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A voice from Waterloo: A history of the battle fought on the 18th June, 1815 cover

A voice from Waterloo: A history of the battle fought on the 18th June, 1815

Chapter 13: FOOTNOTES:
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About This Book

An eyewitness memoir reconstructs the campaign and the climactic 1815 battle near Brussels, combining first‑hand recollections from long residence on the field with collected testimony, official dispatches, plans, and contemporary illustrations. The narrative follows the political and military lead‑up, the disposition and movements of forces, and the principal engagements and turning points, while addressing disputed timings, actions, and claims of honor. Maps, selected orders and letters, portraits, and engraved plans are used to clarify conflicting accounts and present a concise, corrective history intended for general readers and visitors to the battlefield.

FOOTNOTES:

[46] The very dilapidated state of the buildings after the battle, is proof, were any wanted, of the furious efforts made by the enemy to obtain the post, and of the determined desperate courage of the little garrison which defended it. The entire edifice was a scene of ravage and devastation. One half of the little door of the barn, taken away and preserved by the proprietor, was perforated by upwards of eighty musket-balls.

[47] In a work of the highest pretensions, I observe that these dastardly hussars are called Belgians: let the saddle be put upon the right horse: they were the Duke of Cumberland’s Hanoverian hussars.

[48] See his letter of the 17th August 1815, in the Appendix, No. II.

[49] The brigade was above two thousand strong.

[50] Although according to appearances, those gentry are quite harmless, and might be stopped like a cricket-ball when bounding along, one of them would take off a leg or an arm, in much less time than the most skilful operator.

[51] General Foy, no doubt, alludes to the right-shoulder-forward movement of Adam’s brigade, together with the movements of Maitland’s and Halkett’s brigades, towards the close of the day. Foy had also, before the battle began, declared to the Emperor, that he had an infantry opposed to him, which he (Foy) had never known to yield.

[52] Halkett’s left, (30th and 73d regiments,) in square, was attacked eleven times by the enemy’s cavalry.

The late lord Harris, (then colonel of the 73d.) in a letter which I have, alludes to the gallant conduct of these two regiments in the following manner. “My impression is that the gallant and enduring stand made by the 30th and 73d regiments against thirteen charges of cuirassiers and an unceasing discharge of artillery for seven hours, besides the fact of successfully driving the French cavalry away by a charge in square, has not been done sufficient justice to by historians of the battle, with the exception of a French writer.” Would that his Lordship had survived to have read my pages!