 The Peterloo Massacre has been called one of the defining moments of its age . Many of those present at the massacre , including local masters , employers and owners , were horrified by the carnage . One of the casualties , Oldham cloth @-@ worker and ex @-@ soldier John Lees , who died from his wounds on 9 September , had been present at the Battle of Waterloo . Shortly before his death he said to a friend that he had never been in such danger as at Peterloo : " At Waterloo there was man to man but there it was downright murder . " When news of the massacre began to spread , the population of Manchester and surrounding districts were horrified and outraged . 
