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The Waterloo Roll Call. Charles Dalton
Levies,” “Brunswick Contingent,” “Nassau Contingent,” “Dutch and Belgian Troops,” and “Nassauers in Dutch service.” Of this polyglot force the German Legion, both cavalry and infantry, were deserving of the highest praise for their conduct on Waterloo Day. They formed part of the British army for nearly a dozen years, and many British officers held commissions in the “Legion.” I have been obliged to leave out the German Legion officers in the following Roll Call (excepting those who served on the Staff), and it would be invidious, when all did so well, to pick out the British officers who served in the “Legion” at Waterloo and record their services when those of their German brother-officers are omitted. I cannot even make an exception of Colonel (afterwards Baron) Hugh Halkett, who, like a knight in the olden days of chivalry, singled out a French general (Cambronne) in single combat, and took him prisoner.
The Hanoverian levies did well also, excepting one regiment, which refused to charge the French when commanded so to do. And this was doubtless owing to the lâcheté of their colonel, who, when ordered to lead his regiment to the charge, declined to do so, saying he had no confidence in his men. It is related that Captain Horace Seymour, who had brought this officer Lord Uxbridge’s orders, addressed “a few words of plain Saxon” to him, “which no gentleman ought to have listened to unmoved,” but the only effect they had on the Hanoverian was to hasten his departure to the rear. The Brunswick Contingent fought at a disadvantage at Waterloo, having lost their brave leader (the Duke of Brunswick) at Quatre Bras. Of the Nassau, Dutch, and Belgian troops it is only fair to say that they were, mostly, utterly useless at Waterloo. The glamour of Napoleon was upon them. They had lately been in his service, and had a settled conviction that Wellington would be defeated and his army cut to pieces. “Come over to us, brave Belgians!” shouted a French regiment at Waterloo to their Belgian opponents in the battle. But the “brave Belgians” preferred making “a retrograde movement for strategical reasons,” and retired from the field, carrying news of Wellington’s defeat to Brussels.
Now for Napoleon’s army: This consisted on the 15th of June of about 128,000 men[A]—mostly veterans who had served in many campaigns, and to whom defeat was rare. Add to this, that they all belonged to one nation, and were all equally devoted to their beloved emperor. “No army,” says Colonel Chesney, in his Waterloo Lecture, “was probably ever so well furnished with leaders as his, as none had ever the like experience wherewith to train them.” It is no slight to Wellington to say that Napoleon was, for rapid and offensive warfare, by far the first general of his day. In defensive warfare Wellington was much in advance of his great rival. Taking the words out of Philip the Second’s mouth, Wellington might have with truth said, “Time and I against any other two.” Once more: Wellington himself told Earl Stanhope that he considered the presence of Napoleon with the French army at Waterloo fully equivalent to an additional force of 30,000 men! Now this was the total of the force sent under Marshal Grouchy, on the 17th June, to follow the Prussian army, which had been defeated at Ligny by Napoleon on the previous day, and which was supposed to be in full retreat on Namur and Liége, so that, in round numbers, Napoleon was himself considered equal to a whole army corps! If the British had a Picton, the French had a Ney, who was considered almost Napoleon’s equal in handling troops in the field, and who had pressed us so sorely at Quatre Bras, on the 16th of June, when only half our army had arrived at that position. Then as a leader of cavalry Lord Uxbridge was well matched by Kellermann, whose fame as a cavalry general dated from Marengo. And General Mouton (Count Lobau) was an infantry leader of whom any army might have been proud. It was he who, at the head of the Imperial Foot Guards, had wrested the victory from the Prussians on the bloody field of Lützen, in 1813, and saved the French army from a reverse. Enough has now been said to show what a splendid army the British had opposed to them on the 18th of June, 1815. “I have them at last, these English!” exclaimed Napoleon, in a transport of joy, early in the morning of that day, when he saw our army drawn up in position, with their backs to the forest of Soignies. But he underrated Wellington’s generalship, nor could he foresee how the British generals, officers, and men of all ranks would fight that memorable day, when the eyes of all Europe were upon them, because upon the issue of that contest depended the fate of empires and kingdoms, as well as the future peace of the world. And knowing, as we all do, what glory the victory at Waterloo brought to our countrymen and our country, we must be generous enough to give the brave Prussians the full share due to them for their co-operation on that day. Had it not been for them, Waterloo would have been as barren a victory as Borodino, and Napoleon would have retreated in as good order, probably, as Blucher was able to do after his defeat at Ligny. As it was, our troops bore the whole brunt of the battle without losing an inch of ground, and the arrival of the Prussians, at the close of the day, sealed the fate of Napoleon.[B]
A. Lord Wolseley, in his Decline and Fall of Napoleon, says the French army consisted of about 123,000 men of all arms and 344 guns.—Ed.
In offering this, the first annotated Waterloo Army List, to the British public, I must ask their indulgence for any omissions and errors it may contain. Although I have spared no trouble in the matter, there must be, I well know, a few names of British Waterloo officers who have escaped my notice. But when the following list is compared with the very defective lists given by Siborne and George Jones (the foundation of all other lists), I think the following Roll Call will be found infinitely more trustworthy. I have also added the regimental and army commissions of the Waterloo officers up to the date of the battle, and the honours and promotions bestowed after Waterloo. The war services of many of these same officers now appear in print for the first time, and are not to be found in the Military Calendar of field officers which was published in 1820, nor in Hart’s Army Lists, which date from 1840, and are such valuable works of reference. Of course, a large proportion of the names I have annotated, genealogically, are names of well-known families of the present time, but there are also many names in the following Roll Call which belong to families that are now extinct or lost sight of. I have endeavoured to rescue as many names from oblivion as time would allow, but there are a certain number of whom I can give no information beyond their obituary notices:
“Here lies Pat Steele. That’s very true.
Who was he? What was he? What’s that to you?”
As regards the orthography of the names in the regimental lists, I am not responsible, as they are copied from the “official” Army List. The same rule applies to the precedence of the different regiments.
I am indebted to Colonel F.A. Whinyates, late R.H.A., for some interesting information regarding artillery officers, and to George Tancred, Esq., late captain Scots Greys, for the Waterloo muster-roll and some memoranda relating to the Scots Greys.
Charles Dalton.
32 West Cromwell Road, London, S.W.
June 1, 1890.
B. “I should not do justice to my feelings, or to Marshal Blücher and the Prussian Army, if I did not attribute the success of this arduous day to the cordial and timely assistance I received from them.”—Wellington’s despatch to Earl Bathurst.
ABBREVIATIONS.
| Par. | = Peninsular. |
| Pa. | = Peninsula. |
| G.C.H. | = Knight Grand Cross of Hanover. |
| K.C.H. | = Knight Commander of Hanover. |
| K.H. | = Knight of Hanover. |
| K.M.T. | = Knight of Maria Theresa of Austria. |
| K. St. A. | = Knight of St. Anne of Russia. |
| K. St. V. | = Knight of St. Vladimir of Russia. |
| K. St. G. | = Knight of St. George of Russia. |
| K.T.S. | = Knight of the Tower and Sword of Portugal. |
| K.M.B. | = Knight of Maximilian of Bavaria. |
| K.W. | = Knight of Wilhelm of Holland. |
| W. after an officer’s name | = Wounded. |
| K. ” ” | = Killed. |
| M.I. | = Monumental inscription. |