Waterloo: The French Perspective

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The story of the Battle of Waterloo – of the ultimate defeat of Napoleon and the French, the triumph of Wellington, Blücher and their allied armies - is most often told from the viewpoint of the victors, not the vanquished. Even after 200 years of intensive research and the publication of hundreds of books and articles on the battle, the French perspective and many of the primary French sources are underrepresented in the written record. So it is high time this weakness in the literature – and in our understanding of the battle – was addressed, and that is the purpose of Andrew Field’s thought-provoking new study. He has tracked down over ninety firsthand French accounts, most of which have never been previously published in English, and he has combined them with accounts from the other participants in order to create a graphic new narrative of one of the world’s decisive battles. Virtually all of the hitherto unpublished testimony provides fascinating new detail on the battle and many of the accounts are vivid, revealing and exciting. REVIEWS While there has been a relative deluge of books on the Waterloo campaign and battle from the British Perspective and a significant number in recent years covering the Prussian operations, until now one had to know French to understand Napoleon's Army and the hows and whys of its actions in the campaign. Andrew Field has filled that hole...Field's extensive use of French soldiers' accounts makes clear how close the French came to winning both battles....after reading one understands why Wellington called Waterloo "the nearest run thing you ever saw in your life, " and gains an appreciation for the exploits of Napoleon's Armee du Nord in 1815..." Nymas, Spring 2015