The French at Waterloo—Eyewitness Accounts

This invaluable record presents newly translated, firsthand accounts of Waterloo from French soldiers who fought on the frontline.

With this volume, Andrew Field completes his pioneering work on the French experience in this decisive battle. Readers can now engage with these vivid, ground-level accounts and compare them to the narratives based largely on the British perspective. They will also gain new insight into the trauma that the French experienced on the battlefield and afterward.


This volume follows The French at Waterloo—Eyewitness Accounts: Napoleon, Imperial Headquarters, and 1st Corps. It features graphic descriptions of the battle as remembered by men of the 2nd and 6th corps, cavalry, artillery and Imperial Guard and medical services of Napoleon's army. Their words give us not only an inside view their actions, but they also record in graphic detail what they saw and how they reacted to Napoleon's historic defeat.