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On the bicentennial of the most famous battle in world history, a distinguished historian argues that Waterloo never should have been fought
"Coma general, the affair is over. we have lost the day," Napoleon told one of his officers. "Let us be off." The day was June 18, 1815. By about 8 p.m., the emperor of France knew he had been decisively defeated at a village called Waterloo, and he was now keen to escape from his enemies, some of whom-such as the Prussians-had sworn to execute him.
Less than an hour earlier, Napoleon had sent eight battalions of his elite Imperial Guard into the attack up the main Charleroi-to-Brussels road in a desperate attempt to break the line of the Anglo-Allied army commanded by the Duke of Wellington. But Wellington had repulsed the assault with a massive concentration of firepower. "Bullets and grapeshot left the road strewn with dead and wounded," recalled a French eyewitness. The Guard stopped, staggered and fell back. A shocked-indeed, astounded-cry went up from the rest of the French Army, one unheard on any European battlefield in the unit's 16-year history: "La Garde recule!" ("The Guard recoils!")
The next cry spelled disaster for any hopes Napoleon might have had for an orderly retreat: "Sauve qui peut!" ("Save yourselves!"). Across the three-mile battlefront men threw down their muskets and fled, terrified of the Prussian lancers who were being ordered to pursue them with their eight-foot spears. In midJune, darkness would not descend on that part of Europe for hours. Soon general panic set in.
"The whole army was in the most appalling disorder," recalled Gen. Jean-Martin Petit. "Infantry, cavalry, artillery-everybody was fleeing in all directions." Napoleon had ordered two squares of the Imperial Guard to form up on both sides of the highway to cover such a rout, and he took refuge within one of them as his army collapsed. "The enemy was close at our heels," wrote Petit, who commanded the squares, "and, fearing that he might penetrate the squares, we were obliged to fire at the men who were being pursued."
Taking a few trusted aides with him, as well as a squadron of light cavalry for personal protection, Napoleon left the square on horseback for the farmhouse...