Allied coalition held
Britain plus Prussia on one day.
A four-day campaign in Belgium, not a single farm. Grouchy and Wavre are on the map.
The Guard's failure is an ending, not the whole afternoon.
Principles
Napoleonic wars close (English dating)
1815 as a full stop.
A proverb is born
"Waterloo" as defeat.
Imperial Guard
The last French infantry throw. Read as a 18 June 1815 concept in Ridge south of Brussels, present-day Belgium.
Plancenoit
Prussian fight on the French right-rear. Not a present instruction.
Steps
- Elba escape
1815-03: The Hundred Days open.
A dated beat of Battle of Waterloo in Ridge south of Brussels, present-day Belgium. Sequence as history, not as a campaign to copy.
- Ligny and Quatre Bras
1815-06-16: Prussians hurt; Wellington holds a crossroads.
A dated beat of Battle of Waterloo in Ridge south of Brussels, present-day Belgium. Sequence as history, not as a campaign to copy.
- Rain and retreat
1815-06-17: Wellington to the Mont-Saint-Jean ridge; mud for the 18th.
A dated beat of Battle of Waterloo in Ridge south of Brussels, present-day Belgium. Sequence as history, not as a campaign to copy.
- Late start
1815-06-18-am: French guns wait on wet ground -- the famous delay.
A dated beat of Battle of Waterloo in Ridge south of Brussels, present-day Belgium. Sequence as history, not as a campaign to copy.
- Hougoumont
1815-06-18: A day-long soak of infantry.
A dated beat of Battle of Waterloo in Ridge south of Brussels, present-day Belgium. Sequence as history, not as a campaign to copy.
- D'Erlon / cavalry
1815-06-18: Failed centre; Ney's charges.
A dated beat of Battle of Waterloo in Ridge south of Brussels, present-day Belgium. Sequence as history, not as a campaign to copy.
Diagrams
From Elba escape (1815-03) through D'Erlon / cavalry (1815-06-18) to St Helena (1815-10) in Ridge south of Brussels, present-day Belgium. One sequence, not a staff overlay.
Napoleon (French emperor) and Wellington (Allied commander) sit at the centre of most English accounts; Henry Paget, Lord Uxbridge and Gebhard's staff -- Gneisenau correct the usual photograph.
Limits
Source limits
Figures such as "about 40,000-50,000 dead and wounded in one day, usual band" stay in ranges because records are incomplete, political, or still closed. How many casualties? is answered as a band.
No how-to
Battle of Waterloo is described as history. This page does not teach weapons employment, coup method, or attack planning.
Memory bias
English-language fame of Battle of Waterloo and local memory in Ridge south of Brussels, present-day Belgium are not the same map. Gebhard's staff -- Gneisenau is often the correction the first photograph drops.
Mud, farms, and squares are historical description. They are not a reenactor how-to sold as scholarship.
Counterfactuals about an earlier start remain open and unprovable.