Kindred Hearts (56 page)
His
defeat at the Battle of Waterloo, one of the four battles of the Waterloo Campaign (June 15-18, 1815), meant the end of Napoleon Bonaparte’s career as one of the greatest generals of all time. Of the four battles, the French won two outright (Ligny and Wavre); the first battle, at the crossroads of Quatre Bras, was technically a draw, but was tactically a French victory in that it managed to prevent the British army from sending troops to support their allies the Prussians, who would lose at Ligny later the same day. Only the hard-fought Battle of Waterloo itself, on June 18, 1815, was an outright victory for the Allied armies under Wellington and Blucher.
Theoretically, Napoleon should have won the Waterloo Campaign. Although the British outnumbered the French in terms of bodies, much of the Continental army was inexperienced militia, some of which had as much loyalty to the French as to the Coalition forces. The two armies of the Coalition spoke different languages—in the case of the Continental forces, several. The best of the British troops from the Peninsular War, including Wellington’s top officers, were in America. Napoleon’s forces were almost entirely veteran troops, who flocked to the returned Emperor’s banner. He had three thousand more mounted troops, including fourteen regiments of armored heavy cavalry, which the Coalition armies lacked, and nearly a hundred more guns. His generals were all experienced, with major victories under their belts.
The fact that Wellington and Blucher’s forces won the field at the pivotal battle at Waterloo was a testament to the importance of communication between allies and the thorough understanding both Wellington and his Prussian counterpart had of their men and of their strengths and weaknesses. Napoleon was a master strategist, but Waterloo was a masterpiece of tactics, of turning seeming defeat into hard-won victory. The losses were tremendous: around 50,000 dead or wounded, with some 15,000 missing, but at the end Blucher and Wellington held the field, and the Emperor was in flight.
Writing
an historical novel requires enormous amounts of research. Thankfully, I didn’t have to face it alone. I had help from many sources, particularly Augie Aleksy, of Centuries and Sleuths Bookstore in Forest Park, Illinois, and Lynda Fitzgerald of Osprey and Shire Books, for books and maps and in Augie’s case, a miniature diorama of the Battle of Waterloo, which totally rocked. Thank you so much for your help. Any mistakes are most definitely mine. Thanks also to Lynda for beta-reading and for editorial suggestions that made this a far better story than it was originally. And thanks, of course, to my beta-readers and cheerleaders Patrice, Donetta, and Shannon, and to all the rest of my friends who have to wait for the book to come out, but kept me sane during the process anyway.
Rowan Speedwell
April 2011
An unrepentant biblioholic,
Rowan Speedwell
spends half her time pretending to be a law librarian, half her time pretending to be a database manager, half her time pretending to be a fifteenth-century Aragonese noblewoman, half her time… wait a minute… hmm. Well, one thing she doesn't pretend to be is good at math. She is good at pretending, though.
In her copious spare time (hah) she does needlework, calligraphy and illumination, and makes jewelry. She has a master's degree in history from the University of Chicago, is a member of the Society for Creative Anachronism, and lives in a Chicago suburb with the obligatory Writer's Cat and way too many books.
Also from
Rowan Speedwell
http://www.dreamspinnerpress.com
