The Battle of Waterloo was one of the most horrific actions fought
during the Napoleonic Wars. There have been several studies of
battlefield injuries and the field care that casualties received during
the campaign of June 1815. However, what happened to the many thousands
of injured men left behind as the armies marched away is rarely
discussed. In June 1815, around 62,000 Allied and French wounded flooded
into Brussels, Antwerp, and other towns and cities of the Kingdom of the
Netherlands and swamped the medical services. These casualties were
eventually cared for by a wide mix of medical personnel including
hundreds of 'Belgian' surgeons, most of whom had trained in the French
Service de Santé and who assisted in the dispersal, treatment, and
rehabilitation of thousands of casualties after the battle. New data
concerning the fate of the thousands of Allied and some French
casualties has emerged from the library of the University of Edinburgh.
This has revealed a collection of over 170 wound sketches, detailed case
reports, and the surgical results from five Brussels Hospitals. The
sketches were carried out by Professor John Thomson, who held the first
Regius Chair in Military Surgery appointed by the University of
Edinburgh. Most accounts are of Allied wounded, but certainly not all.
The accounts, drawings and surgical results dramatically alter our
understanding of the management of military wounded in the Georgian
army.
