Qualla: Waterloo Campaign: Waterloo to Paris (18-24 June)

Waterloo Campaign: Waterloo to Paris (18-24 June): Introduction

Sat, 16 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit William Siborne and engraved by J. Kirkwood in Dublin, Public domain. It was the finest night of my life, August von Gneisenau wrote afterward. The Prussian chief of staff had four thousand cavalry, no infantry to slow him down, and a defeated French army stumbling through the dark south of Brussels. To make the broken enemy run faster, he ordered drummers to mount horses and beat the infantry tattoo as they rode - tricking the French into thinking entire columns were behind every troop of hussars. Through the night of 18-19 June 1815, those drumbeats and the saber points of the Black Brunswick Hussars chased Napoleon's collapsing Armee du Nord across the Belgian countryside. By dawn the road back to France was lined with abandoned cannons. By the following Saturday, the imperial dream was finished. This is the story of those six days.

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Image: William Siborne and engraved by J. Kirkwood in Dublin | Public domain

Waterloo Campaign: Waterloo to Paris (18-24 June): No Quarter

Sat, 16 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit EmDee, CC BY-SA 4.0. Two days earlier, at Ligny, the French had given the retreating Prussians no mercy. Now the Prussians returned the favor. The cavalry that streamed south from the Waterloo battlefield was not interested in prisoners. At Genappe, Marshal Lobau scraped together three hundred men an...

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Image: EmDee | CC BY-SA 4.0

Waterloo Campaign: Waterloo to Paris (18-24 June): Abiit. Excessit. Evasit. Erupit.

Sat, 16 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit William Siborne and engraved by J. Kirkwood in Dublin, Public domain. Napoleon reached Charleroi at daybreak on 19 June. He had perhaps an hour to catch his breath before Prussian cavalry forced him across the Sambre. He stopped briefly at Philippeville to send orders to scattered corps commanders - General Rapp, General Lecourbe, General Lamarque ...

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Image: William Siborne and engraved by J. Kirkwood in Dublin | Public domain

Waterloo Campaign: Waterloo to Paris (18-24 June): Grouchy's Long Way Home

Sat, 16 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit William Siborne and engraved by J. Kirkwood in Dublin, Public domain. Forty kilometers to the east, Marshal Grouchy commanded thirty thousand French troops who had no idea the main army was destroyed. They had been fighting their own battle at Wavre against the Prussian III Corps. Around 11:00 on 19 June the news finally reached Grouchy that Napole...

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Image: William Siborne and engraved by J. Kirkwood in Dublin | Public domain

Waterloo Campaign: Waterloo to Paris (18-24 June): Two Generals, Two Tones

Sat, 16 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Marc Maurissens, CC BY-SA 3.0. Wellington and Blucher operated very differently on the march south. The Duke's Anglo-allied army crossed the French frontier on 21 June and Wellington made his headquarters at Malplaquet - the site of Marlborough's 1709 victory, a place he chose deliberately. From there he issue...

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Image: Marc Maurissens | CC BY-SA 3.0

Waterloo Campaign: Waterloo to Paris (18-24 June): The Catillon Conference

Sat, 16 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit William Siborne and engraved by J. Kirkwood in Dublin, Public domain. On 23 June, with both armies halted to let stragglers catch up, the two commanders met at Catillon-sur-Sambre to plan the final approach to Paris. They knew the French were collecting their forces at Laon and Soissons, directly on the road. So they decided to swing west - cross t...

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Image: William Siborne and engraved by J. Kirkwood in Dublin | Public domain