Waterloo Day 2009. Victor Hugo's The The Eighteenth of June, 1815 from Les Miserables:
If it had not rained in the night between the 17th and the 18th of June, 1815, the fate of Europe would have been different. A few drops of water, more or less, decided the downfall of Napoleon. All that Providence required in order to make Waterloo the end of Austerlitz was a little more rain, and a cloud traversing the sky out of season sufficed to make a world crumble.
The battle of Waterloo could not be begun until half-past eleven o'clock, and that gave Blucher time to come up. Why? Because the ground was wet. The artillery had to wait until it became a little firmer before they could manoeuvre.
Napoleon was an artillery officer, and felt the effects of this. The foundation of this wonderful captain was the man who, in the report to the Directory on Aboukir, said: Such a one of our balls killed six men. All his plans of battle were arranged for projectiles. The key to his victory was to make the artillery converge on one point. He treated the strategy of the hostile general like a citadel, and made a breach in it. He overwhelmed the weak point with grape-shot; he joined and dissolved battles with cannon. There was something of the sharpshooter in his genius. To beat in squares, to pulverize regiments, to break lines, to crush and disperse masses,--for him everything lay in this, to strike, strike, strike incessantly,-- and he intrusted this task to the cannon-ball. A redoubtable method, and one which, united with genius, rendered this gloomy athlete of the pugilism of war invincible for the space of fifteen years.
On the 18th of June, 1815, he relied all the more on his artillery, because he had numbers on his side. Wellington had only one hundred and fifty-nine mouths of fire; Napoleon had two hundred and forty.
Suppose the soil dry, and the artillery capable of moving, the action would have begun at six o'clock in the morning. The battle would have been won and ended at two o'clock, three hours before the change of fortune in favor of the Prussians. What amount of blame attaches to Napoleon for the loss of this battle? Is the shipwreck due to the pilot?
10 comments:
Quite amazing to think how close it was. We tend to think of these things as inevitable, after the fact, but had the battle been lost the cream of the British and Prussian armies would have been lost. I personally doubt whether we would have had any other choice but to except the existence of the Napoleonic Empire after that.
The greatest military leader of all time (even Wellington said so) coupled with the greatest post-gunpowder military power, a terrible combination.
Quite right. Thankfully we won and they lost. History is replete with close runs. Vienna 1683 and Lepanto come to mind. I'm not sure Napoleon would have been able to destroy the British and Prussian armies. Remember France was exhausted at this point, effectively bankrupt. The allies were on their 7th coalition at the time of Waterloo. Britain had been beaten and come back before.
Ah, but that was the issue, as I understand. This was the last throw of everyone involved, as all were exhausted. Whomever won the battle, won the war. That is what I was taught anyway, I could well be wrong.
I have to say I am quite a fan of Napoleon, not in a 'I wish he had won' fashion, of course. But I admire him as one of the most influential chaps in history.
Well, with the Russians and Austrians marching East Napoleon would have been finished.
Most of Wellington's troops were not the cream of his army, there were a lot of raw troops, only a proportion of them had fought in Spain with him. A fair amount had been sent to North America, and I hardly think that they would end the war there. Waterloo, even if lost could hardly reverse Trafalgar...
Marching West sorry, from the East.
Well, Napoleon would never have been ableto invade Britain that is true, but a victory at Waterloo would have allowed him timeto consolidate his forces, and his leadership. Would the Russian and Austrian armies have been so willingto fight Napoleon after he had seen off Wellington and Bluchers armies? I doubt it personally. The war may have continued but I doubt the Allies would ever have been in a position to demand the end of the House of Bonaparte.
Just a note: I am sorry to Wellington could not use the Portuguese army to participate - as he wanted - in the last campaign against Bonaparte. If he could realize his aims, it would have been a fair reward for the devastation caused in my country by France
Nuno,
Yes, the sacking of Batalha by Masséna deserved a retort. I'm sure the Portuguese forces would have performed very well at Waterloo, as they did through out the Peninsular campaign.
History is replete with close runs. Vienna 1683 and Lepanto come to mind.
Indeed! Yesterday we marked the anniversary of a close run in Sarajevo.
Unfortunately, that incident developed into a years-long conflict, which brutally put a harsh end to the Age of Victoria and Francis Joseph.
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