Great Historical Events That Were Significantly Affected by the Weather. Part 11: Meteorological Aspects of the Battle of Waterloo* - AMS Journals
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J N e
Great Historical Events That Were De p a~
Significantly Affected by the rsrSSSS
Jerusalem lsrael
Weather. Part 11: Meteorological
Aspects of the Battle of Waterloo*
Abstract Napoleon's forces. The emperor was forced to sign his
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abdication (April 1814) and the victorious allies ban-
The Waterloo Campaign extended from 15 to 18 June 1815, with ished him into exile on the island of Elba, off the west
the decisive Battle of Waterloo taking place on the 18th. The
coast of Italy. The French Senate reinstated the Bour-
campaign involved the "Army of the North" of Napoleon on the one
hand, and the Anglo-Dutch and Prussian armies on the other. The bon dynasty in the person of Louis XVI's brother,
latter were commanded, respectively, by the Duke of Wellington and styled as Louis XVIII. However, before long, person-
Prince Blucher. A shallow but active low and associated warm and ages loyal to Napoleon sent him messages informing
cold fronts crossed the battle area on the 16th and 17th. him of dissatisfaction in the country and suggested his
The weather had important effects on the battles. On the 16th,
return. On 20 March 1815, the former emperor entered
in a battle between part of the French army and part of the Prussian
army, at the village of Ligny, about 40 km south-southeast of Paris, where he was received by enthusiastic crowds.
Brussels, thunderstorms connected with the passage of the afore- With this began Napoleon's "one hundred days' rule."
mentioned warm front made the use of muskets impracticable. Representatives of the powers opposed to Napo-
However, the most important weather effects developed on the leon were holding the "Congress of Vienna" at the time,
17th and during the night from the 17th to the 18th. Violent thunder-
storms occurred early in the afternoon of the 17th close to Ligny,
and decided then and there to form a new coalition
while Napoleon was in the process of attacking the Anglo-Dutch against him. Their armies were to invade France from
force at Quatre Bras. The rains turned the ground into a quagmire, the north, east, and southeast. In conformity with his
making it impossible for the French artillery and cavalry, and even usual strategy, the emperor wished to deal separately
for the infantry, to move across the fields in extended order, as with each army of the coalition. He decided to attack
required by the emperor. The French advance was so greatly
first the enemy closest to Paris: namely, an Anglo-
slowed down that Wellington was able to withdraw his lighter force
to a better position near Waterloo. Thus, the Anglo-Dutch force was Dutch army, commanded by the Duke of Wellington,
almost completely preserved for the decisive battle of the next day. and a Prussian army, commanded by Prince Blucher.
The rainshowers of the 17th and the night from the 17th to the These two marched into Belgium in June 1815. Napo-
18th softened the ground to an extent that, on the morning of the leon crossed into Belgium on 15 June at the head of his
18th, Napoleon and his artillery experts judged that the battle—the army, the "Army of the North" (Armee du Nord), and on
Battle of Waterloo—could not be started before a late hour of the
forenoon [1130 local standard time (LST)]. Until the arrival of the
the 16th struck at the Prussians at Ligny, about 40 km
Prussian force, about 1600 LST and later, the battle tended to go in south-southeast of Brussels. Events of the remaining
favor of the French, but the Prussians turned the tide of the fighting. days of the "Waterloo Campaign," which ended with
The paper quotes judgments of military historians on the signifi- the Battle of Waterloo on the 18th, are described very
cant effects of the weather. Some historians believe that, had briefly in the following sections, where emphasis is put
Napoleon been able to begin the attack earlier on the 18th, the battle
on the weather effects on the battles.
would have ended in a French victory.
1. Antecedent events 2. Weather of the days leading to the Battle
of Waterloo, 15-18 June 1815
Early in 1814, armies of some member states of the
anti-Napoleon coalition invaded France and defeated According to information received from the Belgian
Royal Institute of Meteorology in Brussels, there were
*Part 10, "Crop Failure in Britain in 1799 and 1800 and the British no regular meteorological stations operating in Bel-
Decision to Send a Naval Force to the Baltic Early in 1801," was gium in 1815. However, Vanderlinden (1924, 302-
published in the February 1992 Bulletin (73,187-199). See Part 9 304) compiled a brief descriptive account of the weather
(71, 33-41) for a complete list of the series up to and including Part 8.
+
Visiting with the Department of Meteorology, University of Copen-
in the country in 1815, and, in a one-sentence-long
hagen, since 1986. statement regarding June, he writes that the begin-
©1993 American Meteorological Society ning of the month was rather rainy and that thunder-
Bulletin American Meteorological Society 413storms occurred on the 12th, 17th, and 20th. Memoirs day was rainy, with thunder at 1000 LST. The weather
and letters of participants of the Waterloo Campaign of the 18th was very cloudy, but no rain is mentioned.
(to be quoted below) record that there was a major The Haarlem data show a rise of 3°C in temperature
thunderstorm in the general area of Waterloo on the from the 16th to the 17th; more significant is (see the
16th in the late afternoon/early evening, and that the next paragraph) the drop of about 4.5°C in the tem-
thunderstorm that burst on the 17th early in the after- peratures for 1300 LST from the 17th to the 18th.
noon was especially violent. The showers and rains of Figure 1 is a synoptic map for western and north-
that storm continued, with some intermissions, until western Europe and the northeastern North Atlantic
about 0800 local standard time (LST) on the 18th, the for the 17th, the day of the most significant weather in
day of the Battle of Waterloo proper. The showers and the battle area. The map was prepared by John
rains turned the ground into a quagmire, severely Kington, Climatic Research Unit, University of East
impeding the trafficability of the fields not only for the Anglia, Norwich, England, based on the data bank
built up at the unit; construction of the map was aided
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artillery and cavalry, but the infantry as well. This will
be described in the following sections. by Kington's study of weather conditions in western
In view of the absence of regular meteorological Europe in the late eighteenth century (see Kington
stations in Belgium at the time, we have examined the 1988). The weather of that day had the most serious
data of the meteorological stations at the Paris Astro- and fatal consequences on Napoleon's army.
nomical Observatory (PAO), at Haarlem and Zwanburg If we assume that the depression and the cold and
in the Netherlands, and at two stations in the London warm fronts of Fig. 1 moved essentially eastward (as
area (Greenwich and Camden). Table 1 lists some of they usually do), then the data of Table 1 and the
the data of the PAO and Haarlem. The printed record pressure and front configurations of Fig. 1 can be
of observations of the PAO for the month lists the connected in a satisfactory manner. It seems prob-
highest and lowest values of the pressure of each day, able, and perhaps even certain, that the thunderstorm
as well as at midday; air temperatures are stated only and showers of the 16th late in the day in the battle
for noon. The weather is recorded for three periods of area (of the Battle of Ligny, Ligny being a village about
the day: "morning," "midday," and "evening." Haarlem, 25 km from Waterloo and nearly 40 km to the south-
on the other hand, records, among others, the air southeast of Brussels, see Fig. 2; the battle was fought
temperatures at 0800, 1300, and 2200 LST. between a French force and a Prussian force) were
In Table 1 we reproduce the highest and lowest connected with the passage of the warm front of the
pressure values at the PAO, as well as the remarks on depression. This suggestion is supported by reports of
the weather; in the case of the Dutch station, we list its participants of the battle, which state that on the 17th,
temperatures and the all too brief notes on the weather. by 1300 LST, the air was sultry: apparently, the battle
The latter do not specify the hours at which the area fell into the warm sector of the low pressure
weather stated prevailed. system.
It is seen in Table 1 that Paris reports a drop in The great thunderstorm and showers/rains of the
pressure from the 16th to the 17th; the maximum value 17th were in all likelihood associated with the passage
of the day lowered by over 5 mb. The weather of the of the cold front of the low. This is corroborated by the
TABLE 1. Meteorological data for the days of the Waterloo Campaign, 15-18 June 1815.
Date in Paris Astronomical Observatory Haarlem
June
1815 Pressure (mb) Weather Temperature (°C) at LST Weather
Max. Min. Morning Midday Evening 0800 1300 2200
15 1009.3 1001.5 cloudy very cloudy fine 15.6 19.4 15.6 showery, very windy
16 1009.8 1003.7 cloudy overcast rain 15.7 22.2 15.6 somewhat brighter
17 1004.2 1001.8 very cloudy rain, thunder intermittent 21.2 21.1 15.6 warm, showers,
at 10 rain then cloudy
18 1005.9 1004.6 very cloudy very cloudy very cloudy 15.0 16.7 14.4 rain with hard wind
414 Vol. 74, No. 3, March, 1993data of Haarlem, which show a consider-
able drop in temperatures from the 17th
to the 18th (see Table 1). It seems rea-
sonable that the cold front crossed the
Dutch city on the 18th, perhaps at night:
Haarlem reports rain and "hard" winds
for the day.
3.16 June
Although the meteorological event of
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the 16th did not have as great an effect
on ground conditions—and, hence, the
battle—as the meteorological events of
the 17th and those of the night from the
17th to the 18th, we shall describe the
event in brief, for it was relevant to what
happened on the next two days, including
the day of the Battle of Waterloo proper.
In conformity with his usual strategy,
the emperor endeavored to deal sepa-
rately with the Anglo-Dutch and Prus-
sian armies, and this meant that he had
to prevent the two forces from joining. He
found it preferable to deal with the
Prussians first and, accordingly, assigned
the 16th for this purpose.
About half (two corps) of the Prussian
army was located near the village of
FIG. 1. Synoptic chart for western Europe for 17 June 1815, the day before the
Ligny (Fig. 2), whereas an Anglo-Dutch Battle of Waterloo. The isobars are drawn at 4-mb intervals. As is seen in the map,
force was situated around the village of a low pressure system covered the low countries, northwestern France, and southern
Quatre Bras, about 32 km south-south- England. "Embedded" in the system are a warm and a cold front. Presumably, it was
east of Brussels and 12 km to the north- the passage of the warm front across the campaign area that produced the
west of Ligny. Napoleon ordered Mar- thunderstorm late in the day on the 16th, with some consequences on the fighting.
The warm sector crossed the area between the night of the 16th and about 1300 or
shal Ney, commander of the left wing of 1400 LST on the 17th. It is almost certain that the cold front passed through the battle
his army, to attack Quatre Bras and seize area between about 1400 and 1500 LST on the 17th, producing a violent thunderstorm
it from Wellington's force, while he him- and rains that continued throughout the day and night, with some intermissions. The
self dealt with the Prussians. The battle showers and rains caused sodden fields, which interfered with action, preventing
began rather late in the day, because the Napoleon from dealing a hoped-for decisive blow on Wellington's force. The most
fatal consequence of the rains, however, was that the emperor could not begin the
emperor was waiting for one of his corps combat on the 18th, the Battle of Waterloo proper, sufficiently early in the morning and
(Lieutenant-General Gerard's) to arrive give himself enough time to defeat the Anglo-Dutch before the arrival of the
and take up its position. Additionally, he Prussians. The joint Anglo-Dutch and Prussian force was notably larger than
was waiting to hear the din of cannonade Napoleon's force and was able to inflict a crushing defeat on the French.
from Quatre Bras that would have indi- The chart was prepared especially for this paper by J. Kington, Climatic Research
Unit, University of East Anglia, Norwich, England, based on the meteorological data
cated that Ney went into action (Ney did bank built up by the unit.
not). The late start left a maximum of
close to six hours of daylight (sunset was
about 2020 LST1), which turned out not
to be enough to beat the Prussians decisively. The
1
Although it is almost certain that, had the moon been full and the sky Prussians put up a determined fight.
cloudless, the battle could not have been continued at moonlight, it
About 1930 LST, Napoleon ordered the Imperial
is worth pointing out that during 16-18 June the moon was between
its first and second quarter—that is, it would not have provided much Guard, his most loyal and battle-seasoned troops, to
light. For data on the phases of the moon in June 1815, see Morrison launch an attack, hoping that they would be able to
(1966). secure a definite victory. But about the time he issued
Bulletin American Meteorological Society 415the 17th and the night from the
17th to the 18th was more
thundery and persistently rainy
than on the 14th. This is true not
only for Paris but also for the
battle area in Belgium, as indi-
cated by memoirs and letters of
participants of the campaign. It
seems reasonable to ascribe the
intense thunderstorm ofthe17th
and rains to the passage of the
cold front shown in Fig. 1.
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Becke, author of a two-vol-
ume documented study of the
Waterloo Campaign, quotes
(Vol. I, p. 335) a Lieutenant Hope
(Letter of a British Officer, 239-
240; not seen by this author) as
follows: on the 17th "the hazy
morning cleared up about 1000
LST, by noon the sun was pow-
erful, by 1300 LST the air was
sultry and thunder was faintly
FIG. 2. General map of the area of the Waterloo Campaign. Waterloo is situated about 13 heard before 1400 LST."
km south-southeast from Brussels. The scale of the map can be estimated from the fact that Before we turn to descriptions
the distance between Waterloo and Ligny (scene of the Battle of Ligny on the 16th) is about 25
km.
of the thunderstorm, it is appro-
priate to point out that Hope's
========:=
brief "account" of the weather of
the morning of the 17th sug-
the order, a major thunderstorm burst and the heavy gests that the warm sector of the low of Fig. 1 passed
rains made it impracticable to use the muskets. The the battle area in the morning and the earliest part of
guard had to make a bayonet charge, which was less the afternoon. The statement that thunder was faintly
effective than volleys of musket fire. The Prussians heard before 1400 LST corresponds in all probability
were forced to retreat and, although the battle was a to what we call "distant thunder." Presumably, the
French victory, both sides suffered heavy casualties: distant thunder originated from the thunderstorms of
the Prussians lost 16 000 men, and the French 11 000; the approaching cold front.
the Prussian losses were increased by the subse- Hope describes the thunderstorm as "awful," "ap-
quent desertion of the colors by 8000 troops. It is palling," and "terrific." (The letter was written a week
almost certain that the number of Prussian casualties after the event.) Another British officer, Captain C.
would have been greater had the guard been able to Mercer, Royal Horse Artillery, writes as follows (1969,
use its firearms. The possibly greater losses would 147, 148):
have rendered the Prussian force less capable of
recuperating, as it did, from the blow. In any case, as The sky had become overcast since the morning . . .
a consequence of the French victory, the Prussian large isolated masses of thundercloud, of the deep-
est, almost inky black, their lower edges hard and
army was put out of action for the 17th, when Napoleon strongly defined, lagging down, as if momentarily
intended to smash Wellington's force. about to burst, hung suspended over us, involving our
position and everything on it in deep and gloomy
obscurity. . . . The first gun that was fired seemed to
burst the clouds overhead, for its report was instantly
4.17 June followed by an awful clap of thunder, and lightning that
almost blinded us, whilst the rain came down as if a
a. Thunderstorm and rains water-spout had broken over us.
Despite the fact that the pressure drop recorded at
the PAO meteorological station from the 16th to the A meteorologically particularly significant observa-
17th was notably smaller than from the 13th to the 14th tion (less subjective than the previously quoted obser-
(not shown in Table 1), the weather of the afternoon of vations), indicative of the intensity of the front and
416 Vol. 74, No. 3, March, 1993thunderstorm circulation, is cited by Houssaye (1900a, In a collection of letters, the editor, Major-General
p. 258), a prominent historian of France's imperial Siborne, reprints a letter of Capt. W. B. Ingilby, Royal
period. He writes that shortly after 1400 LST, big black Horse Artillery (Siborne 1891, letter No. 81). In the part
clouds were "pushed" (this is a literal translation of the of the letter relating to 17 June, the captain writes as
French term he used) by "furious" winds. The showers follows:
and rain were so heavy, according to Houssaye (p.
261), that one could not distinguish the color of uni- At the last moment the order was given [Wellington's
order to retreat from Quatre Bras] and the whole
forms at a distance of five to six steps. The military
commenced a rapid retreat in three Columns and by
consequences of the rainshowers are described in the different roads. At this instant the heavy black cloud
following paragraphs. broke with a tremendous clap of thunder and torrent of
As was pointed out above, the 17th was the day rain.... The road and the ground became so quickly
deluged with the heavy rain that was falling, that it
assigned by Napoleon for dealing with the Anglo- became impracticable for the French Cavalry to press
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Dutch force, which, as was mentioned earlier, was our Column in any force. In fact, out of the road in the
located in the area of the village of Quatre Bras (see track of our own Cavalry, the ground was poached into
Fig. 2) some 32 km a little south of southeast from a complete puddle. Seeing this, and having lost the
shoe from off a Gun horse, I halted and had it put on
Brussels. On the morning of the 17th, the emperor in spite of some skirmishers. . . . This will show how
decided to postpone the beginning of the attack until impracticable it was for them to press on this cross
noon, hoping that by then the ground that was soft from road. . . . The rain continued very heavily throughout
the previous evening's showers would be dry enough the night.
for the artillery and cavalry, as well as infantry, to
advance and spread out over the fields.2 Brett-James (1964) published excerpts from nu-
Also on the morning of the same day, Wellington merous memoirs and letters relating to the Waterloo
received information on the Prussian defeat at Ligny Campaign. On pages 93-94 he cites from the mem-
the previous day. The French force was too large oirs of the French sergeant4 Hippolyte de Mauduit of
compared to his at Quatre Bras and, deprived of the the Imperial Guard:
hope of help from the Prussians, he decided to with-
The tracks were so deep in mud after the rain that we
draw his force to a better defensive position, behind a found it impossible to maintain any sort of order in our
ridge near the village of Mt. St. Jean, about 4 km south- column In looking for easier paths a large number
southeast of Waterloo. of men went astray, and not until daybreak did they all
The retreat of the smaller and lighter Anglo-Dutch manage to rejoin the columns. . . .Our greatcoats and
trousers were checked with several pounds of mud. A
force began about 1300 LST. Because of the retreat, great many of the soldiers lost their shoes and reached
the fight became for the French a battle of pursuit, the bivouac barefoot.
involving the possibility of the enemy's escape. Shortly
before 1500 LST, the thunderstorm burst. It quickly To sum up the military significance of the thunder-
turned the fields into quagmire (see Chandler 1966, p. storm and rains of the 17th on the fighting of the same
1061), rendering the ground intrafficable not only to day and the next day, we shall quote the judgments of
the artillery and cavalry but for the infantry as well. three military historians.
Consequently, all the three French arms had to crowd Captain A. F. Becke (1914, vol. I, p. 337):
to the only paved road, the narrow Brussels road.
Inevitably, the pursuit slowed. By 1830 LST, it was Rarely has the storm [the thunderstorm of the 17th]
clear that the Anglo-Dutch force succeeded in avoid- been given sufficient credit for the part it played in
retarding the Emperor's fiery, if tardy, pursuit of his
ing battle. Napoleon's hope to smash Wellington's foe. Given good weather, then June 17 might have
force before it could join up with the Prussians became seen very different happenings—even in spite of
frustrated by the weather.3 Ney's early and disastrous failure. For the sodden
roads and fields delayed the French advance tremen-
To show the severity of ground conditions, we shall dously; otherwise Wellington would probably have
cite excerpts from recollections of two participants of been attacked towards the evening, so as to ensure
the combat. that he was immobilised, and then by 0800 LST, on
2
The above-quoted weather-caused decision of Napoleon to delay the start of the attack is quoted by several writers—e.g., by Captain
Siborne (1895, p. 364). Some of the quotes are based on statements made by the emperor at his place of final banishment on the island
of St. Helena.
3
Chandler (1966, p. 1062) quotes Napoleon's remark, made at St. Helena, regarding the "unfinished" battle of the 17th against Wellington.
He is reported to have said that "what would I not have given to have had Joshua's power to slow down the sun's movement by two hours."
4
Becke (1914, vol. I, p. 261) gives the rank of de Mauduit as captain.
Bulletin American Meteorological Society 417June 18, at latest, the great battle would have been arms, or over 25% of the Army of the North. Such a
begun. It might have been as bloody as Eylau5 but it large body of troops was not meant for an intelligence
would have been far more decisive, and a French
victory. mission, and this should have been clear to the marshal.
In the afternoon, the various elements of Grouchy's
Professor D. G. Chandler (1966, p. 1062): force began to march toward Gembloux. The march
was badly hindered by the sodden ground, due to the
It is possible, even probable, that Napoleon would persistent rains. For instance, one of Grouchy's corps
have succeeded in catching up with Wellington and (Lieutenant Vandamme's) took an hour to move 2 km
force him to fight there, but for the adverse turn in the
weather. to a meeting point (Becke 1914, vol. I, p. 353). The
force led by the marshal himself took about four hours
Major-General J. F. C. Fuller (1985, p. 189): to cover 10 km, reaching Gembloux between 1800
and 1900 LST; one other corps (Lieutenant-General
Gerald's) arrived at Gembloux at 2100 LST. When
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In part at least, this terrific storm of rain saved
Wellington, for it so drenched the ground that the Grouchy reached Gembloux, he took no action, al-
French were unable to advance across country and though some two hours of daylight remained. He
were, in consequence, tied to the Brussels Road. Had
they been able, as was Napoleon's wont, to advance should have realized that the French center's right
in extended order, it is probable that, in spite of the late flank would possibly come under attack by Blucher
start, the Emperor would have caught up with his and, moreover, that Blucher would possibly achieve
enemy by five or six o'clock. Had he done so, and had junction with Wellington. In the latter case, the allies
he attacked Wellington and fixed him to his position
when not fully deployed, it is also possible that he would have presented a much larger force than
might have beaten him during the next morning, or what Napoleon's. Grouchy's tardiness meant that the
is more likely, have forced him to retire during the night. Prussians gained more time to move toward a junction
with the Anglo-Dutch.
b. Marshal Grouchy's mission
One other important incident of the day that was
influenced in no small part by the weather (for the 5. The night of 17-18 June
remaining part, the responsibility lay with a high
French commander) occurred on the right flank of the The rains continued during the night. Some of the
French army (the center was commanded by Napo- memoirs and letters of participants of the campaign
leon himself). Command of the right wing was en- describe the rains of the night as "torrential."
trusted by the emperor to Marshal Grouchy, an out- In his collection of excerpts, Brett-James (1964,
standing cavalry officer and an excellent tactician, but 98-99) quotes Napoleon's thoughts during his noctur-
a general officer lacking strategic insight (according to nal tour (around one o'clock in the morning). He was
the literature). angry that the Anglo-Dutch force escaped battle the
As mentioned before, the precise location of the previous afternoon (the 17th) and apprehensive that
Prussian forces (two corps beaten at Ligny, and two Wellington and Blucher would possibly link up near
other corps not involved in the previous day's battle) Brussels. The emperor reminisced as follows (only the
was not known to Napoleon on the morning of the 17th weather-related thoughts are quoted here):
when he verbally instructed Grouchy to reconnoiter
the whereabouts of the Prussians. In a later written The rain fell in torrents . . . the French troops were
order of the same day, the marshal was instructed to bivouacked in the mud. The officers thought it impos-
sible for us to give battle during the day. The artillery
proceed to Gembloux (see Fig. 2; Gembloux is about and cavalry could not manoeuvre on the ground so
40 km south-southeast from Brussels and about 10 km soaked was it; and they calculated that twelve hours
northeast of Ligny), pursue the Prussians, and find out of fine weather would be needed to dry it out.
if Blucher was moving to the support of Wellington. No
doubt (Houssaye 1900a, p. 231) Napoleon's idea was On page 100, Brett-James cites William Gibney,
for Grouchy to interpose his wing between the Prussians assistant surgeon to the 15th Hussars (British):
and the Anglo-Dutch and thus protect the right flank of Torrents of rain fell all night,... a night spent in pouring
the French center. rain, sitting up to the hips in muddy water.
For the mission, Grouchy was allocated the rela-
tively large force of 33 000 troops, including all three On pages 102-104, the same compiler quotes from
the recollections of British Private Matthew Clay:
5
The Battle of Eylau, Prussia, was fought 7-8 February 1807 By and by, the flint musket then in use was a sad bore
between Napoleon's army and a Russian army. The fighting was on that occasion: from the effects of the wet, the
extremely fierce. springs of the lock became wood bound and would not
418 Vol. 74, No. 3, March, 1993act correctly, and when in action the clumsy flints or if we wish to quibble, the false estimation of the state
became useless. of the ground, by Drouot and the artillery officers,
compelled the Emperor to alter his orders. The attack
was postponed from six or seven o'clock, to nine
o'clock, then once more deferred because the troops
6.18 June—The day of the Battle of had not yet taken up their positions. This delay saved
Waterloo the English Army.6
On the 18th, the rains stopped between 0700 and Houssaye's lines were written late in the nineteenth
0800 LST (Fuller 1985, p. 193). Soon thereafter, century (the 1900 edition was the 31 st edition). About
Napoleon set out with General Drouot, commander of three-quarters of a century later, the British military
the Imperial Guard, for the purpose of examining the historian Chandler (1966, p. 1067) sustains the French
state of the ground: Would it be possible to move the scholar's conclusions. He writes:
guns? Originally, Napoleon intended to begin the
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This decision [postponement of opening the battle
attack at 0900 LST at the latest. However, Drouot
until late in the forenoon because of the sodden
advised the emperor to postpone the beginning of the ground] proved the most fatal one of the day for the
battle with the Anglo-Dutch force for a few hours, to let French. For had even an inadequately supported
the ground dry in the meantime; otherwise, the attack infantry attack been launched against Wellington in
the morning, the French must surely have won; for
could not begin with an artillery bombardment. More-
Blucher would have been too late arriving on the field
over, the round shot would have buried themselves in to affect the issue.
the mud instead of ricocheting (Fuller 1985, p. 193,
footnote 3; Becke 1914, vol. II, p. 4); that is, many of the
rounds would have been wasted. 7. Conclusions
Thus, on both the 17th and the 18th Napoleon
began the attack late in the day and on both occasions The above study indicates that the Waterloo Cam-
in consequence of soaked ground. On the 18th, how- paign, including the Battle of Waterloo, was notably
ever, the late beginning was fatal. By midafternoon the affected by the rains connected with the passage of a
battle was close to becoming a French victory. How- system of warm and cold fronts across the general
ever, about 1600 LST, the first Prussian units joined area of the campaign. The case of the Battle of
the combat and were followed by other Prussian units. Waterloo shows that the weather can have far-reach-
The combined allied armies greatly exceeded the ing direct and indirect consequences. Not only did
French army in strength, and this turned the Battle of Napoleon lose his throne forever—the political map of
Waterloo into a decisive allied victory. Wellington Europe was changed by the victorious allies as well. In
himself admitted that, before the Prussians' arrival, his France, the Bourbon dynasty was reinstated. In the
force was close to defeat. In a letter to his brother inevitable "soul searching" in France for the causes of
William, dated 19 June 1815, relating to the Battle of the debacle, Grouchy was blamed for the disaster.
Waterloo, he wrote the following: "It was the most The marshal defended himself by referring to the
desperate business I ever was in. . . . I never was so abominable state of the ground, which slowed down
near being beat." (See letter No. 31 in Webster 1948.) and exhausted his troops and rendered him unable to
As an outcome of Waterloo, Napoleon lost his throne prevent the junction of the Prussians with the Anglo-
irretrievably and was sent into banishment on the Dutch.
distant island of St. Helena, and at the Congress of
Vienna, the allies redrew the political map of Europe. Acknowledgments. The writer is pleased to thank John King-
Houssaye, the prominent French scholar previ- ton, Climatic Research Unit, University of East Anglia, Norwich,
ously cited, sums up the consequences of the wet England, for preparing the synoptic chart for 17 June 1815 (Fig.
1 in this paper) especially for this study.
ground on the Battle of Waterloo in the following words
Thanks are due to the following organizations or individuals for
(Houssaye 1900a, 493-494; English translation, meteorological data for June 1815: Service Meteorologique
1900b, p. 288): Interregional, lle-de-France, Centre Interdepartemental de Paris-
Montsouris, Meteorologie Nationale, Paris; Maurice Crewe, librar-
At Waterloo Napoleon wished to begin the action in
the early morning; his orders testify to this. Had the 6
battle begun towards six or seven o'clock, neither On the sheet of the meteorological observations in June 1815, the
Grouchy's great strategic blunder [his failure to place observer of the station at Camden, London, added the following
his force in the way of Blucher], nor the mistake of the remark concerning the 21st: "Diprest [sic] with the rumour that
Emperor himself in neglecting to repeat his orders, Bonaparte had beaten Wellington & reached Brussels." Thus, after
would have led to any serious consequences, for the three days of the allied victory, London did not know yet of the great
English army would have been routed before the victory of the allies. The news of the victory reached London during
arrival of the Prussians. . . . The state of the ground, the night of 21-22 June.
Bulletin American Meteorological Society 419ian, National Meteorological Library, Bracknell, Berkshire, Eng- Houssaye, H., 1900a: 7S75l/l/ater/oo,31sted.LibrairieAcademique
land; and Dr. Arijan van Engelen, Royal Netherlands Meteoro- Didier, 512 pp.
logical Institute, De Bilt, The Netherlands. Dr. H. Einicke, Astronomi- , 1900b: 1815 Waterloo. English translation of the foregoing by
cal Observatory, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Den- A. M. Mann, A. Euan-Smith, Ed., A. and Ch. Black, 470 pp.
mark, is thanked for data of the moon in June 1815. Kington, J., 1988: The Weather of the 1780s over Europe. Cam-
Finally, thanks are due to Dr. A. A. Orgill, senior librarian, Royal bridge University Press, 160 pp.
Military Academy Sandhurst, Camberley, Surrey, England, for cop- Mercer, C., 1969 (reissue of 1927): Journal of the Waterloo Cam-
ies of some pages from the literature. paign. Kept Throughout the Campaign of 1815 by the Late
General Cavalie Mercer; with an Introduction by M. Glover. P.
Davies, 388 pp.
Morrison, B. L., 1966: Phases of the Moon 1800-1939. Circular No.
References 112, U.S. Naval Observatory, 42 pp.
Siborne, H. T., Ed., 1891: Waterloo Letters. A Selection from
Becke, A. F., 1914: Napoleon and Waterloo. The Emperor's Cam- Original and Hitherto Unpublished Letters Bearing on the Opera-
paign with the Armee du Nord, 1815. A Strategical and Tactical tions of the 16th, 17th, and 18th June, 1815, by Officers who
Downloaded from http://journals.ametsoc.org/doi/pdf/10.1175/1520-0477(1993)0742.0.CO;2 by guest on 17 November 2020
Study. Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner & Co., Vol. I: 361 pp., Vol. Served in the Campaign. Cassell & Co., 409 pp.
II, 322 pp. , 1895: The Waterloo Campaign 1815,4th ed. A. Constable and
Brett-James, A., 1964: The Hundred Days. Napoleon's Last Cam- Co., 332 pp.
paign from Eye-Witness Accounts. Macmillan & Co., 242 pp. Vanderlinden, E., 1924: ChroniquedesEvenementsMeteorologiques
Chandler, D. G., 1966: The Campaigns of Napoleon. The Macmillan en Belgiquejusqu'en 1834. M. Hayez, Imprimeurde I'Academie
Co., 1172 pp. Royale de Belgique, 329 pp.
Fuller, J. F. C., 1985: The Decisive Battles of the Western World and Webster, C., Ed., 1948: Camden Miscellany XVIII. Some Letters of
Their Influence upon History 1792-1944. J. Terraine, Ed., Pala- the Duke of Wellington to His Brother William Wellesley-Pole.
din, Granada Publishing, 595 pp. Offices of the Royal Historical Society, 38 pp.
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