Vanity Fair

Waterloo - one of the most important battles in the history of warfare - took place fourteen years before the world’s first photograph (called a heliograph) was made by a Frenchman, Joseph Nicéphore Niépce. But the U.S. Military Academy’s annotated maps, and other drawings and paintings of the battle scenes, permit us a trip back in time to view the maneuvers and witness the carnage.

• Situation on 1 June 1815 - depicts location and strength of opposing forces.
  
  
• Troops in and around Brussels on 16 June 1815 - shows movements after June 1st.
  
  
• Situation at 8 p.m. on the 16th of June 1815 - reflects major action at Quatre-Bras and Ligny.
  
  
• Midnight (on June 17-18) - Wellington, Blücher and Napoleon are moving into battle positions in the vicinity of Brussels.
  
  
• 10 a.m. on June 18th - opposing forces are largely in position on the Waterloo Battlefield.
  
  
• Battlefield positions at 4 p.m. on the 18th of June - Napoleon still thinks he will win.
  
  
• Battlefield positions at 7:30 p.m. on the evening of June 18 - Napoleon has “met his Waterloo.”

At the end of the battle the casualties were staggering.