Appendix
No. I
Secret Memorandum
for H. R. H. the prince of Orange, the Earl of Uxbridge, Lord Hill, and the Quarter-Master-General.
“Brussels, April 29th, 1815.
“1. Having received reports that the Imperial guard had moved from Paris upon Beauvais, and a report having been for some days prevalent in the country that Bonaparte was about to visit the northern frontier, I deem it expedient to concentrate the cantonments of the troops, with a view to their early junction in case this country should be attacked, for which concentration the Quarter-Master-General now sends orders.
“2. In this case, the enemy’s line of attack will be either between the Lys and the Scheldt, or between the Sambre and the Scheldt, or by both lines.
“3. In the first case, I should wish the troops of the 4th division to take up the bridge on the Scheldt, near Avelghem, and with the regiment of cavalry at Courtray, to fall back upon Audenarde, which post they are to occupy, and to inundate the country in the neighbourhood.
“4. The garrison of Ghent are to inundate the country in the neighbourhood likewise, and that point is to be held at all events.
“5. The cavalry in observation between Menin and Furnes are to fall back upon Ostend, those between Menin and Tournay upon Tournay, and thence to join their regiments.
“6. The 1st, 2d, and 3d divisions of infantry are to be collected at the head-quarters of the divisions, and the cavalry at the head-quarters of their several brigades, and the whole to be in readiness to march at a moment’s notice.
“7. The troops of the Netherlands to be collected at Soignies and Nivelles.
“8. In case the attack should be made between the Sambre and the Scheldt, I propose to collect the British and Hanoverians at and in the neighbourhood of Enghien, and the army of the Low-Countries at and in the neighbourhood of Soignies and Braine-le-Comte.
“9. In this case, the 2d and 3d divisions will collect at their respective head-quarters, and gradually fall back towards Enghien, with the cavalry of colonel Arentschild, and the Hanoverian brigade.
“10. The garrisons of Mons and Tournay will stand fast; but that of Ath will be withdrawn, with the 2d division, if the works should not have been sufficiently advanced to render the place tenable against a coup de main.
“11. General sir William Ponsonby’s, sir J. O. Vandeleur’s, and sir Hussey Vivian’s brigades of cavalry, will march upon Hal.
“12. The troops of the Low-Countries will collect upon Soignies and Braine-le-Comte.
“13. The troops of the 4th division, and the 2d hussars, after taking up the bridge at Avelghem, will fall back upon Audenarde, and there wait for further orders.
“14. In case of the attack being directed by both lines supposed, the troops of the 4th. division, and 2d hussars, and the garrison of Ghent, will act as directed in Nos. 3 and 4 of this Memorandum; and the 2d and 3d divisions, and the cavalry, and the troops of the Low-Countries, as directed in Nos. 8, 9, 10, 11, and 12.
“Wellington.”
(Gurwood, vol. XII, p. 337-8.)
MEMORANDUM
for Colonel Sir William de Lancey, Deputy Quarter-Master-General.
MOVEMENTS OF THE ARMY.
“Brussels, June 15th, 1815.
“General Dornberg’s brigade of cavalry, and the Cumberland hussars, to march this night upon Vilvorde, and to bivac on the high-road near to that town.
“The earl of Uxbridge will be pleased to collect the cavalry this night at Ninove, leaving the 2d hussars looking out between the Scheldt and the Lys.
“The 1st division of infantry to collect this night at Ath and adjacent, and to be in readiness to move at a moment’s notice.
“The 3d division to collect this night at Braine-le-Comte, and to be in readiness to move at the shortest notice.
“The 4th division to be collected this night at Grammont, with the exception of the troops beyond the Scheldt, which are to be moved to Audenarde.
“The 5th division, the 81st regiment and the Hanoverian brigade of the 6th division, to be in readiness to march from Brussels at a moment’s notice.
“The duke of Brunswick’s corps to collect this night on the high-road between Brussels and Vilvorde.
“The Nassau troops to collect at day-light to-morrow morning on the Louvain road, and to be in readiness to move at a moment’s notice.
“The Hanoverian brigade of the 5th division to collect this night at Hal, and to be in readiness at day-light to-morrow morning to move towards Brussels, and to halt on the high-road between Alost and Assche for further orders.
“The prince of Orange is requested to collect at Nivelles the 2d and 3d divisions of the army of the Low-Countries; and, should that point have been attacked this day, to move the 3d division of British infantry upon Nivelles, as soon as collected.
“This movement is not to take place until it is quite certain that the enemy’s attack is upon the right of the Prussian army, and the left of the British army.
“Lord Hill will be so good as to order prince Frederick of Orange to occupy Audenarde with five hundred men, and to collect the 1st division of the army of the Low-Countries, and the Indian brigade, at Sotteghem, so as to be ready to march in the morning at day-light.
“The reserve artillery to be in readiness to move at day-light.
“Wellington.”
(Gurwood, vol XII, p. 472-3.)
INSTRUCTIONS
FOR THE MOVEMENT OF THE ARMY ON JUNE 16TH.
Signed by Colonel Sir William De Lancey, Deputy Quarter-Master-General.
To General Lord Hill.
“June 16th, 1815.
“The duke of Wellington requests that you will move the 2d division of infantry upon Braine-le-Comte immediately. His Grace is going to Waterloo.”
To the same.
“June 16th, 1815.
“Your Lordship is requested to order prince Frederick of Orange to move, immediately upon the receipt of this order, the 1st division of the army of the Low-Countries, and the Indian brigade, from Sotteghem to Enghien, leaving five hundred men, as before directed, in Audenarde.”
To the same.
“Genappe, June 16th, 1815.
“The 2d division of infantry to move to-morrow morning at day-break from Nivelles to Quatre-Bras.
“The 4th division of infantry to move at day-break to-morrow morning to Nivelles.”
“June 16th, 1815.
“The reserve artillery to move at day-break to-morrow morning, the 17th, to Quatre-Bras, where it will receive further orders.”
To Major-General Sir J. Lambert.
“June 16th, 1815.
“The brigade of infantry under the command of major-general sir J. Lambert, to march from Assche at day-break to-morrow morning, the 17th inst., to Genappe, on the Namur road, and to remain there until further orders.”
(Gurwood, vol. XII, p. 274-5.)
No. II
The reader will observe that the letters from which I make the following extracts, were written at three o’clock in the morning of the battle.
To Sir Charles Stuart.
“Waterloo, June 18th, 1815,
three o’clock A.M.
“MY DEAR STUART,
... “You will see in the letter to the duc de Berry the real state of our case, and the only risk we run. The Prussians will be ready again in the morning for anything.
“Pray keep the English (in Brussels,) quiet, if you can. Let them all prepare to move, but neither be in a hurry nor a fright, as all will yet turn out well.
“I have given the directions to the governor of Antwerp, to meet the crotchets which I find in the heads of the king’s governors upon every turn....
“Wellington.”
(Gurwood, vol. XII, page 476.)
To His Royal Highness the Duc de Berry.
“Waterloo, June 18th, 1815,
three o’clock in the morning.
“SIR,
“I have not written to your Royal Highness since Thursday, as I had nothing to communicate... and I have had a great deal to do.
“We had a very sanguinary battle on Friday last: near the farm of Quatre-Bras; the Prussians, about Sombreffe. I had very few troops with me, and no cavalry: I however drove the enemy back, and had considerable success. The Prussians suffered a good deal, and retreated during the night; and in consequence I retired also during the day. I saw very little yesterday of the enemy, who followed us very gently, and the Prussians not at all. The Prussians have been joined by their fourth corps, more than thirty thousand strong, and I have also nearly all my men together.
“It may happen that the enemy will turn us by Hal, although the weather is terrible and the roads are in a shocking state, and although I have posted prince Frederick’s corps between Hal and Enghien. If this should happen, I beg your Royal Highness to march on Antwerp... and to inform his Majesty (Louis XVIII,) that I beg him to leave Ghent for Antwerp by the left of the Scheldt. He will find no difficulty in crossing at the Tête de Flandre.
... “I hope, and I have every reason to believe, that all will turn out well; but we must take every possible precaution, and avoid great losses. It is with this view, that I beg your Royal Highness to follow the directions here given, and his Majesty to make for Antwerp, not upon false reports, but upon certain information that the enemy has got into Brussels, in spite of me, in turning me by Hal....
“Wellington.”
(Gurwood, vol. XII, p. 476-7.)
The following letters, written just after the battle, will show how deeply the duke felt the loss of his companions in arms: the renown his success would ensure was no consolation to him for the loss of friends and heroes: patriotism, and the confident expectation that an effectual stop was at length put to the horrors which had desolated Europe for more than twenty years, were the sources of such comfort as he could feel himself, or offer to others, for the expenditure of so many valuable lives.
To the Earl of Aberdeen, K. T.
“Brussels, June 19th, 1815.
“MY DEAR LORD,
“You will readily give credit to the existence of the extreme grief with which I announce to you the death of your gallant brother, (colonel Gordon,) in consequence of a wound received in our great battle of yesterday.
“He had served me most zealously and usefully for many years, and on many trying occasions; but he had never rendered himself more useful, and had never distinguished himself more, than in our late actions.
“He received the wound which occasioned his death, when rallying one of the Brunswick battalions which was shaking a little; and he lived long enough to be informed by myself of the glorious result of our actions, to which he had so much contributed by his active and zealous assistance.
“I cannot express to you the regret and sorrow with which I look round me, and contemplate the loss which I have sustained, particularly in your brother. The glory resulting from such actions, so dearly bought, is no consolation to me, and I cannot suggest it as any to you and his friends; but I hope that it may be expected that this last one has been so decisive, as that no doubt remains that our exertions and our individual losses will be rewarded by the early attainment of our just object. It is then that the glory of the actions in which our friends and relations have fallen, will be some consolation for their loss.
“Believe me, etc.
“Wellington.”
“Your brother had a black horse, given to him, I believe, by lord Ashburnham, which I will keep till I hear from you what you wish should be done with it.”
(Gurwood, vol. XII, p. 488-9.)
To the Duke of Beaufort, K. G.
“Brussels, June 19th, 1815.
“MY DEAR LORD,
“I am very sorry to have to acquaint you that your brother Fitzroy is very severely wounded, and has lost his right arm. I have just seen him, and he is perfectly free from fever, and as well as anybody could be under such circumstances. You are aware how useful he has always been to me, and how much I shall feel the want of his assistance, and what a regard and affection I feel for him; and you will readily believe how much concerned I am for his misfortune. Indeed, the losses I have sustained, have quite broken me down; and I have no feeling for the advantages we have acquired. I hope, however, that your brother will soon be able to join me again; and that he will long live to be, as he is likely to become, an honour to his country, as he is a satisfaction to his family and friends.
“Believe me, etc.
“Wellington.”
(Gurwood, vol. XII, page 489.)
To Marshal Prince Schwarzenberg.
“Joncourt, June 26th, 1815.
... “Our battle on the 18th was one of giants; and our success was most complete, as you perceive. God grant I may never see another! for I am overwhelmed with grief at the loss of my old friends and comrades.
“My neighbour and fellow-labourer (Blücher) is in good health, though he suffers a little from the fall of a horse, wounded under him in the battle of the 16th....
“Wellington.”
(Gurwood, vol. XII, page 510.)
The following extracts will prove the early and complete conviction of the Duke, that all had been decided at Waterloo.
To General Dumouriez.
“Nivelles, June 20th, 1815.
... “You must have heard what I have done; and I hope you are satisfied. I never saw such a battle as the one the day before yesterday; and never before did I gain such a victory. I trust it is all over with Bonaparte. We are in hot pursuit of him....
“Wellington.”
(Gurwood, vol. XII, page 490.)
To General the Earl of Uxbridge.
“Le Cateau, June 23d, 1815.
... “My opinion is that we have given Napoleon his death-blow.... He can make no head against us... il n’a qu’à se pendre,” (he has only to hang himself)....
“Wellington.”
(Gurwood, vol. XII, p. 499-500.)
To the Prince de Talleyrand.
“Le Cateau, June 24th, 1815.
... “It was I who recommended to the king (Louis XVIII,) to enter France at present, because I was aware of the extent of our success in the battle of the 18th....
“I enclose you, in confirmation of my opinion of the extent of our success, the Journal de l’Empire of the 22d, in which you will find Bonaparte’s account of the action, the truth of which, as far as it goes against himself, cannot be doubted....
“I conclude that you can have no scruple about joining the king forthwith, a measure which I earnestly entreat you and the other members of the king’s council to adopt without loss of time.
“Wellington.”
(Gurwood, vol. XII, p. 502-3.)
I may here remark, that in political foresight, the Duke was in advance of Talleyrand himself, as the letter above demonstrates.
To Marshal Lord Beresford.
“Gonesse, July 2d, 1815.
“You will have heard of our battle of the 18th. Never did I see such a pounding match. Both were what the boxers call gluttons. Napoleon did not manœuvre at all. He just moved forward in the old style, in columns, and was driven off in the old style....
“I had the infantry for some time in squares; and we had the French cavalry walking about us as if they had been our own. I never saw the British infantry behave so well....
“Wellington.”
(Gurwood, vol. XII, page 529.)
The subjoined extracts show how steadily Wellington kept in view the sole object of the war; and that he was not to be cajoled by any diplomatic chicanery, and what pains he took to keep statesmen to the point.
To Earl Bathurst.
“Joncourt, June 25th, 1815.
“To advanced posts... yesterday received a proposition to suspend hostilities, as it was stated that Bonaparte had abdicated in favour of his son, and has appointed a provisional government, consisting of Fouché, Carnot, Caulincourt, general Grenier, and Quinette; that these persons had sent ministers to the allied powers to treat for peace.
“It appeared both to prince Blücher and to me, that these measures were a trick....
“The object of the alliance of the powers of Europe is declared by the first article of the treaty of the 25th of March, to be to force Napoleon Bonaparte to desist from his projects, and to place him in a situation in which he will no longer have it in his power to disturb the peace of the world; and, by the third article, the powers of Europe have agreed not to lay down their arms till... it shall have been rendered impossible for Bonaparte to excite fresh troubles....
“I could not consider his abdication of a usurped power in favour of his son, and his handing over the government provisionally to five persons named by himself, to be that description of security which the allies had in view, which should induce them to lay down their arms; and therefore I continue my operations....
“Wellington.”
(Gurwood, vol. XII, page 508.)
To the French Commissioners.
“Head-Quarters, June 26th, 1815.
... “Since the 15th instant, when Napoleon Bonaparte, at the head of the French armies, invaded the dominions of the king of the Netherlands, and attacked the Prussian army the Field-Marshal has considered his sovereign, and those powers whose armies he commands, in a state of war with the government of France; and he does not consider the abdication of Napoleon Bonaparte of his usurped authority, under all the circumstances which have preceded and attended that measure, as the attainment of the object held out in the declarations and treaties of the allies, which should induce them to lay down their arms.
“The Field-Marshal cannot consent therefore to any suspension of hostilities, however desirous he is of preventing the farther effusion of blood.
“Their Excellencies... will probably consider any interview with him a useless waste of their time....
“Wellington.”
(Gurwood, vol. XII, page 512.)
It will appear, by the subjoined documents, that Wellington was tender of the life of Napoleon, who had not spared that of the duc d’Enghien, and who had declared that he would treat in the same way, that is, put to death, any Bourbon prince he should catch within the boundaries of his empire. Blücher was eager to put Bonaparte to death, as the guilty author of so much rapine and bloodshed; and to punish the Parisians by fines, the destruction of the bridge of Jena, and of their city itself, if they proved refractory. From this dreadful retaliation, it required all the influence of the Duke over Blücher to preserve them. Posterity should know, if the French will not pay attention to the fact, through whose intervention Napoleon’s life was spared, and Paris saved from dishonour, if not pillage and utter destruction.
To Sir Charles Stuart, G.C.B.
“Orvillé, June 28th, 1815.
“MY DEAR STUART,
“I send you my dispatches, which will make you acquainted with the state of affairs. You may show them to Talleyrand if you choose.
“General —— has been here this day to negotiate for Napoleon’s passing to America, to which proposition I have answered that I have no authority. The Prussians think the Jacobins wish to give him over to me, believing that I will save his life. Blücher wishes to kill him; but I have told him that I shall remonstrate, and shall insist upon his being disposed of by common accord. I have likewise said that, as a private friend, I advised him to have nothing to do with so foul a transaction; that he and I had acted too distinguished parts in these transactions to become executioners; and that I was determined, that if the sovereigns wished to put him to death, they should appoint an executioner, which should not be me....
“Wellington.”
(Gurwood, vol. XII, page 516.)
To Marshal Prince Blücher.
“Gonesse, July 2d, 1815.
“SIR,
“I requested general Müffling to write to your Highness yesterday, upon the subject of the propositions which had been made to me by the French commissioners for a suspension of hostilities, upon which I have not yet had a positive answer from your Highness....
“If we choose it, we can settle all our matters now, by agreeing to the proposed armistice....
“By adopting this measure, we provide for the quiet restoration of his Majesty to his throne; which is that result of the war which the sovereigns of all of us have always considered the most beneficial for us all, and the most likely to lead to permanent peace in Europe.
“It is true we shall not have the vain triumph of entering Paris at the head of our victorious troops; but... I doubt our having the means at present of succeeding in an attack upon Paris; and, if we are to wait till the arrival of marshal prince Wrede to make the attack, I think we shall find the sovereigns disposed, as they were last year, to spare the capital of their ally, and either not to enter the town at all, or enter it under an armistice, such as it is in your power and mine to sign this day.
“I earnestly urge your Highness... to let me have your decision whether you will agree to any armistice, or not....
“Wellington.”
(Gurwood, vol. XII, p. 526-7.)
To the French Commissioners.
“Gonesse, July 2d, 1815.
“It is my duty to apprize your Excellencies, that I have just received a letter from marshal prince Blücher, who expresses the greatest aversion to granting an armistice.... I have written to him once more, having the greatest desire to save your capital from the danger which menaces it; and I expect his answer to-night....
“Wellington.”
(Gurwood, vol XII, page 528.)
To Marshal Prince Blücher.
“Paris, July 8th, 1815, midnight.
“MEIN LIEBER FÜRST,
“Several reports have been brought to me during the evening and night, and some from the government, in consequence of the work carrying on by your Highness on one of the bridges over the Seine, which it is supposed to be your intention to destroy.
“As this measure will certainly create a good deal of disturbance in the town, and as the sovereigns, when they were here before, left all these bridges, etc., standing, I take the liberty of suggesting to you to delay the destruction of the bridge, at least till they shall arrive; or, at all events, till I can have the pleasure of seeing you to-morrow morning.
“Wellington.”
(Gurwood, vol. XII, page 549.)
The duke of Wellington was obliged to continue his mediation with Blücher, to prevent the exasperated veteran from punishing the pockets and humbling the pride of the Parisians; and for this his generous and enlightened intervention the Duke did not receive the gratitude that was due to him, as must appear from the following letters:
To Marshal Prince Blücher.
“Paris, July 9th, 1815.
“The subjects on which lord Castlereagh and I conversed with your Highness and general comte Gneisenau this morning, viz. the destruction of the bridge of Jena and the levy of the contribution of one hundred millions of francs upon the city of Paris, appear to me to be so important to the allies in general, that I cannot allow myself to omit to draw your Highness’s attention to them again in this shape.
“The destruction of the bridge of Jena is highly disagreeable to the king and to the people, and may occasion disturbance in the city. It is not merely a military measure, but is one likely to attach to the character of our operations, and is of political importance. It is adopted solely because the bridge is considered a monument of the battle of Jena, notwithstanding that the government are willing to change the name of the bridge.
“Considering the bridge as a monument, I beg leave to observe that its immediate destruction is inconsistent with the promise made to the commissioners on the part of the French army, during the negotiation of the convention; viz. that the monuments, museums, etc., should be reserved for the decision of the allied sovereigns.
“All that I ask is, that the execution of the orders given for the destruction of the bridge may be suspended till the sovereigns shall arrive here, when, if it should be agreed by common accord that the bridge ought to be destroyed, I shall have no objection....
“Wellington.”
(Gurwood, vol. XII, p. 552-3.)
To Monsieur ——.
“Paris, July 13th, 1815.
“I have received your letter of the 10th. Perhaps if you had taken the trouble to inform yourself respecting the works of the Prussian army at the bridge of Jena, and the part I have acted in this affair, you would think that I do not merit the reproaches which you with your signature, and others anonymously, have made me on this subject.
“But I ascribe them to the levity with which impressions are received and are allowed to influence the actions of men, and the most important measures, in this country; and if the injustice you have done me in your letter lead you to inquire and reflect before you ever again bring a charge against a public man, I pardon you.
“Wellington.”
(Gurwood, vol. XII, p. 555-6.)
The pains which the Duke took to preserve the strictest discipline amongst the troops under his command, and which far surpassed the care taken by other commanders in similar circumstances, entitled him to the gratitude of the Parisians, but did not always exempt him from ill-timed and unreasonable demands. The following severe but just reply was provoked by general comte de Vaubois, who seems to have importuned the Duke for compensation for damages said to be done by the British troops to the French people:
To General Comte de Vaubois.
“Paris, November 10th, 1815.
“MONSIEUR,
“You, who have served, must be well aware that it is not possible to give compensation to the full amount for all the damages arising from the presence of an army in a country, or the irregularities of individual soldiers, or the inevitable consequences of military occupation. It is quite true that I usually require reparation to be made for damages caused to the inhabitants by any irregularities of the troops, especially of English troops. But it is more as a means of discipline than as a full compensation to the inhabitants; and I cannot adopt in every case the same means with foreign troops, who are not so well, nor so regularly paid.
“The fact is, M. le général, that France, in carrying her arms into other countries, caused misery, devastation and ruin: I myself have been eyewitness of the destruction of property throughout whole provinces, that refused to submit to the yoke of the tyrant, and that were in consequence entirely depopulated.
“Although private revenge ought never to be the motive of a man, and most assuredly it is not that of the allied sovereigns, we can hardly expect that soldiers, men taken from the poorest and most hardy ranks of society, after having seen their properties, or those of their relatives, burned, sacked, destroyed by the French, should have any very great respect for French property, when, by the fortune of war, they find themselves in France.
“It is our duty, it is the interest of all of us, more even, I think, than that it is the duty of the French government, to prevent those acts of devastation; and I believe that there is no one who has endeavoured to do this duty so much as I have. But, M. le général, you know what armies are; and I appeal to your judgment: is it possible entirely to prevent such occurences in such an army as is under my command; particularly when the soldier is excited by the remembrance of the evils which he and his relatives have had to endure at the hands of French troops?...
“Wellington.”
(Gurwood, vol. XII, p. 685-6.)
To H.R.H. Prince Frederick of Orange.
“Paris, November 10th, 1815.
“I send you a letter I have just received from general comte de Vaubois, concerning the damages done by the soldiers of the Netherlands.
“You will see that their officers were not present at their bivac... and that the damage done by them amounts to 30,000 francs, a sum ten times greater perhaps than the general will have to pay, as his part of the contribution to the allies, in five years. It is clearly of great importance that the allies prevent these irregularities.
“Wellington.”
(Gurwood, vol. XII, page 686.)
Many have been pleased to say that the duke of Wellington both could and ought to have interposed to save marshal Ney from being ignominiously executed. Without entering into the question, whether Ney was a perjured traitor to Louis XVIII, and if so, what was the meetest punishment for his treason, it may be confidently averred that Napoleon would have spared no man under similar circumstances. The following documents are worthy of attention:
MEMORANDUM
RESPECTING MARSHAL NEY.
“Paris, November 19th, 1815.
“It is extraordinary that Madame la maréchale Ney should have thought proper to publish in print parts of a conversation which she is supposed to have had with the duke of Wellington; and that she has omitted to publish that which is a much better record of the Duke’s opinion on the subject to which the conversation related; viz. the Duke’s letter to the maréchal prince de la Moskowa, in answer to the maréchal’s note to his Grace. That letter was as follows:
“November, 14th, 1815.
“I have had the honour of receiving the note which you addressed to me on the 13th November, relating to the operation of the capitulation of Paris on your case. The capitulation of Paris of the 3d July was made between the commanders in chief of the allied British and Prussian armies on the one part, and the prince d’Eckmühl, commander in chief of the French army, on the other; and related exclusively to the military occupation of Paris.
“The object of the 12th article was to prevent the adoption of any measures of severity, under the military authority of those who made it, towards any persons in Paris on account of the offices which they had filled, or their conduct, or their political opinions. But it was never intended, and could not be intended, to prevent either the existing French government, under whose authority the French commander in chief must have acted, or any French government which should succeed to it, from acting in this respect as it might deem fit.”
“It is obvious from this letter that the duke of Wellington, one of the parties to the capitulation of Paris, considers that that instrument contains nothing which can prevent the king from bringing marshal Ney to trial in such manner as his Majesty may think proper103.
“The contents of the capitulation fully confirm the justice of the Duke’s opinion. It is made between the commanders in chief of the contending armies respectively; and the first nine articles relate solely to the mode and time of the evacuation of Paris by the French army, and of the occupation by the British and Prussian armies.
“The 10th article provides that the existing authorities shall be respected by the two commanders in chief of the allies; the 11th, that public property shall be respected, and that the allies shall not interfere en aucune manière dans leur administration et dans leur gestion; (in any manner, either in their administration or in their management;) and the 12th article states, Seront pareillement respectées les personnes et les propriétés particulières: les habitants, et, en général, tous les individus qui se trouvent dans la capitale, continueront à jouir de leurs droits et libertés, sans pouvoir être inquiétés, ni recherchés en rien relativement aux fonctions qu’il occupent, ou auraient occupées, à leur conduite, et à leurs opinions politiques. (The persons as well as the property of individuals, shall be equally respected; the inhabitants, and in general every individual residing in the capital, shall continue in full possession of their rights and liberties, without being molested in any manner, on account of the functions which they may have filled, their conduct, or their political opinions.)
“By whom were these private properties and persons to be respected? By the allied generals and their troops mentioned in the 10th and 11th articles; and not by other parties to whom the convention did not relate in any manner.
“The 13th article provides that les troupes étrangères, (the foreign troops) shall not obstruct the carriage of provisions by land or water to the capital.
“Thus it appears that every article in the convention relates exclusively to the operations of the different armies, or to the conduct of the allies and that of their generals, when they should enter Paris; and, as the duke of Wellington states in his dispatch of the 4th of July, with which he transmitted the convention to England, it ‘decided all the military points then existing at Paris, and touched nothing political104.’
“But it appears clearly that, not only was this the Duke’s opinion of the convention at the time it was signed, but likewise the opinion of Carnot, of marshal Ney, and of every other person who had an interest in considering the subject.
“Carnot says, in the Exposé de la conduite politique de M. Carnot, (page 43,) Il fut résolu d’envoyer aux généraux anglais et prussiens une commission spéciale chargée de leur proposer une convention purement militaire, pour la remise de la ville de Paris entre leurs mains, en écartant toute question politique, puisqu’on ne pouvait préjuger quelles seraient les intentions des alliés, lorsqu’ils seraient réunis. (It was decided to forward to the English and Prussian generals a special commission, to the purport of proposing to them a convention, purely military, for the surrender of the city of Paris into their hands, setting aside all political questions, since it was impossible to foresee what might be the ultimate intentions of the allies, when they should be assembled.)
“It appears that marshal Ney fled from Paris in disguise, with a passport given to him by the duc d’Otrante, under a feigned name, on the 6th of July. He could not be supposed to be ignorant of the tenor of the 12th article of the convention; and he must then have known whether it was the intention of the parties who made it, that it should protect him from the measures which the king, then at St.-Denis, should think proper to adopt against him.
“But if marshal Ney could be supposed ignorant of the intention of the 12th article, the duc d’Otrante, could not, as he was at the head of the provisional government, under whose authority the prince d’Eckmühl must have acted when he signed the convention105.
“Would the duc d’Otrante have given a passport under a feigned name to marshal Ney, if he had understood the 12th article as giving the marshal any protection, excepting against measures of severity by the two commanders in chief?
“Another proof of what was the opinion of the duc d’Otrante, of the king’s ministers, and of all the persons most interested is establishing the meaning now attempted to be given to the 12th article of the convention of the 3d July, is the king’s proclamation of the 24th July, by which nineteen persons are ordered for trial, and thirty-eight persons are ordered to quit Paris, and to reside in particular parts of France, under the observation and superintendence of the police, till the Chambers should decide upon their fate106.
“Did the duc d’Otrante, did any of the persons who are the objects of this proclamation, did any person on their behalf, ever then, or now, claim for them the protection of the 12th article of the convention? Certainly the convention was then understood, as it ought to be understood now, viz. that it was exclusively military and was never intended to bind the then existing government of France, or any government which should succeed it.
“Wellington.”
(Gurwood, p. 694-6.)
EXTRACT FROM THE PROCLAMATION OF LOUIS XVIII.
“Cambray, June 28th, 1815.
... “In the plot which they contrived, I perceive many of my subjects to have been misled, and some guilty. I promise—I who never promised in vain, as all Europe can witness,—to pardon to misled Frenchmen all that has transpired since the day I quitted Lille amidst so many tears, up to the day I re-entered Cambray, amidst so many acclamations. But the blood of my people has flowed in consequence of a treason unprecedented in the annals of the world. That treason has summoned foreigners into the heart of France; every day reveals to me a new disaster. I owe it, therefore, to the dignity of my crown, to the interest of my people, and to the repose of Europe, to except from pardon the instigators and authors of this horrible plot. They shall be delivered over to the vindication of the laws by the two Chambers, which I propose forthwith to assemble....
“Louis.”
To ——107, Esq.
“Paris, August 8th, 1815.
“MY DEAR SIR,
“I have received your letter of the 2d, regarding the battle of Waterloo. The object which you propose to yourself is very difficult of attainment, and, if really attained, is not a little invidious. The history of a battle is not unlike the history of a ball. Some individuals may recollect all the little events, of which the great result is the battle won or lost; but no individual can recollect the order in which, or the exact moment at which they occurred, which makes all the difference as to their value or importance.
“Then the faults or the misbehaviour of some gave occasion for the distinction of others, and perhaps were the cause of material losses; and you cannot write a true history of a battle without including the faults and misbehaviour of part at least of those engaged.
“Believe me that every man you see in a military uniform is not a hero; and that, although in the account given of a general action, such as that of Waterloo, many instances of individual heroism must be passed over unrelated, it is better for the general interests to leave those parts of the story untold, than to tell the whole truth.
“If, however, you should still think it right to turn your attention to this subject, I am most ready to give you every assistance and information in my power.
“Believe me, etc.
“Wellington.”
(Gurwood, vol. XII, page 590.)
To the same.
“Paris, August 17th, 1815.
“MY DEAR SIR,
“I have received your letter of the 11th, and I regret much that I have not been able to prevail upon you to relinquish your plan.
“You may depend upon it, you will never make it a satisfactory work.
“I will get you the list of the French army, generals, etc.
“Just to show you how little reliance can be placed, even on what are supposed the best accounts of a battle, I mention that there are some circumstances mentioned in general Müffling’s account which did not occur as he relates them.
“He was not on the field during the whole battle, particularly not during the latter part of it.
“The battle began, I believe, at eleven.
“It is impossible so say when each important occurrence took place, nor in what order. We were attacked first with infantry only; then, with cavalry only; lastly, and principally, with cavalry and infantry mixed.
“No houses were possessed by the enemy in Mont-St.-Jean, excepting the farm in front of the left of our centre108, on the road to Genappe, can be called one. This they got, I think, at about two o’clock, and got it from a circumstance which is to be attributed to the neglect of the officer commanding on the spot.
“The French cavalry were on the plateau in the centre between the two high-roads for nearly three quarters of an hour, riding about among our squares of infantry, all firing having ceased on both sides. I moved our squares forward to the guns; and our cavalry, which had been detached by lord Uxbridge to the flanks, was brought back to the centre. The French cavalry were then driven off. After that circumstance, repeated attacks were made along the whole front of the centre of the position, by cavalry and infantry, till seven at night. How many I cannot tell.
“When the enemy attacked sir Thomas Picton I was there, and they got as far as the hedge on the cross-road, behind which the —— had been formed. The latter had run away, and our troops were on our side of the hedge. The French were driven off with immense loss. This was the first principal attack. At about two in the afternoon, as I have above said, they got possession of the farm-house on the high-road, which defended this part of the position; and they then took possession of a small mound on the left of the high-road going from Brussels, immediately opposite the gate of the farm; and they were never removed from thence till I commenced the attack in the evening: but they never advanced farther on that side.
“These are answers to all your queries; but remember, I recommend to you to leave the battle of Waterloo as it is.
“Believe me, etc.
“Wellington.”
(Gurwood, vol. XII, p. 609-610.)
The fair inference is, that the Duke, on seeing the orchard and garden of La Haye-Sainte in possession of the enemy about two o’clock P.M., thought the farm was also in their hands, which certainly was not the case till about five o’clock.
The farm-house in question, La Haye-Sainte, was lost from a deficiency of proper ammunition; its gallant defenders were riflemen. Who was to be blamed for that deficiency, it is difficult now to ascertain: the Duke, it appears, thought the officer commanding on the spot was censurable on this account. Let me be allowed to record my regret, that on this and many other occasions, valuable lives and important posts were often lost, owing to our having three different sizes for ball cartridges. If there were but one size, as I think there might be, for cavalry, infantry and rifles, the mutual supply of ammunition would be at all times practicable, and, in critical moments, of the utmost value.
To His Royal Highness the Duke of York.
“Orvillé, June 28th, 1815.
... “I would beg leave to suggest to your Royal Highness the expediency of giving to the non-commissioned officers and soldiers engaged in the battle of Waterloo, a medal109. I am convinced it would have the best effect in the army; and, if the battle should settle our concerns, they will well deserve it....
“Wellington.”
(Gurwood, vol. XII, page 520.)
To Earl Bathurst.
“Paris, September 17th, 1815.
“MY DEAR LORD,
“I have long intended to write to you about the medal for Waterloo. I recommend that the men should all have the same medal, hung on the same ribbon as that now used with the medals....
“Wellington.”
No. III
SUMMARY
OF THE RISE AND PROGRESS OF FIELD-MARSHAL THE DUKE OF WELLINGTON, WITH THE PUBLIC HONOURS AND EMOLUMENTS THAT HAVE BEEN CONFERRED UPON HIM.
| Born | 1st May, 1769. |
| Ensign | 7th March, 1787. |
| Lieutenant | 25th December, 1787. |
| Captain | 30th June, 1791. |
| Major | 30th April, 1793. |
| Lieutenant-Colonel | 30th September, 1793. |
| Colonel | 3d May, 1796. |
| Major-General | 29th April, 1802. |
| Lieutenant-General | 25th April, 1808. |
| General, in Spain and Portugal | 31st July, 1811. |
| Field-Marshal | 21st June, 1813. |
| Governor of Seringapatam | 6th May, 1799. |
| The inhabitants of Calcutta vote a sword of the value of 1,000l. to Major-General Wellesley | 21st February, 1804. |
| The officers of his division vote to Major-General Wellesley a gold vase, which is afterwards changed to a service of plate embossed with “Assye.” | 26th February, 1804. |
| Appointed a Knight Companion of the Bath | 1st September, 1804. |
| Thanked by parliament | 8th March, 1805. |
| Returned to serve in parliament | 12th April, 1806. |
| Sworn a Privy Counsellor | 8th April, 1807. |
| Secretary to Ireland | 19th April, 1807. |
| Negotiates capitulation at Copenhagen | 5th September, 1807. |
| Thanked in parliament for the same. | 1st February, 1808. |
| A piece of plate, commemorating the battle of Vimeiro, voted to Lieutenant-General Sir Arthur Wellesley by the general and field-officers who served at it | 22d August, 1808. |
| Thanked in parliament for Vimeiro | 27th January, 1809. |
| Appointed to command the army in Portugal | 2d April, 1809. |
| Appointed Marshal-General of the Portuguese army | 6th July, 1809. |
| Created Baron Douro of Wellesley and Viscount Wellington of Talavera | 26th August, 1809. |
| Thanks of parliament voted for Talavera | 1st February, 1810. |
| Pension of 2,000l. per annum, voted to him and his two succeeding heirs male | 16th February, 1810. |
| Thanks of parliament for the liberation of Portugal | 26th April, 1811. |
| License granted in the name of the King by the Prince Regent, to accept the title of Conde do Vimeiro, and the insignia of Knight Grand-Cross of the Tower and Sword from the prince regent of Portugal | 26th October, 1811. |
| Created by the regency of Spain a Grandé, with the title of Duque de Ciudad-Rodrigo | January, 1812. |
| Thanks of parliament for Ciudad-Rodrigo | 10th February, 1812. |
| Advanced in the British peerage by the title of Earl Wellington | 18th February, 1812. |
| Voted 2,000l. per annum in addition | 21st February, 1812. |
| Thanks of parliament for Badajoz | 27th April, 1812. |
| The order of the Golden Fleece conferred by the regency of Spain | July, 1812. |
| Appointed Generalissimo of the Spanish armies | 12th August, 1812. |
| Advanced in the British peerage by the title of Marquis of Wellington. | 18th August, 1812. |
| Advanced by the regent of Portugal to the title of Marquez de Torres-Vedras | 12th September, 1812. |
| Thanks of parliament for Salamanca. | 3d December, 1812. |
| A grant of 100,000l. from parliament, to be laid out in the purchase of lands as a reward for his services. | 7th December, 1812. |
| Advanced by the regent of Portugal to the title of Duque da Victoria. | 18th December, 1812. |
| Elected a Knight of the Garter | 4th March, 1813. |
| Thanks of parliament for the battle of Vittoria | 8th July, 1813. |
| The regency of Spain, on the proposition of the Cortes, offers to bestow on the Duque de Ciudad-Rodrigo the estate of Soto-de-Roma, in Granada | 22d July, 1813. |
| Thanks of parliament for San-Sebastian and the operations subsequent to Vittoria | 8th October, 1813. |
| The prince Regent grants permission to the Marquis of Wellington to accept and wear the insignia of Grand-Cross of the following orders: Imperial and Royal Austrian Military order of Maria-Theresa; Imperial Russian Military order of St.-George; Royal Prussian Military order of the Black Eagle; Royal Swedish Military order of the Sword | 4th March, 1814. |
| Thanks of the Prince Regent and the parliament for Orthez | 24th March, 1814. |
| Advanced in the British peerage by the titles of Marquis of Douro and Duke of Wellington | 3d May, 1814. |
| A grant of 400,000l. voted by parliament, in addition to the former grants | 24th June, 1814. |
| Ambassador to France | 5th July, 1814. |
| Assists at Congress at Vienna | January, 1815. |
| Takes command of the British forces on the continent | 11th April, 1815. |
| Battle of Waterloo | 18th June, 1815. |
| Thanks of the Prince Regent and parliament for Waterloo | 22d June, 1815. |
| A grant of 200,000l. voted by parliament, in addition to the former grants | 6th July, 1815. |
| Created Prince of Waterloo by the king of the Netherlands | 18th July, 1815. |
| Commander in chief of the allied armies of occupation | 22d October, 1815. |
| Appointed Field-Marshal in the Austrian, Russian and Prussian armies | 15th November, 1818. |
| Visits Waterloo with George IV | 1st October, 1821. |
| Commander in Chief | 22d January, 1827. |
| First Lord of the Treasury | 13th February, 1828. |
| Appointed Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports | 20th January, 1829. |
| Elected Chancellor of the University of Oxford | 29th January, 1834. |
No. IV
The reader should be aware, that in military returns, the figures which represent the strength of regiments often greatly exceed the actual number of effective men present. There are always numerous casualties, not accounted for in returns, particularly before a battle. The missing are not all eventually loss; for, if not taken prisoners most of them join after the strife. The strength of the British was of course greater on the 16th, before the action at Quatre-Bras, where the loss was particularly severe, as may be seen in the subjoined tables, in the 1st foot-guards, 1st Royal Scots, 32d, 33d, 42d, 44th, 69th, 79th, and 92d regiments.
The officers who afterwards died of their wounds, are here returned killed.
RETURNS
of the strength (officers, non-commissionned officers, drummers, trumpeters, rank and file) of the British army, on the morning of the 18th of June 1815; and of the total loss, in killed, wounded and missing, on the three days: 16th, 17th, and 18th.
STAFF.
Killed.—The duke of Brunswick, sir Thomas Picton, sir William Ponsonby. Colonel sir William De Lancey. Lieutenant-colonel Currie. Captains: W. Crofton (54th Reg.), T. Smith (93d Reg.).
Wounded.—H.R.H. the prince of Orange. Lieutenant-general sir G. Cooke. Major-generals: Sir E. Barnes, sir James Kempt, sir Colin Halkett, sir Denis Pack, sir Colquhoun Grant, sir W. Dornberg, sir F. Adam. Lieutenant-colonels: Waters, sir G. Berkeley (35th Reg.). Majors: A. Hamilton, Hunter Blair, Hon. G. Dawson. Captains: Hon. E. S. Erskine, E. Fitzgerald (25th Reg.), W. Murray, H. Seymour, T. Wright, H. McLeod, J. Mitchell (25th Reg.), J. Tyler, A. Langton, H. Dumaresque. Lieutenants: W. Havelock (43d Reg.), J. Hamilton (46th Reg.), J. Rooke, D. Hall.
Officers who were killed or wounded, serving on the staff but belonging to regiments which were on the field, are here included in the returns of their respective regiments.
By adding together the figures in the first two columns opposite to any regiment, the reader may obtain its total effective strength, at the opening of the campaign.
| REGIMENTS. | STRENGTH on the 18th. | LOSS ON THE | OFFICERS KILLED. | OFFICERS WOUNDED. | |
| 16th and 17th. | 18th. | ||||
| 1st Life-Guards. | 245 | 18 | 65 | Lieutenant-colonel Ferrior. Captain Lind. | Captains: J. Whale, E. Kelly, S. Richardson, S. Cox. |
| 2d Life-Guards. | 235 | ″ | 155 | Lieutenant-colonel Fitzgerald. | Lieutenant Waymouth. |
| Royal Horse-Guards. (Blues.) | 246 | 8 | 98 | Major R. Packe. | Lieutenant-colonels: Sir J. Elley, sir R. C. Hill, C. Hill. Lieutenants: C. Shawe, E. W. Bouverie. |
| 1st Dragoon Guards. | 571 | ″ | 246 | Lieutenant-colonel Fuller. Majors: Graham, Bringhurst. Captain Battersby. Lieutenant: Brooke. Schelver, adjutant. Cornet Hon. B. Bernard. | Captains: M. Turner, P. Sweny, J. Naylor, Lieutenant D. Irvine. |
| 1st Royal Dragoons. | 428 | ″ | 196 | Captains: E. Windsor, C. Foster. Lieutenant R. Magniac. Cornet J. Sykes. Shepley, adjutant. | Major C. Radclyffe. Captain A. Clark. Lieutenants: G. Gunning, T. Keily, S. Trafford, C. Ommaney, C. Blois, S. Goodenough, S. Wyndowe. |
| 2d Royal Dragoons. (Scots Greys.) | 442 | ″ | 199 | Lieutenant-colonel J. Hamilton. Captain T. Reignolds. Cornets: E. Westby, H. C. Kinchant, L. Barnard, T. Trotter, L. Shuldham. | Lieutenant-colonels: J. B. Clarke, T. P. Hankin. Major R. Vernon. Captain J. Poole. Lieutenants: J. Mills, F. Stupart, J. Carruthers, C. Wyndham. |
| 6th (Innis-killing) Dragoons. | 445 | ″ | 217 | Lieutenant P. Ruffe. McCluskey, adjutant. | Lieutenant-colonels: J. Muter, F. S. Miller, W. F. Browne. Captain Hon. S. Douglas. Lieutenant A. Hassard. |
| REGIMENTS. | STRENGTH on the 18th. | LOSS ON THE | OFFICERS KILLED. | OFFICERS WOUNDED. | |
| 16th and 17th. | 18th. | ||||
| 7th Hussars. | 362 | 46 | 150 | Major E Hodge. Lieutenant A. Meyers. | Lieutenant-general the earl of Uxbridge. Major W. Thornhill. Captains: W. Verner, T. W. Robbins, P. A. Heyliger, T. Wildman, J. J. Frazer, J. D. Elphistone. Lieutenants: R. Douglas, J. R. Gordon, E. J. Peters, F. Beatty. |
| 10th Hussars. | 452 | ″ | 94 | Major Hon. F. Howard. Lieutenant G. Gunning. | Lieutenant-colonel G. Quentin. Captains: J. Grey, Gurwood, C. Wood. Lieutenants: H. Arnold, A. Bacon. |
| 11th Light Dragoons. | 435 | 3 | 73 | Lieutenant E. Phelips. | Lieutenants: F. Wood, R. Coles, J. T. Moore, R. Milligan. Cornet J. A. Schreiber. |
| 12th Light Dragoons. | 427 | ″ | 111 | Captain E. Sandys. Lieutenant L. J. Bertie. Cornet E. Lockhart. | Lieutenant-colonel Hon. F. Ponsonby. Lieutenant W. H. Dowbiggen. |
| 13th Light Dragoons. | 448 | 1 | 105 | Captain J. Gubbins. | Lieutenant-colonel Boyse. Captain J. Doherty. Lieutenant: G. Doherty, C. R. Bowers, J. Geale, G. Pym, J. Mill, G. H. Packe, J. E. Irving. |
| 15th Hussars. | 417 | ″ | 70 | Major E. Griffith. Lieutenants: J. Sherwood, H. Buckley. | Lieutenant-colonel L. Dalrymple. Captains: J. Thuckwell, J. Whiteford, J. Buckley. Lieutenants: W. Byam, E. Byam, G. F. Dawkens, R. Mansfield. |
| 18th Light Dragoons. | 434 | ″ | 32 | Captain J. Buchanan. Cornet A. Hay. | Lieutenant-colonel J. Hay. Captain R. Weyland. Lieutenants: W. Osten, N. D. Crichton. |
| 18th Hussars. | 442 | 2 | 102 | ″ | Lieutenant C. Hesse. H. Duperier, adjutant. |
| 23rd Light Dragoons. | 341 | 6 | 72 | Lieutenant S. Coxen. | Major J. M. Cutcliffe. Captains: C. W. Dance, T. Gerrard. Lieutenants: T. B. Wall, B. Disney. |
| REGIMENTS. | STRENGTH on the 18th. | LOSS ON THE | OFFICERS KILLED. | OFFICERS WOUNDED. | |
| 16th and 17th. | 18th. | ||||
| 1st Foot-Guards, 2d Bat. | 781 | 285 | 153 | Lieutenant-colonels: Sir F. D’Oyley, W. H. Milnes, Thomas Miller. Captains: T. Brown, Robert Adair. Lieutenant Hon. T. Barrington. | Colonels: Askew, R. H. Cooke. Lieutenant-colonels: Sir H. Bradford, sir Henry Hardinge*, sir T. N. Hill, lord Fitzroy Somerset. Captains: Hon. O. Bridgeman, J. Simpson, S. Burgess. Lieutenants: G. Fludyer, T. C. Croft, F. Luttrell, C. P. Ellis, Hon. H. Lascelles. |
| 1st Foot-Guards, 3d Bat. | 860 | 262 | 342 | Colonels: E. Stables, C. Thomas. Captains: E. Grose, N. Chambers. Ensigns: E. Pardoe, James, Lord Hay. | Colonels: Hon. W. Stewart, Hon. H. Townshend, H. D’Oyley, G. Fead. Captains: R. Adair, T. Streatfield, Hon. R. Clements. Lieutenants: R. Batty, R. Bruce, W. Barton. |
| Coldstream Guards, 2d Bat. | 1,045 | ″ | 308 | Captains: J. L. Blackman, E. Sumner, G. R. Buckley, G. H. Percival. | Lieutenant-colonels: J. McDonell, D. McKinnon, Hon. A. Abercromby, C. H. Wyndham. Captains: Hon. R. Moore, Hon. E. Lascelles. Lieutenants: H. Griffiths, J. Montague, H. Vane. |
| 3d Foot-Guards, 2d Bat. | 1,056 | 7 | 239 | Lieutenant-colonels: Hon. Sir Alexander Gordon, C. F. Canning. Captains: S. W. Stothert, T. Crawford, J. Ashton, Hon. H. Forbes. Ensign C. Simpson. | Lieutenant-colonels: C. Dashwood, E. Bowater, C. West. Captains: R. B. Hesketh, G. Evelyn, H. Montgomery. Lieutenants: C. Lake, D. Baird. |
| 1st Royal Scots, 3d Bat. | 453 | 218 | 144 | Captain W. Buckley. Lieutenants: J. Armstrong, J. E. O’Neill, W. Young. Ensigns: Robertson, Kennedy, Anderson. | Lieutenant-colonel: C. Campbell. Majors: L. Arguimbau, R. McDonald, H. Massey. Captain R. Dudgeon. Lieutenants: A. Morrison, W. J. Rea, J. Ingram, W. Clarke, A. Cameron, adjutant; J. Stoyte, R. Scott, G. Lane, J. Symes, J. Alstone, J. Mann, W. Dobbs, J. F. W. Millar, G. Stewart, J. L. Black. Ensigns: C. Graham, T. Stephens, J. McKay, L. M. Cooper. Quarter-master T. Griffiths. |
| * Wounded at Ligny. | |||||
| REGIMENTS. | STRENGTH on the 18th. | LOSS ON THE | OFFICERS KILLED. | OFFICERS WOUNDED. | |
| 16th and 17th. | 18th. | ||||
| 4th Reg. Foot, 1st Bat. | 670 | ″ | 134 | Lieutenant W. Squire. | Captains: G. D. Wilson, C. J. Edgell. Lieutenants: J. Browne, G. Smith, H. Boyd, A. Gerard. Ensigns: W. M. Mathews, B. Collins, G. Richardson. |
| 14th Reg. Foot, 3d Bat. | 630 | ″ | 36 | ″ | Ensigns: A. Cooper, A. Ormsby (24th). |
| 23d Royal Welsh Fuzileers, 1st Bat. | 741 | ″ | 478 | Lieutenant-colonel sir H. W. Ellis. Captains: Hawtyn, C. Jolliffe, T. Farmer. Lieutenants: G. Fensham, J. Clyde, W. Leebody (24th). | Captains: H. Johnson, J. H. Hill. Lieutenants: A. Griffiths, Fielding. Quarter-master A. Sidley. |
| 27th (Innis-killing) Reg. Foot. | 750 | ″ | 104 | Captain G. Holmes. Ensign J. Ireland. | Captains: J. Hare, J. Tucker, Lieutenants: G. McDonnell, W. Henderson, R. Handcock, E. Drewe, W. Fortescue, J. Millar, C. Manley, T. Craddock. Ensigns: T. Handcock, T. Smith, J. Ditmas. |
| 28th Reg. Foot. | 556 | 75 | 177 | Major W. P. Meacham. Lieutenants: J. Clarke, C. Ingram. | Lieutenant-colonel Nixon. Captains: R. Llewellyn, R. Kelly, J. Bowles, T. English, C. Teulon. Lieutenants: J. Wilkinson, R. Gilbert, R. P. Eason, W. Irwin, H. Hilliard, J. Coen, C. Carrothers, J. Shelton, J. Deares. Ensign: Mountsteven, H. Bridgeland, adjutant. |
| 30th Reg. Foot. | 635 | 51 | 228 | Major T. Chambers. Captain A. M. Nabb. Lieutenants: H. Beere, E. Prendergast. Ensigns: J. James, J. Bullen. | Lieutenant-colonel Hamilton. Majors: W. Bailey, C. A. Vigoureux. Captain A. Gore. Lieutenants: R. C. Elliott, J. Rumley, R. Daniell, J. Roe, R. Hugues, P. Lockwood, J. Pratt, W. O. Warren, T. Monypenny. M. Andrews, adjutant. |
| REGIMENTS. | STRENGTH on the 18th. | LOSS ON THE | OFFICERS KILLED. | OFFICERS WOUNDED. | |
| 16th and 17th. | 18th. | ||||
| 32d Reg. Foot. | 503 | 196 | 174 | Captains: J. Boyce, T. Cassan, E. Whitty. | Captains: W. H. Toole, J. Crowe, H. Harrison, C. Wallett. Lieutenants: H. W. Brookes, G. Barr, M. Meighan, D. Davies, adjutant; J Boase, T. R. Lewin, H. Butterworth, J. Colthurst, J. Robinson, J. Fitzgerald, T. Horan, E. Stephen, H. Quill, J. Jagoe, S. H. Lawrence. Ensigns: H. Metcalfe, J. Birtwhistle, A. Stewart, W. Bennett, C. Dallas, J. M. Conchy. |
| 33d Reg. Foot, 2d Bat. | 576 | 106 | 185 | Captains: J. Haigh, H. R. Buck. Lieutenants: J. Boyce, A. Gore, T. D. Haigh, J. Cameron, J. Hart. | Major E. Parkinson. Captains: Mc Intyre, C. Knight, Harty. Lieutenants: T. Reid, J. Murkland, R. Westmore, J. Ogle, S. Pagan, J. Furlong. Ensigns: H. Bain, J. Alderson, J. A. Howard, G. Drury. W. Thain, adjutant. |
| 40th Reg. Foot. | 862 | ″ | 219 | Major R. Heyland. Captain W. Fisher. | Captains: C. Ellis, J. Barnett. Lieutenants: R. Moore, J. Anthony, J. Mill, T. Campbell, Hon. H. Browne. Ensigns: J. Robb, F. Ford, A. Clerke. |
| 42d Highlanders, 2d Bat. | 329 | 288 | 49 | Lieutenant-colonel sir R. Mc Ara. Captain G. Davidson. Lieutenant R. Gordon. Ensign G. Gerard. | Lieutenant-colonel R. Dick. Major A. Menzies. Captains: M. Mc Pherson, D. Mc Donald, D. Mc Intosh, R. Boyle. Lieutenants: D. Chisholm, D. Stewart, D. Mc Kenzie, H. A. Fraser, J. Malcolm, A. Dunbar, J. Brander, J. Orr, G. G. Munro. Ensigns: W. Fraser, A. L. Fraser. J. Young, adjutant. Quarter-master McIntosh. |
| 44th Reg. Foot, 2d Bat. | 480 | 138 | 64 | Lieutenant W. Tomkins. Ensign P. Cooke. | Lieutenant-colonels: Hamerton, G. O’Malley. Captains: A. Brugh, D. Power, W. Burney, M. Fane, J. Jessop. Lieutenants: R. Russell, R. Grier, W. B. Strong, J. Campbell, J Burke, W. Hern. Ensigns: C. Christie, B. Whitney, T. McCann. adjutants: J. C. Webster, A. Wilson. |
| REGIMENTS. | STRENGTH on the 18th. | LOSS ON THE | OFFICERS KILLED. | OFFICERS WOUNDED. | |
| 16th and 17th. | 18th. | ||||
| 51st Light Infantry. | 619 | ″ | 42 | ″ | Captain S. Beardsley. Lieutenant C. W. Tyndale. |
| 52d Light Infantry. | 1,148 | ″ | 199 | Ensign W. Nettles. | Lieutenant-colonel J. Rowan. Captains: W. Rowan, J. F. Love, C. Diggle. Lieutenants: C. Dawson, M. Anderson, G. Campbell, F. Cottingham. J. Winterbottom, adjutant. |
| 69th Reg. Foot, 2d Bat. | 541 | 155 | 85 | Colonel C. Morice. Captains: B. Hobhouse, Hon. W. Curzon, P. Blackwood. Lieutenant M. Wightwick. | Captains: J. L. Watson, H. Lindsay. Lieutenants: H. Anderson, J. Stewart, B. Pigot, C. Busteed. Ensign E. Hodder. Volunteer Clarke. |
| 71st (Highland) Light Infantry. | 929 | ″ | 202 | Captain E. L’Estrange. Lieutenants: J. R. Elwes, J. Todd. | Colonel T. Reyneel. Major A. Jones. Captains: D. Campbell, A. Grant, J. Henderson, C. Johnstone. Lieutenants: J. Barralier, R. Lind, J. Roberts, C. Lewin, R. Law, J. Coote, W. Hanson. W. Anderson, adjutant. |
| 73d Reg. Foot, 2d Bat. | 498 | 56 | 280 | Captains: A. Robertson, J. M. Kennedy. Lieutenants: J. Strachan, W. Hollis, J. Acres, Brown. Ensigns: W. S. Lowe, C. Page. | Colonel G. Harris. Major A. J. McLean. Captains: A. Coane, E. T. Pirch, W. Wharton, J. Garland. Lieutenants: J. McConnell, T. Reynolds, D. Browne, J. Lloyd. Ensigns: R. Hesilrige, T. Deacon, W. McBean, C. B. Eastwood, G. D. Bridge. P. Hay, adjutant. |
| 79th Highlanders. | 440 | 304 | 175 | Captains: McKay, McRa, Neil Campbell, J. Cameron, J. Sinclair. Lieutenants: D. Cameron, D. McPherson, E. Kennedy. J. Kynock, adjutant, J. Rowling. | Lieutenant-colonels: N. Douglas, A. Brown, D. Cameron. Captains: T. Mylne, J. Campbell, N. Campbell, W. Marshall, M. Fraser, W. Bruce. Lieutenants: A. Cameron, T. Brown, W. Maddocks, W. Leaper, J. Fraser, D. McPhee, E. Cameron, A. Forbes, C. McArthur, J. Powling, W. A. Riach. Ensigns: J. Nash, J. Robertson, A. S. Crawford. Volunteer Cameron. |
| REGIMENTS. | STRENGTH on the 18th. | LOSS ON THE | OFFICERS KILLED. | OFFICERS WOUNDED. | |
| 16th and 17th. | 18th. | ||||
| 92d Highlanders. | 422 | 286 | 116 | Lieutenant-colonel Cameron. Captains: W. C. Grant, gu. Little. Lieutenants: J. Chisholm, G. Mackie, Ensigns: A. Beecher, R. McPherson. | Colonel J. Mitchell. Captains: G. W. Holmes, D. Campbell, P. Wilkie, A. Ferrier. Lieutenants: R. Winchester, T. Hobbs, T. McIntosh, D. McDonald, J. Ross, R. McDonald, H. Innes, G. Logan, J. McInlay, A. McPherson, J. Hope. Ensigns: J. Branwell, R. Logan, A. McDonald, R. Hewit. Assistant surgeon J. Stewart. |
| 95th Rifles, 1st Bat. | 418 | 64 | 156 | Majors: C. Smith, C. Ecles. Lieutenants: J. Stilwell, E. D. Johnston. | Lieutenant-colonel sir A. Barnard. Majors: A. Cameron, Beckwith. Captains: E. Chawner, W. Johnston. Lieutenants: J. P. Gardner, J. Fitzmaurice, W. Shenley, J. Molloy, J. Gardner, G. Simmons, A. Stewart, J. Wright, J. Church. |
| 95th Rifles, 2d Bat. | 655 | ″ | 246 | Lieutenant Backhouse. | Majors: A. Norcott, G. Wilkins. Captains: G. Miller, J. G. McCulloch. Lieutenants: Humbley, D. Cameron, E. Coxon, R. Cochran, J. Fry, J. Ridgeway, J. Lynam, R. Eyre, J. Walsh, P. Webb. |
| 95th Rifles, two companies, 3d Bat. | 202 | ″ | 50 | Lieutenant W. Lister. | Major J. Ross. Captain J. Fullerton. Lieutenants: T. Worsley, G. W. Shenly. |
| Royal Artillery. | 4,944 | 28 | 476 | Majors: Lloyd, N. Ramsay, Cairnes, Beane, Bolton. Lieutenants: W. L. Robe, M. Cromie, C. Spearman, F. Manners, F. Troughton. | Captains: Napier, J. Parker, Bull, Winyates, Dansey, R. McDonald, Webber, W. Strangeway, D. Crawford, A. McDonald. Lieutenants: W. Brereton, W. Smith, Barnes, Bloomfield, Barton, Forbes, W. Harvey, Foster, D. Crawford, J. Day, W. Poole, C. H. Baines, T. Harvey, J. W. Pringle. Captain Robt. Thomson, Royal Engineers. |
No. V
LETTERS
CONCERNING THE BATTLE OF WATERLOO.
Marshal Blücher to Baron Müffling.
“Wavre, June 18th, 1815.
“Your Excellency will assure the duke of Wellington from me, that, ill as I am, I shall place myself at the head of my troops, and attack the right of the French, in case they undertake anything against his Grace. If, on the other hand, the day should pass over without their making any attack, it is then my opinion that we should jointly attack them to-morrow.
“I beg your Excellency to convey to the Duke my full and firm conviction, that this is the best measure to be adopted in our present situation.
“Blücher.”
General count Gneisenau, the chief of the staff, felt alarmed at the tenor of the above letter, which told plainly the decided manner it was to be carried out. Fearing the Prussian army might be placed in a dangerous situation, should the allies be forced to retire before they could arrive, he wrote the following note:
“General count Gneisenau concurs with the views expressed in the enclosed letter, but entreats your Excellency to ascertain most particularly, whether the duke of Wellington has really adopted the decided resolution of fighting in his present position; or whether he only intends some demonstration, which might become very dangerous to our army.
“Your Excellency will be so good as to acquaint us with the result of your observations on this point, as it is of the greatest consequence that we should be informed of the Duke’s real intention.”
The Prince de la Moskowa to the Duc d’Otrante.
“MONSIEUR LE DUC,
“The most false and defamatory reports have been spreading for some days over the public mind, upon the conduct which I have pursued during this short and unfortunate campaign. The newspapers have reported those odious calumnies, and appear to lend them credit. After having fought for twenty-five years for my country, after having shed my blood for its glory and independence, an attempt is made to accuse me of treason; an attempt is made to mark me out to the people, and to the army itself, as the author of the disaster it has just experienced.
“Forced to break silence, while it is always painful to speak of one’s self, and, above all, to answer calumnies, I address myself to you, sir, as the President of the Provisional Government, for the purpose of laying before you a faithful statement of the events I have witnessed.
“On the 11th of June, I received an order from the minister of war to repair to the Imperial presence. I had no command, and no information upon the composition and strength of the army. Neither the Emperor nor his minister had given me any previous hint, from which I could anticipate that I should be employed in the present campaign; I was consequently taken by surprise, without horses, without accoutrements, and without money, and I was obliged to borrow the necessary expenses of my journey. Having arrived on the 12th at Laon, on the 13th at Avesnes, and on the 14th at Beaumont, I purchased, in this last town, two horses from the duc de Trévise, with which I repaired, on the 15th, to Charleroi, accompanied by my first aide-de-camp, the only officer who attended me. I arrived at the moment when the enemy, attacked by our troops, was retreating upon Fleurus and Gosselies.
“The Emperor ordered me immediately to put myself at the head of the 1st and 2d corps of infantry, commanded by lieutenant-generals d’Erlon and Reille, of the division of light cavalry of lieutenant-general Piré, of the division of light cavalry of the guard under the command of lieutenant-general Lefebvre-Desnouettes and Colbert, and of two divisions of cavalry of count de Valmy; forming, in all, eight divisions of infantry, and four of cavalry. With these troops, a part of which only I had as yet under my immediate command, I pursued the enemy, and forced him to evacuate Gosselies, Frasnes, Mellet, Heppignies. There they took up a position for the night, with the exception of the first corps, which was still at Marchiennes, and which did not join me till the following day.
“On the 16th, I received orders to attack the English in their position at Quatre-Bras. We advanced towards the enemy with an enthusiasm difficult to be described. Nothing resisted our impetuosity. The battle became general, and victory was no longer doubtful, when, at the moment that I intended to order up the first corps of infantry, which had been left by me in reserve at Frasnes, I learned that the Emperor had disposed of it without adverting me of the circumstance, as well as of the division of Girard of the second corps, on purpose to direct them upon St.-Amand, and to strengthen his left wing, which was vigorously engaged with the Prussians. The shock which this intelligence gave me, confounded me. Having no longer under me more than three divisions, instead of the eight upon which I calculated, I was obliged to renounce the hopes of victory; and, in spite of all my efforts, in spite of the intrepidity and devotion of my troops, my utmost efforts after that could only maintain me in my position till the close of the day. About nine o’clock, the first corps was sent me by the Emperor, to whom it had been of no service. Thus twenty-five or thirty thousand men were, I may say, paralyzed, and were idly paraded during the whole of the battle from the right to the left, and the left to the right, without firing a shot.
“It is impossible for me, sir, not to arrest your attention for a moment upon these details, in order to bring before your view all the consequences of this false movement, and, in general, of the bad arrangements during the whole of the day. By what fatality, for example, did the Emperor, instead of leading all his forces against lord Wellington, who would have been attacked unawares, and could not have resisted, consider this attack as secondary? How did the Emperor, after the passage of the Sambre, conceive it possible to fight two battles on the same day? It was to oppose forces double ours, and to do what military men who were witnesses of it can scarcely yet comprehend. Instead of this, had he left a corps of observation to watch the Prussians, and marched with his most powerful masses to support me, the English army had undoubtedly been destroyed between Quatre-Bras and Genappe; and this position, which separated the two allied armies, being once in our power, would have opened for the Emperor an opportunity of advancing to the right of the Prussians, and of crushing them in their turn. The general opinion in France, and especially in the army, was, that the Emperor would have bent his whole efforts to annihilate first the English army; and circumstances were favourable for the accomplishment of such a project: but fate ordered otherwise.
“On the 17th, the army marched in the direction of Mont-St.-Jean.
“On the 18th, the battle began at one o’clock, and though the bulletin, which details it, makes no mention of me, it is not necessary for me to mention that I was engaged in it. Lieutenant-general count Drouot has already spoken of that battle, in the House of Peers. His narration is accurate, with the exception of some important facts which he has passed over in silence, or of which he was ignorant, and which it is now my duty to declare. About seven o’clock in the evening, after the most frightful carnage which I have ever witnessed, general Labédoyère came to me with a message from the Emperor, that marshal Grouchy had arrived on our right, and attacked the left of the English and Prussians united. This general officer, in riding along the lines, spread this intelligence among the soldiers, whose courage and devotion remained unshaken, and who gave new proofs of them at that moment, in spite of the fatigue which they experienced. Immediately after, what was my astonishment, I should rather say indignation, when I learned, that so far from marshal Grouchy having arrived to support us, as the whole army had been assured, between forty and fifty thousand Prussians attacked our extreme right, and forced it to retire!
“Whether the Emperor was deceived with regard to the time when the marshal could support him, or whether the march of the marshal was retarded by the efforts of the enemy longer than was calculated upon, the fact is, that at the moment when his arrival was announced to us, he was only at Wavre upon the Dyle, which to us was the same as if he had been a hundred leagues from the field of battle.
“A short time afterwards, I saw four regiments of the middle guard, conducted by the Emperor, arriving. With these troops, he wished to renew the attack, and to penetrate the centre of the enemy. He ordered me to lead them on: generals, officers, and soldiers, all displayed the greatest intrepidity; but this body of troops was too weak to resist, for a long time, the forces opposed to it by the enemy, and it was soon necessary to renounce the hope which this attack had, for a few moments, inspired. General Friant had been struck with a ball by my side; and I myself had my horse killed, and fell under it. The brave men who will return from this terrible battle will, I hope, do me the justice to say, that they saw me on foot with sword in hand during the whole of the evening, and that I only quitted the scene of carnage among the last, and at the moment when retreat could no longer be prevented. At the same time, the Prussians continued their offensive movements, and our right sensibly retired; the English advanced in their turn. There remained to us still four squares of the old guard to protect the retreat. These brave grenadiers, the choice of the army, forced successively to retire, yielded ground foot by foot, till, overwhelmed by numbers, they were almost entirely annihilated. From that moment, a retrograde movement was declared, and the army formed nothing but a confused mass. There was not, however, a total rout, nor the cry of Sauve qui peut, as has been calumniously stated in the bulletin. As for myself, constantly in the rear-guard, which I followed on foot, having all my horses killed, worn out with fatigue, covered with contusions, and having no longer strength to march, I owe my life to a corporal who supported me on the road, and did not abandon me during the retreat. At eleven at night, I found lieutenant-general Lefebvre-Desnouettes; and one of his officers, major Schmidt, had the generosity to give me the only horse that remained to him. In this manner I arrived at Marchiennes-au-Pont at four o’clock in the morning, alone, without any officers of my staff, ignorant of what had become of the Emperor, who, before the end of the battle, had entirely disappeared, and who, I was allowed to believe, might be either killed or taken prisoner. General Pamphile Lacroix, chief of the staff of the second corps, whom I found in this town, having told me that the Emperor was at Charleroi, I was led to suppose that his Majesty was going to put himself at the head of marshal Grouchy’s corps, to cover the Sambre, and to facilitate to the troops the means of rallying towards Avesnes, and, with this persuasion, I went to Beaumont; but parties of cavalry following on too near, and having already intercepted the roads of Maubeuge and Philippeville, I became sensible of the total impossibility of arresting a single soldier on that point, to oppose the progress of the victorious enemy. I continued my march upon Avesnes, where I could obtain no intelligence of what had become of the Emperor.
“In this state of matters, having no knowledge of his Majesty nor of the Major-General, confusion increasing every moment, and, with the exception of some fragments of regiments of the guard and of the line, every one following his own inclination, I determined immediately to go to Paris by St.-Quentin, to disclose, as quickly as possible, the true state of affairs to the minister of war, that he might send to the army some fresh troops, and take the measures which circumstances rendered necessary. At my arrival at Bourget, (two leagues from Paris,) I learned that the Emperor had passed there at nine o’clock in the morning.
“Such, M. le duc, is the history of this calamitous campaign.
“Now I ask those who have survived this fine and numerous army, how I can be accused of the disasters of which it has been the victim, and of which our military annals furnish no example. I have, it is said, betrayed my country, I who, to serve it, have shown a zeal which I perhaps have carried to an extravagant height: but this calumny is supported by no fact, by no circumstance. But how can these odious reports, which spread with frightful rapidity, be arrested? If, in the researches which I could make on this subject, I did not fear almost as much to discover as to be ignorant of the truth, I would say, that all was a tendency to convince that I have been unworthily deceived, and that it is attempted to cover, with the pretence of treason, the faults and extravagancies of this campaign; faults which have not been avowed in the bulletins that have appeared, and against which I in vain raised that voice of truth which I will yet cause to resound in the House of Peers.
“I expect, from the candour of your Excellency, and from your indulgence to me, that you will cause this letter to be inserted in the Journal, and give it the greatest possible publicity.
“Marshal prince de la Moskowa.
“Paris, June 26th, 1815.”
No. VI
ANECDOTES
RELATIVE TO THE CAMPAIGN OF WATERLOO.
At a period of the battle, when the Duke was surrounded by his staff, it was evident they had become the object of the fire from a French battery. The shot fell fast around them. Their horses became restive, and Copenhagen himself (the Duke’s horse,) so fidgety, that the Duke became impatient, and having reasons for remaining on the spot, said, “Gentlemen, we are rather too close together: better divide a little.”
On one occasion Wellington rode up to Picton’s division, just as a hot fire of musketry opened upon the 92d. The staff expected every instant to see him drop, as he sat coolly watching the effect of the enemy’s fire: but he remained untouched; as did also lord Arthur Hill, who was the only officer that had accompanied him to the crest of the ground.
During the battle, a British artillery officer rode up to the duke of Wellington and said, “Your Grace, I have a distinct view of Napoleon, attended by his staff: my guns are well pointed in that direction, shall I open fire?” The Duke replied, “Certainly not, I will not allow it; it is not the business of commanders to fire upon each other.”
From this it is evident that circumstances alter cases, as may be seen by the following expression of the Duke: “I cannot discover the policy of not hitting one’s enemy as hard as one can, and in the most vulnerable place.” (Dispatches, vol. XI, page 547.)
Whilst the Duke was occupied intently in observing with his telescope a movement in the enemy’s line, some of their skirmishers were pressing on, and the musket-balls began to whistle round his Grace in such profusion, that colonel Gordon was induced to take the bridle of the Duke’s charger, and lead him forward to a hollow, where he was in shelter; and so intent was his Grace in observing the enemy, that it was accomplished without his noticing it. Throughout this long and trying day, the Duke was always to be seen where danger threatened, or difficulties arose, fearlessly passing from point to point, and constantly exposed to the fire of the enemy, protected doubtlessly by a merciful and all-wise Providence, to add still further lustre to his name by his continued services to his country.
During the heat of the battle, the Duke was about to pass in front of a Nassau square, the troops composing which had served Napoleon, when several of his staff requested his Grace to pass by its rear: had he rode along the front, the simple process of pulling a single trigger might have blasted all our expectations, and injured the cause of Europe more than did the whole efforts of Napoleon and his army.
The arms, clothing, and general bearing of the Nassau-men were truly French: their splendid rifle-green uniform, broad buff cross-belts, handsome white cased cap and tall black plume, produced a martial and imposing appearance.
A hussar and a cuirassier had got entangled in the mêlée, and met in the plain, in full view of our line; the hussar was without a cap, and bleeding from a wound in the head, but that did not hinder him from attacking his steel-clad adversary. He soon proved that the strength of cavalry consist in good horsemanship, and the skilful use of the sword, and not in being clad in heavy defensive armour. The superiority of the hussar was visible the moment the swords crossed: after a few wheels a tremendous facer made the Frenchman reel in his saddle, and all his attempts to escape his more active foe became unavailing; a second blow stretched him on the ground, amidst the cheers of the light horseman’s comrades, the 3d German hussars, who were ardent spectators of the combat.
During the cavalry charges, a man, named Gilmore, of captain Elphinstone’s troop, and belonging to my regiment, was lying under his wounded grey horse, about two hundred yards in our front. The cuirassiers were advancing; and as I was aware they spared none who fell into their hands, I sprang from my saddle, soon reached the spot, and seizing the bridle raised the horse’s head; when the animal making a struggle, Gilmore was enabled to extricate himself, and to reach our line just before the enemy’s cavalry came up. The pleasure I felt on this occasion will be understood by any one who has had the opportunity of saving life.—Two other human beings, one, a lad, David Bale, at Clapham, in Surrey; another, a boy, named Tannis, in the village of Mont-St.-Jean, I was providentially enabled to rescue from drowning.
I witnessed an encounter during the battle, between an artillery-man and a cuirassier: the former was under his gun; the latter dodging round, endeavouring to run his sword through him. At length the cuirassier’s horse was shot, and the gunner, getting from his place of shelter, dealt a blow with his ramrod upon the head of his antagonist, which felled him to the ground: he then seized upon the cuirassier’s sword, and collaring him, proceeded towards the rear. On passing us, the gunner gave his prisoner a kick on the hind part of his person, saying, “Be off to the rear.”
On the morning of the 18th, colonel Ellis, of the 23d Royal Welsh fuzileers, issued an order that no man was to fall out of the ranks to assist the wounded. Upon the colonel being severely wounded, captain Brown ordered two men to follow and assist him to the rear; but the gallant colonel declined their services, observing, “There are not too many bayonets in the Royal Welsh, return to your post.” This strict adherence to discipline, and disinterestedness, no doubt cost him his life, and deprived the service of one of its brightest ornaments. (See Dispatches, vol. XII, p. 610-611.)
The day before the battle of Waterloo, captain Elphinstone, of the 7th hussars, was grievously wounded and taken prisoner. His condition was noticed by Napoleon, who immediately sent one of his surgeons to dress his wounds; and perceiving that, from loss of blood, Elphinstone had swooned away, he sent a silver goblet full of wine from his own store. On the arrival of the Bellerophon in England, lord Keith presented his grateful thanks to Napoleon, for having saved the life of his nephew.
On the 29th of May, (prior to the battle,) we had a grand review of the cavalry and horse artillery. After the review most of the superior officers breakfasted with lord Uxbridge, at Ninove. Old Blücher was amongst them, and openly declared, he had not given the world credit for containing so many fine men as he had seen that day. Our infantry, although not such fine-looking fellows, still bore away the foremost laurels of the day of battle. On parting, Blücher wished all a good day, exclaiming, “We shall soon meet again in Paris.”
In 1818, Blücher was one of a large party at Berlin, where much merriment and jesting went on from the proposal and solution of enigmas. Blücher at once absorbed the attention of all the guests, by saying, “I will do what none of you can, I will kiss my own head;” and while all were wondering how that was to be done, the old man added with the utmost assurance, “This is the way;” when rising, he approached his friend Gneisenau, whom he kissed and embraced most heartily.
Blücher, when at dinner with the ministers of several different states of Europe, gave as a toast, “May the diplomatists not again spoil with their pens, that which the armies have with so much cost won with their swords!”
Happening to meet the Prussian minister, prince Hardenberg, he thus boldly addressed him, “I only wish I had you gentlemen of the pen, exposed for once to a pretty smart skirmishing fire, that you might learn what it is when the soldier is obliged to repair with his life’s blood the errors which you so thoughtlessly commit on paper.”
The following fact shows that no personal considerations restrained him from indulging in his splenetic humour against the great diplomatist of the day:
Nearly everybody knows that, immediately after the convention of Paris, Blücher was desirous to destroy the bridge of Jena, and that he would undoubtedly have carried his intentions into effect, had it not been for the urgent representations of the duke of Wellington.
On that occasion, count von der Golz, formerly his aide-de-camp, and then Prussian ambassador in Paris, made a written application to him in behalf and in the name of prince Talleyrand, beseeching the preservation of the bridge. Blücher replied in his own hand-writing, “I have resolved upon blowing up the bridge, and I cannot conceal from your Excellency how much pleasure it would afford me, if Monsieur de Talleyrand would previously station himself upon it; and I beg you will make my wish known to him.”
When Blücher was at Oxford, in 1814, with the emperors and kings, the Prince Regent and the duke of Wellington, he received an intimation that the heads of the University intended to confer upon him the dignity of a Doctor. Blücher, who never dreamed of becoming one of the learned, could not refrain from laughter, and jocularly remarked, “Well, if I am to be a doctor, they cannot do less than make Gneisenau an apothecary: for we both work together; and it is he who has to make up the pills, which I am in the habit of administering110.”
On the 15th of June, 1815, the French general Bourmont, colonels Clouet and Villoutreys, with three captains, deserted Napoleon, and came over to the Prussians. When Bourmont was presented to Blücher, the latter could not refrain from evincing his contempt for the faithless soldier. Some officers tried to impress him more favourably towards the general, by directing his attention to the white cockade which he wore in a conspicuous fashion: the Prince bluntly remarked, “It matters not what a man sticks in his hat for a mark; a mean-spirited scoundrel always remains the same.”
In a private letter from Blücher to sir Hudson Lowe, written many months anterior to Bonaparte’s quitting Elba, after disavowing all desire for future triumphs, he expressed a hope, that if again called upon to act, it might be in conjunction with the general and army that had immortalized themselves in the Peninsula, when Wellington and himself would go hand in hand to victory. It was truly a prophetic epistle.
“It has always occurred to me, however,” says the Duke, (upon the battle of Leipsick,) “that if Bonaparte had not placed himself in a position that every other officer would have avoided111, and had not remained in it longer than was consistent with any notions of prudence, he would have retired in such a state, that the allies could not have ventured to approach the Rhine.” (Dispatches, vol. XI, page 435.)
It is always interesting to know what estimate great commanders have formed of one another. During the Peninsular campaign, marshal Marmont, with about sixty thousand men, approached Wellington’s position at Fuente-Guinaldo, when the iron Duke’s force did not exceed two thousand five hundred horse, and two weak divisions of infantry. Still he exhibited the same coolness and imperturbable self-possession, which, in emergency, invariably marked his distinguished and successful career. On this occasion, the Spanish general Alava, whose enlightened patriotism and high military qualities had endeared him to the Duke, thus accosted him, “Here you are with a couple of weak divisions in front of the whole French army; and you seem quite at your ease! Why, it is enough to put any man in a fever!”—“I have done according to the very best of my judgment all that can be done,” was the characteristic reply of the British commander, “and therefore I care not either for the enemy in front, or for anything which they may say at home.”
Upon Marmont’s being informed, that, for thirty-six hours, Wellington, with about fourteen thousand men, had lain within cannon range of him, his astonishment was unbounded; and he is said to have exclaimed, that, “Brilliant as was Napoleon’s star, Wellington’s was more brilliant still.” Marshal Marmont’s discrimination was amply proved at Waterloo.
Lieutenant-colonel Ponsonby, of the 12th light dragoons, gives the following account of himself on being wounded. He says,
“In the mêlée (thick of the fight) I was almost instantly disabled in both my arms, losing first my sword, and then my rein; and, followed by a few of my men who were presently cut down, no quarter being asked or given, I was carried along by my horse, till, receiving a blow from a sabre, I fell senseless on my face to the ground. Recovering, I raised myself a little to look round, being at that time in a condition to get up and run away, when a lancer passing by, cried out, ‘Tu n’es pas mort, coquin!’ and struck his lance through my back. My head dropped, the blood gushed into my mouth, a difficulty of breathing came on, and I thought all was over. Not long after, a skirmisher stopped to plunder me, threatening my life: I directed him to a small side-pocket, in which he found three dollars, all I had; but he continued to threaten, tearing open my waistcoat, and leaving me in a very uneasy posture.
“But he was no sooner gone, than an officer bringing up some troops, and happening to halt where I lay, stooped down, and addressing me, said, he feared I was badly wounded. I answered that I was, and expressed a wish to be moved to the rear. He said it was against orders, to remove even their own men; but that, if they gained the day, (and he understood that the duke of Wellington was killed, and that six of our battalions had surrendered,) every attention in his power should be shown me. I complained of thirst, and he held his brandy bottle to my lips, directing one of his soldiers to lay me straight on my side, and place a knapsack under my head: they then passed on into action, soon perhaps to want, though not to receive, the same assistance; and I shall never know to whose generosity I was indebted, as I believe, for my life.
“By and by, another skirmisher came up, a fine young man, full of ardour, loading and firing: he knelt down and fired over me many times, conversing with me very gaily all the while: at last he ran off, saying, ‘Vous serez bien aise d’apprendre que nous allons nous retirer. Bonjour, mon ami.’ (‘You will be pleased to learn that we are going to fall back. Good day, my friend.’) It was dusk, when two squadrons of Prussian cavalry crossed the valley in full trot, lifting me from the ground, and tumbling me about cruelly.
“The battle was now over, and the groans of the wounded all around me, became more and more audible: I thought the night never would end. About this time, I found a soldier lying across my legs, and his weight, his convulsive motions, his noises, and the air issuing through a wound in his side, distressed me greatly; the last circumstance most of all, as I had a wound of the same nature myself. It was not a dark night, and the Prussians were wandering about to plunder: many of them stopped to look at me as they passed; at last one of them stopped to examine me: I told him that I was a British officer, and had been already plundered. He did not however desist, and pulled me about roughly.
“An hour before midnight, I saw a man in an English uniform, coming towards me; he was, I suspected, on the same errand. I spoke instantly, telling him who I was: he belonged to the 40th, and had missed his regiment. He released me from the dying soldier, took up a sword, and stood over me as sentinel. Day broke, and at six o’clock in the morning a messenger was sent to Hervé: a cart came for me, and I was conveyed to the village of Waterloo, and laid in the bed, as I afterwards understood, from which Gordon had but just before been carried out. I had received seven wounds; a surgeon slept in my room, and I was saved by excessive bleeding.”
Related by an officer.
... “Early on the following morning, the survivors arose and hurried out to seek, amidst the dying and the dead, those comrades and friends of whose fate they were as yet ignorant112. But even earlier still had the wretches who hang on the skirts of every army, for the purpose of rifling the new-made corpse, been at work: the watches and purses of many were already gone; while many a brave heart, still throbbing, had received its coup de grâce from the hands of these merciless plunderers.
“Waterloo was won; the sun set upon a scene of slaughter, and the stillness of death succeeded the roar of battle. The thunder of five hundred cannons, the roll of musketry, the shock of mail-clad horsemen, the Highland slogan, the Irish huzza, were heard no more; and the moon gleamed coldly on a field of death, whose silence was only broken by the groans of the wounded, as they lay in helpless wretchedness beside their dead companions.
“While many a sufferer listened to every sound in anxious expectation of relief, a dropping fire was occasionally heard in the direction of Genappe, announcing that the broken army of Napoleon was fiercely followed by its conquerors.
“Wearied by the unparalleled exertions of the tremendous day of Waterloo, the British pursuit gradually relaxed, and the light cavalry halted on the right of the road to Quatre-Bras; but the Prussians, less fatigued, continued to harass the flying enemy, and the mingled mass of fugitives were forced from every village where they had attempted to form bivacs. A barrier was hastily thrown across the entrance of Genappe, to arrest the progress of the jägers and hussars that hung upon the rear of the guard; but it was blown down by a few discharges of a howitzer, and the French were driven from the town. Throughout the disastrous night not a moment of repose was granted to the terror-stricken. To attempt anything like serious resistance to their pursuers, where all were inextricably confused, was absurd. Officers and soldiers were mobbed together; discipline had ended: none attempted to direct, where none were found to obey; and with unrelenting fury the Prussian cavalry sabred the exhausted fugitives, till, after passing Gosselies and Charleroi, the wreck of Napoleon’s army found a temporary shelter beneath the walls of Philippeville.
“That night, the British bivac was on the same ridge which their beaten enemy had occupied on the preceding one; and as I lay upon the ground, I heard at times, and at no great distance from me, the voices of my more fortunate companions who had escaped from the slaughter, and some were roaming over the field in search of plunder. Momentarily, I expected that a friendly straggler would pass by. I must have been for a considerable period insensible; for the place where I fell, although the theatre of the final struggle between the relics of Ney’s columns and the British guards, was now totally deserted by the living, and cumbered only with the dying and the dead.
“I seemed as if awakening from a dream: a difficulty of respiration painfully annoyed me, and I endeavoured to rise; but a weight, too mighty to be removed, pressed me to the earth. My sight was imperfect, my eyelids felt closed. I disengaged my left hand, and raising it to my face, found that a mask of congealed blood covered it. I rubbed it away, and, prepared as I was for a sanguinary spectacle by the continuous moanings of wounded men and dying horses, I closed my eyes in horror, when the clear cold moonlight revealed the sickening scene.
“Directly over me, and in the very attitude in which he had groaned his last, an officer of the old guard was stretched: our faces were nearly touching, and his open eyes had fixed their glassy stare on mine. A sword-cut had divided his upper lip, and, exposing the teeth, gave to the dead man’s countenance a grin so horrible and ghastly, that I who had witnessed death in every form, was glad to avert my eyes. I made a desperate effort to shake him off; but a horse’s neck rested on my legs, and my feeble exertions were quite unequal to rid me of this double load.
“While suffering great inconvenience of position, I felt the cold intense, and thirst intolerable. No relief was attainable; the groans of the dying were unheard, and I sullenly submitted to my fate. But morning must soon break, and then probably I should be succoured. Could I but disengage myself from the dead man who pressed me almost to suffocation, I might endure pain, cold, and thirst. I made another effort, it failed; and, in despair, I laid my head upon the ground, moistened with my own blood and that of my departed enemy. Just then a voice immediately beside me, uttered a feeble supplication for some water. I turned my head, and saw a young ensign, whose leg had been shattered by the wheels of a gun, raise himself upon his elbow, and look across the field, in hope of discovering some one who would relieve him. Nor were his cries unheard: a man dressed in the dark uniform of a Prussian jäger, and armed with the short sword which rifle-troops carry, approached the sufferer; but, alas! he was not on the errand of mercy. Seizing the wounded man rudely, and deaf to his entreaties, he commenced his work of plunder. I heard the chinking of a purse, and a trinket, a watch, or locket, glittered in the moonlight, as he tore it from the bosom of the prostrate ensign.
“Oh! no, no, I cannot, will not part with that!” a low weak voice muttered; “it was my mother’s dying gift: I will never part with it!” A struggle ensued, but it was a short one: the ruffian, irritated at resistance, raised himself, and with a home-thrust silenced the poor youth for ever. Great God! that such a scene of death should be increased by the hand of murder!
“I grew sick; I feared to breathe: my death was to be the next, for he had quickly plundered the body of his victim, and turned to the dead guardsman who lay across my breast. Suddenly he stopped, listened, and gazed suspiciously around; then sank down behind, and stretched himself upon the field.
“My heart beat again. Two men came forward, and they too were plundering. But surely, all could not be so ruthless as the crouching wretch beside me! Nearer and nearer they approached; and, sounds of joy! they conversed in my native tongue. I listened with exquisite delight, and never did human voices appear so sweet as theirs. They were grenadiers of the line, and one of them wore a sergeant’s stripes. Without a moment’s hesitation I addressed them; and an appeal in their native language was not disregarded, I was promptly answered in kindly tones; and while one caught the defunct Frenchman by the collar and flung him aside, his comrade extricated my legs from the dead charger, and assisted me to rise up.
“I found myself in the centre of a heap of corpses; to take a second step without treading on a body was impossible; yet I scarce regarded the scene of slaughter: my eyes were riveted upon one corpse, that of the poor lad whom the crouching jäger had so brutally murdered.
“I stood up with difficulty; a faintness overpowered me: I staggered, and would have fallen, but the sergeant supported me, while his comrade held a canteen to my mouth. It contained brandy diluted with water, and, to one parched as I was, the draught was exquisitely grateful. My deliverers appeared anxious to move off, either to obtain fresh plunder, or secure that already acquired; and which, to judge from the size of their havresacs, must have been considerable. I begged them to assist me from the field; but they declined it, alleging that they must rejoin their regiment before day-break. At this moment my eyes encountered those of the jäger, who lay as motionless behind the dead horse as any of the corpses that surrounded him. If I remained, (and I could not walk without support,) the chances were immense that the villain would speedily remove one who had witnessed a deed of robbery and murder, and I made a fresh appeal to my worthy countrymen:
“Sergeant, I will reward you handsomely: do not desert me.”
“I cannot remain longer, sir: morning is breaking, and you will soon have relief enough,” was the reply.
“It will never reach me: there is one within three paces, who will not permit me to look upon another sun.”
“Both soldiers started.
“What do you mean?” exclaimed the sergeant eagerly.
“Mark you that Prussian sharp-shooter who skulks behind the horse?”
“What of him?” asked the grenadier.
“Yonder dead officer supplicated assistance from that scoundrel, and he answered him with curses, and commenced plundering him directly. I saw him take a purse, and tear away his epaulette. Some other article the poor fellow feebly attempted to retain; and the villain, before my eyes, stabbed him to the heart. Hearing your approach, he hid himself behind that charger: need I add, that there he lies until you leave this spot, and that I shall most probably be his next victim?”
“You shall not, by Heaven!” exclaimed the sergeant, as he drew his sword and stepped over the dead horse. The Prussian, who had no doubt watched the conference attentively, sprang upon his feet on the first movement of the grenadier; but his fate was sealed: before the sergeant’s comrade could unsheath his bayonet, the jäger was cut down, and the murderer rolled in the agonies of death beside the unfortunate youth whom but a few minutes before he had so ruthlessly slaughtered.
“The corpse was speedily plundered by the grenadiers, and the spoil of the rifleman, when united to their booty, made, as I suspect, a valuable addition.
“The moonlight was now yielding to the grey tint of early day, and the chief cause of my apprehensions being removed by the jäger’s death, I found leisure to scrutinize my deliverers.
“The first was a very powerful and athletic man, whose years might be set down at forty: his vigorous frame was perfectly unbroken, and his look bespoke a daring and unhesitating resolution. Indeed, his whole appearance was much above his rank; he seemed a war-worn, dissipated soldier: to him a field of battle was no novelty; and the perfect nonchalance with which he dispatched the Prussian, betrayed a recklessness regarding human life, rather befitting a bandit than a soldier.
“His companion, a very young man, was a fine strapping flanker, and in everything appeared to be wholly governed by the will of his comrade. He touched the dead, I thought, with some repugnance, and seemed of gentler heart and milkier disposition than might be expected in a midnight plunderer upon a battle field.
“See, the dawn breaks rapidly,” said the non-commissioned officer to the young grenadier: “we must be off, Macmanus.... We leave you safe, sir; yonder black sharp-shooter will never draw another trigger. Pick up a musket for the gentleman; we must not leave him without the means of keeping stragglers at a distance, should any come prowling here, before the fatigue-parties arrive to carry off the wounded. Here, sir, take another pull at the brandy-flask; nothing keeps up a sinking heart so well.”
“Thanks, my kind fellow, I owe you my life. Had you left me to yon black scoundrel, he would have served me as he did our comrade there. What are your names, your regiment? I shall take care to report your timely services to....”
The elder of the grenadiers laughed: “You are but a young soldier, sir, and this, as I suspect, your first field. I know you mean us kindly, but silence is the best service you can render us. We should have been with the advance near Genappe, instead of collecting lost property upon the plains of Waterloo. Well, we fought hard enough yesterday to allow us a right to share what no one claims, before the Flemish clowns come here by cock-crow. Adieu!” As he spoke, his companion handed me a musket, after trying the barrel with a ramrod, and ascertaining from flint and pan that it was both loaded and serviceable.
“Enough; I ask no questions. But here are a few guineas.”
“Which we do not require,” said the sergeant. “We have made a good night’s work, and your money, young sir, we neither want, nor take. If we have rendered you service, it was for the sake of the old country. It is hard to shut one’s ears, when the first language that we lisped in from the cradle asks pity in the field. Farewell, sir; morning a comes on apace.”
“And yet,” I replied, “I might perhaps at some time serve you. You know the fable: the Mouse once cut a net, and saved a Lion. I am indeed but a young soldier: but should I be able to be serviceable at any future period, ask for J—— B——, and he will remember the night of Waterloo.”
“Of all the fields that ever were seen, Waterloo presented perhaps the most bloody. The small space over which the action had been fought, rendered the scene indeed appalling: masses of dead appearing as it were piled on each other.”
The field of Waterloo is twelve miles and a quarter from Brussels; Quatre-Bras, twenty-one; and Ligny, twenty-eight miles: notwithstanding the great difference in the distances of those places, the firing at Ligny and Quatre-Bras was more distinctly heard at Brussels on the 16th, than that of Waterloo on the 18th.
Our detached force at Hall, which is about nine miles from Waterloo, heard nothing of the firing, nor did they know until the following morning, (the 19th,) how busily we had been engaged.
No. VII
As a tribute of the Author’s respectful gratitude for the information he has obtained from many officers who have visited the field, and, with all the advantages of being on the spot, have discussed the leading questions which have been raised in the United Service Journal, and so many other publications, respecting the details of the battle, their names are subjoined:
GENERALS.
Lord John Hay.
Sir Hussey Vivian.
Sir A. Barnard.
Sir H. Ross.
Sir Colin Campbell.
Sir Guy Campbell.
Sir F. Adam.
Alexander Macdonald.
J. B. Parker.
D. Mercer.
W. Mayne.
T. Reynell.
H. Murray.
Thomas Hunter Blair.
T. W. Robbins.
J. S. Kennedy.
COLONELS.
Hon. Keppell.
Sir W. Verner, Bart.
Sir Henry Floyd, Bart.
Sir G. Hoste.
G. Gurwood.
T. Wildman.
Bussche.
Vigouroux.
Forbes.
N. Norcliffe.
Gilbourne.
Lord Douro.
Grey.
Calvert.
Tinling.
Parkinson.
Wallace.
Grove.
Bruce.
Kuhlman.
Lord Grosvenor.
Lord Wellesley.
Hon. G. Cathcart.
Brown.
MAJORS.
Turner.
Tindale.
Browne.
Dawson.
Jackson.
Edward Macready.
Belcher.
Fowler.
Cox.
Rice.
Lloyd.
Maddox.
Ainsley.
Hawley.
Two other officers of high rank, who served on the Duke’s staff, have given me information respecting some of the most important occurrences of the day, but not permission to publish their names, as they had previously refused this favour to several writers of distinction.
The following letters are submitted to the reader as offering satisfactory evidence of the Author’s competency to attempt a narration of the battle, and to act as guide to the visitors to the field, as well as of the authenticity of the spoils and relics, which any one may inspect at his residence, Mont-St.-Jean:
“Ems, July 23d, 1839.
“SERGEANT-MAJOR COTTON,
“I promised to write to you, but I have not had time to do so till now, since I saw you at Waterloo. You were desirous of having my testimony of the authenticity of the different articles collected from the field, that I saw in your house. I can have no hesitation in giving it generally. Many of the things I saw, I could speak to as having belonged to regiments of my own brigade.
“It is but just also to you to say, that the account you gave me of the various occurrences of the day, was, as far as I knew, extremely correct, and by no means exaggerated, and I give you full credit for the pains you have taken to collect the details. I sincerely hope, that from the occupation you have undertaken, you will derive the means of passing the remainder of your days in competence and comfort; and thus reap the reward of your intelligence, on a field where you had previously proved your courage.
“Your friend,
“Hussey Vivian, lieutenant-general.”
“I have seen at various times, Sergeant-Major Cotton’s collection of spoils of the campaign of 1815, and I am of opinion that they are genuine relics, and such as may be relied on.
“Henry Floyd, Bart., colonel unattached,
captain 10th hussars at Waterloo.
“Brussels, 1848.”
“Brussels, October 2d, 1845.
“SERGEANT-MAJOR COTTON,
“I received so much satisfaction from our walk over the field of Waterloo yesterday, that I am induced to leave with you the expression of it.
“Being anxious to satisfy myself regarding certain operations of the day, particularly the movements of the light brigade, (52d, 71st, 95th,) to which I belonged, I found your exact knowledge of the ground, and the numerous details you have collected, highly instructive and interesting.
“I am glad to learn that you intend publishing a memoir of the battle, and will not fail to become a purchaser as soon as it appears.
“Your sincere well-wisher,
“Thomas Hunter Blair, colonel.”
“Namur, June 29th, 1846.
“SERGEANT-MAJOR COTTON,
“I have read your book... with very great interest.... Thinking from our conversation on the field respecting the present condition of the ground on which Halkett’s brigade acted, that you would be pleased to know the opinion of even so undistinguished a member of that body as myself, respecting your explanation of the events of the battle thereabouts,... I hesitate not to say that I was at once surprised and gratified to hear from you... the best and most correct detail of the proceedings... that I have either heard or read.... Further... you made me far better acquainted with the details of what occurred at Hougoumont, and to its right, than I ever was before.
“Hoping you may long enjoy health to pursue the interesting occupation for which your soldierly qualities and intelligence so well fit you, I remain, etc.
“Edward Macready, major unattached;
of the 30th, at Waterloo.”
The following document is to the Author, and probably it will be to not a few of his readers, deeply interesting: it is from the late lamented colonel Gurwood, whose labour in collecting and publishing the Wellington Dispatches, whilst it rendered an invaluable, perhaps an unrequited service to his country and to civilization, broke his health, and bore down his gallant spirit:
“70, Lowndes-square, London, June 18th, 1843.
“SERGEANT-MAJOR COTTON,
“I have had a set of the Dispatches of the Duke of Wellington packed up to be forwarded to you, which I shall endeavour to send you on the return of king Leopold to Brussels, to the care of sir G. H. Seymour, her Majesty’s minister, to whom I shall write to inform you when they arrive.
“The marquis of Anglesey has much enhanced the value of my present to you, in writing his name in the title page at my request, and he appeared much pleased at gratifying an old soldier of his regiment.
“Very faithfully yours,
“J. Gurwood.”
A RELIC.
On the 15th of May 1846, colonel Macdonald, of the Royal artillery, visited the Author’s interesting collection at Mont-St.-Jean, of arms, etc., spoils of the Waterloo campaign. The gallant veteran recognized his own sword of a curious workmanship, that had been lost on the field, when he was wounded.
This precious relic the colonel left with the Author, giving him the following certificate:
“This sword I wore at the battle of Waterloo, and after I was wounded my servant left it on the field.
“Alexander Macdonald, colonel,
“Royal horse artillery113.
“Waterloo, May 15th, 1846.”
Amongst the kind presents which the Author has received from his countrymen, for his Waterloo Museum and library, at Mont-St.-Jean, he gratefully mentions the following:
“Selections from Dispatches, etc., of the Duke of Wellington, by colonel Gurwood;
“Presented by Lieutenant-Colonel N. Norcliffe, K. H., of Langton-Hall, Yorkshire, to his fellow soldier, Sergeant-Major Cotton, late of the 7th hussars.
“July 25th, 1842.”
“Blackheath, July 30th, 1846.
“SERGEANT-MAJOR COTTON,
“Alderman Moon rejoiced in being able to gratify the patriotic feelings of an old Waterloo hero, and at once offered to present you with a copy of his celebrated engraving of the Waterloo Banquet, which he trusts you will frame and place in your Museum.
“Francis Bennock.”
“Mr. Billen has much pleasure... in sending Sergeant-Major Cotton an engraved portrait of the brave general Sir James Kempt, and further promises, should he have the honour to engrave any other officers who took part in that eventful day, to send an impression to Sergeant-Major Cotton.
“23, High-street, Camden-town, 6th September, 1842.”
Of the first edition of this work, the following notice appeared in a London journal:
“The author of the unpretending little volume before us is principal guide to the field of battle. This duty he is well qualified to perform from his intimate knowledge of the ground, near which he has resided during eleven years, and from his zealous endeavours to render himself master of facts, by studious research, and by communicating on the spot with military men of all ranks and nations.
“The qualifications that recommend sergeant-major Cotton as guide, have facilitated his efforts to put in print those events which he is daily required to narrate verbally; and it is but justice to say that he has accomplished his task lucidly, impartially, and in plain, straight-forward language, becoming his position and antecedents.
“He states in sober and graphic terms, how the tempest first gathered and suddenly burst forth in advance of Charleroi, next upon our allies at Ligny, and our own advance corps at Quatre-Bras; he informs us of the principal incidents that led to the grand crisis, as well as of the measures adopted by the British commander to stem the torrent. The author likewise gives an intelligible sketch of the limited tactical movements executed during the battle.
“Sergeant-major Cotton shows us how the lion-hearted Glengary, with Hepburn, Saltoun, and their indomitable brother guardsmen, immortalized Hougoumont. He carries us with Hamilton and his Grey squadrons into the thick of the onslaught, where the Household cavalry and Union brigades, the pride of English chivalry, hurled themselves upon their brave antagonists. He does not forget the ‘Up, guards, and make ready!’ or the resistless charge that followed; nor does he pass over in silence the unflinching valour with which Baring’s Hanoverians so long maintained their dangerous post. The author points out where the ardent Irish, thigh by thigh with heroic Highlanders, or knee by knee with stalworth English, bore down compactly upon advancing infantry, or with admirable coolness threw themselves into those impenetrable squares, wherein our devoted gunners found momentary shelter, when the field was swept by cuirassed hosts, more impetuous and daring than successful. We could willingly quote several interesting and graphic passages from sergeant-major Cotton’s clear and well-written narrative, from which we have risen with a more distinct acquaintance with the subject and scene, than we had hitherto derived from works of higher pretensions. But, as the whole volume merits perusal, we will content ourselves with expressing hopes that this Voice from Waterloo may find an echo in public favour, and that our veteran hussar’s pen may gain for him laurels more substantial than those already earned by his well-tried sabre.” (Morning Chronicle, 22d January, 1846.)
Extract from the Brussels Herald.
We have much pleasure in reprinting, from the Literary Gazette of last Saturday, the following notice of sergeant-major Cotton’s new work, A Voice from Waterloo:
“The author was in the fight in the 7th hussars. He has since resided for years at Mont-St.-Jean, where this volume is published; and he acts as a guide to visitors when they desire to inspect this famous battle field.
“Sergeant-major Cotton says, (page 201,) ‘Facts are stubborn things;’ and with the qualifications we have noticed, he is the very man to tell us all about it. And he has told us in a very circumstantial manner, separating details from masses, and altogether afforded us a better idea of this dreadful encounter than we have gathered from any other quarter. We had, by a curious coincidence, just arrived at this conclusion on reading his book, when we had an opportunity, in common with a number of leading artists and connoisseurs, of seeing Mr. Sidney Cooper’s Battle of Waterloo, painted for the approaching exhibition in Westminster-Hall. We were at once wonderfully struck with the apparent realization of the accounts which had just made such an impression on our minds. It seemed as if the artist had been present with the writer, and transferred in the most graphic and spirited manner to the canvass what he had committed with such particular effect to the paper. The chivalrous encounters, the almost single combats, the groups of cavalry slaughterings, the flight, the rally, the rush of riderless horses, the dying and the dead scattered among the trampled corn: all told the terrible tale of the last charge and effort of the French to retrieve the discomfiture of the day. Of these Mr. Cooper has made a stirring and splendid use. It is indeed a battle-piece, and upon the largest scale, such as never has been produced before by English painter, if by the greatest foreign master, in this style of art. The artist is sublime in the mysteries of moving human columns under the canopy of smoke, through which the spectator may easily imagine he hears the cannon boom. The whole is real, yet imaginative; and inspires at the same moment feelings of intense individual interest, and general awe. With regard to the author we need not add any other comment. Though he mentions that the Duke and Blücher met at La Belle-Alliance after the battle, we think he shows that this could not have been the case; and we have reason to believe that no such meeting ever took place114.”
The End
Footnotes
103 See, page 229, the proclamation of Louis XVIII to the French people, dated Cambray, the 28th June, 1815.
104 See lord Bathurst’s dispatch of the 7th July, and the Duke’s answer of the 13th, Gurwood, vol. XII, page 557.
105 See the duke of Wellington’s dispatch to lord Bathurst of the 8th July. (Gurwood, vol. XII, page 549,) detailing a conversation which took place with the duc d’Otrante at Neuilly, on the night of the 5th July; the whole of which turned upon a recommendation given by the duc d’Otrante, that the king should give a general amnesty.
106 “As well as the duke of Wellington recollects, there is in the war department a letter from the prince d’Eckmühl to marshal St.-Cyr on this subject, in which he urges every argument against the proclamation of the 25th July, excepting the 12th article of the convention of Paris.”
107 Scott.
108 La Haye-Sainte.
109 See the covering of this book.
110 Gneisenau was the chief of the Prussian staff. He was at once the life and soul, main-spring and working head of their army.
111 At Leipsick, Napoleon selected his own position, and there he chose a field with a defile over a morass, a mile and a half broad, which probably was the principal cause of his defeat.
112 Several ladies were on the field on the morning of the 19th, going about like ministering angels tending the wounded. How truly in this instance do Scott’s lines picture the soft sex!
“O woman! In our hours of ease,
Uncertain, coy, and hard to please,
And variable as the shade
By the light quivering aspen made;
When pain and anguish wring the brow,
A ministering angel thou!”
113 Brother to sir John Macdonald, the adjutant-general at the Horse-Guards.
114 I wish I were as positive of every part of my narrative. E.C.
SERGEANT-MAJOR COTTON’S
WATERLOO CABINET.
THIS INTERESTING MUSEUM CONTAINS
1. The following highly finished engravings: Napoleon, Wellington, Blücher; Wellington and Napoleon at Waterloo; the Waterloo Banquet; Sir James Kempt; Battle of Waterloo; Capture of an Eagle; the Prince of Orange wounded.
2. Medallion portraits of Napoleon, Wellington, Blücher, King of the Netherlands, Lords Hill and Anglesey, Sir Thomas Picton, Count Alten, Marshals Ney and Soult; General Cambronne, or “La garde meurt et ne se rend pas.”
3. General view of the Field, (oil;) View of Hougoumont.
4. Plans showing different periods of the Battles of Ligny, Quatre-Bras, Waterloo and Wavre; Map on which is indicated the distribution of the respective armies at the commencement of hostilities.
5. Autographs of the following Waterloo Commanders and Officers: Napoleon, Wellington, Field-Marshal the Marquis of Anglesey, Lord Somerset, Lord Love, Sir Edward Somerset, Major General Sir William Gomme, Marshal Grouchy; Generals Vivian, Harris, Sir E. Kerrison, Hunter Blair, and Macdonald; Colonels Sir Henry Floyd, Bart., Gurwood, Hon. G. Cathcart, and Muttlebury; Majors Kennedy, Macready, and Lindam, Captain J. Braman, etc.
6. The London Gazette of Thursday 22d June 1815, and the Times of the same date.
7. An interesting collection of Relics, warranted spoils of the Waterloo campaign, a part of which are labelled for sale at moderate prices, although not so cheap as the spurious articles with which the neighbourhood abounds.
The collection of relics is composed of arms, cuirasses, casques, caps, clothing, accoutrements, various military ornaments, trappings, gold and silver Crosses of the Legion of honour, Prussian Crosses and Medals, etc., etc.
The most interesting relic is the Sword, of General Alexander Macdonald, which he left on the field of battle when wounded, and recognized amongst the relics of the Waterloo Cabinet on revisiting the field in May 1846. The General’s certificate is attached to the Sword.
A pair of Napoleon’s silver spurs.
Several pieces of Napoleon’s kitchen utensils, marked with the Imperial crown, letter N, and “Tuileries,” or “Voyage.”
A Dragoon’s saddle-bags, with the stains of blood still visible, etc., etc., etc.
SERGEANT-MAJOR COTTON.
The celebrated Waterloo Guide and author of the sketch
of the battle entitled: “A voice from Waterloo.”
Pause, stranger as you pass this hallowed spot,
Where guardian angels hover round unseen!
Reposing here brave Cotton sleeps, whose lot
On earth has one of dauntless valour been.
At Hugoument his bleaching ashes lie,
And mingle with the dust beneath his grave;
Whilst seraphs waft his loosened soul on high,
To life eternal which awaits the brave.
Bold, as a soldier, faithful, as a friend,
To enemies forgiving and humane,
He strove through life his country to defend,
With character unsullied by a stain.
When War’s rude thunders rent the loaded air,
And clashing arms bespoke the dread dispute,
When Heroes pressed the cannon’s front to dare,
Each heart for Glory in the wild pursuit.
Amongst them Cotton fought; and lived to tell
To countless eager ears the mighty fray,
In which his comrades and opponents fell,
When victory to Britons gave the day.
His mortal course he thus pursued by choice,
And thus performed the labour from him due;
’Till lo! as recompense, from Heaven a voice
Has called to bliss, the “Voice from Waterloo.”
Pg viii: ‘many occurences’ replaced by ‘many occurrences’.
Pg viii: ‘only irreconcileable’ replaced by ‘only irreconcilable’.
Pg ix: ‘discrepances which’ replaced by ‘discrepancies which’.
Pg xi: ‘Prussian ontposts’ replaced by ‘Prussian outposts’.
Pg xi: ‘CHATER II’ replaced by ‘CHAPTER II’.
Pg xv: ‘its retread’ replaced by ‘its retreat’.
Pg xvii: ‘Waterloo at it is’ replaced by ‘Waterloo as it is’.
Pg 2: ‘allied sovereings’ replaced by ‘allied sovereigns’.
Pg 2 FN [1]: ‘a good jonrney’ replaced by ‘a good journey’.
Pg 2 FN [1]: ‘from Napoleau’ replaced by ‘from Napoleon’.
Pg 4: ‘Napoleons’s name’ replaced by ‘Napoleon’s name’.
Pg 5: ‘strengh of the enemy’ replaced by ‘strength of the enemy’.
Pg 6: ‘were to be groud’ replaced by ‘were to be ground’.
Pg 6: ‘in the propable’ replaced by ‘in the probable’.
Pg 8 FN [7]: ‘of tha 1st German’ replaced by ‘of the 1st German’.
Pg 10: ‘of the Prussiam’ replaced by ‘of the Prussian’.
Pg 10: ’as ta be concealed’ replaced by ‘as to be concealed’.
Pg 11: ‘at the independance’ replaced by ‘at the independence’.
Pg 11: ‘of agressions’ replaced by ‘of aggressions’.
Pg 12: ‘The centre colum’ replaced by ‘The centre column’.
Pg 18: ‘Nothwithstanding the’ replaced by ‘Notwithstanding the’.
Pg 19: ‘Description o the’ replaced by ‘Description of the’.
Pg 20: ‘aids-de-camp. Shortly’ replaced by ‘aides-de-camp. Shortly’.
Pg 20: ‘marche from Nivelles’ replaced by ‘march from Nivelles’.
Pg 21: ‘in somme measure’ replaced by ‘in some measure’.
Pg 32: ‘but was forgotton’ replaced by ‘but was forgotten’.
Pg 38: ‘lieutenand-general’ replaced by ‘lieutenant-general’.
Pg 39: ‘dragoons and lanccrs’ replaced by ‘dragoons and lancers’.
Pg 40: ‘immediate and efficent’ replaced by ‘immediate and efficient’.
Pg 41: ‘them, when praticable’ replaced by ‘them, when practicable’.
Pg 42: ‘und forming a circle’ replaced by ‘and forming a circle’.
Pg 42: ‘up the alignements’ replaced by ‘up the alignments’.
Pg 44: ‘the enemy, dit not’ replaced by ‘the enemy, did not’.
Pg 44: ‘chequered colums’ replaced by ‘chequered columns’.
Pg 49: ‘at a goad pace’ replaced by ‘at a good pace’.
Pg 54: ‘which he commited’ replaced by ‘which he committed’.
Pg 55: ‘galop from the French’ replaced by ‘gallop from the French’.
Pg 55: ‘of la La Haye-Sainte’ replaced by ‘of La Haye-Sainte’.
Pg 57: ‘nowithstanding the major’ replaced by ‘notwithstanding the major’.
Pg 59: ‘the position ot this’ replaced by ‘the position of this’.
Pg 59: ‘staggered the Freneh’ replaced by ‘staggered the French’.
Pg 60: ‘be gallantly’ replaced by ‘he gallantly’.
Pg 61: ‘to be wondered as’ replaced by ‘to be wondered at’.
Pg 62: ‘he hid so’ replaced by ‘he did so’.
Pg 62: ‘lay and on’ replaced by ‘lay hand on’.
Pg 64: ‘disloged the German’ replaced by ‘dislodged the German’.
Pg 65: ‘his coat ant killed’ replaced by ‘his coat and killed’.
Pg 67: ‘time so catch’ replaced by ‘time to catch’.
Pg 75: ‘au unknown spot’ replaced by ‘an unknown spot’.
Pg 76: ‘Hamilton, aid-de-camp’ replaced by ‘Hamilton, aide-de-camp’.
Pg 76 FN [42]: ‘maintened fop a few’ replaced by ‘maintained for a few’.
Pg 79: ‘the sergeant sadler’ replaced by ‘the sergeant saddler’.
Pg 86: ‘home: stil the’ replaced by ‘home: still the’.
Pg 86: ‘Prince, notwihstanding’ replaced by ‘Prince, notwithstanding’.
Pg 87: ‘Freemantle, aid-de-camp’ replaced by ‘Freemantle, aide-de-camp’.
Pg 89: ‘ther huge camp’ replaced by ‘their huge camp’.
Pg 91: ‘Alten’s divison’ replaced by ‘Alten’s division’.
Pg 91: ‘sent an aid-de-camp’ replaced by ‘sent an aide-de-camp’.
Pg 91: ‘ther dislike to’ replaced by ‘their dislike to’.
Pg 92: ‘his men howerer’ replaced by ‘his men however’.
Pg 100: ‘were the fate’ replaced by ‘where the fate’.
Pg 100: ’as well as be could’ replaced by ’as well as he could’.
Pg 107: ‘smyptom of falling’ replaced by ‘symptom of falling’.
Pg 109: ‘having sarcely fired’ replaced by ‘having scarcely fired’.
Pg 112: ‘aid-de-camp and many’ replaced by ‘aide-de-camp and many’.
Pg 113: ‘who prolonghed this’ replaced by ‘who prolonged this’.
Pg 115: ‘the dreadful carnarge’ replaced by ‘the dreadful carnage’.
Pg 117: ‘to be inflictied’ replaced by ‘to be inflicted’.
Pg 117: ‘his own officiers’ replaced by ‘his own officers’.
Pg 117 FN [64]: ‘by Vandersmiesen’s’ replaced by ‘by Vandersmissen’s’.
Pg 118: ‘lientenant Banner’ replaced by ‘lieutenant Banner’.
Pg 119: ‘in a angle’ replaced by ‘in an angle’.
Pg 125: ‘alongh is front’ replaced by ‘along his front’.
Pg 126: ‘lieutement Gunning’ replaced by ‘lieutenant Gunning’.
Pg 129: ‘the Erench position’ replaced by ‘the French position’.
Pg 129: ‘aid-de-camp to general’ replaced by ‘aide-de-camp to general’.
Pg 130: ‘The Prussian dragroons’ replaced by ‘The Prussian dragoons’.
Pg 131: ’most dreaful struggle’ replaced by ‘most dreadful struggle’.
Pg 135: ‘connduct of the French’ replaced by ‘conduct of the French’.
Pg 135: ‘so long a perriod’ replaced by ‘so long a period’.
Pg 136: ‘full of enthusiam’ replaced by ‘full of enthusiasm’.
Pg 137: ‘is life and strength’ replaced by ‘his life and strength’.
Pg 137: ‘he abbors insult and’ replaced by ‘he abhors insult and’.
Pg 138: ‘ministering angles’ replaced by ‘ministering angels’.
Pg 140: ‘commencing hostilites’ replaced by ‘commencing hostilities’.
Pg 141: ‘Ny interest in’ replaced by ‘My interest in’.
Pg 141: ‘the follewing day’ replaced by ‘the following day’.
Pg 143: ‘downfal of Napoleon’ replaced by ‘downfall of Napoleon’.
Pg 147: ’and majors-generals’ replaced by ‘and major-generals’.
Pg 147: ‘the battalton of’ replaced by ‘the battalion of’.
Pg 148: ‘Neitheir did he attempt’ replaced by ‘Neither did he attempt’.
Pg 150: ‘Higness’s approbation’ replaced by ‘Highness’s approbation’.
Pg 151: ‘the adjudant-general’ replaced by ‘the adjutant-general’.
Pg 154: ‘excesive difficulties’ replaced by ‘excessive difficulties’.
Pg 158: ‘three in the afternon’ replaced by ‘three in the afternoon’.
Pg 160: ‘the wole army’ replaced by ‘the whole army’.
Pg 162: ‘attaked in their turn’ replaced by ‘attacked in their turn’.
Pg 162: ‘embarrassement arising’ replaced by ‘embarrassment arising’.
Pg 167: ‘throughout our narritive’ replaced by ‘throughout our narrative’.
Pg 168: ‘that pratically shown’ replaced by ‘that practicality shown’.
Pg 175: ‘your Highnees will’ replaced by ‘your Highness will’.
Pg 177: ‘by my aid-de-camp’ replaced by ‘by my aide-de-camp’.
Pg 179: ‘fitfty thousand men’ replaced by ‘fifty thousand men’.
Pg 180: ‘nessary to overcome’ replaced by ‘necessary to overcome’.
Pg 184: ‘Yon wrote from Gembloux’ replaced by ‘You wrote from Gembloux’.
Pg 186: ‘attaking the French’ replaced by ‘attacking the French’.
Pg 191: ‘wits great military’ replaced by ‘with great military’.
Pg 192: ‘everthrow the throne’ replaced by ‘overthrow the throne’.
Pg 192: ‘cause have the fallen’ replaced by ‘cause have they fallen’.
Pg 193: ‘hehold! these are’ replaced by ‘behold! these are’.
Pg 196: ‘gaeat in desolation’ replaced by ‘great in desolation’.
Pg 196: ‘dishonourable fligt’ replaced by ‘dishonourable flight’.
Pg 199: ‘it they believe’ replaced by ‘if they believe’.
Pg 200: ‘render them unavailling’ replaced by ‘render them unavailing’.
Pg 201: ‘Prussians head-quaters’ replaced by ‘Prussians’ head-quarters’.
Pg 214: ‘and the roards are’ replaced by ‘and the roads are’.
Pg 216: ‘and honour to’ replaced by ‘an honour to’.
Pg 219: ‘The Field-Marshall cannot’ replaced by ‘The Field-Marshal cannot’.
Pg 222: ‘At this measure’ replaced by ‘As this measure’.
Pg 223: ‘the greatitude of’ replaced by ‘the gratitude of’.
Pg 224: ‘I send yon a letter’ replaced by ‘I send you a letter’.
Pg 225: ‘have throught proper’ replaced by ‘have thought proper’.
Pg 225: ‘adressed to me’ replaced by ‘addressed to me’.
Pg 227: ‘as the proprety of’ replaced by ‘as the property of’.
Pg 227: ‘By whom weere these’ replaced by ‘By whom were these’.
Pg 227: ‘who had ad interest’ replaced by ‘who had an interest’.
Pg 227: ‘anglais el prussiens’ replaced by ‘anglais et prussiens’.
Pg 230: ‘at which, they occured’ replaced by ‘at which they occurred’.
Pg 232: ‘throught the farm’ replaced by ‘thought the farm’.
Pg 234: ‘Douro of Wellesly’ replaced by ‘Douro of Wellesley’.
Pg 253: ‘presenc I had’ replaced by ‘presence. I had’.
Pg 253: ‘my first aid-de-camp’ replaced by ‘my first aide-de-camp’.
Pg 261: ‘frem loss of blood’ replaced by ‘from loss of blood’.
Pg 262: ‘his aid-de-camp, and’ replaced by ‘his aide-de-camp, and’.
Pg 264: ‘best of my judment’ replaced by ‘best of my judgment’.
Pg 268: ‘almost to snffocation’ replaced by ‘almost to suffocation’.
Pg 271: ‘your timely serviees’ replaced by ‘your timely services’.
Pg 275: ‘highly instruetive’ replaced by ‘highly instructive’.
Pg 276: ‘invaluable, perharps’ replaced by ‘invaluable, perhaps’.