Cavalry charged the crowd when ordered to disperse it, causing deaths and injuries in an event later termed the Peterloo Massacre.

When ordered to disperse the peaceful crowd, soldiers charged them on horseback, killing at least 18 and injuring more than 700 according to one passage. The cavalry of the Yeomen charged into the crowd of around 60,000 people gathered to demand parliamentary reform; another passage reports 18 killed and 400–700 injured, while the present plaque records 15 deaths and over 600 injuries. The radical Manchester Observer first labelled the event the "Peterloo massacre" in bitterly ironic reference to the Battle of Waterloo four years earlier.

Sources

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