Waterloo

June 18, 1815

South of Brussels, on muddy fields of rye, Wellington's stubborn squares held against hour after hour of French cavalry and infantry until Blucher's Prussians fell on Napoleon's right flank at dusk. The emperor's hundred-day return ended in a scramble of routed grenadiers. It was his last battle. He surrendered to the British and was shipped to St. Helena, a speck in the South Atlantic from which there was no return.