Battle of Waterloo
On 18 June 1815, Napoleon's Army of the North — some 72,000 men — attacked the Duke of Wellington's Anglo-allied force of 68,000 entrenched on a ridge south of the village of Waterloo in present-day Belgium. Napoleon had already defeated the Prussian army under Blücher at Ligny on 16 June; he needed to destroy Wellington before the Prussians could rally and return. The battle opened late — around 11:30 a.m. — giving the Prussians time to march. Wellington's infantry held a succession of French attacks, sheltering in reverse-slope positions that minimised artillery casualties and presenting only line formations to French cavalry charges they could not break. French assaults on the fortified chateau of Hougoumont and the farmhouse of La Haye Sainte consumed the afternoon without decisive result. Napoleon committed the Imperial Guard — the last reserve, never before repulsed in battle — in the early evening assault; Wellington threw in his own reserves and the Guard broke. At the same moment Prussian forces under Bülow and Blücher struck the French right flank and rear. The French army dissolved into a rout; Napoleon fled in a carriage and abdicated four days later. Waterloo ended the Hundred Days and confirmed the Congress of Vienna's settlement as Europe's post-war order.
- Year: 1815 CE
- Category: Military
