Word: waterloos
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David De Vries Waterloo, Iowa...
Although he lived to 1961, Darwin was patently a 19th century figure whose values are closer to those espoused at the Battle of Waterloo than to those of the present. The cult of Darwinia surrounding his personal escapades almost transforms him into a character out of a P.G. Wodehouse novel. He played in the 1921 British Amateur Championship and eliminated the last American contender in the field. That same night, Darwin was accosted on a lonely street by a mysterious stranger who bellowed, "Sir, I would like to thank you for the way in which you saved your country...
...engaged in quoting contests to see who knew Pickwick Papers the best. He practiced for these contests by seeing if he could continue out loud once he reached the bottom of a page. Certainly, Darwin would have ascribed to the Duke of Wellington's statement that "the Battle of Waterloo was won on the playing fields of Eton," for he considered the English public school, as epitomized in Tom Brown's Schooldays, to be the great builder of the moral...
...trying to answer the question Keegan dwells extensively on three famous battles, unified in space by about 100 miles but separated in time by five centuries: Agincourt, Waterloo and the Somme. At Agincourt a tired, hungry English band of about 5,000 archers and 1,000 foot soldiers met a French force of some 25,000 on Oct. 25, 1415. In Shakespeare's Henry V the English king naturally dominates the stage. Keegan is more interested in the ragtag soldiers and what sustained them: prayer, a hope of booty from French casualties, ransom for prisoners and plenty of strong...
...dealing with Waterloo, Keegan argues that the battle was decided less by Wellington and Napoleon than the enormous confusion that enveloped the 70,000 troops on each side: blinding smoke, choking fumes, ear-shattering noise. Again and again, French cavalry attacked standing squares of British infantry and were driven off because their horses shied from crossing living barriers. But what caused the British soldiers to stand their ground? Keegan notes that they were safer in masses; to break and run was to become an easy target for French horsemen. Also, the leaders were in the thick of the fighting, where...