Today we wrap up the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. If you’ve been along, it’s been a pretty wild ride. It also happens to be my birthday, so, feel free to celebrate it with me with a little military history.
As usual, if you found this topic interesting, feel free to comment or discuss it below. If you're new to the Napoleonic Wars, check out the archive, were you can start at the beginning, by clicking here.
The Battle of Wavre
While the Battle of Waterloo is the most famous battle fought on the 18th of June, 1815, the Battle of Wavre is the more important of the two. Under the circumstances, if the French either win, or do not even have to fight this battle, Wellington would most likely not prevail at Waterloo. Even if he did, Napoleon would have most likely been able to retreat in good order. It’s the Prussian flank attack that drives so much of what happens late in the day.
After the battles of Quatre Bras and Lingy, Napoleon held the initiative. Both of the allied armies were falling back, and he held a central position between them. Napoleon believed that, after Lingy, the Prussians were sufficiently beaten that they wouldn’t be able to fight for several days, and would continue their retreat for several days. While he couldn’t pursue with his whole army, a strong enough force would keep pressure on the Prussians, and allow Napoleon to shift his army to the west to defeat the British without interference from the Prussians. He could then finish off the Prussians, and head south to fight the Austrians before the Russians arrived.
To that end, on the 17th of June, about noon, Napoleon moved out from Lingy, marching to link up with Ney, following the British to Waterloo. He left behind about 35,000 men under Grouchy, whom he ordered to take up the pursuit of the Prussians, and destroy what was left of the beaten Prussian army once he found it. There was just one slight problem- he wasn’t exactly sure where the Prussians went. He followed up their line of retreat throughout the afternoon of the 17th, camping that night near where he suspected the Prussians were moving.
However, both Grouchy and Napoleon had rather overestimated the damage done to the Prussians, and underestimated Blucher’s ability to hold the army together Blucher’s forces came off the field in good order, and, while on the march towards Wavre on the 17th, he managed to get it back into fighting shape. By the end of the day, he was in Wavre, where he met up with a supply train. He was able to resupply his army, get his men well fed, and set up a series of camps for a good night’s rest. He also stayed in contact with Wellington, who had detected Napoleon’s efforts to track him down. Over the course of the night of the 17/18th, and into the morning, Blucher and Wellington decided to move together- if the French attacked, Blucher would fall on their flank, and, if not, they would attack in concert on the 19th.
To that end, once Blucher heard the sound of guns over at Waterloo, he decided to head over there. He knew Grouchy was out there- there had been skirmishes in the morning- and decided that the best way to deal with that force was to leave behind one of his corps, the III under Theilmann, to block Grouchy’s force from interfering with his movement, rather like a lineman taking on a double team while the linebacker scrapes around to make the play. Theilmann would wait in Wavre, and keep Grouchy from either blocking Blucher’s advance or attacking his rear.
For most of the day, Grouchy moved slowly, not sure exactly where to go. When the guns started at Waterloo, his general urged him to march to the field, but he stuck to his orders to find the Prussians. In the afternoon, he found that the Prussians were in Wavre, and decided to attack there- despite the fact that the bulk of the Prussian army was closer to Waterloo at that point. If he broke through at Wavre, though, he could threaten the Prussian rear, but he would need to move fast if he wanted to do something about the rest of the Prussians. To that end, Grouchy ordered Vandamme into an immediate attack against Wavre itself at 1600. Vandamme made the attack right of the march- not artillery, no skirmishing, no intelligence, just raw speed and mass. It worked as well as one might expect, trying to make a river crossing against a prepared defense in a town. The sheer weight of Vandamme’ attack made some progress, crossing the Dyle River into Wavre, but was quickly pushed out, effectively checking and pinning Vandamme. Another attack an hour later made little progress.
Grouchy decided to change tactics at this point. Taking his uncommitted forces, he marched them upriver to a less well defended bridge to the west. At about 1900, this force crossed the Dyle and began to march on THeilmann’s flank. This attack progressed well, and Grouchy committed to it. Theilmann committed what reserve he had to stop them, but, after sharp fighting, the French drove them back around 2300. Grouchy had, by day’s end, put himself in a good position to force Theilmann out on the 19th- however, that was all for nought. He had failed to prevent Blucher’s movement to Waterloo, which settled the issue there.
The Battle of Waterloo
On the afternoon of the 17th, Napoleon marched on Quatre Bras, planning to fight Wellington there. However, Wellington had already decided to fall back towards Brussels, intending to stay closer to Blucher’s line of retreat. Throughout the day and into the night of the 17/18th, Wellington and Blucher worked out a plan, where Blucher would maneuver against Napoleon’s flank, while Wellington’s army would hold the road to Brussels. While Wellington had his doubts about the Prussian’s ability to actually get his army into gear again so quickly, he figured he would try his best to hold on before falling back on Brussels, if Blucher had overpromised.
On the road back to Brussels, Wellington found exactly what he was looking for, in terms of a battlefield, just outside the town of Waterloo. A rather sizeable hill, before the village of Mount St. Jean, offered everything he wanted- a good slope to defend, plenty of cover from artillery bombardment, and two small hamlets on which he could anchor his lines. He deployed his 65,000 or so men in a line across the military crest of the ridge in the morning of the 18th, between Hugomont on his right, Papelotte on his left, and La Haye Sainte in the center. He deployed in a double line, as usual, and kept his reserve close to Mount. St. Jean. The small distance between the villages in the area made the battlefield rather compact.
Napoleon approached Wellington’s position in the late evening of the 17th, and realized that he would give battle the next day with about 65,000 men. The 17th had been wet and rainy, softening the field and making it hard to cross the valley between Mt. St. Jean, and Placenoit, where Napoleon camped his army. As a result, Napoleon would need to wait most of the morning before launching his attack. His plan was pretty simple. He directed Ney to lead the attack, which would being with an assault on the British right at Hugomont by Reille’s corps. This attack would pull British reserves in that direction. Meanwhile, he would establish a grand battery with most of his guns, batter the British center, then launch an attack with D’erlon’s corps against the weakened and helpless British center. This would dispatch the British quickly, allowing Napoleon to regroup if the Prussians happened to show up.
The first attack went off sometime between 1000 and 1130- no one is really quite sure. Reille, supported by Prince Jerome, made several attacks against the fortified farms of Hugomont, supported by artillery. The attack cleared most of the area around the walled farms, but stalled out when it came to taking the farms itself. Several attacks raged across the area, as Reille committed more and more men to try and clear the area. The attack bogged down most of the morning- pinning down Reille’s corps and, more importantly, not drawing any British forces from the center.
At about 1300, Napoleon received vexing news- the Prussians were coming. Bulow’s Corps, which had even fought at Lingy, were coming down the road from Wavre, and would arrive soon. At the same time, Ney asked for permission to launch the attack against the center. Needing to get a decision, Napoleon agreed, ordering D’Erlon’s corps forward, while shifting his main reserve, Lobau, over to fend off the Prussians.
The attack began with a heavy bombardment from the Grand Battery. However, the battery was sited at a rather great range from the British force, making it hard to accurately aim the guns. Making the bombardment even less effective, the bulk of British forces hung behind the crest of the ridge, or in sunken roads, limiting the effectiveness of the artillery. Most of the British visible were skirmishers, in loose formation. Still, the bombardment did have some effect, and pinned the British in place. At about 1330, the infantry went forward.
However, for some reason, D’Erlon attacked in increadibly deep formations- 200 men across, and 30 ranks deep. These made perfect artillery targets, and the British gunners ripped the formations open. Still, numbers and mass told, and the French moved towards La Haye Sainte, driving the British first line back. However, the second line, in a sunken road, rose quickly, launching a massive volley at close range. D’Erlon’s attack wavered and slowed.
Seeing the French wavering, the British cavalry commander, Lord Uxbridge, launched his own attack against the French. Part of his force drove the French back, while others crossed the valley into the Grand Battery itself. However, the French cavalry reserve attacked these scattered forces, eventually driving them back as well. This gave D’Erlon cover to retreat and reform for another attack later in the day. It also gave Ney an idea.
After D’Erlon’s attack had been repulsed, Wellington set to redressing his line, and pulling wounded and other men out of the line to aid stations. Ney mistook this movement for a retreat, rather than a reformation, and decided to commit his cavalry reserve to the fight. In a wild, massive, unsupported charge, the French cavalry went forward against the British center. Wild French attacks ran through the British front, where the infantry formed squares against the furious attack that started at about 1530. However, this attack was unsupported- the Grand Battery could not fire into the wild melee, no infantry came forward to support the cavalry charge, and this allowed the British to hold their squares unmolested. 12 or so attacks crossed the center of the field, but, each time, the British held on desperately.
It wasn’t until after 1600 that Ney realized the cavalry charge was kinda dumb. D’Erlon’s men were ready to go, and he ordered them forward between La Haye Sainte and Papelotte, in an effort to break through the British forces in square. The fighting became intense and desperate. Numerous senior British officers were killed or wounded in the desperate back and forth in the area. Wellington himself spent a chunk of the battle trapped in a square, unable to exercise any control over the fighting. French infantry and artillery poured into the area, blasting squares and driving against the British, leaving the battle on a knife’s edge.
Until the Prussians showed up. Bulow’s Corps arrived in strength as D’Erlon’s forces went forward, and Bulow attacked Placenoit, Napoleon’s headquarters and central position. Loubau moved to try to block Bulow’s advance and hold him off long enough for D’Erlon to break the British position. Napoleon sent part of the Guard to assist him. However, neither French commander expected Blucher’s next move, to send Zeiten’s Corps into the gap between Lobau’s forces and D’Erlon’s. This flank attack moved the French into a long horseshoe shape at about 1930. D’Erlon’s attack faltered, and he had to shift to fighting the Prussians. However, the situation was stable for the French- La Haye Sainte had fallen, the British were battered, and the Prussians were checked.
With the battle still anyone’s to win, Napoleon launched one last attack and 2000. He committed the Middle and Old Guard, nearly a division strong, into the gap between Hugomont and La Haye Sainte. Other French troops in the area rallied to the attack, moving with the Guard. The initial attack broke through on a narrow front, driving into the British position. However, rather than breaking, British and Dutch forces rallied. A fresh Dutch division moved to blunt the Guard’s attack, while other forces closed to the flanks of the attacking force, pouring fire along the flanks of the columns. The attack faltered, slowed, and then, for the only time in the entire Napoleon era, the Guard broke and retreated.
At the same time that the Guard fell back, the Prussian assault captured Placenoit, shattering the French right and cutting off many of the lines of retreat for the French. As the Guard fell back, the word spread throughout the French line- “The Guard has retreated- Every man for himself!”
Napoleon had met his Waterloo. The French army collapsed, and broke for home. 7,000 French lay dead, 14,000 wounded, 7,000 captured, 15,000 missing and never to rejoin the army. Nearly 5,000 Allied troops died, with 15,000 wounded.
The Congress of Vienna
In the end, the Hundred Days did not stop or even really slow the progress of the Congress of Vienna. Tallyrand, the French representative, denounced Napoleon and continued to negotiate in the name of Louis XVIII. Even though the British and the Prussians did the heavy lifting at Waterloo, Metternich, the Austrian Foreign Minister, largely dominated the conference, enforcing his vision of the future in Europe.
That vision of a future Europe enforced stability as a bulkwark against revolutionary activity. Metternich blamed the violence of the previous quarter century on the forces unleashed by the French Revolution, and believed that those forces needed to be contained, held back, and prevented from establishing another bloody revolution. Metternich guided the members of the Congress of Vienna to adopting several principles that would provide stability- admittedly, a tense stability- for the next 33 years.
The first was to place areas of revolutionary fervor and support under control of monarchies. France itself was reduced to its original borders in 1792, and Louis XVIII restored- backed by the bayonets of the other powers. The Netherlands was restored as a Kingdom, not a Republic, with a king responsible for the Seven Provinces, and the Austrian Netherlands. In the German States, the Prussians took direct control of the most pro-French areas in the Rhine, while the German Federation, led by Austria and Prussia, organized the rest, promising to maintain monarchs on their thrones in case of revolution. Metternich broke Italy up into several parts. He drove Murat off his throne, replacing him in Sicily with a Bourbon. Venice and Lombardy came under direct control, while the rest of the Kingdom of Italy, other than Piedmont, were restored to their various Dukes, who allied themselves with Austria. Piedmont was given to the King of Sardinia, who had been a loyal member of all the Coalitions against Napoleon. Sweden gained Norway, while Prussia, Austria and Russia repartitioned the Duchy of Warsaw.
Metternich also created a series of organizations to support the Concert of Europe, which directed European diplomacy until 1848. The first was the Holy Alliance of Prussia, Russia and Austria, which in 1815 expanded to the Quadruple Alliance with Great Britain, and in 1818 to the Quintuple Alliance with France. These Alliances promised stability, hopefully preventing future wars and snuffing out future revolutions. While the alliances did not really last, the Concert itself did- an agreement that the Great Powers would meet for mediation amongst all the Powers when any of them had a conflict. As long as he was in power, Metternich drove the concert through his own personality and vision for Europe. However, after his resignation in the Revolutions of 1848, the Concert system remained in the Congress System, where great diplomatic crises in Europe were resolved by great meetings amongst the powers, which persisted until the Austrian Ultimatum to Serbia in 1914.
In many ways, the Congress of Vienna established the order of the 19th century, lasting for the next 100 years. In terms of preserving peace, it was rather monumental, since there would not be a general war in Europe for nearly a century. However, it had numerous effects, in terms of revolutionary fervor, nationalism, and other ideologies that it would try to slow until the mid century. This slowing would also help set the tone of the next hundred years, but are rather beyond our scope and interest.
So, we’re finished with Napoleon. Maybe it’s time to end with a song:
