PROSPECTUS. 



the greatest masters of their art, who., in modern times, have been summoned forth to wield the mighty 

 engines of destruction wherewith nation wars against nation. How just is the observation of Jomini, 

 one of the most talented military writers of the day — ''Jamais bataille ne futplus confusement decrite 

 que celle de Waterloo." On consulting these accounts the public glean little beyond the fact that at 

 Waterloo the allied army stood its ground during the whole day, in defiance of the reiterated attacks by 

 the French, until theDuke of Wellington led it forward to crown its exertions with the most splendid 

 victory. They afford us but 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 offi- 

 cers 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 reflection 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 autho- 

 rity 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 Si- 

 borne has also been in unreserved communication with the governments of our allies in that war, con- 

 cerning the operations of the troops they respectively brought into the field, it is presumed that the ex- 

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

 ledged and appreciated. 



In reverting, however, to the Model, as connected with the present history, it may not be unimpor- 

 tant to add that some objections were raised against the position thereon assigned to a portion of the 

 Prussian troops. These objections induced Captain Siborne to investigate more closely the evidence he 

 had received relative to that part of the field ; and the result of such re-consideration has been a perfect 

 conviction that an error of some importance, as regards time and situation, did exist. When the Model 

 is again submitted to the public, which it will be very shortly, that error will no longer appear, and 

 the circumstances under which it arose will be fully accounted for and explained in the forthcoming 

 work. 



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 anaglyptograph to accurately 

 executed models, Captain Siborne has succeeded in producing plans of the different 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, consider- 

 ing 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, the attention of the public ; for which reason 

 no pains will be spared in rendering the illustrations fully commensurate with the value and importance 

 of the design. It will comprise two handsome octavo volumes, embellished with beautifully executed 

 medallic portraits, and accompanied by a folio volume, containing military maps and exquisitely en- 

 graved anaglyptographic plans from models expressly made by Captain Siborne, of the fields of battle of 

 Quatre-Bras, Ligny, Wavre, and Waterloo. 



