Napoleon at Waterloo

On March 20, 1815 Napoleon returned to Paris from his exile on the island of Elba. This day marked the beginning of “Napoleon’s 100 Days”, as many historians have dubbed the brief episode , which ended July 8, 1815 when Louis XVIII was reinstated as the King of France. Within a period of two months Napoleon, capitalizing on France’s enormous population, conscripted an army roughly 280,000 strong . Napoleon Bonaparte’s forces exceeded those of the Anglo-Allied forces, led by the Duke of Wellington, Field Marshall Blucher, and the Prince of Orange, by 50,000 men. The advantage in numbers and Napoleon’s gift for military strategy would not be enough to prevent his loss at the Battle of Waterloo and his second exile to St. Helena . The would be Emperor’s lack of military communication, his inability to draw the smaller English forces into battle, his underestimation of the Prussian forces, and a lack of morale with the second “Grande Armee” would prove Napoleon’s downfall at the Battle of Waterloo. Napoleon’s strategy to crush the Anglo-Allied forces in Belgium, while they gathered, would have proved effective had these issues not occurred.

Napoleon’s strategy was one that relied on overwhelming numbers and attacking the Anglo-Allied forces while they were still gathering together. To do this Napoleon attempted to capture Brussels in Belgium, then a part of the United Kingdom of the Netherlands. The strategy was to rush the enemy at a moment of weakness in order to split the forces, with a focus on pushing the English to the coast of Belgium and the Prussians to the east . This split of the forces was to be done at Quatre Bras under the direct leadership of Marshal Ney. After preventing the forces from joining, Napoleon intended to...

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