Human Remains Recovered at Waterloo Battlefield

WALLONIA, BELGIUM—The Brussels Times reports that a human skeleton, amputated limbs, the remains of at least three horses, and ammunition boxes have been found in a ditch at the site of an allied field hospital during the Battle of Waterloo, which was fought on June 18, 1815 by a French army commanded by Napoleon Bonaparte, an army made up of soldiers from Britain and its allies, and a Prussian army. Additional amputated limbs were uncovered nearby during excavations conducted in 2018. “Dead soldiers, horses, amputated limbs, and more would have been quickly buried in a desperate attempt to contain the spread of disease around the hospital,” said archaeologist Véronique Moulaert of the Walloon Heritage Agency. Only one other complete skeleton has been found near the battlefield. Most of the human remains from the bloody battle are thought to have been exhumed and ground into agricultural fertilizer in the nineteenth century. Behind what had been Napoleon’s front line, a metal detector survey has revealed more than 20 musket balls thought to have been left behind by fighting between French and Prussian troops. To read about the remains of a British soldier who perished in the battle, go to "A Soldier's Story."