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Article: A Dictionary of Military History. (book reviews)
- Article from:
- History Today
- Article date:
- September 1, 1996
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1996 History Today Ltd. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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* When Lord Acton issued instructions to contributors to the first Cambridge Modern History he demanded `that our Waterloo must be one that satisfies French and English, German and Dutch alike'. Perhaps, therefore, the severest test of the Sorbonne Professor Andre Corvisier's Dictionary of Military History is whether or not his Waterloo would meet that criterion. I am not sure that it would.
The entry first implies that Wellington fought at Quatre Bras with 68,000 men and then withdrew to Waterloo. In fact by nightfall all he had been able to hurry forward were 35,000; for most of the day he had less than two thirds that number. Nor had he expected to be able to ...