WATERLOO', BATTLE OF, the decisive conflict which annihilated the power of Napoleon I., was fought June 18, 1815, in a plain about 2 In. from the village of Water loo, and 12 rn. s. from Brussels. Agreeably to the unanimous resolve of the allies to. attack Napoleon on all sides, and crush him as they had done in 1814, British and Prus sian troops were stationed in the Netherlands, under the command of Wellington and Blticher respectively, in order to attack ranee on the north. Napoleon, on his side, well aware that for a considerable time no weighty attack could be made on France except by these forces, and fully recognizing the immense advantage to be gained by destroying one enemy before the others could come up, rapidly concentrated the bulk of his troops; and with a suddenness and secrecy which defied all effective counter preparations, crossed the Belgian frontier, and fell with one part of his forces on the Prussians at Ligny (q.v.), and with the other part, under Ncy's immediate command, on the army of the prince of Orange at Qual•e-Bras (q.v.). The Prussians—as Welling ton, after learning Blucher's dispositions for the battle, had foretold—were; after a con test of the most obstinate description, completely but the prince of Oraiwe by the aid of the re-enforcements promptly forwarded to him by the commander,' succeeded in withstanding Ney's attack. In the plan preconcerted by the allied generals. such a result was not unforeseen, and in accordance with their scheme of firm resistance and retreat if necessary (to allow time for the Russians and Austrians to assemble on the eastern frontier of Prance), Blucher retreated northward (instead of eastward, as Napoleon expected, nearer the place of rendezvous with Wellington at Mont St. Jean; while early on the morning of the 17th, the 'etherlanders retired along an almost parallel route till they reached the forest of Soignies, in front of which they were formed in battle-army, facing southward. Napoleon, imagining that the Prussians were in total rout, and that Weir complete dissipation would easily be accomplished by Grouchy's division (33,000 men), which lie had sent in pursuit,. crossed to Quatre-Bra•
with the rest of his troops, and uniting with Ney, marched in pursuit of Wellington, arriving on the plain of Waterloo in the evening.
The two armies which then confronted each other, though nearly equal iu strength, were composed of very different materials. The French army, numbering from 69,909 to 72,247 men (according to French authorities, English historians varying in their esti mate from 74,000 to 90,000, though its exact strength cannot be ascertained, owing to the loss of the official returns), was composed of veteran troops, who had enthusiastically ranked themselves once more under the standard of the chief who had so often led them to victory. The Anglo-Netherlands army, which numbered 69,894, of whom only 25,389 were British, 6,793 of the king's German legion, 10,995 Hanoveriaus, 6,303 Brunswickers, 2,926 Nassauers, and 17,488 Netherlanders, consisted, with the exception of a small number of Peninsula veterans, wholly of young soldiers, a large proportion of whom had never been under tire; the Hanoverians were only militia, some of them being fit but for garrison duty; while the behavior of many of the Belgian troops during the battle showed plainly enough that they mainly increased the numerical strength of the army, as they left it to the Dutch soldiers to vindicate the wrongs of the Nether lands. The French had 240, while their opponents had only about 156 guns. With. such an army, to maintain even a defensive conflict with an army of veterans, com manded by the greatest gen. of the time, was a task which (laboring under a mistake as to the exact superiority in number of his opponents) it required all Wellington's rare tenacity of purpose to undertake; yet undertake it he did, depending on Blfleher's promise to join him an hour after midday.