 Chapter 17 of Napoleon, A Short Biography. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by Russell Newton. Napoleon, A Short Biography by R. M. Johnson. Chapter 17, Waterloo and St. Helena. Plan of Campaign, Ligny, March on Brussels, Waterloo, Second Abdication, St. Helena, Death of Napoleon. It's curious to find Napoleon confronted in his last campaign by precisely the same military problem as in his first, applying the same solution but meeting with a different result. In 1796, as now, his opponents were superior in numbers, occupied an extended line and belonged to two armies operating from two different bases. In 1815, as before, he decided to strike in full force at the point of junction of his opponents and to throw them back in diverging directions on their respective bases. The French army, numbering about 120,000 men, was rapidly concentrated during the first week of June and on the 11th, the Emperor left Paris to take command. On the 14th, he was at Beaumont on the frontier in the midst of his troops and within a few days' march of Brussels. So rapid was the French advance that the Prussians and English got little warning of the approaching storm. Blusier, in command of the former, was operating on the line of the Sambres and Muses through Liege and Nemours and his different corps were distributed in the neighborhood of the last named city and Charleroi. The British, under the Duke of Wellington, had their base at Antwerp and their line of communications ran from that city to Brussels and then some 25 miles south where the troops were quartered to the west of the Prussians in the neighborhood of Quattrobra, Genap, Niveau and further to the west. A road running east and west through Quattrobra and Lignet served to connect the Prussian right with the British left. It was at this point that Napoleon aimed. On the 15th, the armies were in contact, the French driving back such opposition as they met with and occupying Charleroi. Blusier succeeded however in concentrating the greater part of his troops in the course of the night and determined to hold his ground at Saint-Almond and Lignet the next day. The British were more completely surprised than the Prussians yet the small force occupying Quattrobra was left there and received such supports as could be pushed forward. On the 16th, Napoleon advanced to the attack of the Prussians, detaching a corps under Naye to operate against the British. A fierce struggle took place for the possession of the villages of Saint-Almond and Lignet that were at last carried by the French. Blusier, although he had lost heavily, retired slowly towards Genblu in a fairly good order. During the course of the same day, Naye had been engaged with the British at Quattrobra but had not gained any ground. Yet on the whole, the operations of the 16th had been very favorable to Napoleon. He defeated the Prussians, inspired his soldiers, and broken through the line of contact between the two allied armies. That night, Napoleon formed a corps of some 30,000 men which he placed under Grochet ordering him to follow Blusier's retreat. The Prussian general might withdraw along the line of the Sombra and Muse. This was the obvious course for him to follow and the one Napoleon hoped he would take. But he might play a bolder game and leaving his line of operations moved north and attempt to join hands with Wellington in the neighborhood of Brussels. Bolder yet, he might retreat eccentrically and threaten the French line of communications. During the early hours of the 17th, Napoleon waited to get information but Blusier moved fast, Grochet slowly. The French light cavalry was at fault and could get no certain news. At last, hearing that the British still held Quattrobra, Napoleon put the whole army in movement towards that point. Wellington had no intention of holding Quattrobra now that the Prussians had been forced to retreat and he had only a rearguard in position when Napoleon arrived on the scene. The Duke got into communication with the Prussians and believed that Blusier's intention was to move north and to effect a junction in front of Brussels if possible. He therefore decided to fall back some miles from Quattrobra to a strong position at Mont Saint-Jean where he hoped for support. On the morning of the 17th, he had not yet decided whether he would risk a battle at that point or not. That, as he explained to one of Blusier's staff officers, entirely depended on whether Blusier could undertake to support him with one of his corps. All through the afternoon of the 17th of June, Napoleon pushed on with cavalry and horse artillery after the British rearguard from Quattrobra northwards towards Brussels. In the evening, he had reached the farm of Label-Aliens and thence saw a mile in front the whole of Wellington's army evidently prepared to give battle. The emperor now stopped and as the evening passed into night, long columns of soldiers came up and were bivouacked right and left of the road between Jeannot and Label-Aliens. At that same night, Groucher, marching with painful hesitation and slowness, had only reached Jean-Blu. He had now, however, ascertained that the Prussians had retreated towards Wavre and proposed marching in that direction the following morning. Blusier had indeed acted with the boldness, decision and promptitude of a good soldier and on the night of the 17th, he had his whole army concentrated near Wavre. Thence, he dispatched a staff officer to inform Wellington that not one corps but three under his personal command would march to the assistance of the British early in the morning. This message reached the Duke about two o'clock in the morning of the 18th and he determined in consequence to hold his ground. On the 18th of June was fought the Battle of Waterloo, so called from a village some way from the scene of action, the last and most disastrous field of the greatest soldier known to history. Napoleon had some 70,000 men actually present, Wellington rather less. Blusier, who came up late, engaged his troops gradually and probably at the last had not more than 30,000 in the fighting. Wellington's army was of mixed composition and many of his troops newly recruited in Holland were of very poor quality. He relied chiefly on his excellent British and German infantry. He had disposed his line according to his favorite method some 50 or 100 yards back from the summit of a slope that the French would have to top in their advance. His infantry was in part further protected by a transversal sunken lane that acted as a sort of natural ditch. Wellington's position stretched out east and west of the Brussels road. On his right, the Manor House and enclosures of Hujamal formed a strong natural bastion. In the center, the farm of Lehes-Saint formed another advanced position. The British left was more open, but a move in that direction led over ground heavy and in part impassable for horses while it might also result in exposing the French to a flank attack from the Prussians. Napoleon, contrary to the opinion of all those of his generals who had fought the British in Spain, decided not to maneuver but to attack frontally. In this, it's hard to believe that he was right for the French troops maneuvered more rapidly than any in Europe while the British were equally preeminent for their unflinching steadiness under attack and their deadly musketry. Heavy rain since the preceding day had turned the roads into quagmires, guns and transport wagons could be moved only with the greatest difficulty. Napoleon could not get his army ready for action and the morning hours slowly passed. During that time, Groucher was marching steadily towards Wauvera while Groucher was struggling hard to get his columns on towards Mont-Ségeant but made hardly any progress in the muddy lanes in the valley of the dial. At last, at twelve o'clock, the Emperor opened the battle by sending the King of Westphalia to the attack of the Hujamal. This was only a demonstration, though fierce fighting took place at this point throughout the day. The real attack was to be made at the center where Napoleon intended to force the British line and establish himself at the crossroads of Mont-Ségeant. Heavy columns of infantry, twenty thousand men in all, marched forward to the attack, faced the fire of the British artillery, breasted the slope, topped it and then received the volleys of the British infantry. There was a fierce struggle. Piction led forward his brigade with the bayonet and was killed, the British cavalry charged and finally the French rolled back from the slope beaten while the horsemen wrought havoc among them. The British cavalry went too far in pursuit and was now assailed and routed by the French cavalry. The Emperor supported the first by fresh squadrons and a great mass of horse soon climbed the slope from which the French infantry had been so disastrously driven. The British infantry was now thrown into squares, alternating on two lines in chess-born pattern and the cavalry charged in among them but with no success. A new and more determined effort was made. Ney led the attack. Every available horseman was thrown in. Long lines surged upwards, steel-breasted curicers, tall horse grenadiers in bearskins, carabineers with gilded armor and enormous curved helmets, Polish Lancers with fluttering penions, dragoons, hussars. The British gunners from the crest line plowed great holes in their ranks then, at the last moment, ran back to the infantry squares for protection. But though the French cavalry easily overran the guns and swallowed the squares of red-coated soldiers in their midst, they could make little impression on the coolly-leveled bayonets while a destructive fire mowed them down in hundreds. Three times was the charge renewed but after the fourth failure it was no longer possible to hope that the Emperor's cavalry would turn the fortunes of the day. A great part of it laid dead and mangled along the front of the British position. The battle had not been long in progress when Napoleon observed a dark column of soldiers winding along a road some miles away to the east. Before long it became clear that some Prussian movement was to be expected from that direction and the French right was thrown back and reinforced. The Prussians attacked as soon as they could be brought into action, fighting in a line that may be roughly described as at right angles with the British left and parallel with the Brussels-Quattrois-Bois road. This they were beginning to threaten to the rear of the French right while the great cavalry charges against Wellington's center were progressing. Napoleon however was still hopeful of forcing the British line before the Prussian attack had developed sufficient force. He also hoped that Groucher might come up on his right and sent orders for that marshal to march in the direction of the main army. But Groucher obeying his original orders in a strict sense was following the Prussian rearguard which kept him engaged during the whole day in the neighborhood of Wauvera. The Emperor now ordered Ney to resume the attack and to carry Léhaix-Saint at any cost. Ney led his men in person and after a fierce struggle drove the defenders from the farm. He had now obtained a foothold in the British center and getting some guns in position at short range opened a deadly fire. Several of the English brigades were now nearly shattered. Some German and Dutch troops gave way and a stream of fugitives set in from the field towards Brussels but Wellington and his splendid infantry remained firm. Gaps were filled as best they could be and Ney could get no response to his pressing call for some fresh troops to drive home the attack. Napoleon had in truth at that moment no troops to spare. The reserves had been used, save a few regiments of the infantry of the guard and the Prussians had just carried the village of Plain-Chinois with striking distance of his line of retreat. The position was fast getting desperate for the Emperor. Two regiments of the guard however drove the Prussians out of Plain-Chinois and taking advantage of this respite Napoleon aimed one last blow at Wellington center. Some 4,000 infantry of the guard were massed into column and Ney advanced at their head over the ground where he had led the cavalry earlier in the day. The exhausted combatants to the right and left from L'Eix-Saint-to-Huge-Mont paused and watched the slow advance of that magnificent infantry, the last remnant of veterans of the great armies of the Republic and the Empire. From along the crest the English gunners poured down Grape and Canister. The commander of the infantry of the guard, Con Freon, fell dead. Ney's horse was shot down but the marshal jumped to his feet, drew his sword and marched on through the smoke dauntlessly. Once more the crest was won. Once more the British infantry behind it poured in their withering musketry. The old guard deployed its melting lines as best it could and for five or ten minutes struggled to hold its ground. But the fire was too deadly. The French began to recede and soon their broken lines were flowing backwards. At this moment the Duke of Wellington rode forward to the crest. His figure could be seen for some way along the British line. He raised his hat high in the air and waved it toward the enemy. At this victorious signal the British regiments advanced along the whole line, fives and drums, bugles and bagpipes urging the men forward. The French army was beaten. The sight of the old guard rolling back in confusion of fresh columns of Prussians closing in on the right told the defeated French that all was lost. On the high road by Label Allianz a few squares of grenadiers still held their ground and gave Napoleon shelter. But all attempts to stay the panic that had now seized the whole army was hopeless. The pursuit was taken up by the Prussians and it was not till three days later and many miles within the French frontiers that the army could be restored to some semblance of order. Napoleon had appealed to the supreme political test and failed and now apparently entertained no hope of being able to recover his position. He arrived in the capital on the night of the 20th and on the following day the chamber on the motion of Lafayette declared itself in permanent session and directed the ministers to report to it. In effect this was a withdrawal of authority from the hands of Napoleon and he accepted it in that sense. On the following day he abdicated for the second time in favor of his son. A week later the allies were nearing Paris and the provisional government led by Fouché was intriguing with the Bourbons. There was nothing Napoleon could now do but to try to leave France. He proceeded to Rochefort where he expected to be able to find ship for the United States but a British cruiser blockaded the port and Napoleon finding no other course possible finally went on board HMS Bellarafan, Captain Maitland and threw himself on the generosity of Great Britain. The arrival of the Bellarafan and her illustrious passenger at Portsmouth created great excitement in England. It's easy to see at this distance of time that Napoleon's career was run and that a magnanimous treatment would not have been dangerous but the feeling of those days was violent. Never had Great Britain been so threatened and alarmed as she had been when the army of Austerlitz was encamped along the shores of the Channel. The generation that had struggled with and defeated Napoleon could not forgive him and General Bonaparte as the British government childlessly insisted on addressing him was sent to the island of Saint Helena in the South Atlantic as a state prisoner. Of his six years residence in that island there is but little that can be said here with advantage. Controversy has raged about the trivial matters over which the illustrious prisoner and his gowler Sir Hudson Lowe disputed. Englishmen have written to prove that Napoleon was insulted and shabbily treated. Frenchman to prove that he spent his whole time lying and intriguing against Sir Hudson Lowe. It is altogether fortunate that these matters are of minor importance and that they need not be discussed in a work of these dimensions. It is a self-evident proposition that under the most favorable circumstances the coupling of Napoleon with the British military officer, not remarkable for tact or urbanity on a barren rock in mid-Atlantic could hardly lead to agreeable results. For those who have noted the peculiarities of Napoleon's character it will appear natural that his constant occupation at Saint Helena was to dictate to some of his companions in exile statements of a biased and misleading character as to his history. He was busy elaborating the Napoleonic legend creating an artificial atmosphere of fact from which he hoped would emerge in some future time an empire for his son. Towards the little King of Rome his thoughts frequently turned and when in 1820 it became clear that an illness he had felt before at intervals was now becoming dangerously acute he dictated long instructions for the future guidance of his son. The last sentence of his will was of an extraordinary character. Was it hallucination or was it astute calculation that made him right? My wish is to be buried on the banks of the Seine in the midst of the French people whom I so dearly loved. He died on the 5th of May 1821 of cancer in the stomach and was buried under a weeping willow near Longwood where he had spent six weary years of exile. British soldiers accompanied him to his rest with reversed arms and fired a parting salute over his grave. Twenty years later as if the violent contrasts of his life had not yet been exhausted his body was ceremoniously transferred to Paris and buried in the Invalides with every circumstance of military pomp and national mourning and under the auspices of a bourbon king. Chronology 16 June 1815 Lignier 18 June 1815 Waterloo 22 June 1815 Napoleon abdicates 5th of May 1821 Death of Napoleon End of Chapter 17 End of Napoleon A Short Biography by Robert Manson Johnston