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Waterloo: The Campaign of 1815 Volume II: From Waterloo to the Restoration of Peace in Europe by John Hussey, awarded the RUSI Duke of Wellington Medal for Military History 2019 and the society for Army Historical Research's Templer Medal, 2017.
John Hussey's study of the Waterloo campaign with its multiple armies and multiple battles is monumental and magisterial. The final word on Waterloo will never be written but this work is a close run thing.
– (The Society for Army Historical Research)
The concluding volume of this work provides a fresh description of the climatic battle of Waterloo placed in the context of the whole campaign. It discusses several vexed questions – Blücher's intentions for the battle, Wellington's choice of site, his reasons for placing substantial forces at Hal, the placement of Napoleon's artillery, who authorized the French cavalry attacks, Grouchy's role on 18 and 19 June, Napoleon's own statements on the Garde's formation in the final attack, and the climactic moment when the Prussians reached Wellington's troops near la Belle Alliance.
Close attention is paid to the negotiations that led to the capitulation of Paris, and subsequent French claims. The allegations of Las Cases and later historians that Napoleon's surrender to Captain Maitland of the Bellerophon amounted to entrapment are also examined.
After a survey of the peace settlement of 1815, the book concludes with a masterly chapter reviewing the whole story of the 1815 campaign.
Volume I Currently Available in eBook Format Only!
Waterloo: The Campaign of 1815 – Volume I: From Elba to Ligny and Quatre Bras – Kindle and ePub editions only £4.99 GBP each.
The first of two ground-breaking volumes on the Waterloo campaign, this book is based upon a detailed analysis of sources old and new in four languages. It highlights the political stresses between the Allies, and their resolution. It studies the problems of feeding and paying for 250,000 Allied forces assembling in Belgium during the undeclared war, and how a strategy was thrashed out.
It studies the neglected topic of how the slow and discordant Allies beyond the Rhine hampered the plans of Blücher and Wellington, thus allowing Napoleon to snatch the initiative from them. Napoleon's operational plan is analyzed (and Soult's mistakes in executing it). Accounts from both sides help provide a vivid impression of the fighting on the first day, 15 June, and the volume ends with the joint battles of Ligny and Quatre Bras the next day.
