Hundred Days preface
Elba, the 7th Coalition, and Napoleon's strike into Belgium to smash Wellington and Blucher apart. Ligny hurt the Prussians; it did not destroy them.
Grouchy's chase of Blucher is the French what-if that never dies.
Waterloo was fought on 18 June 1815 on a shallow ridge south of Brussels, after Napoleon's escape from Elba and the 16 June battles at Ligny and Quatre Bras. Wellington's Anglo-Allied army held the ridge; Blucher's Prussians arrived in the afternoon on the French right. Napoleon's last throw ended in a general rout toward Paris.
About 40,000-50,000 men were killed or wounded in a day of artillery, cavalry, and infantry -- a Napoleonic butcher's bill, not a twentieth-century one. Hougoumont, La Haye Sainte, and the misjudged midday start (mud, or waiting for the ground to dry) structure every English account.
The battle closed the Napoleonic Wars in the English schoolroom more than Leipzig had. Belgian tourism, British "nearest-run thing" prose, and Prussian insistence on being in the picture are the memory war that never ended. For this atlas it is the low-scale, high-memory end of an era -- and a rhyme with later "one-day" myths (Midway, Tsushima) that should not be equated.
Date18 Jun 1815
Allied commandersWellington and Blucher
FrenchNapoleon
Casualtiesabout 40-50 thousand
EveQuatre Bras / Ligny 16 Jun
AfterSt Helena
Profile
Scale
22
Intensity
65
Duration
6
Tech shift
25
Political impact
82
Cultural memory
80
Deep introduction
A ridge, a delay, and an ally who arrived
Waterloo is a British national day that was an allied day -- and a French catastrophe that Vienna then locked in.
The afternoon
Hougoumont soaked men. D'Erlon's attack failed. Ney's cavalry charged squares without enough horse artillery. The Imperial Guard's late attack broke.
Prussian pressure at Plancenoit decided the French right while the ridge still held.
Night and exile
The rout unhooked the army. Paris could not be a second 1814. St Helena followed. Vienna's final act had its battlefield seal.
Casualties on the ridge became a tourist industry within a generation.
Three stories
British: Wellington and the squares. Prussian: Blucher's march. French: mud, Grouchy, and betrayal. All three are in the sources; none is the whole ridge.
Three stories stays dated: 1815-06-18-am (Late start) in Ridge south of Brussels, present-day Belgium. Michel Ney (French marshal) is a named witness -- The cavalry charges and a later execution (1815) made him a romantic ruin. Cost band: about 40,000-50,000 dead and wounded in one day, usual band. Encyclopedia, not a method.
Seven chapters
01
History
Dated history of Battle of Waterloo (18 June 1815) in Ridge south of Brussels, present-day Belgium.
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02Forces
Historical forces and institutions of Battle of Waterloo -- not a live order of battle.
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03Campaigns
How Battle of Waterloo unfolded as historical sequence, not instruction.
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04Cost
Human and material cost of Battle of Waterloo, as documented ranges.
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05Icons
People and debates around Battle of Waterloo.
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06Legacy
Afterlives and unresolved questions of Battle of Waterloo.
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07Atlas
Maps, portrayals and rituals of Battle of Waterloo.
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Frequently asked questions
When was Waterloo?
18 June 1815, after Ligny and Quatre Bras on the 16th.
How many casualties?
About 40,000-50,000 killed and wounded is the usual combined band for the day.
Did Wellington win alone?
No. Blucher's Prussians were decisive in the afternoon. Wellington said as much.
Why did Napoleon lose?
Coalition numbers, a delayed start, failed combined-arms in the centre, and Prussian arrival -- not a single farmhouse.
What happened next?
Second abdication, Allied occupation, St Helena, and Vienna's settlement confirmed.
Why is it so famous in English?
It was the last battle, near a newspaper city, with a British-led army. Leipzig was larger and less English.
Is the site intact?
Mostly farmland with a later lion mound that changed the ridge profile -- memory architecture on a battlefield.
Is this a tactics manual?
No. It is a historical battle file.