The Battle of Waterloo
Page 3
Massed French cavalry, lined up, preparing to charge.
French cavalry defeated. Another memorable scene, Ney beating his sword over a cannon barrel. *(footnote 1)
Grouchy is lost and the Prussians are closing from the east. Napoleon prepares the coupe de grace. He orders 7 battalions of the Guard forward and hands them to........ Ney. *(foonote 2)
The Old Guard is repulsed by the Maitland's Footguards and Detmer's Dutch Belgians. The fat lady sings. *(foonote 3)
The Iron Duke and Marshal Forwards congratulate each other at La Belle Alliance. Emotions run high as it is a "near run thing". Marshal Blucher's son who was at the scene notes that Blucher gave Wellington such a hug that he was embarassed (you see the sanitized version here, this is an English book after all). Privately each thought that each was due the lion's share of the credit. Publicly, the British calls this the Battle of Waterloo, the Prussians call it the Battle of La Belle Alliance (the French call it a disaster of the highest magnitude.) *(foonote 4)
The aftermath. They ask "Who's alive?". The looting following the battle is repugnant. *(foonote 5)
Many thanks for Neil A. of Australia who kindly scanned and e-mailed the entire book to us. I'm sure the book has rekindled many happy memories.
Disclaimer: All images are taken from the Patterson Blick book by Dennis Knight. I had this book as a child and put this page up because I wanted to share my fond memories with my readers. This is a 30 year old book, I was unable to find the publishers to ask for permission. Perhaps the company changed names, merged with others or I was not diligent enough. If the current copyright owners see this page and wish me to do so I will willingly remove all images or credit them.
Footnotes
1) What a day for Ney. The entire 100 day campaign was like a bad dream for him. It started out inauspiciously with his "I'll bring him back in an iron cage" remark. Then he was ignored by Napoleon during the preparatory stages of the campaign, only being summoned at the last moment. But nobody fought harder than Ney during the battle. He ended the day with another inauspicious remark: "Come and see a Marshal of France die". It was only to be too prophetic, I sincerely hope that the Prince of Moskowa lived out his days as a simple school teacher in Pennsylvania.
2) The bravest of the brave (Ney) is shown on foot (in most pictures). He has had 5 horses shot from under him, horses run not walk away when they see him coming.
3) At this point we must say a word about Count Cambronne (le mot a Cambronne). Yes that is the man who said "Merde!" or "The Guard dies but not does not surrender!" He has been described as the commander of the Guard but in actual fact he was only a lowly Brigadier-General and only commanded the 1st Chasseurs. So what is Cambronne's claim to fame? His claim to fame is only that he made those two famous utterances when asked to surrender at the end of the battle. It is sometimes debated what he said. My personal opinion is that he said "Merde!" or "Oh, sh*t!" involuntarily when he saw what was coming, then thought up the "The Guard dies......" phrase afterwards, after all he was a Count. Incidentally, he did not die but was captured. What this proves is that a word is worth more than a thousand deeds. Those utterances catapulted Cambronne to immortality. Look at Count Friant and Count Drouot. Who? Who indeed. These two worthies were Cambronne's superiors and must be turning in their graves, not in the least because neither one of them have hotel rooms or train stations named after them. History is remembered by famous phrases, appropriately uttered: "Nuts!"; "I came, I saw, I conquered"; "I will return"; "I am not a crook!"; etc., etc. So a lesson for any future commanders reading this footnote, please try to remember to keep a few choice words ready, you might not go down in history unless you utter them, at the right time.
4) Wellington's remark "By God, I don't think we would have done it if I wasn't here" made me think of Professor Higgins singing 'I did it, I did it!" in My Fair Lady.
5) English books relate Prussian looters as the worse, killing both Allied and French wounded indiscriminately. The Prussian pursuit of the French was merciless. No quarter was given to any Frenchmen. At one point Larrey (the surgeon) was captured and mistaken for Napoleon. He was almost shot but saved at the last moment by a surgeon he met in Berlin. Years later (in the 1840s) French troops passing by the battlefield deface at least one Prussian monument in revenge.