Some 180 years ago the Battle of Waterloo took place bringing down for good the main figure of our era of interest: Napoleon. Victory for some, disappointment for others; was it good, was it bad? The controversy continues and is not about to be resolved. But this is beyond the scope of EE&L.

At EE&L, we prefer to respect all the opponents' points of view and stick objectively to the many other aspects of the Napoleonic era dealing with everyday life, the morals and standards of behavior, the notable personalities, and especially the military aspects of the period.

With the 180th anniversary of the Battle of Waterloo we have our hands full! There a huge number of subjects to cover, but little space to do so. Like it or not, we must be selective. So, we are going to spread our coverage of the Waterloo Campaign over several issues, like the attack of the Middle Guard at Waterloo (in EE&L #13), the Battle of Wavre (in EE&L #14), etc.

In this issue, we decided to bring up some little known events that took place but had a major impact on the Waterloo Campaign. We start with Napoleon's state of mind at the beginning of the Campaign and during the Campaign. And what we found is much more than what has been written by many authors.

In many works, it has been customary to somewhat bash Ney and Grouchy to differing degrees. Granted, both Marshals could have done a better job, so could have Soult. One can argue that had Davout been at Waterloo he would have done a much better job than Ney, etc. But Napoleon had to use who was available and not too many marshals joined him after his return from Elba. Perhaps the greatest loss was that of Berthier, his key Chief-of-Staff in most of the Emperor's prior campaigns.

Through our research, we discovered that Napoleon's state of mind led him to forget one ofhis key principles: strike hard and quickly (in fact during much of the Campaign he was living in a world of fantasy and wishful thinking). This was a key ingredient that led to the French disaster.

In addition, we cover some subjects either overlooked or given less credit than they deserve, including Marshal Grouchy's masterful retreat from Wavre after Napoleon's defeat, and the vital Prussian contribution to the Waterloo Campaign.