"French OOB at Waterloo" Topic

I am looking for the French Order of Battle at Waterloo with actual unit strength per regiment on Jun 18th 1815. There are obviously lots of OOBs online but my understanding is that they cover the initial strength at the start of the 100 days campaign. I could find some from June 10th but that still omits the large losses at Ligny and Quatre-Bras for some of the regiments.

I don't need very precise numbers, but I am trying to get a sense if any of the regiments present at Waterloo suffered significant casualties at Ligny/Quatre-Bras beforehand and were at a materially different strength than that listed in the online OBBs for the campaign as a whole.

Any insights would be much appreciated!

Mark Adkin's Waterloo Companion would be a good starting point.

Best wishes,

Chris

Yes. Many French Regiments in "du Nord" suffered significant casualties at Ligny and/or Quatre Bras.

I second the approach to use Adkin's Waterloo Campaign, in my estimation he is as accurate as the best and better than most. Quick, well laid out and accessible.

Paul Dawson's books often cover casualty states, and the Truth of Waterloo (bad title) contains much on losses but IIRC focuses on before and after Waterloo. Might be worth a look if you can get it out of a library.

Another one for Adkins.

Thanks for the suggestions. I found Adkin's book on the Archive. It's beautiful and I am going to try to find a physical copy to buy!

Unfortunately though, I remain confused about the numbers. Adkin explicitly calculates the armies' overall strength at Waterloo on page 50 (strength at the start of the campaign minus losses at Ligny/Quatre-Bras). The subsequent pages then have beautiful organisational diagrams with the strength of each battalion. Very nice, except none of it adds up…

First, the sum of all the infantry units in the diagrams adds up to 56k men whereas his own calculation on the first page only has 53k for infantry. And that's before adding staff and support units which would augment the "infantry" count even further.

Second, the divisional strength in his diagrams is very close (or larger) than the historical strength returns from June 10th (i.e. before any casualties). Consider second Corps which he lists at 20k men but the strength record of June 10th has at 19.7k. We know they lost heavily at Quatre Bras with around 1.5k losses and possibly more during various skirmishes. So his 20k number is clearly materially higher than the possible strength at Waterloo.

My conclusion therefore is that he correctly calculates the effective overall strength at Waterloo, but then uses June 10th strength figures for the diagrams (but doesn't explain the shift). If that is the case then I am no further on this question…

Scotty Bowdin's book on Waterloo is extremely granular, but I have no idea of its accuracy.

You will not find the French Order of Battle at Waterloo with actual unit strength per regiment on June 18th 1815 as no parade states were taken. French OOBs for the campaign are a mix of returns. Bowden says " I and II Army Corps took parade-states on June 1 and again on June 10 whereas IV Army Corps (Army of the Moselle) counted returns on May 31 and again on June 13. Parade-states for I and II Reserve cavalry Corps were taken on June 1 and again on June 9 while III Reserve Cavalry Corps took returns on June 1 and again on June 15. Also available for inspection are the returns of the Imperial Guard dated June 1 and June 16. Thus the actual dates of returns were never uniform among all corps…".

Your best bet is to use a combination of Adkins and Scott Bowden's "Armies at waterloo" and apply a bit of pro rataing of casualties amongst the various regiments of a corps. Bowden's volumes splits the french into officers and other ranks.

Bowden says:
"Losses prior to June 18, 1815

The losses suffered by the Army of the North prior to Waterloo can be briefly summarized. Of the units enagaged at Waterloo, the best estimates of total losses sustained between June 15 and June 17 are:

II Army Corps 4,000
III Reserve Cavalry corps 100
IV Reserve Cavalry Corps 150
Young Guard Division 800
Old and Middle Guard Infantry 670
Guard Heavy Cavalry Division 400

for a net total loss of 6,120.

Deducting the full 6,120 from the army returns of 10-16 June, the effective combat force of the Army of the North at Waterloo would be 72,499. It must be noted that all french casualties , however minor, were reported and it is documented that many of those listed as casualties actually dressed the wounds themselves and therefore did not miss a day out of the ranks.

Further, of the estimated 6,120 caulaties detailed above, we must conclude that at least 2,000 of these "casualties" were indeed present and under arms at waterloo. therefore, Napoleoin had available for action at Waterloo some 74,500 effectives (excluding medical and staff personnel) supported by 254 pieces of ordnance."

Mr. Bluecher, this is wonderful information. Much appreciated! Those losses give me a path to at least estimate on-field strength, at least well enough to build up my figure counts for my Waterloo project. Thanks!

"Wargaming workshop", you won't get anything better than the info provided by "Prince of Essling". Paul Dawson provides losses for Quatre Bras…but you will have troll thru his book on Ney at Quatre Bras. I wouldn't bother.

"Mark Adkin's Waterloo Companion would be a good starting point."

I started to buy that book and OMG the prices for the hard cover is crazy. The paperback ain't cheap either.

There are several board games that have OBs. If you can find a copy of SPI's "Wellington's Victory" it maybe of some help.