← Annalium map

Battle of Waterloo

Napoleon's last day, hour by hour — from the assault on Hougoumont to the Guard's final rout.

Scroll to advance through the battle ↓

Phase by phase

1. Phase 1 - Opening diversion · c. 11:30
   Jérôme Bonaparte
   French assault on HougoumontFrench (Napoleon)
   Reille's II Corps, spearheaded by Prince Jérôme Bonaparte's division, advanced from the French left against the walled château of Hougoumont as a diversion; the attack drew in ever more French troops but failed to unhinge Wellington's line, which was held by light companies of the Coldstream and 3rd Foot Guards.
   Château of Hougoumont · documented · britishbattles.com Battle of Waterloo (11am French bombardment of Hougoumont); Wikipedia Battle of Waterloo (Hougoumont)
2. Phase 2 - Bombardment · c. 13:00
   Grand Battery bombardment of the Allied centreFrench (Napoleon)
   The French massed battery of roughly 80 guns on the ridge near La Belle Alliance opened a heavy cannonade against the Allied centre on the Mont-Saint-Jean ridge to soften it before the main infantry attack.
   Grand Battery, La Belle Alliance ridge · reconstructed · Britannica 'The first hours of battle' (battery near La Belle Alliance opened fire c.1pm); britishbattles.com (Ney brought 74 guns forward c.1.30pm) — exact opening time debated
3. Phase 3 - Infantry assault · c. 13:30
   Jean-Baptiste Drouet, Comte d'Erlon
   d'Erlon's I Corps attack on the Allied centre-leftFrench (Napoleon)
   About 17,000 infantry of d'Erlon's I Corps advanced in massed columns past La Haye Sainte and up the ridge against Picton's 5th Division on the Allied centre-left; Picton was killed repelling them.
   Allied centre-left, Mont-Saint-Jean ridge · documented · Britannica 'The first hours of battle' (18,000 infantry under Ney and Drouet/d'Erlon advanced on the Allied centre); britishbattles.com (d'Erlon's ~17,000 infantry, Picton's 5th Division)
4. Phase 3 - Allied counter-attack · c. 14:00
   Henry Paget, 1st Marquess of Anglesey (Lord Uxbridge)
   British heavy cavalry counter-chargeAllies (Wellington & Blücher)
   The Union and Household heavy cavalry brigades under Uxbridge charged down from the Allied ridge, shattering d'Erlon's disordered columns and driving them back across the valley before over-extending and taking heavy losses.
   Valley below the Allied centre · documented · Wikipedia Battle of Waterloo (British heavy cavalry charge repels d'Erlon); britishbattles.com (British infantry and Uxbridge's cavalry drove the French back down the ridge)
5. Phase 4 - Cavalry attacks · c. 16:00
   Michel Ney
   Massed French cavalry chargesFrench (Napoleon)
   Ney led repeated massed cavalry attacks — Milhaud's cuirassiers and supporting horse — against the Allied infantry between Hougoumont and La Haye Sainte; the Allied battalions formed squares that the cavalry, without infantry support, could not break.
   Allied right-centre, between Hougoumont and La Haye Sainte · reconstructed · britishbattles.com (some twelve French cavalry attacks over ~three hours, Milhaud's Cuirassiers); Britannica (5,000 cuirassiers on the slopes between Hougoumont and La Haye Sainte) — start time debated (c.15:30–16:00)
6. Phase 5 - Prussian arrival · c. 16:30
   Friedrich Wilhelm von Bülow
   Prussian IV Corps attacks PlancenoitAllies (Wellington & Blücher)
   After an eleven-hour march, Bülow's Prussian IV Corps debouched from the Bois de Paris and attacked the French right flank at Plancenoit, forcing Napoleon to divert Lobau's corps and eventually the Young and Old Guard to hold the village.
   Plancenoit · documented · Britannica 'The first hours of battle' (Bülow's divisions opened fire from Paris Wood c.4:30pm; Prussian assault on Plancenoit); Wikipedia Battle of Waterloo (Bülow's IV Corps, Plancenoit)
7. Phase 6 - Centre crisis · c. 18:00
   Michel Ney
   Fall of La Haye SainteFrench (Napoleon)
   Ney's infantry finally overwhelmed the farmhouse of La Haye Sainte after its King's German Legion garrison ran out of ammunition; the French pushed skirmishers and guns forward against the weakened Allied centre.
   La Haye Sainte · documented · britishbattles.com (KGL garrison exhausted ammunition, overwhelmed c.6pm, only 39 of ~360 survived); Britannica (La Haye Sainte held by KGL, finally overwhelmed)
8. Phase 7 - Final French attack · c. 19:30
   Napoleon
   Imperial Guard's final advanceFrench (Napoleon)
   Napoleon committed the Middle Guard, which advanced in battalion columns up toward the Allied right-centre; Maitland's 1st Foot Guards and Colborne's 52nd Foot outflanked and repulsed them, and the Guard broke — the first time it had ever been driven back.
   Allied right-centre ridge near Mont-Saint-Jean · documented · britishbattles.com (Guard advanced in five battalions, repulsed by 1st Foot Guards and 52nd Foot); Wikipedia Battle of Waterloo (Imperial Guard attack and repulse)
9. Phase 7 - Collapse and rout · c. 20:00
   Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington
   Allied general advance and French rout
   With the Guard repulsed and Zieten's Prussians pressing at Papelotte on the east, Wellington ordered a general advance down from the ridge toward La Belle Alliance; the French army disintegrated into a general retreat as Allied and Prussian forces converged.
   Across the valley toward La Belle Alliance · documented · britishbattles.com (whole Guard driven back, French army began general retreat); Wikipedia Battle of Waterloo (Wellington's general advance, French disintegration, Prussian Zieten at the eastern flank)

Sources

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Waterloo
• https://www.britannica.com/event/Battle-of-Waterloo/The-first-hours-of-battle
• https://www.britishbattles.com/napoleonic-wars/battle-of-waterloo/
• https://www.nam.ac.uk/explore/battle-waterloo
• https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q48314

On the data

Coordinates are hand-placed on real battlefield landmarks (Hougoumont ~4.390/50.6805, La Haye Sainte ~4.408/50.6838, La Belle Alliance ~4.412/50.6685, Plancenoit ~4.423/50.6642, Mont-Saint-Jean ridge ~4.407/50.688, Bois de Paris ~4.436/50.665) rather than pulled from a per-phase GIS dataset, so the exact lon/lat of each movement's start/end are approximate reconstructions of the documented troop movements — the LANDMARKS and the movements between them are sourced, the precise decimal coordinates are my placement within the battlefield bounds. Clock times are approximate: sources disagree on several. The battle opening / Hougoumont is variously given as 11:00, 11:30, or 11:35. The grand-battery opening (noon vs ~1pm) and the start of the first massed cavalry charge (~15:30 vs ~16:00) are genuinely debated and are tagged 'reconstructed'. All other phases are 'documented' at corps/hour fidelity. Unit identifications (Reille/Jérôme at Hougoumont, d'Erlon's I Corps, Milhaud's cuirassiers, Bülow's IV Corps, the Middle Guard, Maitland's and Colborne's brigades) are drawn from the cited sources and not invented; no troop movement here lacks a source. The Waterloo Association and Age of Revolution timeline pages could not be fetched directly (403 / thin content), so times rely on Wikipedia, Britannica, britishbattles.com, and the National Army Museum.

Hand-authored from the sources below. Spotted a mistake? Email [email protected].