Battle of Waterloo and withdrew in good order—though at the cost of 33,000 French troops that never reached the Waterloo battlefield. Wellington sent describing the battle to England on 19 June 1815; it arrived in London on 21 June 1815 and was published as a "London Gazette Extraordinary" on 22 June. Wellington, Blücher and other Coalition forces advanced upon Paris. Napoleon announced his second abdication on 24 June 1815. In the final skirmish of the Napoleonic Wars, Marshal Davout, Napoleon's minister of war, was defeated by Blücher at Issy on 3 July 1815. Allegedly, Napoleon tried to escape to North America, but the
The Battle of Waterloo: The British Squares Receiving the Charge of the French Cuirassiers mounted officer taking refuge in the centre of the square. Abandoned cannon lie in the foreground and middle distance. It measures . The meticulous academic painting was exhibited at the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition in 1875 and was described by John Ruskin as a "carefully-studied and skilful battle piece". It is thought that the painting was bought by Francis Reubell Bryan in around 1875; he donated it to the Victoria and Albert Museum in 1880. The V&A also holds a sketch, made in oils on paper laid on canvas. The Battle of Waterloo: The British Squares Receiving the Charge of