author
Edward Cotton
1792–1849
A veteran of Waterloo who later became one of the battlefield’s earliest guides, he wrote with the authority of someone who had seen the fighting firsthand. His best-known book brings memory, military detail, and place together in a vivid account of June 18, 1815.
1 Audiobook
About the author
Born on the Isle of Wight around 1792, Edward Cotton served in the British Army and fought at the Battle of Waterloo as a sergeant-major in the 7th Hussars. Accounts of his life consistently connect him very closely with the battlefield itself, both as a participant in the campaign and as a later interpreter of its history.
After leaving the army, he settled near Waterloo at Mont-Saint-Jean. There he became known as one of the earliest battlefield guides and is also credited with founding a small Waterloo museum, helping visitors understand the ground, the action, and the memory of the battle while it was still within living recollection.
Cotton is remembered chiefly for A Voice from Waterloo, a 19th-century history of the battle shaped by personal experience and long familiarity with the site. He died in June 1849, leaving behind a rare kind of military writing: not just a historian’s summary, but the perspective of someone who fought there and spent years explaining the field to others.