View of Middle Guard
Attack at Waterloo

by John Price

John Price has used his art to envisage what happened as the Imperial Guard advanced in thatfinal attack. Above is the key to the picture on pages 32 and 33, below is his description.

Time: 1920 Hrs, 18 June, 1815.

Location: the road to Ohain, between Hougoumont and La Haye Sainte, near Mont St. Jean, Belgium.

Broken and bleeding men and animals litter the fields.

Cleeve's KGL (1) and Lloyd's RFA (2) batteries are overrun as the 30th and 73rd Foot (3) of Halkett's brigade fall back in disorder.

The Brunswick Line Brigade (4) under von Specht is brushed aside and attempts to reform with the support of Vivian's 4th British Cavalry Brigade (5) as Kruse's 1st Nassau Infantry (6) try to regain the artillery.

The 3rd Netherland's Division artillery (7) under van der Smissen is brought up and pours flanking fire into the 1 /3rd Grenadiers (8) and the survivors are overwhelmed by Detmer's 1st Brigade, 3rd Netherland's Division (9).

Halkett's 33rd (10) and 69th (11) British Line are badly mauled but hold, in front of 1 /4th Grenadiers (12) and one of Duchand's Guard Horse Artillery batteries (13) deployed in the intervals between the attacking squares.

Supported by Vandeleur's 6th British Cavalry Brigade (14) and d'Aubreme's 2nd Brigade, 3rd Netherlands Division (15), Maitland's 1st and 3rd Battalion, 1st Foot Guards (16), rise from cover to pour a devastating fire into the 1 /3rd (17) and 2/3rd Chasseurs (18) as they attempt to return fire.

Ramsey's RHA battery (19), supported by the 95th Rifles (20) of Adam's 3rd British Brigade, engage the 1/4th Chasseurs (21) as it closes up on the Imperial Guard left flank. Bolton's RFA battery (22) fires, before the 52nd Light Infantry (23) advances through it to deliver the coup de grace.

By John Price, with help from Dana Lombardy on the concept, and information from Jean Lochet and George Nafziger.

More Waterloo

Back to Empire, Eagles, & Lions Table of Contents Vol. 2 No. 13
Back to EEL List of Issues
Back to MagWeb Master Magazine List
© Copyright 1995 by Emperor's Headquarters

This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web.
Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com