

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The good old Duke of Wellington finally got his chance to face ol' Boney. It was a very tight run affair, but we know who came out on top without requiring a Spoiler Alert. Sharpe and Harper both play minor roles in the battle, as the long day of death and violence that was Sunday, June 18, 1815, progresses.

The people of Brussels (15km north) were on the doorstep to the battle. Napoleon marched quickly to force himself into position between two allies armies: the British and the Prussians, hoping to fight them separately before they joined. It almost worked. The Prussians were brushed aside first, then the British made their stand, knowing that the retreating Prussians were going to back them up. Eventually.

What an astounding battle! Waves of cavalry! Hordes of infantry! Masses of cannon! All packed into a cramped valley between two ridges. In the end, when it mattered most, it was the French method of unstoppable columns versus the British method of fragile lines of overwhelming, fast musket fire. The result was the same as usual: the thin red line holds (just barely) while pouring a rolling torrent of musket balls into the column. They can't miss. The column can only bring a fraction of it's firepower to bear. The dead pile up, but the drums keep beating and the men in back keep pushing and it becomes an increasingly murderous situation. After the column is halted and the musket butchery has had some time to do it's worst, the thin red line declares a bayonet charge into the smoke and death to rout the confused and panicking enemy. 

Even the much vaunted Imperial Guard, veterans all, the lapdogs of the Emperor, couldn't force a different outcome. Up to this point, they had been undefeated. Because they had not yet fought the British!

Napoleon started with 73,000 men. Around 25,000 were killed or wounded, including 6500 captured. A further 15,000 missing. The French left this battle with just 45% of the men who started it!

Wellington started with 68,000 men. He lost 3500 killed, 10,200 wounded, and 3300 missing.

The battle proved decisive in ending the era of French dominance that began with the French Revolution in the early 1790s. Basically two decades of war on land and sea. Napoleon announced his second abdication on June 24, 1815; less than a week after this epic battle.