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Author | Bernard Cornwell |
---|---|
Subject | History/History of Great Britain/Napoleonic Wars/Military History/Waterloo Campaign |
Genre | non-fiction |
Publisher | William Collins/Harper Collins Publishers |
Publication date | 11 September 2014 (U.K.) 5 May 2015 (U.S.) |
Publication place | Great Britain |
ISBN | 978-0007539383 (hardcover, U.K.) ISBN 978-0062312051 (hardcover, U.S.) ISBN 978-0007539406 (paperback, U.K.) ISBN 978-0007580194 (paperback, U.S.) |
944.05 C821 | |
LC Class | DC242.C667 2014 |
Waterloo: The History of Four Days, Three Armies and Three Battles [1] is a history book written by Bernard Cornwell, first published in Great Britain by William Collins on 11 September 2014, and by Harper Collins Publishers on 5 May 2015 in the United States. It is Cornwell's first work of nonfiction, [2] after publishing more than forty novels in the historical fiction genre, including the popular Richard Sharpe series taking place during the Napoleonic Wars. The book recounts the Battle of Waterloo on 18 June 1815, including preceding events from the campaign of the same name and The Hundred Days.
According to the book's jacket, the book was commissioned to commemorate the Battle's 200th anniversary. [3]
The book includes a number of full colour illustrations, including maps and colour portraits of the major figures involved, including Napoleon Bonaparte, the Duke of Wellington, Field Marshall Prince von Blucher, Marshalls Ney, Soult and Grouchy.
The book should not be confused with Cornwell's novel Sharpe's Waterloo , originally published as Waterloo in 1990. That novel also narrates the battle, but largely from the perspective of Cornwell's fictional characters.
In his foreword, Cornwell acknowledges that there is already an extensive library of work on the Battle of Waterloo, but one of his reasons for writing the book is to attempt to narrate the battle from the perspectives of the "ordinary" soldiers who participated in it.
Why another book on Waterloo? It is a good question. There is no shortage of accounts of the battle, indeed it is one of the most studied and written-about battles in history... Yet the Duke of Wellington was surely right when he said that a man might as well tell the history of a ball, meaning a dance, as write the story of a battle. Everyone who attends a ball has a different memory of the event, some happy, some disappointing, and how, in the swirl of music and ball gowns and flirtations could anyone hope to make a coherent account of exactly what happened and when and to whom?
...
There is an agreed story. Napoleon attacks Wellington's right in an attempt to draw the Duke's reserves to that part of the battlefield, then launches a massive attack on the Duke's left. That attack fails. Act Two is the great cavalry assault on the Duke's centre-right, and Act Three, as the Prussians arrive stage left, is the desperate last assault by the undefeated Imperial Guard. To those can be added the subplots of the assaults on Hougoumont and the fall of La Haie Sainte. As a framework that has some merit, but the battle was far more complicated than that simple story suggests. To the men who were present it did not seem simple, or explicable, and one reason to write this book is to try and give an impression of what it was like to be on that field on that confusing day.". [4]
To that end, Cornwell's narrative is intercut with excerpts from letters and memoirs written by soldiers of all ranks, in all three of the participating armies (French, Anglo-Dutch, and Prussian). These first-person narratives come not only from the high commanders, such as Napoleon, Wellington, and Field Marshall von Blücher, but also Franz Lieber, Karl von Clausewitz, Cavalie Mercer, Louis Canler, Frederick Cavendish Ponsonby, the Reverend William Leeke, and many others.
Waterloo was released as an audiobook by Harper Audio on 5 May 2015. The Foreword, Preface, Aftermath and Afterword are read by Cornwell, and Chapters One through Twelve by Dugald Bruce Lockhart. [5]
The Battle of Waterloo was fought on Sunday 18 June 1815, near Waterloo, marking the end of the Napoleonic Wars. A French army under the command of Napoleon was defeated by two armies of the Seventh Coalition. One of these was a British-led force with units from the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Hanover, Brunswick, and Nassau, under the command of the Duke of Wellington. The other comprised three corps of the Prussian army under Field Marshal Blücher; a fourth corps of this army fought at the Battle of Wavre on the same day. The battle was known contemporarily as the Battle of Mont Saint-Jean in France and La Belle Alliance in Prussia.
The Battle of Ligny, in which French troops of the Armée du Nord under the command of Napoleon I defeated part of a Prussian army under Field Marshal Blücher, was fought on 16 June 1815 near Ligny in what is now Belgium. The result was a tactical victory for the French, but the bulk of the Prussian army survived the battle in good order, was reinforced by Prussian troops who had not fought at Ligny, and played a role two days later at the Battle of Waterloo. The Battle of Ligny was the last victory in Napoleon's military career.
Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher, Graf (count), later elevated to Fürst von Wahlstatt, was a Prussian Generalfeldmarschall. He earned his greatest recognition after leading his army against Napoleon I at the Battle of the Nations at Leipzig in 1813 and the Battle of Waterloo in 1815.
Bernard Cornwell is a British-American author of historical novels and a history of the Waterloo Campaign. He is best known for his novels about Napoleonic Wars rifleman Richard Sharpe. He has also written The Saxon Stories, a series of 13 novels about the making of England.
Sharpe is a series of historical fiction stories by Bernard Cornwell centred on the character of British soldier Richard Sharpe. The stories formed the basis for an ITV television series featuring Sean Bean in the title role.
The Battle of Quatre Bras was fought on 16 June 1815, as a preliminary engagement to the decisive Battle of Waterloo that occurred two days later. The battle took place near the strategic crossroads of Quatre Bras and was contested between elements of the Duke of Wellington's Anglo-allied army and the left wing of Napoleon Bonaparte's French Armée du Nord under Marshal Michel Ney. The battle was a tactical victory for Wellington, but because Ney prevented him going to the aid of Blucher's Prussians who were fighting a larger French army under the command of Napoleon Bonaparte at Ligny it was a strategic victory for the French.
The Waterloo campaign was fought between the French Army of the North and two Seventh Coalition armies, an Anglo-allied army and a Prussian army. Initially the French army had been commanded by Napoleon Bonaparte, but he left for Paris after the French defeat at the Battle of Waterloo. Command then rested on Marshals Soult and Grouchy, who were in turn replaced by Marshal Davout, who took command at the request of the French Provisional Government. The Anglo-allied army was commanded by the Duke of Wellington and the Prussian army by Field Marshall Graf von Blücher.
The South Essex Regiment, later the Prince of Wales' Own Volunteers, is a fictional infantry line regiment in the British Army that was created by Bernard Cornwell in the Sharpe novel series.
Sharpe's Trafalgar is the fourth historical novel in the Richard Sharpe series by Bernard Cornwell, first published in 2000. It is the first of the novels in the wars against Napoleon, putting the army ensign at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805.
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Sharpe's Waterloo is a historical novel in the Richard Sharpe series by Bernard Cornwell. Originally published in 1990 under the title Waterloo, it is the eleventh novel of the Sharpe series and the twentieth novel in chronological order. Cornwell stated that he intended to end the series here, but later changed his mind.
Sharpe's Waterloo is a British television drama, the 14th part of a series that follows the career of Richard Sharpe, a fictional British soldier during the Napoleonic Wars. The adaptation is based on the 1990 novel of the same name by Bernard Cornwell.
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James Graham was an Irish non-commissioned officer (NCO) in the British Army during the Napoleonic Wars, recognised as the "bravest man in the army" by the Duke of Wellington. Serving in the Coldstream Guards, he was commended for his gallantry during the defence of Hougoumont, at Waterloo. Graham saved the life of an officer, and his own brother, and was among the small group responsible for closing the North Gate at Hougoumont after a French attack – an act which won the Duke of Wellington's encomium. He was rewarded with a specially cast gallantry medal and an annuity. After later serving in the 12th Royal Lancers, Graham was discharged in 1830 for ill health, and died at the Royal Hospital Kilmainham in 1845.
Bernard Cornwell's career started in 1981 with Sharpe's Eagle. He has been a prolific historical novelist since then, having published more than 60 novels.
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