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The Battle of Waterloo, was a brutal and bloody day-long showdown that took place what otherwise should have been a normal quiet Sunday, on June 18th, 1815. The battle was fought in Belgium, 12 miles south of the capital, Brussels. The ruler of France, Napoleon Bonaparte, was decisively defeated by his determined foes, the two Allied army commanders, the Duke of Wellington and Field Marshal Blücher. The casualty tally across the battlefield and beyond totalled 50,000 persons (10,000 of them being killed ).
Many thousands of horses maimed, killed or put down in the carnage.
The fierce fighting raged across the battlefront. Key struggles for control took place at the Hougoumont chateau grounds, and the farmhouse of La Haye Sainte, as well as amid the Allied defences in the Papelotte area. The bodies of dead and wounded gruesomely piled up astride the east-west Ohain sunken roadway which protected most of the frontage of Wellington's army. The fighting in and around the village of Plancenoit, located behind Napoleon's right flank, was particularly brutal as the Prussian army steamrolled forward and remorselessly attacked the stubborn outnumbered French defenders.
Despite the crushing defeat, Napoleon remained convinced that 'all was not lost' in the days that followed, and while the remnants of his Army of the North rallied, he reluctantly returned to Paris to try and convince the French politicians that he still had enough power to defend France from the European Seventh Coalition's impending massive invasion of France. However, the government's mostly Liberal-elected officials rebuffed and rebelled against Napoleon - daringly forcing him to quickly agree to abdicate his throne.
The epic battle of Waterloo finally ended the long drawn out fifteen years of conflict, known as the Napoleonic Wars.
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Special 2020 Battle of Waterloo Tabletop Wargame Replay Event
Marshal Ney leading French cavalry charges at the Battle of Waterloo
(from the Panorama painting at the Belgian battlefield site)
The Battle of Waterloo