Wellington’s artillery commander at Waterloo said that without Henry Shrapnel’s devastating new shell, Allied forces could not have taken a key position on the battlefield.

Battle of Waterloo

Henry Shrapnel & The Battle of Waterloo

by Robert Whiter

“And the rockets’ red glare, the bombs bursting in air …”

That, as most people know, is a line from the American national anthem, words by Francis Scott Key, to the tune of Anacreon in Heaven by John Stafford Smith. Read more

Kaiser Wilhelm I, standing on the dais, proclaims a new German empire in the Hall of Mirrors at Versailles on January 18, 1871. He is flanked by Crown Prince Frederick Wilhelm and the Grand Duke of Baden. Otto von Bismarck stands at the base of the steps in a white uniform.

Battle of Waterloo

Wilhelm I, Accidental King of Prussia

By Blaine Taylor

In mid-October 1806, four days after Napoleon had crushed the Royal Prussian Army at the twin battles of Jena and Auerstädt, a distraught Queen Louise sat down with her two sons at the royal castle in Schwedt. Read more

Mockern-1813.

Battle of Waterloo

Napoleon’s Last Victory

By Arnold Blumberg

At 2:30 am on June 15, 1815, tens of thousands of French soldiers around the town of Beaumont, France, were roused from their bivouacs. Read more

The Prussian Army's Field Marshal Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher made some critical decisions on the field at the Battle of Waterloo.

Battle of Waterloo

The Prussian Army at the Battle of Waterloo

by Michael Haskew

Two centuries after his catastrophic defeat, historians may well point to Napoleon Bonaparte’s supreme self-confidence as his worst enemy at the Battle of Waterloo, fought June 18, 1815. Read more

Forty years after the death of Napoleon Bonaparte on the island of St. Helena, his body was entombed in a sarcophagus at Les Invalides in Paris.

Battle of Waterloo

The Tomb of Napoleon Bonaparte

by Michael Haskew

Exiled on the island of St. Helena since his defeat at the Battle of Waterloo, Napoleon Bonaparte, once Emperor of France and master of the greatest expanse of European territory since the days of the Roman Empire, died at the age of 51 on May 5, 1821. Read more