Reaction | History Teacher - Napoleonic Wars: Battle of Waterloo 1815 - Epic History TV 

I will publish a poll on monday for the next video series! You can put your suggestions under the comments!!! (democracy is cool) :D

I mean, literally anything from Epic History TV is a must watch. Their World War I series is amazing, as is the Alexander the Great series.

Wellington is an interesting person. He fought through India, Portugal and Spain and only lost one battle...his first.

The Imperial Guard certainly was elite but they were just as human as anyone else on that battlefield. Besides, it was only the Middle Guard that actually attacked, the Old Guard was the true elites of the Guard.

Hi Essek; this was one of the first episodes done at the beginning of epic history tv’s channel, It was soon followed by ww1 Blackbeard and history of Russia. All very good series to review. Keep up the good work I love discovering history with you.

I suggest for you to check out the Second Punic war series by HistoryMarche and the Alexander the Great series by the Epic History.

When I saw the photos of Napoleon's veterans I was amazed. If you consider that these men were born during times of French revolution or before (second half of 18th century). You have many pieces of paintings from Napoleonic wars era but no photos. I don't know why but I find it like something "ancient". For me it is like to take a photo of a living dinosaur or Julius Caesar for example :D

I had the exact same reaction to the photos, the rest of my family were like meh. lmao

Amazing to see the photos of the old soldiers. What dreadful memories they must have had of that terrible Battle.

Essek you absolutely must watch the film Waterloo ! I believe it's available to watch for free on youtube. By far one of the best historical films they used 20,000 soldiers of the Soviet Red Army to film it! On a side note Wellington called every single unit and cannon he had to face off against the Imperial Guard. They relentlessly fired everything they had at them including canister shot from point blank to fend them off. Fantastic reaction series I have learnt some extra things from you that I didn't know so thank you :) Epic History is doing an extra few episode for Napoleons Marshals which explains what happened to his Marshals before, during and at the end of the Napoleonic Wars.

Ney was executed After Waterloo, the same for Murat in Naples !

Fun fact Wellington initially said he could not have won the battle without the Prussians and that he appreciated them, but a decade or two later, after a very unpopular term as Prime Minister he changed his story to try to claim all the glory (as Blücher was long dead by then) to try and salvage his image.

He was poisoned but not deliberately. The wallpaper in the house had a lot of blue dies in it. Blue paper dies were made using arsenic and the fumes given off by the wallpaper are "credited" with killing the Little Corsican.

React to Napoleon’s Marshals to finish the series ! :)

Michel Ney without a blindfold gave the order to fire to his own firing squad. Dude went out like a champ. While looking at the firing squad he said: “Soldiers, when I give the command to fire, fire straight at my heart. Wait for the order. It will be my last to you. I protest against my condemnation. I have fought a hundred battles for France, not one against her....... soldiers, fire!!!”

Epic History is the best channel of their type. The Napoleon series is just amazing.

On another note i dont think Napoleon's army was mostly made of veterans....he lost the cream of his army in the Russian and Leipzig campaign as well as the campaign for France in 1814...

Anybody - in summary, what was Napoleon's primary objective for going to and continuing a 10 year war and what was the total body count from the 10 years?

one of the things not mentioned in the video the British volley fire was point blank range and caused the imperial guard to suffer estimated 30% loss in one volley

by 1815 , the imperial guard was a giant mix of different type of units, that would be wrong to describe them the way they did in the video, this description would fit more for the "old guard" instead

Marshal Ney was executed by firing squad, if I recall correctly, for helping Napoleon after his return.

The old guard did not atack in this battle. This were the elite of the elite soldiers of europe. The one atacking was the imperial guard, which were still superp soldiers. The british troops were drilled very well in volley fire and with the combination of canister shot, the imperial guard was just cut down advancing at their lines. The old guard of napoleon were the last soldiers, that did not run away and died on the spot buying time for their beloved emperor. Another thing to consider that ney was not as an idiot as it seems in this battle. He acted out of character at quatre bras, when the "bravest of the brave" did not fully commit to the atack there. I think he was metaly broken. At the end of the battle he hurled himself at the enemies trying to get killed, which did not work. Ney seems to have lost it either in the retreat from russia, or the last campaign for french.

Napoleon's greatest advantage was the speed his armies moved and a gift for finding his opponents weak points.

La garde se meurt mais ne se rend pas.

the movie waterloo 1970 it's nice

Great commentary. You seem quite open minded and informed. On the issue of the quality of Wellington’s army, most of his peninsular veterans were still stuck in Canada, fighting the USA. His present troops were somewhat below the quality and initial morale of the French, save for his heavy cavalry and German Legion. On the death of Napoleon, there’s a theory of murder through arsenic. His body was remarkably well preserved even 20 years later, when it was brought to Paris. Yet arsenic was in all items of everyday use in 19th century Europe, and if ingested regularly in small enough doses you can withstand poisoning. The modern verdict is that he died of stomach cancer, the same cause of his father’s death. Symptoms of cancer were possibly already present in Waterloo, where stomach aches and haemorrhoids took a toll on his activity and clouded his judgment.

This is old video and they put other videos after. They said that put a new video about waterloo.

At first glance, the poisoning theory has a foundation. A high dose of arsenic has indeed been detected on Napoleon's hair in recent years ... but over the entire length of the hair, suggesting that the arsenic was applied after death to preserve the corpse. This was a common practice in the 19th century in europe. Napoleon's doctor has given stomach cancer as the official cause of death. The massive weight loss (around 12 kilograms in six months) of Napoleon at the end of his life and his chronic stomach pains in the years before that speaks in favor of this diagnosis and against arsenic poisoning.

Most of the experienced British troops had been sent to America, but we're slowly retuning. The British army in Spain fought many battles against France's finest military leaders, all except Napoleon himself. And they won, again and again.

When the British hit the Guard with their volley fire it was sudden, unexpected, and the IG was in column when the British were in line. So flanking fire hit them, it’s the British so it was accurate. The British were also highly feared when it came to the Bayonet.

You really need to watch the movie Waterloo it's amazing specially the old guard Marche

Napoleon may well have suffered Arsenic poisoning, probably from the Scheel’s green wall paper in his chalet. The damp climate in Ascension allowing mould growth to release the poison. Not deliberate, they just did not know the issue.

one thing that i know about waterloo is that the french soldiers said long live France as they marched to there death

He probably did die of arsenic poisoning, but it wasn't murder. Samples of his interior decoration have been preserved in odd places in the old British Empire. In particular a piece of Napoleon's green wallpaper on St Helena was owned by a lady in Australia and she allowed it to be tested. One of the green dyes used in wallpaper of the period contained arsenic, and it was believed by some chemists that mold growing on the paper could convert the arsenic to arsine gas which was then breathable. Well-authenticated samples of his hair also came to light and both the hair and the wallpaper did indeed contain arsenic, though very sophisticated techniques were needed to find it. So, living on a humid semi-tropical island in the South Atlantic, staying mostly in his bedroom with the nice green wallpaper for six years is very likely what did him in. Hmmm .... now I think of it, maybe it was the hair that was found in Australia and the wallpaper somewhere else.

13:45 Akin to what Confederates faced in Gettysburg decades from then; you should give the Imperial Guard credit, though your shock was just as much a shock for the French. They were routed not just by the volleys, but they were pounded by musket fire at range and artillery if I recall correctly; then stood and fought before finally being driven off when the allied advance came.

If you want to know what happened to the marshalls check out his video on napoleon’s marshalls

The closest I've read about his potential return from St. Helena was through a crude, proto-submarine. At best, I think it's positive propaganda after Napoleon died and the gossip became an explanation for his death. It's not that submersible weren't already invented but the distance (at _least_ 6500 km) is mind boggling to do it at that time. Life expectancy is a given, coupled with years of war (the guy has been fighting since 1792/93). The 1800s, according to graphs, life expectancy (median) was 30-40 years. Over that, you were very lucky, whether you were ”blue blood” or not. Besides, I have a pet hypothesis (I can't prove it; I dunno if it has been observed) that military career people, after spending years up until their retirement, they suddenly become very weak and sickly. What it appeared that they were healthy and in good shape, suddenly, in retirement, they become ill. I think that's what happened with Napoleon: a combination of shellshock after years of military baggage, ”muscles” becoming mellow due to inactivity, precarious psyche of the situation (depression, fatalism...), and ultimately just waiting for death. I'm surprised the alternative theory, that poison was smuggled just for him to end his life than to be kept like a pet in a silver cage, isn't waivered more than the accusation of being poisoned without him knowing. If the British wanted him dead, they could've sent some executioners to just kill him then and there, throw him into the sea, and say that Napoleon went through a walk, never came back, and his body was found floating in water. Or that he went mad, abused the soldiers, and a soldier shot him. Or that he grabbed a weapon (pistol) and shot himself with it. There are so many ways how the British could've done it, than just put themselves in a light of conspiracy.

Marshal Ney and Murat were executed. Marshal Bernadotte went on to have a highly successful 26 years of rule in Sweden. Some marshals went into exile, other continued to serve the Bourbon monarchy. Most would return to France to serve in some public or military capacity though. Some generals that served under Napoleon were later made marshals themselves under the Bourbon kings and Napoleon III.

7:30 - The British had years of experience fighting Napoleonic French armies in regular battles, and won many. 10:10 - The Napoleonic British Scots Greys had not fought in the war until Waterloo - they were elite, but not veterans. 13:15 - The Imperial Guard attackers numbered around 3000 troops and had no cavalry support. They marched uphill against Wellington's front line and second line of fresh and exhausted infantry that numbered 4 times the Guard. In fact the Guard attack did cause parts of the Allied line to break and retreat temporarily. And remember, it was only part of the Imperial Guard used in the attack. 15:40 - a weak theory at best; Napoleon was getting fatter on a bad diet, and unhealthier each day. He was naturally dying. 17:40 - In fact within years after Waterloo, bloody social unrest. civil wars, revolutions. uprisings began raging all across Europe - including Britain.

A few words about the French Imperial guard's last charge......Epic Tv's video is a little bit inaccurate or should I say it lacks detailed information regarding the Guard's famous charge!! Only 9 battalions out of a total of 36 (which was their full strength) took part in that last charge. The rest were committed at Planchenoit village to stop the Prussians so they were unable to assist their brothers! They marched forming squares (in order to avoid allied cavalry charge) and echelon -diagonal formation between battalions. Six (6) battalions of the middle guard were the first to attack followed by 3 battalions of the old guard (2nd Grenadiers, 1st Chasseurs, 2nd Chasseurs) who acted as reserves. They swept away during their charge at least 3 lines of the allied center which fled in full speed only to be stopped at the reverse slope of the allied line of defense by troops that were lying down, totally hidden by tall Summer grass! These troops (a mix of British, German and Dutch soldiers) stood up from very close distance and surprised the French by firing devastating volleys at them......almost 1/3 of the Guard were instantly killed during that moment! They were unable to keep their formation due to huuuuuuuge amount of casualties so they started to retreat in full order when the allies attacked fixing bayonets! Did they have any chance to succeed???.....well not really.....they were only 3.000 strong against the whole allied army reinforced in masses by the Prussians...... Why did Napoleon sent them to attack alone??......it was an act of desperation......by 8pm when the attack took place the Prussians had already joined the allied army, they were flanking the French at Planchenoit village......so Napoleon decided to play his last card under unfavorable odds........he lost

Blücher gets way less credit for the victory at Waterloo than he deserves.

4:40 - Technically, the Netherlands nation was known as Holland with Dutch citizens. After the Congress of Vienna it was the Netherlands - made up of the Dutch and Belgians. This is why when you see the Allied Order of Battle, the Netherlands army units are comprised of smaller units named as either Dutch or Belgian. 13:00 - Napoleon only sent one third of his Imperial Guard against Wellington. One third was fighting the Prussians in Plancenoit. The last third - except for 2 battalions sent to Plancenoit to fight the Prussians there - was his elite Old Guard which he kept back in tactical reserve since he could see the battle was being lost already; the Prussians had over-run a lot of his right wing by 7 pm. The video only gave a lame version of the Middle Guard's fight against Wellington. In reality they split up to attack two parts of Wellington's line and broke through one part, but were counterattacked after VERY VERY intensive firing duels. The other point of attack was in a brutal close combat too, before it too was forced to retreat. The Middle Guard was outnumbered by very effective reinforcements Wellington had ready in the area.

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His green wallpaper was coloured with Aresenic.

A theory was that Napoleon was poisoned by the green pigment on his walls he lived in. Since the only green pigment they could make at that time, that looked like a real green, was one that was made out of Arsenic. Some experts believe that a mold grew on the wall (especially in the humid environment of the area), liberated the Arsenic into the air of the house which slowly poisoned him over time. Of course foul play would be gossiped at when signs of poisonings were shown, that is more interesting in stories and gossip that could allow blame to be pointed at who/whatever the person telling the story had a grievance toward

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When the Red Coats did their volley it was like nothing the Imperial Guard had seen before. Britain had a professional army. It was smaller so their supplies and materials were good. The men did lots of training so their volley fire wash highly accurate. Red Coats were always known for being stubborn, marksmanship and being savages with the bayonets. RU-vid “The British Grenadiers” with lyrics. That’s the mindset they had. Smaller but highly effective army.

"The Congress of Vienna establishes peace in Europe". It's a very English way of seeing things. The victors, who write history, qualified these wars as "Napoleonic" while Napoleon only responded to the attacks and declarations of war by the allies, financed by England which was careful not to intervene militarily at least. until the Battle of Friedland, it seems to me. These wars are a continuation of the wars already waged by this same alliance under the revolution, long before Napoleon Bonaparte. We are far from the desire for Napoleonic supremacy hammered since then. The only war started by Napoleon was the Russian campaign which was provoked by the treachery of the Tsar who, despite a treaty with France, broke the continental blockade. This blockade being a way of reducing the financing of wars by England. This congress will have just allowed the allies to re-establish the monarchy in France, to re-establish the Prussian and Austrian borders and to restore to the Russians, the Polish territory conquered and annexed previously.

Adam, please check "Epic History" channel. They recently added one more Napoleonic Battle: The Battle of Vittoria near the spanish-french frontier! JUST AWESOME!

I dont think this campaign has been comprehensively covered like the earlier episodes of Napoleonic war...maybe because this was an older video...

With the peace of 1814 most of the experienced troops that fought in Portugal and Spain were sent to the Americas and other areas, so most British troops were green. Wellington wished he had his veterans for this

Also I think think they poisoned Napoleon. It’s costs the Empire too much. Constantly having ships circle the island, a garrison of professional soldiers and supplies for the island. Could’ve also been poisoning from the canned food on campaign. Napoleon ate what his men did, his favorite meal before battle was potatoes fried in onions

Napoleons Marshals please react to this

Epic History TV , RU-vid No 1 Channel .

I read that he was trying to open communication with the United States

Napoleon's army might have had a higher proportion of experienced soldiers than the Anglo-allied army at Waterloo. However, it had a severely depleted officer corps due to years of fighting, which seriously hampered coordination in the French army. Regardless of how experienced the individual French soldiers were and how bravely they fought, they were really not that effective as a whole at Waterloo. I think the main reason Wellington was able to hold out for so long was the French army's own bungling and poor coordination.

Firstly, Belgium didn't exist at this point, or at any point before. Belgium was formed in 1830. Secondly, the British didn't fight a guerrilla war in Spain. The Spanish did. The British fought with standard military formations and tactics and fought numerous large pitched battles against the French.

And some of frensh officers scaped to South America planning th rescue napoleon but he died and ireaded in sites that America ask to take napoleon in her country

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I just know that Marshal Ney was executed as a traitor by shooting, which makes sense since he had staid as a general in the new Bourbon Army and than stwiched to Napoleon once again after the escape from Elba... don't know about the rest.

Good Video!!! I hope you do WW1 or History of russia that would be great

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There is a mistake in the video, the imperial Guard didn't retreat, only one batallion of chasseurs og the middle guard started to go down and the soldiers saw that as a retreat, but then a regiment of granadiers came and they started to advance again. They broke the English lines, but Napoleon order to retreat and protect the main retreat of the army

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Grouchy and Ney really failed in this battle! This was Grouchy first command at this level and he completely failed! He had one job, keep his army of 30k between Waterloo on the left and the Prussians on the right. He could have easily kept communications open and a clear eye on Napoleons Army on his right which was less than 20 miles away! But NOOO! No wonder he ran to America to hide! He should have been shot, drawn, and quartered, and then shot drawn in quartered again. “Had it not been for the desertion of a traitor, I should have annihilated the enemy at the opening of the campaign. I should have destroyed him at Ligny, if my left had done its duty. I should have destroyed him again at Waterloo if my right had not failed me.” Napoleon

World would be so good if Napoleon didnt lose in Russia

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