Wellington's Way of Waging War

@Hans - Karl Weiß I think Napoleon didn’t have the army underneath him in 1815. The British talked about the magnificent cavalry charges, because no one had copious cavalry in the Peninsular. In reality Napoleon had been deficient in cavalry since 1812, Elting thought it his ‘finest’ army, full of veterans. In reality most were only veterans of the prison hulks or the defeat of 1814. Most of his real veterans were face down in the snows east of Smolensk or casualties of 1813-14. The hagiographers and hero-worshippers see him in 1815 as a messiah and buy the second and third empire myths of adoring soldiers flocking back to the eagles. The reality was that morale was brittle. The French were war weary and betrayals and desertions rife. Whole contingents (like the Carabiniers) were suspect. The soldiers knew it, and the cry of ‘traihson!’ on the lips of many. By comparison, the much vaunted xenophobia in Wellington’s army was proved groundless. I’m some respects Napoleon had some of the restrictions in 1815 that Wellington had for years. A ‘one shot’ expeditionary army, suspect elements and a deficiency in cavalry. He didn’t have Wellington’s way of war to work within these limitations.