4 J>uhlished by T. & W. Boone, 29, New Bond Street. 



of Wellington led it forward to crown its exertions with the most splendid victory. 

 They afford us hut a faint idea of those strategical movements and combinations upon 

 which the grand design of the campaign was based by the one party, and with which it 

 was assailed by the other; and we seek in vain for the development of those tactical 

 dispositions by which the skill of the commanders and the valour of the combatants were 

 fairly tested. From the want of due consecutive arrangement in the details, and the 

 tendency too frequently manifested to compensate for this deficiency by mere anecdotic 

 narration, the motives by which, in the great game of war, the illustrious players are 

 actuated, are left out of view, while circumstances which especially call forth the skill of 

 subordinate officers in command, as also the courage, the discipline, and the prowess of 

 particular brigades, regiments, or even minor divisions of the contending masses, are 

 either imperfectly elucidated, or, as is often the case, unhesitatingly set aside to make way 

 for the exploits of a few individuals whose deeds, however heroic they may be deemed, 

 constitute but isolated fractional parts of that great sum of moral energy and physical 

 force combined, requisite to give full effect to the application of the mental powers 

 of the chieftains under whose guidance the armies are respectively placed. These 

 remarks have reference, more or less, not only to the generality of the accounts of the 

 Battle of Waterloo, with which the public have hitherto been furnished, but also to 

 those of Quatre-Bras, Ligny, and Wavre; the first of which, brilliant as was the reflec- 

 tion which it cast upon the glory of the victors, became eclipsed solely by the more 

 dazzling splendour of the greater, because more important, triumph of Waterloo. To 

 endeavour to remedy these deficiencies, through the medium of the evidence of eye- 

 witnesses, most willingly and liberally supplied, as well as carefully collated, examined, 

 and, at the same time, proved, wherever practicable, by corroborative testimony — every 

 component piece of information being made to dovetail, as it were, into its adjacent and 

 corresponding parts — is the chief object of the present publication. 



The opportunities which Captain Siborne has enjoyed of collecting the data requisite 

 for this highly important work, have been peculiarly favourable. Having commenced 

 his large Model under the authority of the government, he received permission to address 

 himself to the several officers who might have it in their power to communicate valuable 

 information ; and, with a view to render such information as complete as' possible, and to 

 substantiate it by corroborative testimony, he forwarded his applications to almost every 

 surviving Waterloo officer — not limiting his inquiries to any one particular period of the 

 action, but extending them over the whole of the Battle of Waterloo, as- also of that of 

 Quatre-Bras, and of the entire campaign. In this manner he has succeeded in obtaining 

 from the combined evidence of eye-witnesses a mass of extremely important matter ; and 

 when the public are informed that Captain Siborne has also been in unreserved communi- 

 cation with the governments of our allies in that war, concerning the operations of the 

 troops they respectively brought into the field, it is presumed that the extraordinary 

 advantages he possesses for a satisfactory fulfilment of his design will be at once acknow- 

 ledged and appreciated. 



One remarkable defect which is manifested, without a single exception, in the existing 

 histories of this campaign, consists in the want of good plans upon scales sufficiently 

 comprehensive to admit of the positions and movements being duly illustrated. By the 

 application of the anaglyptogiaph to accurately executed models, Captain Siborne has 

 succeeded in producing plans of the diffisrent fields of battle, which afford so striking 

 a representation of the features of ground — a representation which has all the appearance 

 of the subject being shewn in relief — that not only the military man who is accustomed 

 to examine plans, but the civilian who has never studied any thing of the kind, will be 

 enabled thoroughly to comprehend them even in the minutest details. 



To respond to the interest felt in the record of that glorious contest by the relatives 

 and friends of the combatants, correct lists will be appended to the work, of the names of 

 all officers who were present, distinguishing those who were killed or wounded. Marginal 

 notes will also be introduced wherever officers* names are first mentioned in the course 

 of the work, explaining, if surviving, their present rank and if dead, the date of their 

 decease, and the rank which they then held, 



A work brought out under such favourable auspices, and grounded upon materials 

 which, considering the advanced age of the principal contributors, would at no remote 

 period have been placed beyond our reach, cannot fail to excite, in a considerable degree, 



Digitized by Microsoft® 



