The morning call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1878-1895, 1890-08-31
THE FIELD OF
WATERLOO.
The Great Battlefield on Its
Seyenty.fifth Anniversary.
The Present Appearance Of the Scene Of Ma
poleon's Dafeat-The Similarity Between
Gettysburg and Waterloo.

cCGYCN mere InOtleuI III lll6 dB6 VI u Udttic-
field, destined. as men think. to be immOr-
tai. and so this field Of PIaicenoit and
Braine PAllend, known to the world as
Waterloo. because Wellington wrote his
first dispatch there. is but entering on its
green youth, though seventy-fve years
have passed since Napoleon was there
eXterminated. Yet scarcely man sur
wives who took part in tie fight, the old
Duke of Albemarle, Of the tough
Dutch Keppel family, now 81 years old,
being the only Englishman Of note who is
yet living, and who fought under Yelling
ton there. OF the 10000 men who had
some share in the main fisht-72.0O0 under
Napoleon, GS. 900 under Wellington and 49,
COO under Blucher-perhaps one hundred
are now living, writes a correspondent from
Mont Saint Jean, Belgium, to the st. Louis
Post Dispatch.
More than $4,000 died and were buried on
the great field where they fell-25, 900 died
at once or of wounds, and were buried else
where-the others 100000 have been
gradually dying until only single company
remains of all the regiments that marched
and charged June IS, 1915.
When that sought but Duty's iron crown
On that loud sabbath shook the spoier down,
As Tennyson says Of Wellington.
Even the central ground of the contest,
under and about the great mound, has been
so much changed that it is little hard to
Wellington availed himself when he post
ed himself here the day before the
battle, after repulsing Ney AT Quatre
Bras and falling back to unite with
Butcher. This pretentlous mound. cover
ing more than four acres and more than
160 feet high, was built up more than half
century ago from the ridges and knobs
about the center of the British line, and
this work destroyed that c0ntiguration OF
the ground, which in part protected Wei
lington's troop from destruction. Toward
Hougoumont which was the key to the
British situation, the slopes have been cut
down, but the heavy wood about
THE CHATEAU
Which aided General Byng. Colonel and
Lieutenant Colonel Macdonald TO defend
tile fort SO successfully, was long since
stripped away; only few ancient beeches,
chestnut and apple trees full OF bullets re-
main of the Houg0umont wood; the cha
teau, except the chapel, is entirely gone,
and a new barn long ago took the place
of that which Jerome Bonaparte's shell
set on fire. Bat the old brick garden
wall, lOOp-holed for musketry, is still there,
and the gardeners house, both marked with
bullet and cannon shot, where 1000 English
men and Scotchmen. chiefly the Coldstream
Guards, resisted for eight hours repeated
attacks of the French lett wing, numbering
many thousands. Still of all the battle
field this quiet farm and garden OF Hougou-
mont are the most unchanged.
The mound built by the Belgian Govern
ment on the spot where the Prince of
Orange was wounded, and snrmOunted by
the Belgian, not the British, lion, has
spoiled the battlefield for topographers,
but it has made it more attractive to Wis
itors. for it commands lar better view of
the ten or twelve square miles of actual
battle than either Napoleon or Wellington
could get on the fatal day The British
line extended in 4 crescent for little more
than two miles east and west and north of
the mound; the French army extended to
the east, south and west OF The mound in
more irregular shape, and over
an area twice as great during the day. For
while the fight lasted the British, generally
speaking. held their positions, while the
French, who attacked, were constantly
changing theirs to assault the British at
some new point or to renew the attack
where they had made an impression.
Finally, when the last charge of the En-
peror'S Guard broke and drew back, and
Wellington, taking ADVANTAGE OF the move
ment, charged with his whole line, then the
British troops cuyered all the area that
Napoleon had held until
WELLINGTON
In the evening occupied the place where
Napoleon had first stationed himself in the
morning. Now the Lion Mound gives
view over every part of this area, and also
on the southeast, where Butcher and his
Prussians came TO the aid of Wellington
late in the afternoon, and thus it furnishes
what did not exist in 1915, n Spectacular
mound" from which all the great movements
of the fight can be traced. Wellington was
annoyed wh5n he saw the mound years
after Ward-fOr it had oDliterated the front
of his line of battle, but now it serves to
draw the visitor to the central spot, and to
help him understand the localities when he
gets there. 1t is about one and half miles
from Braine PAllend Where the railway
leaves you, and you. are carried across the
country in an omnibus from every train
for very moderate sum. The land is by
no means a fiat plain like the field of
Marathon, nor is it so fiat as the
plain of Cheroned. but lilies in long
ridges with broad valleys between, Which
become deep and narrow valleys here and
there, where road runs through ridge.
By several of these cuts or hollow ways"
the position OF Wellington was materially
strengthened. When General Sheridan was
here some twenty years ago he remarked
the similarity of this battle to our decisive
fight at Gettysburg, and there is even re-
semblance in the lay of the land. But the
features of the Gettysburg scenery are
holder and the distances greater.
We happened upon an excellent guide,
Martin PiersOn by name, a native of the
parish not old enough to remember the bat
IL.
and who had imbibed not only the tradi-
tions of the neighborhood. but much of the
rewritten story of Waterloo. We found
in him little of that quality lie described
TO us in Victor Hugo, whom he remembered
coming here before writing his famous ac-
count in his "Miserables'' Victor Hugo"
said Martin, was grand ecrivain-what
you call great
WRITING MAN:
But if you give him one finger" measuring
that short distance on his own hand. "he
makes it so long" indicating half yard.
Martin does not extend things quite so much,
but like all dramatic speakers he consults
the situation and makes the best of 1t. He
inclines little to the French side in his
stnry. but not much, and he says what
Wellington says in his first dis
patch describing the battle, that it
scale. As 10 the words of Yelling
ton, which are characteristic and not much
known, let me quote them: :" / should not
do justice to nv feelings nor to Marshal
Butcher and the Prussian army if did not
attribute the successful result of this ardu-
/ received from them" | copy from the dis
patch sent by Wellington June 10th, in
which lie fixes the time OF the begin
ming of the fight alittle earlier than the
historians now, give It. describing
I'm front of the right center. and near the
Neyelle road, we occupied the house and
garden of Hougoumont which covered the
return of that front. About 10 o'clock the
enemy commenced an attack on our post at
Hougoumont. 1t was maintained through
out the day with the utmost gallantry
by these brave troops This seems to
make the beginning of the action as
early as 10 in the morning. AS to
the end of it, Wellington says: About
O'Clock the enemy made a desperate
oil tr inf ntru
ported by the fire of artillery. to force our
left center near the farm OF La Haye Sainte.
Having observed that the troops retired
from this attack in great confusion, de-
termined to attack the enemy, and immedi-
ately advanced the whole line of infantry
supported by the cavalry and artillery. The
attack succeeded at every point" 1t was
made just as the sun was setting, and be-
fore daylight had gone on that long mid
summer eve the army of Napoleon was
PRACTICALLY ANNIHtLATED.
Only about 10000 OF his men returned to
Franco CARRYING only OF of the 240 cannon