It is mid-afternoon on June 18th, 1815 on a plateau-like ridge known as Mont-St-Jean just south of a sleepy little Belgian village called Waterloo. The British forces under the command of the Duke of Wellington, are hanging on by their fingernails resisting attack after attack from a French army under the command of Napoleon Bonaparte.
It is a British army in name only. It is a polyglot of forces consisting of Brunswickers, troops from the Netherlands and Germany, many of which are unreliable. Only around 1/3 of the men in the army are from Great Britain.
Napoleon has been ill this day, periodically incapacitated. One of his most trusted lieutenants, Marshal Michel Ney takes command of much of the battle.
Ney is not known for his caution. He is excitable, and impulsive. But he is brave. He is in fact, been called "the bravest of the brave".
Wellington can see through his telescope a mass of new troops approaching his position from the east. They are a corps of troops from his Prussian ally, Marshal Blucher. They are still some miles off, and it becomes a matter of holding on until the Prussians arrive to reinforce him.
Across the way, Napoleon sees it too and has to dispatch some of his badly needed reserves to meet the threat.
A huge French artillery bombardment begins. The British army begins to take casualties as a result.
Wellington decides to make a tactical move and withdraw his infantry 100 yards to the rear behind the ridge line where they will be ordered to lie down to present less of a target to the French gunners.
The excitable Ney sees this and thinks that the British are retreating from the field altogether. He thinks that there is a golden opportunity for him to route the British army and win the day.
So he masses 5,000 of the French cavalry and attacks on a front of less than 700 yards.
Lancers, Hussars, and Cuirassiers are jam-packed together to the point where the horses are almost lifted off the ground during the charge.
This is a mistake. In Napoleonic warfare, cavalry charges are not normally made against infantry without the support of infantry.
The British artillery pour shot and shell into the French, while their infantry (who only retreated 100 yards) form square.
The British squares are hollow, 2 or 3 ranks deep with reserves in the center. The front ranks kneels with back ranks standing, with fixed bayonets.
After firing off another round, the British artillerymen hastily retreat into the safety of the squares.
The French cavalry swarm past the guns and over the ridge only to be confronted by the squares.
The horses are unwilling to charge into a wall of bayonets, and merely end up circling the squares looking for an opening. The cavalrymen reach down with their sabers and lances to hack at the British.
British losses are dreadful, but most of the squares hold.
The French retreat back over the ridge to regroup. As they pass the English cannon, they fail to either spike the guns or turn them on the British squares -- which could have won the day. Instead the British gunners return to the guns to fire once more at the French.
Marshal Ney reinforces with more cavalry and tries again with the same result, and the same mistakes being made.
In fact he tries several times, the last "charge" being delivered at a walk, due to the churned up muddy ground, and the clumps of dead horses and men.
The British hold, but the proud, magnificent French cavalry sustains unbearable losses.
Napoleon, now in a more or less lucid state of mind is furious at Ney for ruining the French cavalry, and orders a resumption of the infantry attacks.
But the Prussians are now beginning to arrive on the field.
Napoleon now flings the mighty "Old Guard' against the British but that attack fails and the French are forced to retreat to try to save their army.
It is the last battle for Napoleon Bonaparte.
