Human-cost band
about 40,000-50,000 dead and wounded in one day, usual band
About 40-50 thousand casualties in a day -- concentrated, visible, and later painted.
Horses died in heaps that shocked even Napoleonic veterans.
Bands
Dated span (18 June 1815)
Battle of Waterloo is taught as 18 June 1815. 1815-03 and 1815-10 are the usual poles.
Theatre (Ridge south of Brussels, present-day Be.)
Ridge south of Brussels, present-day Belgium is the geography of the ledger -- cities, seas, plants, or ministries as the file requires.
Rain and retreat
1815-06-17: Wellington to the Mont-Saint-Jean ridge; mud for the 18th.
Guard fails
1815-06-18-eve: The last throw; rout.
Regions
Ridge south of Brussels
Core theatre of Battle of Waterloo (18 June 1815). Prussians hurt; Wellington holds a crossroads.
Return
Mar-Jun 1815: Elba to Belgium.
The ridge
18 June day: Hougoumont to the Guard.
Memory
After: Lion, films, re-enactors.
US / UK / AU / CA classrooms
Where Battle of Waterloo (18 June 1815) is taught -- or skipped -- in US/UK/AU/CA surveys, often beside 1939-45 rather than beside Battle of Waterloo's own calendar.
Korean comparative reader
Battle of Waterloo (18 June 1815) is world-history in a Korean classroom, often paired with Inchon or Tsushima when the subject is a hinge battle -- theatre here is Ridge south of Brussels, present-day Belgium.
Key numbers
Span18 June 1815
Cost bandabout 40,000-50,000 dead and wounded in.
TheatreRidge south of Brussels, present-day Be.
Hero articleBattle of Waterloo
Makers
Napoleon
Napoleon (French emperor) is a named maker of the Battle of Waterloo story. Lost his last set-piece and his throne. The mud-and-Grouchy explanations began in his own circle.
Wellington
Wellington (Allied commander) is a named maker of the Battle of Waterloo story. Held the ridge and later the British political right. "Nearest-run thing" is his caption.
Blucher
Blucher (Prussian commander) is a named maker of the Battle of Waterloo story. Seventy-two, thrown at Ligny, arrived anyway -- the necessary ally.
Michel Ney
Michel Ney (French marshal) is a named maker of the Battle of Waterloo story. The cavalry charges and a later execution (1815) made him a romantic ruin.
Emmanuel de Grouchy
Emmanuel de Grouchy (French wing) is a named maker of the Battle of Waterloo story. The scapegoat of the missing Prussian chase -- a historiography of blame.
William of Orange
William of Orange (Netherlands) is a named maker of the Battle of Waterloo story. Wounded on the ridge; Dutch-Belgian troops' commander in the allied structure.
Belgian peasants' fields were a third ledger. Tourism later paid some of that landscape back in a cold way.
British pension lists and Prussian village memorials are the quiet cost.