The Waterloo Roll Call: With Biographical Notes and Anecdotes

For those who have ever wondered about the men behind the legend, Charles Dalton's monumental work offers something rare: the individual faces of Waterloo. Published in 1890, this is no dry military register but a living tribute to the British officers who faced Napoleon's finest on that June morning in 1815. Dalton spent years gathering material directly from the relatives of Waterloo veterans, creating a biographical dictionary that transforms ranks and regiments into flesh-and-blood human beings. Here you will find not just where each man stood in the line of battle, but where he came from, what he achieved before and after, and often how he was remembered. The book serves as both a meticulous record of participation and an act of Victorian commemoration, preserving the names of heroes whose grandchildren were still alive to provide details. For military historians, genealogists, and anyone obsessed with the Napoleonic era, this remains an indispensable primary source: a window into how the British officer class understood its own history and honored its debt to the men who stopped Napoleon.