Notes and reminiscences of a staff officer, chiefly relating to the Waterloo campaign and to St. Helena matters during the captivity of Napoleon

RELATING TO THE WATERLOO CAMPAIGN 5

active, diligent, and accomplished officer, who not only worked hard himself, but also kept his officers on the alert, evincing towards them at the same time the utmost consideration. He was desirous of obtaining information about the highways and byways of the country, and kept me a good deal upon the trot ; and I remember making a special report on the route by which the Prussians retired after the battle of Ligny. Sir Hudson remained with us until a fewweelcs before the Waterloo Campaign opened, when he was given a command in the Mediterranean, his force occupying Toulon and Marseilles.

NOTES AND REMINISCENCES

Pressing on, we reached the long village of Genappe, and began to meet wounded men and stragglers, to some of whom we spoke and gleaned hope that the Duke was still maintain- ing himself at Quatre Bras. The cannonade appeared now to come from the left of our road, for wliich at the time we could not account ; but doubtless the heavy firing we had been hearing proceeded from the great battle of Ligny, and not from the action at Quatre Bras, the direction of the wind accounting for this mistake.

RELATING TO THE WATERLOO CAMPAIGN 26

staff officers. He was then awaiting the return of Sir Alexander Gordon, an aide-de-camp, wlio had been sent off between six and seven o'clock, escorted by a squadron of the lOth Hussars, to learn something of the Prussians, of whose defeat at Ligny, we, that is the army at large, were in ignorance, though the Duke and his chief officers had been apprised of it the night before*

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There has been much controversy respecting the amount and value of the Prussian co-opera- tion at Waterloo. For myself. I think it not unlikely that several causes produced delay in their reaching our field. First, we must re- collect the defeat of Ligny, and that a beaten army is always differently actuated from a suc- cessful one. Secondly, the road between Wavre and the field of Waterloo had been rendered very bad by recent rain ; and thirdly, not knowing that Wellington had great difficulty in maintain- ing his position at Quatre Bras, the Prussian Generals may have resented the non-assistance of the British at their battle, as they had been led to expect. The extreme deliberation of their approach by Ohain I have before pointed out; and i may here mention that, In talking over this with Captain Sibome, whose history of the campaign, I think, evidences Prussian proclivity — he was of German descent — he admitted that our ally ought to have been up sooner.

CHAPTER IV

scene of action at Quatre Bras when we arrived there, and too late to see Ney's last effort against the position ; but considerable bodies of the enemy seemed still to wear a threatening" as- pect, but, save by a few shots of artillery and the popping of skirmishers, there was no more firing that evening. The Duke remained for some time longer near the Bois de Bossu, in- tently watchinw the dark masses in our front, which stood scarcely beyond the range of our most advanced field-pieces ; but it was evident the business of the day was over. Some of our acquaintances belonging to the staff gave us, in the meantime, an account of the severe and bloody battle ; all agreeing that our troops had never been more severely pressed in maintaining their position ; it was also said that the Duke had exposed his person more than on any former occasion, and that his escaping without a wound

CHAPTER IV

* [This is scarcely fair. The stand made by Prince Bernhard of S.ixe- Weimar at the beginning of the fight at Quatre Bras was most creditable, and but far him and Perponcher's decision to hold that place--quite inde- pendent of Wellington who was far in the rear — it would have been lost. See Rose's Napolean, ii. 462.]

CHAPTER V

I have stated that much bustle prevailed at Brussels on the i6th June, during the fighting at Quatre Bras and Ligny, but It was trifling as compared with the disorder I witnessed on the morning of the iSth, when the Park, Place Royale, and streets adjacent, were not only encumbered by vehicles of all kinds, but also by multitudes of wounded men, who had flocked in during the night from the Prussian and British armies. The city being defenceless, no hospi- tals had been prepared for them, nor^ owing to

CHAPTER IX

I MUST now permit myself to make a few brief observations upon this important battle. Of the numerous incidents it presents, it strikes me that the repulse of Count d'Erlon's formidable attack on the 1 8th, early in the day, upon Picton 's weak division, is the one most deserving of our admiration. To form a just opinion of Picton's nerve^ judgment, and decision, we must remem- ber that, to meet the onset of three columns, amounting to 13,000 bayonets, we had only 3000 British infantry — all that remained of the 4600 with whom he had borne the brunt of the severe action of Quatre Bras ; that a Dutch brigade, originally posted in his front, fled almost before the enemy came within musket shot ; and further, that he had no troops whatever behind him as a reserve in case of disaster. The main- tenance of, perhaps, our entire position, depended on the ability of 3000 men, formed only two deep, to drive back three massive columns,

CHIEFLY RELATING TO THE WATERLOO

CHIEFLY RELATING TO THE WATERLOO

PREFACE

existence sixty years ago, when the book trade reaped an abundant harvest from the field of Waterloo, it might have answered a publisher's purpose to bring it out. But when many years have been suffered to pass by, and when we only hear of Waterloo as a bridge, a place, or a road, it was far too late. Some portion of my Recollections did appear in the United Service Magazine,* about thirty years back, which I deemed sufficient.

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RELATING TO THE WATERLOO CAMPAIGN 3

RELATING TO THE WATERLOO CAMPAIGN 5

RELATING TO THE WATERLOO CAMPAIGN 5