Reenacting Waterloo

Two hundred years ago, the decisive Battle of Waterloo was fought near Brussels, in present-day Belgium, on June 18, 1815. Napoleon's French army of 93,000 soldiers was defeated on the battlefield by the 125,000 troops of the Seventh Coalition, which was made up of armies allied with the United Kingdom. Tens of thousands of men were killed by cannon fire, bullets, bayonets, and swords in violent skirmishes that were fought at a distance and face to face in the Belgian countryside. The loss of the battle ended Napoleon's "Hundred Days" of restored power in France, resulting in his abdication and bringing in a new era of European peace after decades of war. Over the weekend, thousands of reenactors donned period uniforms on the battlefield to commemorate the historic battle.