This past week has seen some excellent football games, with the Chiefs overcoming the Baltimore Ravens and college football gaining all the hype it deserves. Liberty has stumbled a bit, winning their first game through many missteps. Then, they squeaked another victory this past weekend against New Mexico State. We will see how it plays out the rest of the season. Tim and I slowly push ahead through our book, More Than Grit. We are still not yet done with the Vicksburg Campaign. We are currently writing on the battle of Champion Hill. Finally, there has been some forward movement with my dissertation as I got a couple of updates from the publisher. More on that later.
In recent weeks, I finished The Campaigns of Napoleon by David Chandler. It inspired me to go back and read through the Battle of Waterloo. One interesting place to note is Hougoumont. In 1815, the Chateau Hougoumont was a small farm owned by an 86-year-old man, Philippe Gouret, Chevalier de Louisville. He rented it out to Antoine Dumonceau, who kept it largely unfurnished. There were four entrances to the small farm located on the Waterloo battlefield. Severe fighting took place here during the Battle of Waterloo. It is greatly emphasized in the 1970 move, Waterloo, with Napoleon claiming victory upon seizing Hougoumont. Chateau Hougoumont was in front on the right flank of the Duke Wellington's line. I initially believed that this position was the reason behind Napoleon's inability to outflank Wellington's right.
The casualties sustained by both sides at Hougoumont would lead any historian to believe that it was the main point of defense and attack. Even the Duke of Wellington is often cited as saying, "The outcome of the battle of Waterloo rested upon the closing of the gates at Hougoumont." The British held Hougoumont at the outset of the battle, and the French launched multiple attacks against the well-defended pavilion. It came close at around 11:30AM when British soldiers managed to close the north gates on French soldiers attempting to enter the chateau. Each side threw vast numbers of men toward the fighting at Hougoumont. Wellington initially placed 1300 men there to defend the structure. It was later reported that both sides reinforced their respective positions with more than 10,000 men. It was suspected that the French committed 14,000 men to attack Hougoumont. This account was later found to be a gross exaggeration, with only 7,000 actually committed to the attack.
Napoleon never saw Hougoumont as the "center of gravity." Hougoumont acted as a diversionary objective for the French. Napoleon saw that the Allied left flank was much weaker to attack. He was also more concerned about the Prussians arriving in that direction. Secondly, if the French wanted to flank the British right flank, there was no need to capture Hougoumont. They could avoid this solid defensive position. Then what drew so much attention to the site of so much fighting? The blame could be placed at the feet of Honore Reilles, commander of the French Second Corps. He understood Napoleon's orders to be a diversionary attack but did not issue orders aligned with a diversionary attack. Napoleon's brother and commander of the Ninth Division of the Second Corps, Jerome Bonaparte, led the French attack at Hougoumont. There were somewhere between 4-7 attacks against the structure without success. It should be unsurprising that Napoleon recalled Jerome around 3PM to join him at La Belle Alliance.
Whether Wellington truly believed Hougoumont was the reason behind his victory, the fact is that the French spent too much time attacking the structure and suffered unnecessary casualties. If the French captured the structure, it could be used as a launching ground to attack the British left. It is unlikely it would do little to break the main British line. It was enough for Wellington to place 1300 men within the chateau and force attention away from his left flank. It only took enough time for Blucher to arrive with the Prussians, who gave Napoleon his final defeat.
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