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Printed from https://www.writing.com/main/view_item/item_id/2082714-The-Battle-of-Waterloo
by River
Rated: 18+ · Non-fiction · War · #2082714
Writing prompt: Write a short story or poem about a famous battle.


I have chosen to write about The Battle of Waterloo. Partly because that is the only battle I can think of and partly because Napoleon has always fascinated me from the time I first learned about him in History class. The teacher had a gift for making history come alive and it was so easy to imagine this man. Later on, I saw the famous pictures, heard the song, Waterloo by Stonewall Jackson, that was a hit when I was growing up

The song lyrics go like this:

Little General Napoleon of France
Tried to conquer the world but lost his pants
Met defeat known as Bonaparte's retreat
And that's when Napoleon met his Waterloo.
That sums up the story in a few words, but leaves out a lot of detail of this historic battle also known as The Hundred Days' War.

The Battle of Waterloo, which took place in Belgium on June 18, 1815, marked the final defeat of French military leader and emperor Napoleon Bonaparte as well as over 20 years of constant fighting between France and the rest of Europe.

The Battle of Waterloo involved three armies, a French army under the command of Napoleon Bonaparte, two of the armies of the Seventh Coalition: an Anglo-allied army under the command of the Duke of Wellington, and a Prussian army under the command of Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher, Prince of Wahlstatt.

I don't have time or space to write all the details of this battle for it started early in the morning and raged on until midnight.

I shudder to imagine the sights, sounds, and smells during that battle. The pouring rain turning the battlefield to a soggy mess, stained red as men fell, one by one. Cannon fire, screams of the French guard as they marched on toward British lines, to fight to the bloody death.

Casualties destroyed the French army. Stacks of the dead, and piles of wounded men with mangled limbs incapable of moving, covered the battle ground. Napoleon's losses were twenty four to twenty six thousand killed or wounded. six to seven thousand captured and five thousand deserters.

Soon after this crushing defeat, Napoleon was exiled on the island of Saint Helena, where he died six years later. Waterloo has since come to mean a disastrous defeat of any nature.
© Copyright 2016 River (riverbedwriter at Writing.Com). All rights reserved.
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Printed from https://www.writing.com/main/view_item/item_id/2082714-The-Battle-of-Waterloo