To War with Wellington

by Peter Snow

  ‘The unfortunate war’: Las Cases, vol. 2, part 4, p. 185

  ‘Buonaparte’s mind’: Croker, vol. 1, p. 339

  Napoleon’s presence on a field: Stanhope, p. 81

  Prince Metternich is reported: Croker, vol. 1, p. 336. Croker leaves the two expletives to the imagination. I’ve assumed that the French word was baisé and translated it as ‘screwed’

  ‘Well, sir, you have got’: Simmons, pp. 294–5

  ‘I am anxious to state’: Wellington MSS, Southampton University Library, 62 — 1/372f.2, F. Ponsonby letter to Wellington 13/07/1813

  ‘In the first place there were’: Schaumann, p. 386

  ‘there were many pretty girls’: Bell, p. 80

  ‘uncommonly fine trout’: Leach, p. 201

  ‘were too civil and well-behaved’: ibid., p. 205

  ‘I am in hopes that’: WD, vol. 10, p. 520, W letter to Bathurst 10/7/1813

  ‘We began breaching’: Frazer, letter home 23/7/1813

  ‘I have had a scratch’: ibid., letter home 26/7/1813

  ‘Should it not be possible’: WSD, vol. 8, p. 114, Graham letter to W 24/7/1813

  ‘sharp pointed rocks’: Henegan, p. 180

  ‘The assault was made but stupidly’: Frazer, letter home 26/7/1813

  ‘imbecility and indecision’: Aitchison, p. 254, letter to his father 13/7/1813

  ‘The dispositions and arrangements’: WD, vol. 10, p. 577, Soult speech text

  ‘When on my road home’: ibid., p. 566, W letter to Graham 25/7/1813

  ‘horrible … for our path’: Cooper, p. 84

  ‘forced to give way’: Todd, p. 104

  ‘The 92nd were in line’: Bell, p. 134

  ‘really heroes when’: Fortescue, vol. 9, pp. 255–6

  ‘It was rather alarming’: Larpent, vol. 2, p. 71, journal entry 24/8/1813

  ‘I escaped as usual’: Raglan papers, W letter to W. Wellesley-Pole 3/08/1813

  ‘The ground was uneven’: Bell, p. 139

  ‘never saw such fighting’: WD, vol. 10, p. 602, W letter to Lord Bentinck 5/8/1813

  ‘Sergeant Cooper, go’: Cooper, p. 88

  ‘there is nothing in the world’: Gordon, p. 392, letter to Aberdeen 22/8/1813

  counted fifty-one guns: Larpent, vol. 2, p. 78, journal entry 28/8/1813 no fewer than ninety-five: Henegan, p. 189

  They had to carry the powder: the figures come from a table published in Royal Artillery Historical Society Proceedings, vol. 7, no. 5, 2/10/1996

  ‘You never heard such a row’: Frazer, letter home 26/8/1813

  ‘I was yesterday’: WD, vol. 11, p. 47, W letter to Beresford 27/8/1813

  ‘and show the 5th division’: Hennell, p. 124

  ‘as if the elements had been aware’: Gleig, Subaltern, p. 48

  ‘with the most deadly effect’: ibid., p. 51

  ‘As each succeeding party fell’: Henegan, p. 189

  ‘An “Oh!” burst’: ibid., p. 191

  ‘Fortunately there were few females’: Gleig, Subaltern, p. 36

  ‘See what our example’: Hennell, p. 127

  Chapter Fourteen: Extraordinary news

  ‘Three successive times’: Smith, p. 123

  ‘I see that as usual’: WD, vol. 11, p. 124, W letter to Bathurst 19/9/1813

  ‘up to their bellies’: Stewart, p. 87

  ‘swarm of riflemen’: Smith, p. 134

  ‘The mountain was fearfully’: Cooke, p. 228

  ‘To my dismay’: Colborne, p. 179

  ‘We were called madmen’: Smith, pp. 135–6

  ‘most gallant style’: WD, vol. 11, p. 177, W letter to Bathurst, 9/10/1813

  ‘Though your brigade have even’: Smith, pp. 136–7

  ‘We should do much better’: Robinson, vol. 2, p. 258

  ‘riding up and down our columns’: Schaumann, p. 395

  ‘All went well’: Smith, pp. 141–2

  ‘At last when ready’: Lawrence, p. 109

  ‘He was very stern’: Gronow, Reminiscences, p. 6

  ‘I am very doubtful’: WD, vol. 1, p. 207, W letter to Bathurst 18/10/1813

  ‘These fellows think’: Smith, pp. 142–4

  ‘He was all gaiety and spirits’: Larpent, vol. 2, p. 155, journal entry 10/11/1813

  ‘As we advanced’: Bell, p. 158

  ‘We turned out the contents’: ibid., p. 159

  ‘What do you mean’: Smith, pp. 148–50

  ‘the sentiment throughout France’: WD, vol. 11, pp. 303 ff., W letter to Bathurst 21/11/1813

  ‘Dead or alive, my lads’: Bell, p. 176

  ‘Hill, the day’s yours’: ibid., p. 178

  ‘committed a great error’: Colbourne, p. 189

  ‘The snow drove’: Leach, p. 216

  ‘Without a moment’s delay’: Cooke, p. 257

  Wellington reported to London: WSD, vol. 8, p. 605, General Hope to W 27/2/1814

  ‘In Spain’: Tradition, vol. 3, no. 17 (1960), p. 18

  ‘extremely thoughtful’: Surtees, pp. 229–30

  ‘They did it beautifully’: Colborne, p. 192

  ‘The action was for some time’: WSD, vol. 8, p. 607, W to Marquis Wellesley 1/3/1814

  In recent years a stone: interview with Jacques Cloup, graveyard custodian, Orthez, 12/9/2008

  ‘Wellington was laughing’: Maxwell, vol. 1, p. 366

  There is another version: Larpent, vol. 3, p. 41, journal entry 7/3/1814, and p. 37, journal entry 5/3/1814; Gleig, Life, p. 494

  ‘probably the ablest’: Greville, vol. 1, p. 71

  ‘the worst arranged’: Colborne, p. 195

  ‘very severe affair’: WD, vol. 11, p. 629, W letter to Lord Dalhousie 12/04/1814

  ‘I have extraordinary news for you’: Broughton, journal entry 17/12/14 (as told to Lord Broughton by F. Ponsonby)

  ‘with great warmth’: Larpent, vol. 3, pp. 138–9, journal entry 13/4/1814

  ‘a walking sore’: Stanhope, p. 32

  ‘that long-nosed beggar’: Tomkinson, p. 123

  Chapter Fifteen: In the Elysian Fields

  ‘I have to acquaint you’: WSD, vol. 9, p. 8, Castlereagh letter to Campbell, 16/4/1814

  ‘much heartlessness and ingratitude’: Campbell, p. 176

  ‘I am most happy’: WSD, vol. 9, p. 59, Liverpool letter to W 3/5/1814

  ‘I am happy to hear’: ibid., p. 74, Henry Wellesley letter to W 15/5/1814

  ‘I believe I forgot to tell you’: ibid., p. 100, W letter to Henry Wellesley 22/5/1814

  ‘How wonderful was the feeling’: Bell, p. 216

  ‘An issue of six’: ibid., p. 223

  ‘to make love to the pretty’: Kincaid, p.145

  Costello and some companions: Costello, p. 205

  ‘He appeared sullen and dejected’: Leach, p. 224

  ‘I left her insensible’: Smith, pp. 186–7

  He was discharged: Cooper, p. 125

  ‘silent reproach and degradation’: Robinson, vol. 2, p. 346

  reckoned he couldn’t count: Wheeler, p. 158

  said he wouldn’t be able to muster: Donaldson, p. 221

  ‘These faithful and heroic women’: Grattan, p. 334

  ‘The commander of forces’: WD, vol. 12, p. 62, W General Order 14/6/1814

  ‘It seems a pity that’: Fraser, p. 103

  ‘scandalous’: Grattan, pp. 332, 340

  ‘I have finished my despatch’: McGrigor, p. 278

  ‘He repulsed the soldiers’: Napier, Life, p. 306

  ‘I have nothing to say of this’: Wellesley, pp. 179, 186

  ‘I don’t mean to be scandalous’: Larpent, vol. 3, p. 174, journal entry 29/4/1814

  displaying her green pantaloons: Marchand, vol. 1, p. 460

  When the manager told: Gronow, Reminiscences, p. 21

  ‘As she seems to prefer’: Costello, pp. 206f.

  ‘impossible to get anything inserted’: WD, vol. 12, p. 142, W letter to Wilberforce 8/10/1814

  ‘orders have at last been issued’: ibid.,
p. 170, W letter to Wilberforce 5/11/1814

  ‘My Lord, you owe’: Granville, vol. 2, p. 516, Lady Bessborough to Lord Granville 21/12/1814

  ‘I am afraid he is behaving very ill: ibid., p. 507, Lady Bessborough to Lord Granville 13/11/1814

  ‘Mais M. Le Duc était de beaucoup le plus fort’: Delaforce, p. 74

  ‘He was a true Englishman’: ibid., p. 75

  ‘Matters are going on well’: WD, vol. 9, p. 146, W to Castlereagh 12/10/1814

  ‘Lord Wellington and the English’: Longford, Years of the Sword, p. 379 (quoting Foy MSS 26/10/1814)

  ‘an open insult’: Campbell, p. 317

  ‘There is nobody’: WSD, vol. 9, p. 425, W letter to Liverpool 9/11/1814

  ‘I was anxious to consult’: Campbell, p. 363

  Chapter Sixteen: Duchess, you may give your ball

  ‘If they’d kept a frigate’: O’Meara, pp. 296–7

  ‘Go, my son. Fulfil’: Markham, p. 157

  ‘C’est pour vous encore’: Fraser, p. 31

  ‘he refused [the chief of staff job]’: Shulbrede archive

  ‘I have brought you news’: Hay, p. 158

  ‘one of the ablest Generals’: Smith, p. 247

  ‘Ho! Bonaparte’s’: ibid., p. 258

  ‘I never remember’: Wheeler, pp. 161–4

  ‘My throat swelled’: Simmons, p. 361

  ‘Stirring accounts of the sieges’: Morris, Recollections, p. 3

  ‘pressed me to her’: Leeke, vol. 1, p. 3

  ‘black horse with a long tail’: ibid., p. 6

  ‘were abruptly boarded’: Mercer, p. 15

  ‘He had told the Duke’: Fraser, p. 3

  ‘made numerous purchases’: Gronow, Reminiscences, pp. 37–8

  ‘he generally wore’: ibid., p. 38

  ‘whose wife, Emily, gave birth’: Foulkes, p. 106

  ‘I am thicker with old Wellington’: Gordon, p. 401, letter to Robert Gordon 29/4/1815

  ‘The power of appointing’: WSD, vol. 10, p. 4, Duke of York letter to W28/3/1815

  ‘It will be admitted’: ibid., p. 219, W letter to Bathurst 4/5/1815

  ‘splendid spectacle’: Mercer, p. 112

  ‘concluding by exclaiming’: ibid., p. 113

  a hollow in a Brussels park: Foulkes, pp. 121–2

  ‘Duke, I have no wish’: Brett-James, Hundred Days, p. 39 (quoting Captain William Verner of the 7th Hussars)

  ‘so that I hope we should give’: WD, vol. 12, p. 346, W letter to Earl of Clancarty 3/5/1815

  ‘By God, I think Blücher’: Creevey, p. 228

  ‘I suppose they won’t’: Kincaid, p. 153

  ‘in a careless sort of way’: Gronow, Reminiscences, p. 38

  ‘Napoleon has humbugged’: Maxwell, vol. 2, p. 14

  ‘But we shall not stop him’: Malmesbury, vol. 2, pp. 445–6

  Chapter Seventeen: Blücher has had a damn good hiding

  ‘You were lucky not to go’: Hay, p. 159

  ‘We had a great ball’: Shulbrede archive, letter to Lady Georgiana Lennox 16/6/1815

  ‘to the credit of our battalion’: Kincaid, pp. 153–4

  ‘upon their ladies parting’: Creevey, p. 229

  ‘merry as cricketers’: Costello, p. 210

  ‘the fine martial clang’: Mercer, p. 121

  ‘dull, sullen sound’: ibid., p. 126

  ‘provided I am not attacked’: Maxwell, vol. 2, p. 44

  ‘We were not advancing unobserved’: Morris, Recollections, pp. 196–7

  ‘their heavy horses’: Anton, p. 164

  ‘92nd, don’t fire’: Siborne, p. 386, Winchester memo 27/2/1837

  ‘“Damn it, 92nd”’: ibid., pp. 386–7

  ‘was unfortunately commanded by’: Morris, Recollections, p. 199

  ‘Though it’s considered’: ibid., p. 200

  ‘reduced to a mere skeleton’: Siborne, p. 381, Riddock letter to Siborne 11/4/1837

  ‘Some were staggering’: Mercer, pp. 128–9

  ‘I wanted to find out’: Hay, p. 165

  ‘those that were not killed’: Croker, vol. 1, p. 330

  When the men of the Gordons: Siborne, p. 387

  ‘This was a crisis’: Kincaid, p. 158

  ‘I shall begin to think’: Robinson, vol. 1, p. 377

  ‘I heard him groan’: Gronow, Reminiscences and Recollections, vol. 1, p. 185

  ‘gained a considerable portion’: Kincaid, p. 159; Leach, p. 228

  ‘To sleep was impossible’: Costello, p. 212

  ‘God bless me — so I am’: Morris, Recollections, p. 203

  ‘Thus twenty-five or thirty’: Llewellyn, p. 65, Ney letter 26/6/1815

  Napoleon, in his ham-fisted: Las Cases, vol. 3, part 5, pp. 219ff.

  ‘if my troops were so disposed’: Stanhope, p. 109

  ‘dragged out … bruised’: Houssaye, pp. 105–6

  ‘I passed that night’: Stanhope, p. 110

  ‘Old Blücher has had’: Maxwell, vol. 2, pp. 37–8

  ‘I still hold to the original’: James, pp. 185–6

  ‘regretted that they were obliged’: Tomkinson, p. 284

  ‘Make haste, make haste!’: Mercer, pp. 139–40

  ‘the very reversing of the limber’: ibid., p. 140

  ‘away we went’: ibid., p. 141

  ‘The order to fire is given’: ibid., p. 143

  ‘It will break’: ibid., p. 88

  ‘reduced the face of the country’: Farmer, pp. 141–2

  ‘a man of no very’: Mercer, p. 145

  ‘all perfectly still and silent’: ibid., pp. 146–7

  ‘I have not the slightest idea’: Fraser, p. 2

  Chapter Eighteen: Hard pounding

  ‘I think you ought to make’: WSD, vol. 10, p. 501

  ‘They all seemed as gay and unconcerned’: Gronow, Reminiscences and Recollections, vol. 1, p. 186

  ‘I never remember a worse night’: Lawrence, p. 141

  ‘the most welcome thing’: Todd, p. 117

  sent off with a small party: Leeke, p. 15

  ‘collected armfuls of standing corn’: Morris, Recollections, p. 211

  ‘You often blamed me for smoking’: Wheeler, p. 170

  ‘I told him I thought’: Morris, Recollections, pp. 218–19

  ‘had the effect’: Llewellyn, p. 83, Sergeant Robertson

  ‘in rather a strange plight’: Hay, p. 174

  ‘It was delightful to see’: Smith, p. 268

  ‘We made a fire’: Kincaid, p. 163

  ‘No! No!’: Pitt Lawrence, p. 117

  ‘We have ninety chances’: Houssaye, pp. 157, 177—8, 180

  ‘His Majesty desires’: Chandler, p. 1067

  ‘The success of the battle’: Low, p. 123

  ‘Colonel Frazer, you are going’: Frazer, pp. 555f., letter 20/6/1815

  ‘Burning timbers crashed down’: Paget, p. 25

  ‘As yet all was quiet’: Leach, p. 235

  ‘No, no. Black is black’: Fraser, p. 207

  ‘I can scarcely comprehend’: O’Meara, p. 113

  ‘We saw Buonaparte himself’: Kincaid, pp. 165–6

  ‘had forced their way through’: Siborne, p. 72, Captain A. K. Clark Kennedy

  ‘I dug my spurs’: Low, pp. 142–3, Sergeant Major Dickson of the Scots Greys

  ‘It was fearful to see’: Llewellyn, p. 84, Sergeant Robertson

  ‘Right shoulders forward’: Siborne, pp. 75–6

  ‘Charge! Charge the guns!’: Low, p. 145, Sergeant Major Dickson of the Scots Greys

  ‘I shall never forget the sight’: ibid., pp. 145–6

  ‘I committed a great mistake’: Siborne, p. 9, Uxbridge letter

  ‘were in the utmost peril’: ibid., p. 112, F. Ponsonby letter

  ‘I know we ought not’: ibid., p. 113

  ‘coming full tilt at me’: Hay, pp. 180–1

  ‘You’re not dead, you rascal?’: Shulbrede archive

  ‘Well, Paget, I hope you’: Anglesey, p. 135


  ‘The cavalry of other European armies’: Gronow, Reminiscences, p. 45

  ‘hard pounding’: Kaye, vol. 2, p. 101

  Chapter Nineteen: Now, Maitland, now’s your time!

  ‘Suddenly a dark mass’: Mercer, p. 157

  ‘Forward! The salvation of France’: Houssaye, p. 203

  ‘Left, limber up’: Mercer, p. 158

  ‘No one who was’: Gronow, Reminiscences, p. 40

  ‘we could not have the slightest’: Morris, Recollections, p. 219

  ‘The effect is hardly’: Mercer, p. 160 his best spongeman, Private Butterworth: ibid., p. 161

  ‘The ground, already encumbered’: ibid., p. 163

  ‘reaching over his horse’s’: Morris, Recollections, p. 223

  ‘Our poor old Captain’: ibid.

  ‘This was a job’: Lawrence, p. 145

  ‘Without his personal exertion’: Frazer, p. 559

  ‘shocking sight’: Gronow, Reminiscences and Recollections, vol. 1, pp. 70, 190—1

  ‘strewed with the fallen horses’: Gronow, Reminiscences, pp. 40–1

  ‘dreadfully cut up’: Morris, Recollections, p. 224

  ‘Here come those fools again’: Creasy, p. 368 (quoting Ensign Edward Macready)

  ‘The battle is mine’: Gronow, Reminiscences and Recollections, vol. 1, p. 70

  the Prussians had arrived: Croker, vol. 1, p. 124

  ‘staff officers whom I sent to Grouchy’: O’Meara, p. 249

  ‘kept up a dreadful fire’: Leach, p. 237

  ‘laughing and joking’: Simmons, p. 365

  ‘The finger of providence’: Stanhope, p. 184

  ‘Cold and indifferent, nay’: Frazer, p. 550

  ‘reining back his horse’s head’: Pitt Lawrence, pp. 115–16

  ‘Troops? Where do you expect’: Houssaye, p. 218

  ‘What was my astonishment’: Llewellyn, p. 66, Ney letter 26/6/1815

  ‘confident of his own powers’: Shaw Kennedy, p. 128

  ‘like a cricket ball’: Leeke, p. 39

  ‘Every shot almost took effect’: Mercer, p. 166

  ‘sounded very like this’: Leeke, p. 41

  ‘to make that column feel our fire’: Siborne, p. 284

  ‘the Duke of Wellington’: Leeke, p. 45

  ‘Now, Maitland’: Longford, Years of the Sword, p. 477

  ‘Guards, get up and charge’: Gronow, Reminiscences and Recollections, vol. 1, p. 73

  ‘I witnessed several’: Gronow, Reminiscences, p. 42

  ‘Oh dammit, in for a penny’: Anglesey, p. 148; Low, p. 163

  ‘No cheering, my lads’: Kincaid, p. 171

  ‘I will ever maintain’: ibid., p. 172