by Tim Clayton
4 Dessales in Souvenirs et correspondance, 50; Houssaye, 1815: Waterloo, 206n.
5 Uffindell’s view is that in the excitement of persuading d’Erlon to march towards Brye, Soult’s aide Forbin-Janson forgot to ride on to deliver the order to Ney. Forbin-Janson’s own version of events is entirely different from Uffindell’s reconstruction, but it is sufficiently evasive and confused as to make it credible that it was he who botched the mission (Eagle’s Last Triumph, 156). Forbin-Janson’s account is in BL Add Mss 30147A, ff. 17–18.
6 The following morning the Guard light cavalry seems to have been in the Marbais area and it may well be that they also rode off in response to the urgent demand for intervention against the Prussian right wing. Evidence for their activity is totally lacking. Chevalier’s account (Souvenirs, 320–2) implies that he was with the Emperor, but this might be explained if his squadron of chasseurs of the Guard had been one of the duty squadrons.
7 Reille’s report of 17 June.
8 La Sentinelle de l’Armée, 8 March 1838, reprinted in Chapuis, Notice sur le 85e de ligne and in Uffindell, Eagle’s Last Triumph, 250.
9 D’Erlon, Vie Militaire, 95. This would be true if the order in question was Soult’s missive of 3.15. If Napoleon ever sent a direct order to d’Erlon as some have claimed, then he should have obeyed it.
10 Drouot’s report in Waldie, Near Observer, 1817, II, 109–10.
11 Rettburg in Glover, Waterloo Archive, II, 46 and Glover, Letters, 152.
12 Kincaid, Adventures, 329–30.
13 Costello, Campaigns, 151; Jacobi in Glover, Waterloo Archive, II, 126–8.
14 Canler, Mémoires, 15; Brouwet, Quatre Documents, 262–3.
15 Chapuis, Notice sur le 85e de ligne, 26 and 53; Rullière in Largeaud, Napoléon et Waterloo, 372–3; D’Erlon, Vie Militaire, 95; Durutte in Elchingen, Documents inédits, 71–4.
16 Baudus, Etudes sur Napoléon, I, 213.
17 Muir, Britain and the Defeat, 357.
31 The Guard Enters the Battle
1 Pétiet, Souvenirs Militaires, 198.
2 Ammon, Leben … Nagel’s, 129–32; Stawitzky, Geschichte, 64–5.
3 Latimer, Talks of Napoleon, 186.
4 Nostitz, ‘Tagebuch’, 51.
5 Salisch, Geschichte, 199; Reiche, Memoiren, 190–1.
6 Siborne, Waterloo Campaign, 139.
7 Tom Taylor, ed. The Life of Benjamin Robert Haydon, Historical Painter, from his Autobiography and Journals, London: Longman, 1853, I, 278-9; Mauduit, Derniers jours, I, 453–61 and II, 39–40.
8 Friant, Vie militaire, 384–5; Petit, ‘Waterloo Campaign’, 323. All the grenadier battalions suffered slight officer casualties, proving that they were all involved in some fighting as they drove out the exhausted Prussian defenders for the last time.
9 Christiani in d’Avout, Documents, 111; Bagensky, Geschichte, 239–40.
10 Petit, ‘Waterloo Campaign’, 323.
11 Forbin-Janson in BL Add Mss 30147A.
32 Kellermann’s Charge
1 Pétiet, Souvenirs militaires, 198. One of Soult’s senior staff, Pétiet claimed that this was how Colonel Laurent, a supernumerary aide to the Emperor, reported Ney’s reaction to his delivery of Soult’s 3.15 order.
2 Uffindell, Eagle’s Last Triumph, 146.
3 Morris, Memoirs, 68–9.
4 Siborne, Letters, no. 143. Interestingly, Pigot referred to chasseurs rather than cuirassiers. The Prince of Orange was already being blamed in July 1815 when Captain Barlow wrote to his father (Owen, Waterloo Papers, 38). See Martin Aaron, ‘2nd Battalion 69th’, in Napoleon Series.
5 Barlow in Owen, Waterloo Papers, 39–40.
6 Rudyard in Siborne, Letters, no. 98.
7 Lloyd in Glover, Letters, 224; Morris, Memoirs, 68. See Macready, ‘Siborne’s History’, 393.
8 Macready, ‘Journals’, 345.
9 Hemingway in Glover, Waterloo Archive, I, 166–7; Pattison in Siborne, Letters, no. 142; Finlayson in Glover, Waterloo Archive, III, 220.
10 Robinson, Quatre Bras, 332.
11 Hemingway in Glover, Waterloo Archive, I, 167.
12 Lindwurm in 1815 Limited On-line Archive.
13 Figure in de Wit, without a source; the 8th lost thirteen out of thirty-two officers wounded, none killed; the 11th one killed and three wounded according to Martinien.
14 Macready, ‘Siborne’s History’, 391.
15 Lemonnier-Delafosse, Campagnes, 362; Levavasseur, Souvenirs, 288, reported routed cuirassiers in Charleroi. Lemonnier is an inconsistent witness, but he could be well be correct here. Other witnesses were shocked by the extent of the rout of the cuirassiers.
16 Uffindell, Eagle’s Last Triumph, 248.
33 Blücher’s Fall
1 Lieber, Letters, 105–7.
2 The Prussian official account (WSD, X, 503) speaks of a division of infantry turning the village without being seen in the gloom and some regiments of cuirassiers doing the same the other side and taking in the rear the principal corps behind the village.
3 Ollech, Feldzuges von 1815, 155.
4 Houssaye, 1815: Waterloo, 180.
5 Nostitz, ‘Tagebuch’, 29–30.
6 Johann von Thielmann, aged fifty, commanded the Saxon forces in the Low Countries in 1814. He had fought for the Prussians at Jena, but having been sent as Saxon ambassador to Napoleon became an ardent admirer of the French Emperor. He helped to bring about the Franco-Saxon alliance and fought at Friedland for the French, commanded a Freikorps opposing the Austrian attack on Saxony in 1809, commanded the Saxon heavy cavalry at Borodino and was taken into Napoleon’s personal suite. He defected in 1813 and fought as a Russian general. Despite difficult relations between the Saxons and Prussians he was given command of III Corps. He was an intelligent and studious soldier with long experience and proved to be a willing and able subordinate. Carl von Clausewitz, later famous as a military theorist, was his chief of staff.
7 Mauduit, Derniers Jours, II, 204–6.
8 See Houssaye, 1815: Waterloo, 186 and his sources.
9 Mauduit, Derniers Jours, II, 119–20, working from Damitz’s incomplete figures; James, Campaign of 1815, 136; Ollech, Feldzuges von 1815, 163.
10 Frazer, Letters, 544. Lettow-Vorbeck, Untergang gave 12,000, as did Siborne; Bowden calculated losses at 18,772 and twenty-one guns (Waterloo Armies, 324); Uffindell calculated fourteen guns lost on the 16th and eight to Pajol the following morning, making twenty-two.
11 Henckel’s 4th Brigade, which suffered the highest losses, recorded 4 officers and 638 men dead, 15 officers and 507 wounded, 5 officers and 1396 men captured or otherwise missing; nearly all the missing subsequently turned out to be dead or wounded (Henckel, Erinnerungen, 357). The rest of I Corps was also badly hit and the chief of staff wrote that by the end of 16 June his corps had lost in killed, wounded, missing and prisoners, 12,486 men and 225 officers, 1006 horses and 16 guns, from its original 30,831 (Reiche, Memoiren, II, 195).
12 Müffling, History, 10–11; 13,245 for I Corps, 5655 for II Corps and more than 2000 for III Corps.
13 Soult to Davout in Grouchy, Mémoires, IV, 173–4; Gérard, Quelques documens, 45; Charras, Campagne de 1815, 180.
14 Houssaye, 1815: Waterloo, 189. French 7–8000; Uffindell, Eagle’s Last Triumph, 204 accepted Oman’s figure.
15 Mauduit, Derniers Jours, II, 124; Scott Bowden gives 13,721 (Waterloo Armies, 323).
34 Wellington’s Offensive
1 Powell in Siborne, Letters, no. 108.
2 Macready, ‘Siborne’s History’, 389–90.
3 Powell in Siborne, Letters, no. 108; Saltoun in Siborne, Letters, no. 106.
4 Clay, ‘Narrative of Adventures’, 140.
5 Powell in Siborne, Letters, no. 108; Clay, ‘Narrative of Adventures’, 140–1.
6 Nixon in Glover, Waterloo Archive, I, 134.
7 Macready, ‘Journals’, 519.
8 Gagern in Glover, Waterloo Archive, II, 191.
9 Gagern in Glover, Waterloo Ar
chive, II, 192.
10 Mercer, Journal, 126–41.
11 Playford in Glover, Waterloo Archive, IV, 35.
12 Frazer, Letters, 540. Mauduit, Derniers Jours, II, 168 claims 1390 Anglo-Hanoverians dead and 2388 wounded, 1500 Netherlanders and Brunswickers killed and wounded; 172 Anglo-Hanoverian prisoners; and 750 Dutch and Brunswicker prisoners, totalling 6170. Fletcher gives 2205 British casualties including 300 dead; 2600 allied.
13 In his report Ney estimated his casualties at 2000 killed and 4000 wounded. Reille’s report contained no numbers, but insisted opposition losses were higher. Foy reckoned his division lost 800 hors de combat, and the other infantry divisions 11–1200. Estimating losses based on officer casualties yields a figure of about 3500, which might well be reduced to Foy’s 2300 if walking wounded stayed with their units. Mauduit estimated French casualties at 4000, Lemonnier at 5000. Houssaye, 1815: Waterloo, 218, assessed French casualties as 4300 and allied as 4700. Scott Bowden (Waterloo Campaign, 323) calculated 4100.
14 Costello, Campaigns, 152–3.
15 James, Journal, 21.
16 Cappel in 1815 Limited On-line Archive; Finlayson in Glover, Waterloo Archive, III, 216.
17 He returned to Prussian headquarters next morning with Assistant Surgeon Gough of the Life Guards (James, Journal, 21; Frazer, Letters, 541).
18 Fitzroy Somerset in Owen, Waterloo Papers, 10; Hervey, ‘Letter’, 432.
35 Council by Lamplight
1 Reiche, Memoiren, II, 201.
2 Müffling, History, 13.
3 Brett-James’s translation of Reiche, Memoiren, II, 201–2.
4 Quoted in Muir, Tactics, 245.
5 Nostitz, ‘Tagebuch’, 30–2.
6 Brett-James, Hundred Days, 82–3 and 86; Delbrück, Leben, IV, 522. Twenty-five years later, Hardinge recalled rhubarb and brandy, but the schnapps and garlic identified by the fictional Captain Fritz and Barbero (The Battle, 19) seem more likely.
7 Uffindell, Eagle’s Last Triumph, 118; Gneisenau to Hardenberg, 22 June 1815 in Delbrück, Leben, IV, 530.
8 Quoted in Muir, Tactics, 242 and 245.
9 Busse, Geschichte, 177.
10 Busse, Geschichte, 178–81.
11 Ollech, Feldzuges von 1815, 168–70.
36 No Time to Lose
1 Ney’s report in Houssaye, 1815: Waterloo, 224. Forbin-Janson in BL Add Mss 30147A; Bourdon de Vatry in Grouchy, Mémoires, IV, 103. Bourdon de Vatry got the impression that Forbin had just arrived, six hours late, with the order to attack the Prussians in the flank, but he was probably mistaken.
2 Martin, ‘Lettre’, 499; Canler, Mémoires, 46–7.
3 Copy in SHD C15, nr. 1–5 (de Wit).
4 Mauduit, Derniers jours, II, 100–8.
5 Daure from de Wit. This report is probably the origin of Soult’s figure of 3000 wounded.
6 Ortiz, with quotations from Larrey, Memoirs, I, 80–1.
7 Howard, Napoleon’s Doctors, 61.
8 Radet in de Wit.
9 Bonaparte’s claim in Mémoires, 94, that Pajol followed Blücher in the direction of Tilly and Wavre is wishful thinking, part of a story designed to lay blame squarely on Grouchy. The correction of what was done to what ought to have been done was a clear indication that Bonaparte recognised that his crucial error was to suppose that the Prussians had fled towards Namur.
10 Lachouque without reference in de Wit.
11 Original in SHD; de Wit lists publications with slight variations.
12 Petty, First Napoleon, 117; Bourdon de Vatry in Grouchy, Mémoires, IV, 105.
13 SHD C15, nr. 1–5 (de Wit).
14 Martin, ‘Lettre’, 499.
15 Bonaparte, Mémoires, 96; Houssaye, 1815: Waterloo, 264. This suggests that at this stage the Guard light cavalry was around Marbais.
37 Losing the Scent
1 Grouchy, Mémoires, IV, 23–4.
2 Chandler, ‘Napoleon and Death’, Napoleonic Scholarship: The Journal of the International Napoleonic Society, Volume 1, Number 1, April 1997 (online).
3 Latimer, Talks of Napoleon, 190.
4 Mauduit, Derniers Jours, II, 201. See, for instance, Sénéchal’s report that Vandamme refused Grouchy’s order to attack Gilly (Grouchy, Mémoires, IV, 127), Vandamme’s report of 10 p.m. 15 June: ‘Je pense que l’ennemi n’a que 12 à 15.000 hommes. Le maréchal Grouchy croit qu’il y a 30.000 hommes,’ or Pajol to Grouchy 10 p.m. 15 June: ‘J’aurais occupé ce village, si le général Vandamme eut voulu m’envoyer et me soutenir par quelque infanterie; mais il paraît que ce général a pris à tache de faire tout ce qui est contraire à la guerre.’
5 Martinien, Tableaux, 16.
6 Biot, Souvenirs, 244–5.
7 SHD C15 in de Wit. He complained that his only division was weak, still lacking Clary’s 1st Hussars. They rejoined at some point before 20 June, when they suffered casualties at the battle of Namur (Martinien, Tableaux).
8 Biot, Souvenirs, 245.
9 Grouchy, Mémoires, IV, 127 and de Wit.
10 In his letter from Gembloux he reiterated the complaint made earlier that morning (SHD).
11 One might speculate that Gneisenau’s missing ammunition train had taken a route through Grand-Leez and Perwez before turning towards Wavre.
12 Grouchy, Mémoires, IV, 128.
13 Latimer, Talks of Napoleon, 186. He had appointed Suchet to command a small army to oppose the Austrians.
38 Morning at Quatre Bras
1 Clay, ‘Narrative of Adventures’, 141.
2 Jackson, ‘Recollections’, 8; Fitzroy Somerset in Owen, Waterloo Papers, 10; Vivian in Siborne, Letters, no.71; Hope, Military Memoirs, 416–17.
3 Anthony Bacon of the escort in Glover, Letters, 102.
4 Brouwet, ‘Quatre documents’, 363; Bülow in Glover, Waterloo Archive, V, 62; Hanoverian staff report in Glover, Waterloo Archive, II, 10; the brigade report (Glover, Waterloo Archive, II, 94) gave ninety killed and wounded; Brunswick returns from Olfermann in 1815 Limited On-line Archive. An officer of the 95th in Waldie, Near Observer, 52.
5 Costello, Campaigns, 152; Clay, ‘Narrative of Adventures’, 139–40; Hemingway in Glover, Waterloo Archive, I, 168.
6 George Maule in Glover, Waterloo Archive, I, 130.
7 Robinson, Quatre Bras, 370, 366, 373. Reille’s report mentions a flag having been taken by the 4th Light, but the man carrying it off having been killed.
8 Keppel, Fifty Years, 137; Howard, Wellington’s Doctors, 73–4; Clark in Siborne, Letters, no. 34; Brunswick Hussars helped (Glover, Waterloo Archive, V, 154).
9 Jackson, ‘Recollections’, 11; Fitzroy Somerset in Owen, Waterloo Papers, 10; Müffling, Memoirs, 240.
10 Porter, Royal Engineers, I, 280; Delancey, Week at Waterloo, 112.
11 British Library, Add MSS 57, 635 ff. 3–4.
12 One set of surveys made by Brains, Dumaresq and Staveley in May 1815 is at NAM 6807/137. Jackson, Notes and Reminiscences, 5 and 97.
13 Owen, Waterloo Papers, 10; Jeremiah, Life and Adventures, 20; Wheeler, Letters, 169. By the time he wrote on 19 June he had been told (incorrectly) that the Belgians were ‘running away, helter skelter, the Devil take the hindmost’.
14 Müffling, Memoirs, 241; Ollech, Feldzuges von 1815, 180; in Müffling, History, 16, the Duke asked for two corps. Houssaye’s version (1815: Waterloo, 261, followed by Hamilton-Williams, New Perspectives, 240) exemplifies his free way with quotation: Müffling gave his own opinion that Wellington should retire beyond the Scheldt were Blücher unable to fight but did not say that this was what Wellington said. Frazer’s knowledge of the worries over ammunition indicates that von Massow had revealed them.
15 Costello, Campaigns, 152; Döring in Glover, Waterloo Archive, II, 165.
16 Jackson, Notes and Reminiscences, 32–3; Wheatley, Diary, 60–1.
17 Döring in Glover, Waterloo Archive, II, 165; Nyevelt in Franklin, Netherlands Correspondence, 51.
18 Gagern in Glover, Waterloo Anecdotes, II, 193.
19 Hay, Rem
iniscences, 168, echoed by Ingilby, ‘Waterloo Diary’, 54.
39 The Road to Mont Saint-Jean
1 Bessborough, Lady Bessborough, 241.
2 Fitzroy Somerset in Owen, Waterloo Papers, 11.
3 Ingilby, ‘Waterloo Diary’, 55.
4 Tomkinson, Diary, 284.
5 Hay, Reminiscences, 170.
6 Hay, Reminiscences, 171; Ingilby, ‘Waterloo Diary’, 55.
7 James to his brother, 9 July 1815 in Glover, Waterloo Archive, I, 7.
8 Pontécoulant, Napoléon à Waterloo, 186. Pontécoulant was the officer thus addressed.
9 Kincaid, Adventures, 333; Baring in Glover, Letters, 241.
10 Cotton, Voice from Waterloo, 22; the main accounts are by Uxbridge (Siborne, Letters, no. 4) and O’Grady, who married Uxbridge’s niece and became colonel of the 7th (Letters, no. 65 and Glover, Waterloo Archive, III, 77–9). Sir John Elley gave Siborne a brief verbal account via another officer, who wrote, ‘he was averse to put it on paper himself for reasons which I would say – but cannot write’ (Glover, Letters, 30).
11 Radclyffe in Glover, Waterloo Archive, I, 24–5.
12 James, Journal, 24–5; see also Schreiber in Siborne, Letters, no.56. Macready, ‘Journals’, 521; Houssaye, 1815: Waterloo, 269–71; Pontécoulant, Napoléon à Waterloo, 186; Pétiet, Souvenirs militaires, 205–8.
13 Kelly, NAM 2002-01-254.
14 One way or another Kelly certainly obtained the epaulettes, but the identity of his victim is mysterious since no colonels appear to have been killed on 17 June. Sourd was an extremely brave man, many times wounded. He had risen through the ranks after volunteering in 1792 and undertook numerous dangerous missions and special tasks requiring bravery and initiative. According to Mauduit, Derniers Jours, II, 226–8, Sourd outflanked an infantry rearguard drawn up short of Genappe and drove off Hanoverian hussars that supported it, pursuing them with one squadron while the other three pushed back the enemy on the Brussels road. Ordered to Genappe to support the 1st Lancers, he pushed the English back onto their main body. Finding himself unsupported, he returned but found the road through Genappe blocked by English cavalry. He was summoned to surrender by a senior officer but ran him through and then fought bravely against a host of enemies who eventually overwhelmed him.