INTERESTING FACTS ABOUT THE BATTLE OF WATERLOO

1. It was actually fought in Belgium three miles south of Waterloo. The French called it the Battle of Mont Saint-Jean Ridge, which was where the British army was placed.  Wellington had his headquarters in the town of Waterloo and he decided the battle would be named after it.
2. The British army was very multinational. It had soldiers from Ireland, Wales, Scotland, and England.  About half of the army came from German states.  There were also Dutch and Belgian soldiers.  And there was also the allied Prussian army. 
3. The allied army had 23,000 British troops, 44,000 allies, and 160 cannons. Napoleon had 74,000 men and 250 cannons.
4. The British soldiers were mostly wearing red. Most of the French wore dark blue.  They sure did not believe in camouflage back then.
5. Almost all the infantrymen of both sides carried smoothbore muzzleloaders. A good soldier could fire 3-4 shots in a minute.  The procedure was bite (the top off the cartridge), prime (put some powder in the firing pan), pour (the rest of the powder down the barrel), spit (the ball down the barrel), ram (the powder and ball down with the ramrod), cock, and fire.  The firing mechanism was a flintlock.  It was .75-.80 caliber.  The famous British Brown Bess was fairly accurate up to about 100 meters.  Some of the British were riflemen.  Their Baker rifles were much more accurate (up to 200 meters), but took longer to load because the ball would be wrapped in a patch which made it difficult to ram down.  A rifleman could fire 2 shots in a minute.  The French were armed with the Charleville musket which was .69 caliber.  Napoleon did not believe in riflemen.  Both sides had bayonets.
6. The cannons fired solid balls which were effective against packed formations or case shot or cannister for closeup. The British had shrapnel shells which would explode above a formation and shower it with balls.
7. On June 16, Napoleon fought two separate battles. He directed the defeat of Marshal Blucher’s Prussians at Ligny.  The Prussians retreated and Napoleon directed a corps under Marshal Grouchy to tail, harass, and prevent Blucher from marching to unite with the British.  At Quatre-Bras, Marshal Ney got a slow start and had a hard time with Wellington.  The British ceded the ground at the end of the day, but the battle was a win for the Brits.  Wellington retreated to a good defensive position that he had already scouted near Waterloo.  The main part of Napoleon’s army followed him.
8. There was a terrible rainstorm the night before the battle. It was miserable for most of the soldiers.  Napoleon’s dawn attack was postponed because his artillery commander warned that the balls would simply plunk down in the mud.  And the foot soldiers would have a hard time attacking in the mud.  The delay was a factor in the defeat because it gave Blucher more time to join Wellington. 
9. Here is a simplified outline of the major events:
10. 11 A.M. the French artillery opened fire on a farmstead on the right of the British line called Hougoumont.  One hour later, Napoleon’s brother Jerome  took the left wing of the army to attack.  This was supposed to be a diversion, but the position was very defensible and Jerome got his blood up  as the British resisted his attacks.  He kept feeding more units into the meatgrinder.
11. At 1:30, the artillery switched to bombarding the British center. Most of the British soldiers were on the reverse slope where they were less vulnerable. 
12. At 2 P.M., Ney launched an infantry attack on the British center, including another farmstead called La Haye Sainte. As the French approached the ridge, the British infantry rose and fired a volley that sent the French reeling. A British cavalry charge broke the French attack, but the cavalrymen continued the charge to reach the French cannons.  (The British cavalry had a reputation for not knowing when to stop.)  At that point, there horses were exhausted and they were vulnerable to a counterattack by French lancers.  Imagine being on a slow horse chased by a fast horse with a lance aimed at your back.
13. With the Prussians (who had not been dogged by Grouchy) beginning to appear on the French right, Napoleon ordered Ney to renew the attack on the center. This time La Haye Saint was taken after a very spirited defense by some of Wellington’s Germans. 
14. Ney, possibly misreading the movement of British casualties or prisoners moving to the rear, assumed the British were retreating and ordered a mass cavalry charge. The British formed squares which made them almost impregnable to cavalry.  Ney led an astounding 12 charges which did not come close to breaking the British. (See painting) This took up 3 hours and ended around the time La Haye Sainte fell.
15. Napoleon was forced to send part of his reserve to slow the Prussians at the town of Plancenoit.
16. With the fall of La Haye Sainte, Napoleon felt that the British center might be ready to crack. He ordered his last reserves to attack.  The Old Guard (some historians believe it was the Middle Guard), which had always finished off victories and never been defeated, was sent up the ridge.  It was met by withering volleys and when it retreated the defeat was sealed.  The French army was stunned.  “La Garde recule! Sauve qui peut.”  (“The Guard retreats!  Save yourselves.”)
17. Some historians have blamed Napoleon’s hemorrhoids for him being off his game. Specifically, he could not ride his horse to be more hands on in his conduct of the battle.  Other historians argue this was just sour grapes.
18. The toll on humans was very high, but 7,000 horses were also killed.
19. The bodies were scavenged by locals after the battle. Teeth were sold to denture makers.  They were so numerous that an entire generation of denture wearers wore “Waterloo teeth”.
20. Neither Wellington not Napoleon were wounded in the battle. However, Wellington was seated on his horse Copenhagen next to Lord Uxbridge when a cannon ball hit his leg.  Uxbridge:  “By God, sir.  I’ve lost my let.”  Wellington:  “By God, you have.”  Uxbridge’s leg was amputated without anesthesia.  He recalled that it was done with a dull knife.  The leg was buried on the battlefield with a monument.
21. The French dead were burned on funeral pyres that burned for over a week.
22. Napoleon fled on horse. His carriage was captured. In it were his annotated copy of Machiavelli’s “The Prince”. Napoleon returned to Paris and then went to the port of Rochefort.  It is possible he wanted to sail to America, but the Royal Navy had the port blockaded and he was taken into custody.  His brother Joseph (who had been King of Spain) got to America and lived his last 15 years in New Jersey.
23. Wellington was rewarded with 200,000 pounds (equivalent to 15 million today).

https://www.history.com/news/7-things-you-may-not-know-about-the-battle-of-waterloo

https://www.history.co.uk/articles/10-facts-about-the-battle-of-waterloo-you-didnt-learn-in-school

https://www.britishbattles.com/napoleonic-wars/battle-of-waterloo/