Wednesday, June 18, 2014

Hard pounding this, gentlemen; let's see who will pound longest

One hundred and ninety nine years ago, the Old Guard refused to surrender, and died.


It was a near thing, as Napoleon came within a hair's breadth of defeating the allies in detail.
Give me night or give me Blücher  ...
- Arthur Wellesley, Duke of Wellington at 5:45 PM


While Wellington has a reputation for being a cold fish, he deeply regretted the loss of blood that day.
My heart is broken by the terrible loss I have sustained in my old friends and companions and my poor soldiers. Believe me, nothing except a battle lost can be half so melancholy as a battle won.
L'Empereur no doubt regretted the loss of the Empire, and being hustled away to a remote island in the South Atlantic.  It is not known whether he regretted more the loss of the Old Guard's charge, or of the men. But Europe (mostly) was at peace for a century after the blood splattered day at Waterloo.

4 comments:

OldAFSarge said...

A fascinating campaign.

The Guard died and immediately passed into legend.

Old NFO said...

Yep, hours and hours of reading in amazement at the folly of one charge after another until entire units were totally decimated... Put it did put paid to Napoleon's plan for European dominance...

LoFan John said...

It was not simply "folly". Napoleon had been winning battles with those tactics for years. It took Wellington to show that Napoleon's armies, and then Napoleon himself, could be beaten.

Ken said...

Had anyone in Ney's command thought to spike the guns (or has that been debunked?)....