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A voice from Waterloo: A history of the battle fought on the 18th June, 1815 cover

A voice from Waterloo: A history of the battle fought on the 18th June, 1815

Chapter 15: FOOTNOTES:
By Edward Cotton
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About This Book

An eyewitness memoir reconstructs the campaign and the climactic 1815 battle near Brussels, combining first‑hand recollections from long residence on the field with collected testimony, official dispatches, plans, and contemporary illustrations. The narrative follows the political and military lead‑up, the disposition and movements of forces, and the principal engagements and turning points, while addressing disputed timings, actions, and claims of honor. Maps, selected orders and letters, portraits, and engraved plans are used to clarify conflicting accounts and present a concise, corrective history intended for general readers and visitors to the battlefield.

FOOTNOTES:

[53] See chapter X, Grouchy’s Report, and the English, Prussian, and French official accounts.

[54] It in not easy to give a satisfactory reason why the enemy’s infantry skirmishers were allowed to press so closely up to our position and inflict such severe losses upon our gunners and infantry, when our cavalry could have driven them off or destroyed them.

[55] All those who were near his Grace, and had full opportunity of observing him during the most critical and trying moments, agree in asserting, that it was impossible to learn from his countenance, voice or gesture, whether the affair in hand were trifling or important, quite safe, or extremely dangerous.

[56] It appeared throughout the day, that Napoleon was determined to exhaust our troops, the expense of which was only, to him, a secondary consideration.

[57] I met this French officer on the field in 1844: he was a captain in the 2d carabineers, or brass-clad cuirassiers; the reason he gave for not coming over to us till the eleventh hour, was, that he expected a number of his regiment to desert with him.

[58] See colonel Hunter Blair’s letter, Appendix, No. VII.