Last updated: 3 June 2011
The Battle of Waterloo on 18 June 1815 was the last great battle of the Napoleonic Wars (1803-1815) and marked the end of France’s attempt to dominate Europe. This model of the battlefield was made by Captain William Siborne (1797-1849) and shows...
Marengo was an Arab horse with a light grey coat, standing just over 14 hands high. Purchased by Napoleon Bonaparte (1769-1821) after the Battle of Aboukir in 1799, he was named after the French victory at Marengo in 1800. At first glance, it...
This surgical saw was used by Surgeon James Powell, of the Ordnance Medical Department, at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815 to amputate the leg of Lieutenant General Henry Paget, Earl of Uxbridge. Amputation, without anesthetic, was often the only...
Napoleonic Generals, unlike their counterparts today, had to lead their men directly from the battlefield and had to be seen to be in the thick of the action. This explains why so many senior officers, from both sides, were killed or wounded...
The eagle, a popular emblem of empire builders throughout history, was a rallying point in battle for Napoleon’s veteran regiments. Soldiers fiercely defended their standards, as they were symbols of both the French Emperor and their unit...
This helmet was picked up from the battlefield of Waterloo in the aftermath of the Duke of Wellington’s victory over the French in 1815. Dragoons were originally soldiers trained and armed to fight either mounted or on foot, but by the early 19th...
The steam transport 'Birkenhead' sank off the coast of South Africa on 26 February 1852. She was carrying 480 officers and men as reinforcements for British troops engaged in the Eighth Cape Frontier War (1850-1853). Besides the soldiers and crew...
General Lord Raglan’s ill-phrased orders to Lord Lucan contributed to the destruction of the Light Brigade at the Battle of Balaklava during the Crimean War (1854-56). Raglan had last seen active service at Waterloo and had spent 25 years at a...
The Charge of the Light Brigade at Balaklava on 25 October 1854 has come to symbolize both the bravery of the British soldier and the incompetence of the Army commanders during the Crimean War. In one of the most notorious military blunders in...
Florence Nightingale (1820-1910) was famous for her work at the Military Hospital at Scutari in Turkey during the Crimean War. During her rounds there she used this paper lantern. At first, the male Army doctors did not want Nightingale and her...