Map of Waterloo Drawn by Unknown Hand

On the 15th June the Duke of Wellington picked out the ridge south of the village of Waterloo as the spot where he would assemble his army to fight Napoleon. Maps of the area were desperately needed for the Allied commanders, and this might be a sketch made in the two days before the battle on the 18th.

As can be seen, it is a well-preserved document, and notable for the use of colour in the sketches of towns and forests. Unlike modern military maps, it is drawn with a northern orientation; rather it faces south, as would British and Allied forces on 18 June 1815. You can see that the map’s creator has attempted to portray the different heights and hills that featured in the terrain around the battlefield, and has marked the important main roads.

At the bottom of the map there is a representation of Brussels, and the road leading north to it, which had the French won, would have been the next objective for Napoleon’s advance. Towards the centre is the village of Mont St Jean, where the road south forks leading to two key locations on the day of the battle, La Haye Sainte and the fortified farmhouse at Hougomount, where the Allied forces fought against repeated French assaults.

The map also shows the inn “La Belle Alliance”, where Napoleon stayed on the 17th June, and a nearby French troop encampment. The observation tower at the top of the map may have been built either by French engineers, or by the Dutch earlier in 1815.

Interestingly, the map does not show the village of Placenoit, east of La Belle Alliance. It was from this direction that the Prussian army arrived during the Battle of Waterloo, decisively defeating the French Army. Naturally, a British officer sketching the potential battlefield would not have anticipated the importance of the Placenoit.