The Battle of Waterloo: The British Squares Receiving the Charge of the French Cuirassiers The Battle of Waterloo: The British Squares Receiving the Charge of the French Cuirassiers The Battle of Waterloo: The British Squares Receiving the Charge of the French Cuirassiers is an 1874 oil painting by French artist Henri Félix Emmanuel Philippoteaux. It depicts a scene from the Battle of Waterloo on 18 June 1815, with squares of red-coated infantry from Sir Thomas Picton's British 5th Division to the left being charged by cavalrymen of the French 5th and 10th Cuirassiers in blue uniforms to the right. The main British unit is one of Highland infantry, with the colour party and a
Battle of Waterloo back, the British line was dispersing, and at two o'clock in the afternoon Napoleon was winning the Battle of Waterloo. Reports from Baron von Muffling, the Prussian liaison officer attached to Wellington's army, relate that: "After 3 o'clock the Duke's situation became critical, unless the succour of the Prussian army arrived soon". At this crucial juncture, Uxbridge ordered his two brigades of British heavy cavalry—formed unseen behind the ridge—to charge in support of the hard-pressed infantry. The 1st Brigade, known as the Household Brigade, commanded by Major-General Lord Edward Somerset, consisted of guards regiments: the 1st and 2nd Life Guards,