Napoleon and wellington biography template

While the group successfully accomplished the task at hand the following day, the engagement profoundly affected Wellesley. Following it, he vowed to never again attack an opponent without having the target area scouted beforehand. At the start of the conflict, Arthur Wellesley was a lieutenant general in command of 9, men. He accomplished the latter by having his men construct the Lines of Torres Vedraswhich forced a French retreat after six months.

While he experienced his fair share of losses and victories as the Peninsular War went on, he continued to show his talent as a military leader, striking fear into the opposing forces. By the time the allied forces had defeated Napoleon BonaparteWellesley was in command of the entire British Army. For his heroism during the Peninsular War, he was made the 1st Duke of Wellington.

While he was asked to travel to Canada to aid in the War ofhe knew he was needed in Europe and remained, instead taking on Napoleon following his escape from Elba. The Waterloo position chosen by Wellington was a strong one. It consisted of a long ridge running east—west, perpendicular to, and bisected by, the main road to Brussels.

Along the crest of the ridge ran the Ohain road, a deep sunken lane. Near the crossroads with the Brussels road was a large elm tree that was roughly in the centre of Wellington's position and served as his command post for much of the day. Wellington deployed his infantry in a line just behind the crest of the ridge following the Ohain road.

Using the reverse slopeas he had many times previously, Wellington concealed his strength from the French, with the exception of his skirmishers and artillery. This allowed Wellington to draw up his forces in depth, which he did in the centre and on the right, all the way towards the village of Braine-l'Alleudin the expectation that the Prussians would reinforce his left during the day.

In front of the ridge, there were three positions that could be fortified. This was a large and well-built country house, initially hidden in trees. The house faced north along a sunken, covered lane usually described by the British as "the hollow-way" along which it could be supplied. On the extreme left was the napoleon and wellington biography template of Papelotte.

Both Hougoumont and Papelotte were fortified and garrisoned, and thus anchored Wellington's flanks securely. Papelotte also commanded the napoleon and wellington biography template to Wavre that the Prussians would use to send reinforcements to Wellington's napoleon and wellington biography template. On the western side of the main road, and in front of the rest of Wellington's line, was the farmhouse and orchard of La Haye Saintewhich was garrisoned with light infantry of the King's German Legion.

Wellington's forces positioning presented a formidable challenge to any attacking force. Any attempt to turn Wellington's right would entail taking the entrenched Hougoumont position. Any attack on his right centre would mean the attackers would have to march between enfilading fire from Hougoumont and La Haye Sainte. On the left, any attack would also be enfiladed by fire from La Haye Sainte and its adjoining sandpit, and any attempt at turning the left flank would entail fighting through the lanes and hedgerows surrounding Papelotte and the other garrisoned buildings on that flank, and some very wet ground in the Smohain defile.

The French army formed on the slopes of another ridge to the south. Napoleon could not see Wellington's positions, so he drew his forces up symmetrically about the Brussels road. On the right was I Corps under d'Erlon with 16, infantry and 1, cavalry, plus a cavalry reserve of 4, On the left was II Corps under Reille with 13, infantry, and 1, cavalry, and a cavalry reserve of 4, In the centre about the road south of the inn La Belle Alliance were a reserve including Lobau's VI Corps with 6, men, the 13, infantry of the Imperial Guardand a cavalry reserve of 2, In the right rear of the French position was the substantial village of Plancenoitand at the extreme right, the Bois de Paris wood.

Napoleon initially commanded the battle from Rossomme farm, where he could see the entire battlefield, but moved to a position near La Belle Alliance early in the afternoon. Command on the battlefield which was largely hidden from his view was delegated to Ney. Wellington rose at around or on 18 June, and wrote letters until dawn. From Wellington was in the field supervising the deployment of his forces.

Although they had not taken casualties, IV Corps had been marching for two days, covering the retreat of the three other corps of the Prussian army from the battlefield of Ligny. They had been posted farthest away from the battlefield, and progress was very slow. As a result, the last part of the corps left atsix hours after the leading elements had moved out towards Waterloo.

Napoleon breakfasted off silver plate at Le Caillou, the house where he had spent the night. When Soult suggested that Grouchy should be recalled to join the main force, Napoleon said, "Just because you have all been beaten by Wellington, you think he's a good general. I tell you Wellington is a bad general, the English are bad troops, and this affair is nothing more than eating breakfast".

Napoleon's seemingly dismissive remark may have been strategic, given his maxim "in war, morale is everything". He had acted similarly in the past, and on the morning of the battle of Waterloo may have been responding to the pessimism and objections of his chief of staff and senior generals. Later on, being told by his brother, Jeromeof some gossip overheard by a waiter between British officers at lunch at the King of Spain inn in Genappe that the Prussians were to march over from Wavre, Napoleon declared that the Prussians would need at least two days to recover and would be dealt with by Grouchy.

Napoleon had delayed the start of the battle owing to the sodden ground, which would have made manoeuvring cavalry and artillery difficult. In addition, many of his forces had bivouacked well to the south of La Belle Alliance. Atin response to a dispatch he had received from Grouchy six hours earlier, he sent a reply telling Grouchy to "head for Wavre [to Grouchy's north] in order to draw near to us [to the west of Grouchy]" and then "push before him" the Prussians to arrive at Waterloo "as soon as possible".

AtNapoleon drafted his general order: Reille's Corps on the left and d'Erlon's Corps to the right were to attack the village of Mont-Saint-Jean and keep abreast of one another. This order assumed Wellington's battle-line was in the village, rather than at the more forward position on the ridge. A grande batterie of the reserve artillery of I, II, and VI Corps was to then bombard the centre of Wellington's position from about D'Erlon's corps would then attack Wellington's left, break through, and roll up his line from east to west.

In his memoirs, Napoleon wrote that his intention was to separate Wellington's army from the Prussians and drive it back towards the sea. Historian Andrew Roberts notes that "It is a curious fact about the Battle of Waterloo that no one is absolutely certain when it actually began". As the British guns were distracted by a duel with French artillery, a second attack by Soye's brigade and what had been Bauduin's succeeded in reaching the north gate of the house.

Sous-Lieutenant Legros, a French officer, broke the gate open with an axe, and some French troops managed to enter the courtyard. There was a fierce melee, and the British managed to close the gate on the French troops streaming in. The Frenchmen trapped in the courtyard were all killed. Fighting continued around Hougoumont all afternoon.

Its surroundings were heavily invested by French light infantry, and coordinated attacks were made against the troops behind Hougoumont. Wellington's army defended the house and the hollow way running north from it. In the afternoon, Napoleon personally ordered the house to be shelled to set it on fire, [ l ] resulting in the destruction of all but the chapel.

Du Plat's brigade of the King's German Legion was brought forward to defend the hollow way, which they had to do without senior officers. Eventually they were relieved by the 71st Highlandersa British infantry regiment. Adam's brigade was further reinforced by Hugh Halkett 's 3rd Hanoverian Brigade, and successfully repulsed further infantry and cavalry attacks sent by Reille.

Hougoumont held out until the end of the battle. I had occupied that post with a detachment from General Byng 's brigade of Guards, which was in position in its rear; and it was some time under the command of Lieutenant-Colonel MacDonald, and afterwards of Colonel Home; and I am happy to add that it was maintained, throughout the day, with the utmost gallantry by these brave troops, notwithstanding the repeated efforts of large bodies of the enemy to obtain possession of it.

When I reached Lloyd 's abandoned guns, I stood near them for about a minute to contemplate the scene: it was grand beyond description. Hougoumont and its wood sent up a broad flame through the dark masses of smoke that overhung the field; beneath this cloud the French were indistinctly visible. Here a waving mass of long red feathers could be seen; there, gleams as from a sheet of steel showed that the cuirassiers were moving; cannon were belching forth fire and death on every side; the roaring and shouting were indistinguishably commixed—together they gave me an idea of a labouring volcano.

Bodies of infantry and cavalry were pouring down on us, and it was time to leave contemplation, so I moved towards our columns, which were standing up in square. The fighting at Hougoumont has often been characterised as a diversionary attack to draw in Wellington's reserves which escalated into an all-day battle and drew in French reserves instead.

Hougoumont was a part of the battlefield that Napoleon could see clearly, [ 95 ] and he continued to direct resources towards it and its surroundings all afternoon 33 battalions in all, 14, troops. Similarly, though the house never contained a large number of troops, Wellington devoted 21 battalions 12, troops over the course of the afternoon in keeping the hollow way open to allow fresh troops and ammunition to reach the buildings.

He moved several artillery batteries from his hard-pressed centre to support Hougoumont, [ 96 ] and later stated that "the success of the battle turned upon closing the gates at Hougoumont". Hougoumont proved to be decisive terrain. The 80 guns of Napoleon's grande batterie drew up in the centre. These opened fire ataccording to Lord Hill commander of the Anglo-allied II Corps[ m ] while other sources put the time between noon and The bombardment caused a large number of casualties.

Although some projectiles buried themselves in the soft soil, most found their marks on the reverse slope of the ridge. The bombardment forced the cavalry of the Union Brigade in third line to move to its left, to reduce their casualty rate. At aboutNapoleon saw the first columns of Prussians around the village of Lasne-Chapelle-Saint-Lambert4 to 5 miles 6.

A little afterI Corps' attack began in large columns. Bernard Cornwell writes "[column] suggests an elongated formation with its narrow end aimed like a spear at the enemy line, while in truth it was much more like a brick advancing sideways and d'Erlon's assault was made up of four such bricks, each one a division of French infantry. The one exception was the 1st Division led by Quiotthe commander of the 1st Brigade.

This was done because, being on the left of the four divisions, it was ordered to send one Quiot's brigade against the south and west of La Haye Sainte, while the other Bourgeois ' was to attack the eastern side of the same post. The divisions were to advance in echelon from the left at a distance of paces apart—the 2nd Division Donzelot 's on the right of Bourgeois' brigade, the 3rd Division Marcognet 's next, and the 4th Division Durutte 's on the right.

They were led by Ney to the assault, each column having a front of about a hundred and sixty to two hundred files. The leftmost division advanced on the walled farmhouse compound La Haye Sainte. The farmhouse was defended by the King's German Legion. While one French battalion engaged the defenders from the front, the following battalions fanned out to either side and, with the support of several squadrons of cuirassiers, succeeded in isolating the farmhouse.

The King's German Legion resolutely defended the farmhouse. Each time the French tried to scale the walls, the outnumbered Germans somehow held them off. Cuirassiers concealed in a fold in the ground caught and destroyed it in minutes and then rode on past La Haye Sainte, almost to the crest of the ridge, where they covered d'Erlon's left flank as his attack developed.

At aboutd'Erlon started to advance his three other divisions, some 14, men over a front of about 1, metres 1, yardsagainst Wellington's left wing. At the point they aimed for, they faced 6, men: the first line consisted of the 1st brigade Van Bylandt's brigade of the 2nd Netherlands Division, flanked by the British brigades of Kempt and Pack on either side.

The second line consisted of British and Hanoverian troops under Sir Thomas Pictonwho were lying down in dead ground behind the ridge. All had suffered badly at Quatre Bras. In addition, Bylandt's brigade had been ordered to deploy its skirmishers in the hollow road and on the forward slope. The rest of the brigade was lying down just behind the road.

At the moment these skirmishers were rejoining their parent battalions, the brigade was ordered to its feet and started to return fire. On the left of the brigade, where the 7th Dutch Militia stood, a "few files were shot down and an opening in the line thus occurred. D'Erlon's men ascended the slope and advanced on the sunken road, Chemin d'Ohain, that ran from behind La Haye Sainte and continued east.

It was lined on both sides by thick hedges, with Bylandt's brigade just across the road, while the British brigades had been lying down some yards back from the road, Pack's to Bylandt's left and Kempt's to Bylandt's right. Kempt's 1, men were engaged by Bourgeois' brigade of 1, men of Quiot's division. In the centre, Donzelot's division had pushed back Bylandt's brigade.

Opposing them on the other side of the road was Pack 's 9th Brigade, consisting of the 44th Foot and three Scottish regiments: the Royal Scotsthe 42nd Black Watchand the 92nd Gordons, totalling something over 2, men. A very even fight between British and French infantry was about to occur. The French advance drove in the British skirmishers and reached the sunken road.

As they did so, Pack's men stood up, formed into a four-deep line formation for fear of the French cavalry, advanced, and opened fire. However, a firefight had been anticipated and the French infantry had accordingly advanced in more linear formation. Now, fully deployed into line, they returned fire and successfully pressed the British troops; although the attack faltered at the centre, the line in front of d'Erlon's right started to crumble.

Picton was killed shortly after ordering a counter-attack, and the British and Hanoverian troops also began to give way under the pressure of numbers. Pack's regiments, all four ranks deep, advanced to attack the French in the road but faltered and began to fire on the French instead of charging. The 42nd Black Watch halted at the hedge and the resulting fire-fight drove back the British 92nd Foot, while the leading French 45e Ligne burst through the hedge cheering.

Along the sunken road, the French were forcing the Anglo-allies back, the British line was dispersing, and at two o'clock in the afternoon Napoleon was winning the Battle of Waterloo. Our officers of cavalry have acquired a trick of galloping at everything. They never consider the situation, never think of manoeuvring before an enemy, and never keep back or provide a reserve.

At this crucial juncture, Uxbridge ordered his two brigades of British heavy cavalry—formed unseen behind the ridge—to charge in support of the hard-pressed infantry. More than 20 years of warfare had eroded the numbers of suitable cavalry mounts available on the European continent; this resulted in the British heavy cavalry entering the campaign with the finest horses of any contemporary cavalry arm.

Napoleon and wellington biography template

British cavalry troopers also received excellent mounted swordsmanship training. They were, however, inferior to the French in manoeuvring in large formations, were cavalier in attitude, and, unlike the infantry, some units had scant experience of warfare. The Scots Greys, for example, had not been in action since The two brigades had a combined field strength of about 2, 2, official strength ; they charged with the year-old Uxbridge leading them and a very inadequate number of squadrons held in reserve.

Uxbridge later regretted leading the charge in person, saying "I committed a great mistake", when he should have been organising an adequate reserve to move forward in support. The Household Brigade crossed the crest of the Anglo-allied position and charged downhill. The cuirassiers guarding d'Erlon's left flank were still dispersed, and so were swept over the deeply sunken main road and then routed.

Sir John Elleywho led the charge of the heavy brigade, was [ Indeed, had not the ghastly evidence remained on the field, many of the blows dealt upon this occasion would have seemed borrowed from the annals of knight-errantry [ Continuing their attack, the squadrons on the left of the Household Brigade then destroyed Aulard's brigade. Despite attempts to recall them, they continued past La Haye Sainte and found themselves at the bottom of the hill on blown horses facing Schmitz's brigade formed in squares.

To their left, the Union Brigade suddenly swept through the infantry lines, giving rise to the legend that some of the 92nd Gordon Highland Regiment clung onto their stirrups and accompanied them into the charge. The Inniskillings routed the other brigade of Quoit's division, and the Scots Greys came upon the lead French regiment, 45e Ligneas it was still reforming after having crossed the sunken road and broken through the hedge row in pursuit of the British infantry.

The Greys captured the eagle of the 45e Ligne [ ] and overwhelmed Grenier's brigade. These would be the only two French eagles captured by the British during the battle. As with the Household Cavalry, the officers of the Royals and Inniskillings found it very difficult to rein back their troops, who lost all cohesion. Having taken casualties, and still trying to reorder themselves, the Scots Greys and the rest of the Union Brigade found themselves before the main French lines.

Some attacked nearby gun batteries of the Grande Battery. Disorganized and milling about the bottom of the valley between Hougoumont and La Belle Alliance, the Scots Greys and the rest of the British heavy cavalry were taken by surprise by the countercharge of Milhaud 's cuirassiers, joined by lancers from Baron Jaquinot's 1st Cavalry Division. As Ponsonby tried to rally his men against the French cuirassers, he was attacked by Jaquinot's lancers and captured.

A nearby party of Scots Greys saw the capture and attempted to rescue their brigade commander. The French lancer who had captured Ponsonby killed him and then used his lance to kill three of the Scots Greys who had attempted the rescue. By the time Ponsonby died, the napoleon and wellington biography template had entirely returned in favour of the French.

Milhaud's and Jaquinot's cavalrymen drove the Union Brigade from the valley. The result was very heavy losses for the British cavalry. All figures quoted for the losses of the cavalry brigades as a result of this charge are estimates, as casualties were only noted down after the day of the battle and were for the battle as a whole.

The Union Brigade lost heavily in both officers and men killed including its commander, William Ponsonby, and Colonel Hamilton of the Scots Greys and wounded. However, the 1st Life Guards, on the extreme right of the charge, and the Blues, who formed a reserve, had kept their cohesion and consequently suffered significantly fewer casualties.

Some historians, such as Chandler, Weller, Uffindell, and Corum, assert that the British heavy cavalry were destroyed as a viable force following their first, epic charge. The heavy brigades, far from being ineffective, continued to provide valuable services. They countercharged French cavalry numerous times both brigades[ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] halted a combined cavalry and infantry attack Household Brigade only[ ] [ ] [ ] were used to bolster the morale of those units in their vicinity at times of crisis, and filled gaps in the Anglo-allied line caused by high casualties in infantry formations both brigades.

This service was rendered at a very high cost, as close combat with French cavalry, carbine fire, infantry musketry, and—more deadly than all of these—artillery fire steadily eroded the number of effectives in the two brigades. Fourteen thousand French troops of d'Erlon's I Corps had been committed to this attack. The I Corps had been driven in rout back across the valley, costing Napoleon 3, casualties [ ] including over 2, prisoners taken.

And although elements of the Prussians now began to appear on the field to his right, Napoleon had already ordered Lobau's VI corps to move to the right flank to hold them back before d'Erlon's attack began. A little beforeNey noted an apparent exodus from Wellington's centre. He mistook the movement of casualties to the rear for the beginnings of a retreat, and sought to exploit it.

Following the defeat of d'Erlon's Corps, Ney had few infantry reserves left, as most of the infantry had been committed either to the futile Hougoumont attack or to the defence of the French right. Ney therefore tried to break Wellington's centre with cavalry alone. When these were repulsed, Kellermann 's heavy cavalry corps and Guyot 's heavy cavalry of the Guard were added to the massed assault, a total of around 9, cavalry in 67 squadrons.

Wellington's infantry responded by forming squares hollow box-formations four ranks deep. Squares were much smaller than usually depicted in paintings of the battle—a man battalion square would have been no more than 60 feet 18 m in length on a side. Infantry squares that stood their ground were deadly to cavalry, as cavalry could not engage with soldiers behind a hedge of bayonets, but were themselves vulnerable to fire from the squares.

Horses would not charge a square, nor could they be outflanked, but they were vulnerable to artillery or infantry. Wellington ordered his artillery crews to take shelter within the squares as the cavalry approached, and to return to their guns and resume napoleon and wellington biography template as they retreated. Witnesses in the British infantry recorded 12 assaults.

A British eyewitness of the first French cavalry attack, an officer in the Foot Guards, recorded his impressions very lucidly and somewhat poetically:. About four p. You discovered at a distance what appeared to be an overwhelming, long moving line, which, ever advancing, glittered like a stormy wave of the sea when it catches the sunlight. On they came until they got near enough, whilst the very earth seemed to vibrate beneath the thundering tramp of the mounted host.

One might suppose that nothing could have resisted the shock of this terrible moving mass. They were the famous cuirassiers, almost all old soldiers, who had distinguished themselves on most of the battlefields of Europe. In an almost incredibly short period they were within twenty yards of us, shouting "Vive l'Empereur! In essence this type of massed cavalry attack relied almost entirely on psychological shock for effect.

The French artillery did not get close enough to the Anglo-allied infantry in sufficient numbers to be decisive. If infantry being attacked held firm in their square defensive formations, and were not panicked, cavalry on their own could do very little damage to them. The French cavalry attacks were repeatedly repelled by the steadfast infantry squares, the harrying fire of British artillery as the French cavalry recoiled down the slopes to regroup, and the decisive countercharges of Wellington's light cavalry regiments, the Dutch heavy cavalry brigade, and the remaining effectives of the Household Cavalry.

At least one artillery officer disobeyed Wellington's order to seek shelter in the adjacent squares during the charges. A Near Miss March June Wellington Protects Napoleon and His. Shepherding the Scapegoats A Shrinking Colossus Lives in Knightsbridge, London, and has two children. His Salisbury won the Wolfson History Prize in What Might Have Been editor in