Remembering a Historic Battle

 

 

June 18 is the 208th anniversary of the Battle of Waterloo, the epic 1815 encounter that put an end once and for all to Napoleon’s dream of conquering Europe.

The emperor had made a glorious comeback to power a hundred days earlier, after escaping from his exile on the island of Elba, just off the western coast of Italy. Napoleon seemed unstoppable as he made his way in triumph across Europe. It took the combined and well-coordinated military forces of Great Britain and its allies to halt the Emperor’s progress.

Waterloo was where it all come crashing down for Napoleon. His mighty army and his plans for the future of Europe were vanquished on a field near a village just south of Brussels.

On that summer day over 200 years ago the peaceful Belgium countryside was engulfed by the sights and sounds of a deadly battle: the thunder of drumbeats and hoofbeats; frantic shouts; booming guns; the thick, pervasive smog of musket and artillery fire; and the smell of death.

Engaged in fierce fighting against Napoleon’s Armée du Nord was a multi-national military force of British, Dutch and German troops under the command of the Duke of Wellington.

Joining Wellington was the Prussian army led by Prince Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher. This wasn’t the 72-year-old Blücher’s first encounter with Napoleon; five years earlier he’d defeated the French general at the Battle of Leipzig.

For such a short conflict Waterloo was extremely bloody, with approximately 50,000 casualties combined on both sides and thousands more wounded, captured or missing. And that carnage doesn’t account for the hordes of dead horses strewn over the battlefield, a gruesome contribution to the hellish scene.

Even worse, because of inadequate medical resources many of the wounded lingered on the open field for days, with no doctors to treat their injuries and prevent unnecessary and excruciating deaths.

So what did the battle achieve? Here are few reasons why the Battle of Waterloo merits attention:

• First and foremost, Waterloo firmly squashed Napoleon’s hopes for a French-dominated Europe. Following his defeat, the emperor was forced into exile once again, this time on the distant South Atlantic island of Saint Helena, where he died in 1821.
• The Battle of Waterloo also marked the end of the Napoleonic Wars, which spanned more than 15 years and caused the deaths of an estimated 3-6 million soldiers and civilians. If Napoleon had won the battle, the map of Europe would have been redrawn and the course of history changed.
• Following Wellington’s victory at Waterloo, Britain became the world’s most powerful nation, expanding its empire and dominating international politics.
• The aftermath of Waterloo also ushered in a period of relatively long-lasting peace, with no further armed conflict between the major powers in Europe for almost 40 years, until the Crimean War of the mid-1850s. The British army didn’t fight again on Western European soil for almost a hundred years, up to the outbreak of the First World War in 1914.

A smaller but enduring effect of the battle was the introduction of the word “Waterloo” into the English vernacular, as in the expression “meeting my Waterloo” or facing an ultimate defeat, just as Napoleon did that day.

When news of Wellington’s momentous victory reached Great Britain, spontaneous celebrations broke out across the nation. Church bells were rung, people cheered, and students were given half-day holidays. Later, monuments were erected, and bridges and railway stations were renamed in honor of the battle. Poets such as Robert Southey and Byron immortalized the conflict in their work, while artists recreated battle scenes on their canvases.

The famous conflict is still commemorated today, though without the same fervor. Next Sunday, on June 18, the Battle of Waterloo will be remembered and celebrated, as it is every year, by a few regiments of the British Army. In much the same way, the Royal Navy commemorates the Battle of Trafalgar on Trafalgar Day every October 21.

By all accounts, Napoleon was shocked that he’d lost the battle.  Apparently he’d gone into the battle brimming with confidence and could only conclude that it must have been Fate that made him lose. He called June 15 “an incomprehensible day” and claimed “we ought to have won.” In September of 1815, as he set sail to his final exile on Saint Helena, Napoleon even said: “Ah! If it were only to be done over again!”

I think Wellington and Blücher would have disagreed.

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For more on the Regency and the Battle of Waterloo, see:

The Regency Years During Which Jane Austen Writes Napoleon Fights Byron Makes Love & Britain Becomes Modern, by Robert Morrison, WW. Norton & Co., 2019

“Commemorating Waterloo,” from Age of Revolution: Making the World Over 1745-1848, an educational legacy project from Waterloo 200 Ltd, the official body recognized by the UK government to support the commemoration of the Battle of Waterloo during its bicentenary in 2015 and beyond.

“Napoleon on Waterloo – What did Bonaparte Actually Say About His Most Famous Defeat?” by Shannon Selin, November 19, 2019,  Military History Now

Images courtesy of Wikimedia Commons