Waterloo

Waterloo reconstructs the campaign that followed Napoleon’s return from Elba and culminated on 18 June 1815. Corrigan begins with the competing Allied and French plans, then follows the actions at Quatre Bras and Ligny before turning to the main battle, where Wellington’s multinational army held its position until the growing arrival of Blücher’s Prussians made Napoleon’s defeat irreversible.

A former soldier as well as a military historian, Corrigan pays close attention to the armies themselves: their infantry, cavalry and artillery, command structures, training and battlefield performance. He uses those details to explain why the French attacks failed, why the Allied line endured and how cooperation between Wellington and Blücher transformed a hard-fought defensive battle into the final defeat of Napoleon’s imperial rule.