A campaign to divide the opposing armies
After returning to France from Elba, Napoleon regained power but faced a new coalition of European powers. He sought to take the offensive before his opponents completed their concentration, separating Wellington’s multinational army from Gebhard von Blücher’s Prussian army and defeating them individually. The campaign took place in what was then the southern Kingdom of the Netherlands, in present-day Belgium.
French troops crossed the Sambre on June 15 and defeated the Prussians at Ligny on June 16. On the same day, another French force fought Wellington’s troops at Quatre Bras. The Prussians retreated toward Wavre while maintaining contact with the allied army. Wellington then withdrew south of the village of Waterloo, preparing to hold positions around Mont-Saint-Jean while awaiting Prussian reinforcements.
A defensive line of ridges and farms
On June 18, Wellington deployed along a ridge, using reverse slopes and low ground to shelter some troops from artillery. Buildings forward of the line became separate strongpoints. Hougoumont covered the right flank, La Haye Sainte stood ahead of the center, and the area around Papelotte protected communications on the left. The defense depended not only on numbers along the line but also on whether these positions could delay and disperse the French.
Wellington commanded British, Hanoverian, Dutch, Nassau, and other contingents; his force cannot simply be described as an entirely British army. His dispatch the next day expressly recorded that communications with the Prussians at Wavre remained open and that Blücher had promised to send troops as needed. Allied operational arrangements therefore involved cooperation between two armies from the outset.
Repeated attacks and the wearing down of positions
The French began with a fierce assault on Hougoumont and attacked the allied center-left with artillery and infantry. The estate’s defenders held out through repeated fighting. Allied heavy cavalry briefly broke up French infantry but advanced too far and suffered French cavalry counterattacks. Local successes did not automatically produce an overall breakthrough.
In the afternoon, French cavalry repeatedly charged allied infantry squares without destroying the core defensive line. The French later captured La Haye Sainte, exposing Wellington’s center to a more immediate threat. The dispatch records that the King’s German Legion troops defending the farm had exhausted their ammunition, showing that interrupted supply and communications shaped its fate alongside courage. The French needed to commit further forces to exploit their gains, while their right flank was already under Prussian pressure.
The Prussian flank attack and French retreat
Friedrich von Bülow’s Prussian corps advanced toward Plancenoit and the French right, forcing Napoleon to divert troops in that direction. Other Prussian units gradually approached Wellington’s left. In the evening, the French Imperial Guard launched the last major attack on the main allied position. When it was checked and withdrew, the wider French battle formation collapsed.
Wellington seized the moment to order infantry, cavalry, and artillery forward. After the French left the heights, the Prussians continued the pursuit into the night. In his report to Earl Bathurst, the British secretary of state for war, written on June 19 and published in The London Gazette on June 22, Wellington explicitly credited the Prussians’ timely and forceful assistance and emphasized the decisive effect of Bülow’s flank attack. This dispatch by one commander must be read alongside other evidence, but it is sufficient to rebut accounts that attribute the victory to a single nation.
Farm hospitals and the aftermath on the ground
The fighting turned local farms into strongpoints and hospitals. Mont-Saint-Jean farm served as an allied field hospital. After the battle, treating the wounded and disposing of human remains, animal carcasses, and waste continued to affect the locality. The successes and losses recorded in commanders’ dispatches cannot fully capture what happened around the hospitals.
An official report by the Walloon archaeological agency and Waterloo Uncovered distinguishes separate excavation phases. A complete human skeleton and some equine remains had already been found in 2022; further excavation of the ditch or pit in 2024 revealed amputated limb bones and additional animal remains. Preliminary analysis identified saw and knife marks and gunshot injuries. The report nevertheless leaves open whether the deposits lay in a reused roadside ditch or a purpose-dug pit. Archaeology can therefore demonstrate the concentrated disposal of amputated limbs and animal remains, but should not be expanded into a claim that the cleanup of the entire battlefield is now understood.
References: [3]
From military defeat to political and financial reorganization
After returning to Paris, Napoleon abdicated again on June 22. Allied armies continued into France, and Louis XVIII was restored. Article IV of the second Treaty of Paris, signed on November 20, required France to pay an indemnity of 700 million francs. Article V permitted allied occupation of military positions along the frontier by a force not exceeding 150,000 men, to be maintained at France’s expense. Military defeat thus became a specific financial burden and a set of security arrangements.
The treaty listed garrison locations including Valenciennes and Cambrai and required a separate convention to regulate relations between the occupying troops and French civil and military authorities. Occupation could last no more than five years, with a joint review after three years to consider an earlier end. Other foreign troops were to withdraw under the attached military convention. Waterloo ended Napoleon’s military comeback while placing provincial cities, garrison supplies, and national finances under new international constraints.