Order of battle of the Waterloo Campaign

This is the complete order of battle for the four major battles of the Waterloo Campaign.

The order of battle.

French Army Order of Battle

Napoleon

Headquarters

L'Armée du Nord under the command of Emperor Napoleon I.
Major Général (Chief of Staff): Marshal Soult, Duke of Dalmatia.
Commander of artillery: General of Division Charles-Étienne-François Ruty.
Field commanders under the direct command of Emperor Napoleon:

• Marshal Ney, Prince of the Moskova:
  • On 16 June 1815, at the battle of Quatre Bras, in command of the Left Wing: I Corps, II Corps (minus the Girard division, present at the battle of Ligny), III Cavalry Corps (minus the l'Héritier division, present at the battle of Ligny) and Imperial Guard light cavalry division.
  • On 18 June 1815, at the battle of Waterloo, effective field commander of all the French forces present, minus those engaged at Plancenoit (VI Corps and elements of the Guard).
• Marshal Marquis de Grouchy:
  • On 16 June 1815, at the Battle of Ligny, in command of the French Cavalry Reserve: I Cavalry Corps, II Cavalry Corps, the l'Héritier division (detached from III Cavalry Corps) and IV Cavalry Corps.
  • Between 17 and 19 June 1815, in command of the Right Wing: III Corps (minus the Domon's cavalry division, present at the battle of Waterloo), IV Corps, I Cavalry Corps (minus the division of Subervie present at the battle of Waterloo, but with the Teste infantry division attached to it), II Cavalry Corps.

I Corps

II Corps

III Corps

IV Corps

VI Corps

I Cavalry Reserve Corps

II Cavalry Reserve Corps

III Cavalry Reserve Corps

IV Cavalry Reserve Corps

French Imperial Guard

• Commander: Marshal Édouard Adolphe Casimir Joseph Mortier (on sick leave, following a sudden attack of sciatica).^[1]
• Aide-major général (2nd in command): General of Division Comte Antoine Drouot.^[1]
• Sous-aide-major général: Colonel Hériot.^{[1][lower-alpha 4][lower-alpha 5]}

Anglo-allied Army Order of Battle

Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington

Combined British, Dutch and Hanoverian forces were under the supreme command of Field Marshal Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington. The Order of Battle included below reflects all units of the Anglo-allied Army including those that were not present for the battles themselves (units spread across the area or on garrison duty). The casualty numbers include all the casualties suffered by each regiment over the three days of fighting during the campaign from 16 June 1815 to dawn on 19 June 1815.

Present at the Battle of Waterloo Wellington had 71,257 soldiers available, 3,866 officers and 65,919 other ranks. By the end of the day's fighting the army had suffered 16,084 casualties (3,024 killed, 10,222 wounded and 2,838 missing) a loss of 24.6%.

Headquarters and support regiments

I Corps fielded 24,844 (1,233 officers and 23,383 other ranks) on 18 June 1815 taking into account those not present in the Order of Battle and the casualties on the previous two days.

I Corps

With so much of the Dutch Belgian contingent not present at the battle, only 579 officers and 8,677 men (9,256 in total) were fielded by II Corps.

II Corps

With only three regiments not present at the battle this Corps was the most complete at Waterloo fielding 16,133 (933 officers and 13,897 men) after taking into account the small losses at Quarte-Bras and during the retreat on 17 June 1815.

Cavalry Corps

Reserves

The reserves, 34,394 men and 56 guns, came under the direct command of Wellington during the Battle of Waterloo. The British 7th Infantry Division under Major General Kenneth MacKenzie was not present at the battle as the brigade manned various garrisons around the area. The Hanoverian Reserve Division was also not present, again manning garrisons on behalf of the army. Actual combatants from the Reserve present at the battle numbered 18,964 with 56 guns.

Prussian Army Order of Battle

The Prussian Army was led by Field Marshal Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher, Prince of Wahlstadt and his chief of staff August von Gneisenau and remained independent from the allied Anglo-Dutch-German army during the course of the campaign.

Staff

Major General Karl von Grolman, was Quartermaster General.^[9]

I Corps

II Corps

III Corps

IV Corps

See also

• Ligny order of battle
• Quatre Bras order of battle
• Military mobilisation during the Hundred Days

Notes

Secondary sources

References

• Charras, Jean Baptiste Adolphe (1857), Histoire de la campagne de 1815 (in French), Brussels: Meline, Cans et Comp. & J Hetzel et Comp., p. 352 
• Franklin, John; Embleton, Gerry (2015), Waterloo 1815 (2): Ligny, Osprey Publishing, p. 19, ISBN 978-1-4728-0368-9 
• Glover, Gareth (2010), Waterloo Archive: German Sources, 2 (illustrated ed.), Frontline Books, pp. 159–160, 233 (footnote 321), 238 (footnote 371), ISBN 9781848325418 
• Haythornthwaite, Philip J. (1995) [1870], Journal of the Waterloo Campaign Kept Throughout the Campaign of 1815 by Mercer, Cavalié, Da Capo Press, p. 390, ISBN 0-306-80651-7 
• Haythornthwaite, Philip (2007), The Waterloo Armies: Men, Organization and Tactics, Pen and Sword, p. 142, 195, ISBN 978-1-84415-599-6 
• Houssaye, Henry (1899), 1815 (27th ed.), Paris: Perrin & C.: Volume 1 and Volume 2.
• Moorsom, W S, ed. (1860), Historical Record of the Fifty-Second Regiment (Oxfordshire Light Infantry) from 1755 to 1858 (2nd ed.), London: Richard Bentley, p. 267  (facsimile printed by The Naval & Military Press Ltd, East Sussex, England)
• NHAE staff (22 October 2010), Allies Order of Battle, Waterloo 1815 
• Pigeard, Alain (2005), La Garde Impériale (in French), Paris: Tallandier, Bibliothèque Napoléonienne, ISBN 2-84734-177-3 
• Schneider, John (28 April 2012f), L'Armée du Nord (French Order of Battle for the campaign) (in French), archived from the original on 17 July 2012 
• Schneider, John (28 April 2012a), The Anglo-Allied Army (Anglo-Allied Order of Battle for the campaign), archived from the original on 17 July 2012 
• Schneider, John (28 April 2012p), Das Königliche Preußische Heer des Niederrheins (Prussian Order of Battle for the campaign) (in German), archived from the original on 17 July 2012 
• Siborne, William (1844), History of the War in France and Belgium, in 1815 (2nd ed.), London: T. & W. Boone: Volume 1 and Volume 2 (4th and 5th editions published as The Waterloo campaign, 1815). This edition shows "Appendix" in uncut version; (1848): 3rd edition published in one book.
• Siborne, William (1895), The Waterloo Campaign, 1815 (4th ed.), Westminster: A. Constable  (1st, 2nd and 3rd editions published as History of the war in France and Belgium in 1815).
• Smith, Digby (2015), Charge! Great Cavalry Charges of the Napoleonic Wars, Barnsley 
• Sokolov, Oleg (2003), L'armée de Napoléon (in French), Saint-Germain-en-Laye: Commios, ISBN 2-9518364-1-4 

Further reading

• Dalton, Charles, The Waterloo roll call. With biographical notes and anecdotes (1904), London: Eyre and Spottiswoode  — Short biographies on all ranks present down to Lieutenant-General, with a few more junior ranks, however the list of regiments includes footnotes on junior officers who went on to have notable carers.
• Gardner, Dorsey (1882), Quatre-Bras, Ligny and Waterloo; a narrative of the campaign in Belgium, 1815, Boston: Houghton-Mifflin, & co., pp. 20–26  — Order of battle for the three armies with names and numbers.
• Maxwell, Will. Ham (1845), Life of Field Marshal His Grace the Duke of Wellington: (In Three Volumes), 3 (4 ed.), H. G. Bohn, pp. 560–561  — List of staff officers.