Waterloo

The account

On a June afternoon the Napoleonic age ended in the mud south of Brussels. The Waterloo Uncovered project has lifted over 6,500 finds since 2015, musket balls in drifts, coins of three nations, a howitzer shell, and human bone beneath the iron. The ground around Hougoumont farm still holds the day.

Leads, where the trail points now

• The field is at Mont-Saint-Jean, near Waterloo, Belgium, and arms, shot, and relics still come out of the ground there.
• Detecting or digging needs landowner or park permission, and any significant find should be recorded; many battlefields are protected.
• Work the documented account of Waterloo to learn where the fighting, the camps, and the rout actually ran before you look.