Waterloo: The Attack of I Corps — The Afternoon Napoleon Almost Won the Battle
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There’s a moment in every great battle that historians love to circle back to — the single hour where everything could have gone the other way. At Waterloo, that moment came in the early afternoon of 18 June 1815, when Comte d’Erlon’s French I Corps surged forward with 20,000 men and eighty guns behind them.
It very nearly worked.
If you’ve ever read a general history of Waterloo, you’ve probably seen this attack mentioned in a paragraph or two — a footnote squeezed between Hougoumont and the cavalry charges. But the truth is, this assault came closer than almost anything else that day to breaking Wellington’s line and handing Napoleon the victory. And until recently, it hadn’t received the focused, detailed treatment it deserves.
That’s exactly what historian Graeme Callister set out to fix with his book, Waterloo: The Attack of I Corps.
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What Actually Happened During the I Corps Attack?
To understand why this attack mattered so much, you have to picture the scale of it. Four divisions — led by Quiot, Donzelot, Marcognet, and Durutte — moved forward together, backed by a massive artillery bombardment from the Grand Battery and supported by a brigade of cuirassiers. This wasn’t a probing skirmish. It was one of the largest coordinated infantry assaults of the entire Napoleonic Wars.
Standing in its way were just two stretched Allied infantry divisions and two cavalry brigades. Wellington himself later called it, in his own words, “one of the most serious attacks made by the enemy.” That’s not a throwaway line from a duke known for understatement — that’s about as close to an admission of real danger as Wellington ever gave.
The attack was eventually repulsed. But “eventually” is doing a lot of work in that sentence. For a stretch of time that afternoon, the outcome of the entire battle — and arguably the future of Europe — hung on how well-trained, well-led troops on both sides held their nerve.
Why This Book Fills a Real Gap in Waterloo History
Here’s what’s surprising: despite how consequential this moment was, it’s rarely been given a book of its own. Most Waterloo histories treat it as one chapter among many, sandwiched between the fighting at Hougoumont and La Haye Sainte and the later cavalry actions.
Graeme Callister, a Senior Lecturer in History and War Studies at York St John University, decided that wasn’t good enough for an event this pivotal. His book combines detailed narrative history with something a lot of Napoleonic battle books skip entirely — a genuine look at the human experience of the men involved.
That means examining:
- Morale and cohesion — how units held together (or fell apart) under pressure
- Leadership on both sides — the decisions made in real time, with imperfect information
- Physical condition of the troops — exhaustion, weather, terrain, and how it shaped performance
- Individual soldiers’ stories — not just generals and grand strategy, but the men in the ranks
The Research Behind the Book
What sets this apart from a lot of popular military history is the depth of primary source work. Callister draws on rarely examined French regimental registers to trace the actual service records of individual soldiers who took part in the attack. Combined with firsthand letters, memoirs, and accounts in French, English, Dutch, and German, the result is a much richer, multi-perspective picture of what really happened on that field.
This matters because so many Waterloo narratives lean heavily on British and Allied sources, giving a lopsided view of French experience and decision-making. By pulling in material from all sides, the book offers something closer to a complete picture — not just what the Allies saw, but what the French were going through as they advanced into withering fire.
Setting the Stage: Before the Attack
The book doesn’t just drop you into the middle of the assault. It starts by laying out the background of both forces — how they were organized, who was in command, and what condition the men were actually in heading into battle. From there, it walks through the grand tactics, the terrain, and the broader strategic situation that put both armies in their positions that morning.
This context matters enormously. The I Corps attack didn’t happen in a vacuum — it was shaped by decisions made hours (and days) earlier, by weather that had turned the ground to mud, and by a strategic picture that both Napoleon and Wellington were reading in real time.
Why This Matters for Napoleonic History Enthusiasts
If you’re into Napoleonic warfare, 19th-century military tactics, or just love a well-researched battle history, this book scratches an itch that a lot of broader Waterloo overviews can’t. It’s not trying to retell the whole battle — it’s trying to understand one crucial, underexplored hour of it as deeply as possible.
For researchers, reenactors, wargamers, and casual history readers alike, that kind of focused analysis is genuinely rare. Most Waterloo content out there recycles the same broad strokes. This one gets into the weeds — in the best possible way.
Final Thoughts
Waterloo: The Attack of I Corps isn’t just another retelling of a battle everyone already knows the ending to. It’s a close, human, deeply researched look at the moment when that ending was far from certain — when 20,000 French soldiers came closer than almost anyone else that day to changing the course of European history.
If you want to understand why men advanced or held their ground, fought or ran, lived or died in that maelstrom, this is the book that finally does justice to that question.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the Battle of Waterloo’s I Corps attack?
It was a major French infantry assault led by Comte d’Erlon on 18 June 1815, involving 20,000 men and eighty guns, that nearly broke the Allied line before being repelled by two Allied divisions and two cavalry brigades.
Who wrote this book?
Dr Graeme Callister, a Senior Lecturer in History and War Studies at York St John University.
What sources does the book use?
French regimental registers, along with firsthand accounts in French, English, Dutch, and German.
Which French divisions took part in the attack?
The divisions of Quiot, Donzelot, Marcognet, and Durutte, supported by the Grand Battery and a cuirassier cavalry brigade.
Why is this attack considered so significant?
Wellington himself described it as one of the most serious attacks the French made during the entire battle — a moment that came close to turning the outcome of Waterloo in Napoleon’s favor.