The Project Gutenberg EBook of Waterloo, by Hilaire Belloc

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Title: Waterloo

Author: Hilaire Belloc

Release Date: May 11, 2010 [EBook #32332]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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WATERLOO

[Illustration]

WATERLOO

By HILAIRE BELLOC

LONDON
STEPHEN SWIFT AND CO., LTD.
16 KING STREET, COVENT GARDEN
WEST CENTRAL
MCMXII

CONTENTS

PAGE

I. THE POLITICAL OBJECT AND EFFECT OF THE
WATERLOO CAMPAIGN 9

II. THE PRELIMINARIES: NAPOLEON'S ADVANCE
ACROSS THE SAMBRE 24

III. THE DECISIVE DAY: FRIDAY, THE 16TH OF JUNE--

LIGNY 63

QUATRE-BRAS 84

IV. THE ALLIED RETREAT AND FRENCH ADVANCE UPON
WATERLOO AND WAVRE 129

V. THE ACTION 158

WATERLOO

I

THE POLITICAL OBJECT AND EFFECT OF THE WATERLOO CAMPAIGN

It must continually be insisted upon in military history, that general
actions, however decisive, are but the functions of campaigns; and that
campaigns, in their turn, are but the functions of the political energies
of the governments whose armies are engaged.

The object of a campaign is invariably a political object, and all its
military effort is, or should be, subsidiary to that political object.

One human community desires to impose upon the future a political
condition which another human community rejects; or each is attempting to
impose upon the future, conditions irreconcilable one with the other.
Until we know what those conditions are, or what is the political
objective of each opponent, we cannot decide upon the success of a
campaign, nor give it its true position in history.

Thus, to take the simplest and