18 June 1815, 16:00 to 18:00
The cavalry charges and La Haye Sainte
A little before 16:00 Ney takes the movement of wounded to the rear for the start of a retreat and attacks Wellington's centre between Hougoumont and La Haye Sainte with cavalry alone. Milhaud's cuirassiers and the light cavalry of the Guard, about 4,800 sabres, charge first, and then Kellermann's corps and Guyot's heavy cavalry of the Guard join them, about 9,000 horsemen in 67 squadrons. The allied infantry forms squares, the gunners shelter in them and return to their guns between charges, and British witnesses count 12 assaults.
French cuirassiers charging the British squares at Waterloo, painting by Henri Félix Emmanuel Philippoteaux, 1874Wikimedia Commons, Henri Félix Emmanuel Philippoteaux, Public domain (Charge of the French Cuirassiers at Waterloo.jpg)
Ney then sends Bachelu's division and a regiment of Foy's, about 6,500 infantry, up the same slope, and artillery and Adam's brigade drive them back. At about the same time d'Erlon's rallied troops attack La Haye Sainte again, and the King's German Legion, out of ammunition, loses it. French horse artillery and skirmishers come up behind the farm and fire canister into the squares at short range, and Ompteda's 5th Battalion of the Legion, sent to retake the farm, is destroyed by cuirassiers.
Marshal Ney and his staff leading the cavalry at Waterloo, by Louis DumoulinWikimedia Commons, Louis Dumoulin, Public domain (Marechal Ney à Waterloo.jpg)
At 16:30 Bülow's Prussian IV Corps comes out of the Bois de Paris and attacks Lobau. Its 15th Brigade throws the French out of Frichermont, and Hiller's 16th Brigade pushes on against Plancenoit, in the rear of the French right.
Sources
- Alessandro Barbero, The Battle: A New History of Waterloo (2003).
- William Siborne, The Waterloo Campaign, 1815 (1848).
- Tim Clayton, Waterloo: Four Days that Changed Europe’s Destiny (2014).
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