309 “The marshal told me, during the battle, that he was going to make a great effort against the centre of the enemy, while the cavalry should pick up the cannon, which did not seem to be much supported. He told me several times when I brought him orders, that we were going to gain a great victory.”—Drouet’s Speech.

310 Several remonstrances from general officers were sent in to the Duke of Wellington, to induce him to retire the exhausted regiments. His question was, “Will they stand?”—“Till they perish,” was the reply. “Then I will stand with them to the last man.”

311 “The declination of ground was most favourable to the infantry who, under a tremendous cannonade, were thus, in a great measure, sheltered by their lying down by order. On the approach—the majestic approach—of the French column, the squares rose, and with a steadiness almost inconceivable, awaited, without firing, the rush of the cavalry; who, after making fruitless efforts, sweeping the whole artillery of the line, and receiving the fires of the squares as they passed, retired, followed by, and pell-mell with, our own cavalry, who formed behind our squares, and advanced on the first appearance (which was unexpected) of the enemy’s squadrons.”

312 The preceding and subsequent details of the battle are chiefly taken from Stories of Waterloo.

313 Bulow died on the 25th of February, 1816, of an inflammation of the lungs, at Koenigsburg, of which city he was governor. On his death, the King of Prussia paid the most marked compliment of respect to his memory, by ordering every officer of his army to put on mourning for three days.

314 “When the Imperial Guards, led on by Marshal Ney, about half-past seven o’clock, made their appearance from a corn-field, in close columns of grand divisions nearly opposite, and within a distance of fifty yards from the muzzles of the guns, orders were given to load with cannister-shot, and literally five rounds from each gun were fired with this species of shot, before they shewed the least symptom of retiring. At the twenty-ninth round, their left gave way.”—Letters of an Artillery Officer.

315 “On a surface of two square miles, it was ascertained that fifty thousand men and horses were lying! The luxurious crop of ripe grain which had covered the field of battle was reduced to litter, and beaten into the earth; and the surface, trodden down by the cavalry, and furrowed deeply by the cannon wheels, strewn with many a relict of the fight. Helmets and cuirasses, shattered fire-arms and broken swords; all the variety of military ornaments; lancer caps and Highland bonnets; uniforms of every colour, plume and pennon; musical instruments, the apparatus of artillery, drums, bugles;—but good God! why dwell on the harrowing picture of ‘a foughten field?’—each and every ruinous display bore mute testimony to the misery of such a battle.”

“Could the melancholy appearance of this scene of death be heightened, it would be by witnessing the researches of the living, amid its desolation, for the objects of their love. Mothers and wives and children for days were occupied in that mournful duty; and the confusion of the corpses, friend and foe intermingled as they were, often rendered the attempt at recognising individuals difficult, and, in some cases, impossible.”

“In many places the dead lay four deep upon each other, marking the spot some British square had occupied, when exposed for hours to the murderous fire of a French battery. Outside, lancer and cuirassier were scattered thickly on the earth. Madly attempting to force the serried bayonets of the British, they had fallen in the bootless essay, by the musketry of the inner files. Farther on, you traced the spot where the cavalry of France and England had encountered. Chasseur and hussar were intermingled; and the heavy Norman horse of the Imperial Guard were interspersed with the grey chargers which had carried Albyn’s chivalry. Here the Highlander and tirailleur lay, side by side together; and the heavy dragoon, with ‘green Erin’s’ badge upon his helmet, was grappling in death with the Polish lancer.”

“On the summit of the ridge, where the ground was cumbered with dead, and trodden fetlock-deep in mud and gore, by the frequent rush of rival cavalry, the thick-strewn corpses of the Imperial Guard pointed out the spot where Napoleon had been defeated. Here, in column, that favoured corps, on whom his last chance rested, had been annihilated; and the advance and repulse of the Guard was traceable by a mass of fallen Frenchmen. In the hollow below, the last struggle of France had been vainly made; for there the Old Guard, when the middle battalions had been forced back, attempted to meet the British, and afford time for their disorganized companions to rally. Here the British left, which had converged upon the French centre, had come up;—and here the bayonet closed the contest.”

316 Buonaparte has been severely censured for daring to attack Wellington and BlucherK simultaneously. Had different results attended the battles of Quatre Bras and Ligny, probably military criticism on Napoleon’s bold plans would have been more favourable. Ney seems certainly to have pointed out a safer course, and his idea of first overwhelming the British, and afterwards taking the Prussians in detail, might have been more successful had it been adopted. But even admitting, in part, that Napoleon’s “arrangements” were erroneous, they still were worthy of the vigorous and martial spirit that planned them. His great mistake may be traced to a mind that refused to be controlled by cold calculation. He aimed at more than he could accomplish. With limited means he acted upon a great and comprehensive scheme; and, disdaining to recognise his weakness, he pursued an object demanding ampler resources than he possessed. This was sufficiently proved by the result; for he was unable to gather the fruits of his triumph over the Prussians, whom he permitted to retreat without the slightest interruption. His army contented itself with remaining upon the ground it won so hardly, without even an attempt to harass the slowly retiring columns of the enemy.

There have been conflicting statements as to whether Buonaparte did, or did not know, that Bulow was in force in the rear of his right. Ney says, that Labedoyère brought him a message from the emperor, that Grouchy, at seven o’clock, had attacked the extreme left of the Anglo-Prussian army, while Girard states, that at nine in the morning Napoleon knew that a Prussian column, which had escaped the marshal (Grouchy), was advancing in his rear. Gneisenau affirms, that the fourth Prussian corps (Bulow’s) moved from Dien-le-Mont by Wavre on Saint Lambert at daybreak. Certainly Buonaparte might have been acquainted with its advance during the day; but whether he was or was not, its arrival at Waterloo in the evening decided that day and his destiny.

KGeneral Berton, in what he calls his “Précis Historique militaire et critique des Batailles de Fleurus et de Waterloo,” says, that the French dispositions for the battle of Ligny evinced “le chef-d’œuvre du coup-d’œil militaire,” which he afterwards calls “le génie de la guerre.”

317 An army hastily drawn together, composed of the troops of various nations, amongst which were counted several brigades of inexperienced militia, was the force the Duke of Wellington had to oppose to one of the most formidable and best-appointed armies which France ever produced.

Every officer and soldier, I am persuaded, did his duty; but the Duke of Wellington alone was capable of giving union to such a force. No other man living could have rendered the service which he performed with an army so composed.

The British cavalry and artillery of this army were superb and magnificent; superior, perhaps, to any force of the kind which the world had ever seen; and Marshal Blucher, who reviewed the former a short time before the opening of the campaign, declared that he had not given the world credit for containing so many fine men. The infantry, who, after all, carried away the foremost honours of the day, were inferior in point of men; there were many second battalions, composed entirely of lads and recruits that had never seen a shot fired.

318 Return of killed and wounded, with an abstract of the disposal of the wounded from the War-office, July. 1815.

Return of French Artillery taken at Waterloo:—

319 “After being informed of the loss of the battle of Waterloo, Vandamme remained constantly with the rear-guard: it was under these circumstances that he was severely wounded in the belly by a ball; notwithstanding his pain and loss of blood, he still remained on horseback. When he reached the village, where the army had just halted, he dismounted from his horse; his breeches were full of blood, a surgeon offered to dress his wound—‘Let me alone,’ said he; ‘I have something else to do.’ He immediately began to examine the map, and to write his orders.”

320 To render The Victories of the British Armies complete to the present day, the Indian campaigns, occurring since the issue of the first edition of the work, have been annexed, as supplementary chapters, by the author.

321 To an inquiry made by Napoleon of Talleyrand, “What do you consider the extent of the British empire?” “Wherever a frigate has water to swim” was the short, but comprehensive reply.

322 1814.

323 In 1813, England gave to Portugal one million sterling—two to Spain—one to Sweden. To other powers, she gave five millions—and 400,000l. to Sicily. Half a million of muskets were sent to the Peninsula—and nearly as many more to different parts of the continent, with two million pounds of powder, and forty-eight millions of cartridges!!

324 Such was Napoleon’s opinion. In an address to his army, he says—“Soldiers! I have occasion for you! The hideous presence of the leopard contaminates the continent of Spain and Portugal. Let your aspect terrify and drive him thence! Let us carry our conquering eagles even to the Pillars of Hercules; there also we have an injury to avenge.”

325 The drafts sent from home to one Irish regiment in the Peninsula, from 1808 to 1814, amounted, in round numbers, to four times the number of bayonets which, in its greatest strength, the battalion had ever with the colours.

326 1838–39–42.

327 “At this moment, the united influence of Persia and Russia would seem to be established in all the Affghan dominions, with the single exception of Herat, and the existence of that influence in those countries, viewed in conjunction with the course which those powers have recently been pursuing, and the measures that have resulted from their joint diplomatic exertions, is so obviously incompatible with the tranquillity of India, and even with its security, that no measures can be more unequivocally measures of self-defence than those which the British government is called upon to adopt for the purpose of counteracting the evils with which India is threatened: Persia has no provocation to complain of. The course pursued by the British government towards this government has been one of uniform friendship and forbearance; and it appears to me that it would be a hazardous and costly line of policy to adopt, were the British government any longer to permit Persia, under shelter of her treaty with England, to open the way to India for another and far more formidable power.”—McNeill’s Despatch, 8th August, 1838.

328 1st October, 1838.

329 “They now entered upon the passage of the terrible Bolan Pass, a huge chasm, running between precipitous rocks to the length of seventy miles, and rising in that distance to the height of 5,637 feet above the plains below, which are here about 750 feet in height above the level of the sea. The dangerous defiles which abound in these mountains are infested by the poorest and wildest tribes of the country, who live entirely by plunder; but they fortunately refrained from molesting the troops to the extent which they might have done.”—War in Affghanistan.

330 “Ghuznee, instead of being, as had been represented, almost defenceless, was a place of remarkable strength, and was found by the engineers to possess a high rampart in good repair, built on a scarped mound, about thirty-five feet high, flanked by numerous towers, and surrounded by a fausse-braye and wet ditch. The irregular figure of the ‘enceinte’ gave a good flanking fire, whilst the height of the citadel covered the interior from the commanding fire of the hills to the north, rendering it nugatory. In addition to this, the towers at the angles had been enlarged, screen-walls had been built before the gates, the ditch cleared out and filled with water, stated to be unfordable, and an outwork built upon the right bank, so as to command its bed.”—Engineer’s Report.

331 23rd July, 1839.

332 “At this crisis, Brochard, an engineer officer, devised a plan, as remarkable for its ingenuity as it was perfect in success. His project was to blow down the centre barricade, destroy the cord which communicated with the Portuguese mine, and, in the confusion, which the explosion would be certain to produce, carry the bridge by assault. To place the powder close beneath the palisades, without its being discovered, was both a doubtful and a dangerous attempt; but to the brave nothing is impossible.

“The troops were quietly got under arms, and placed as near the head of the bridge as their being concealed from the Portuguese guard would permit; while, to call off the attention of the latter, some twenty men were stationed to keep up a fire upon the intrenchments, so directed as not to endanger the sappers, who had volunteered for the real service of the hour. It was a service so hopeful and hazardous as to excite the liveliest solicitude for its success. The barrel of powder was covered with a grey cloak, that it might neither be heard nor seen, and the man who undertook to deposit it in its place wore a cloak of the same colour. The clear moonlight was favourable to the adventure, by the blackness of the shadow which the parapet on one side produced. In that line of darkness the sapper crept along at full-length, pushing the barrel before him with his head, and guiding it with his hands. His instructions were to stop if he heard the slightest movement on the Portuguese side; and a string was fastened to one of his feet, by which the French were enabled to know how far he had advanced, and to communicate with him. Having placed the barrel, and uncovered that part where it was to be kindled, he returned with the same caution. Four barrels, one after the other, were thus arranged without alarming the Portuguese. The fourth adventurer had not the same command of himself as his predecessors had evinced. Possessed either with fear, or premature exultation, as soon as he had deposited the barrel in its place, instead of making his way back slowly and silently along the line of shadow, he rose and ran along the middle of the bridge in the moonlight. He was seen, fired at, and shot in the thigh. But the Portuguese did not take the alarm as they ought to have done; they kept up a fire upon the entrance of the bridge, and made no attempt to discover for what purpose their intrenchments had been approached so closely.

“Four hours had elapsed before the four barrels were placed: by that time it was midnight, and in another hour, when the Portuguese had ceased their fire, a fifth volunteer proceeded in the same manner with a saucisson fastened to his body; this he fixed in its place, and returned safely. By two o’clock this part of the business was completed, and Laborde was informed that all was ready. Between three and four a fog arose from the river and filled the valley, so that the houses on the opposite shore could scarcely be discerned through it. This was favourable for the assailants. The saucisson was fired; and the explosion, as Brochard had expected, threw down the intrenchments, and destroyed the apparatus for communicating with the mine.”

333 13th November, 1839.

334 On the 12th of November, Sir Willoughby Cotton, who, before he reached India on his return home the previous year, had, in consequence of the troubled appearance of things, been again placed in command of the forces in Affghanistan, moved from Cabool with a portion of the troops to Jellalabad, to winter there, and Dost Mahomed was escorted by him so far on his way to Loodianah. At Peshawar the ex-ameer waited the arrival of his family, who had resided at Ghuznee since they had been under the protection of the British. Of his numerous sons all now had surrendered except Akbar Khan, who continued to hold out to the last, and eventually took terrible vengeance for all that his family had suffered. The residence first appropriated to the use of our distinguished captive, was the same that Shah Shoojah had occupied for so many years at Loodianah; but he was afterwards removed to Mussoree, on the north-west frontier of our territories, where the climate was better adapted for his health. The pension we allowed him was three lacs of rupees, or £30,000 a year.

335 “Monson was as brave as any officer in the English army; second to none in undaunted valour at storming a breach, but he wanted the rarer quality of moral intrepidity, and the power of adopting great designs on his own responsibility. On the 6th of July, Holkar was engaged in crossing the Chumbul; the fortunate moment of attack, never to be recalled, was allowed to escape; and two days afterwards the English general commenced his retreat. He did what ordinary officers would have done at Assaye, when it was ascertained Stevenson’s division could not come up; and what was the result? In a few hours the subsidiary horse, now four thousand strong, which was left to observe the enemy, was enveloped by clouds of the Mahratta cavalry, and after a bloody struggle, cut to pieces with their gallant commander.”

Painful as the sequel proved, it may yet be briefly told. Colonel Monson gained the Makundra pass, and afterwards retreated to Kotah and Rampoora, after abandoning his artillery. Reinforced by two battalions and three thousand irregular horse, he quitted the fort and marched directly for the British frontier. Heavy rains fell; and on reaching the banks of the Bannas, he found the stream impassable. The position of this ill-fated corps was truly desperate. “In their front was a raging torrent, in their rear twenty thousand horsemen, continually receiving fresh accessions of strength in infantry and guns, as they successively came up. The river having at length become fordable, four battalions crossed over; and the enemy, seeing his advantage, immediately commenced a furious attack on the single battalion and pickets, which now remained alone on the other side. With such heroic constancy, however, was this unequal contest maintained by these brave men, that they not only repulsed the whole attacks made upon them, but, pursuing their success, captured several of the enemy’s guns; an event which clearly demonstrated what results might have followed the adoption of a vigorous offensive in the outset, when the troops were undiminished in strength and unbroken in spirit.”

Disasters followed fast upon each other. The sepoy guard who accompanied the military chests was attacked by the cavalry of Scindiah, their own ally; and when the Mahrattas were defeated, they treacherously deserted to Holkar. The whole of the irregular horse, which had reinforced Monson at Rampoora, followed the example; and a few companies of sepoys—a rare occurrence among those faithful people—quitted their ranks, and joined this enemy. Formed in oblong square, the greater portion of the latter part of the retreat was executed—fifteen thousand horse incessantly harassing in front, flank, and rear, the retiring column—and only kept at bay by the indomitable courage, and unbroken formation of the remnant of this glorious division. At last, worn down by fatigue, and reduced by casualties and desertion of twelve thousand men, scarcely a thousand entered Agra, without cannon, baggage, or ammunition, and only fit for the hospitals, and afterwards to be invalided.

336 When the remnant of Bailey’s army were delivered up by that truculent monster, Tippoo Sultaun, they were marched across the country to Madras, a distance of four hundred miles. During the march, the utmost pains were taken by Tippoo’s guards to keep the Hindoo privates separate from their European officers, in the hope that their fidelity might yet sink under the hardships to which they were exposed, but in vain; and not only did they all remain true to their colours, but swam the tanks and rivers by which they were separated from the officers during the night, bringing them all they could save from their little pittance; “for we,” they said, “can live on any thing, but you require beef and mutton.”

337 1842.

338 1845–6.

339 The region of North-Western India, known in modern times under the name of the Punjaub, is remarkably well defined by geographical limits. On the north, it is bounded by one of the Himalaya ranges. On the west by the Khybur and Soliman mountains and the Indus. On the south and east the Sutlej divides it from British India. Its area is computed to inclose 85,000 square miles. The arteries of the Indus, namely the Jelum, Chenab, Ravi, Beas, and Sutlej, traverse the whole country, and form its local divisions into what are termed doabs. The Punjaub, being translated, hence means “the country of five rivers.”

340 “The Sikhs and late Campaign.”

341 Lieut.-Col. Steinbach, late of the service of the Maharajah Runjeet Singh and his immediate successors.

342 The author, in speaking irreverently of the Sikh army, may be considered in a measure to register his own condemnation. But the reader will kindly remember, that a lieutenant-colonel only commands a single regiment; and it may be inferred that, with his eyes open to the deficiencies of others, the author did his best to repair those of his own corps.

343 Soon after mid-day, the division under Major-General Sir Harry Smith, a brigade of that under Major-General Sir J. M’Caskill, and another of that under Major-General Gilbert, with five troops of horse artillery, and two light field batteries, under Lieutenant-Colonel Brooke, of the horse artillery (brigadier in command of the artillery force), and the cavalry division, consisting of her Majesty’s 3rd light dragoons, the body-guard, 4th and 5th light cavalry, and 9th irregular cavalry, took up their encamping-ground in front of Moodkee.—Despatch.

344 Official Despatch.

345 There was great suffering everywhere for want of water. Hunger men may endure for days together; but a burning thirst, in a tropical climate, is terrible; and when the fever in the blood becomes aggravated by such exertions as the British army had that day made, the whole world seems valueless in comparison with a cup of cold water. None came, however, for several hours; yet the gallant fellows bore the privation without a murmur; and when the following day brought them a reinforcement of two European regiments of infantry, with a small battery of heavy guns, they felt that they were irresistible. Nevertheless, the general, with great good sense, gave them two entire days to refresh; he had nothing to gain by precipitating matters. Ferozepore had been saved by the battle of the 18th; and his communications with the place being in some sort restored, he had time to warn Sir John Littler of his purposes, and to prepare him for co-operating in their accomplishment. These were the chief advantages of delay; besides that, others probably occurred to him, namely, the opportunity which was afforded for the coming up of the corps which had been directed to march from Delhi, Meerut, and other stations. And on the part of the Sikhs, it was doubtless considered that their very numbers would render a long halt on one spot impossible for them; for no country, however fertile, can sustain the pressure of sixty thousand men many days.—Sir Hugh Gough’s Despatches.

346 A staff-officer, whose intellects were unsettled, had ridden back, as soon as he saw that the enemy’s camp was won, and directed the artillery and cavalry to retire upon Ferozepore, in order that men and horses might refresh themselves. Not a gun, therefore, was with Sir Hugh Gough; when Tej Singh with his army of reserve advanced against him, and the murderous fire of round shot and shell which the latter threw into the village where the British infantry stood met no reply. Moreover, to advance from the village would necessarily expose the men to almost certain destruction, because a powerful cavalry was ready to fall upon the columns, while to remain as they were could accomplish nothing, seeing that the enemy would never close with them; battles of artillery being under all circumstances their favourites. But if an accident brought the British infantry into the scrape, another accident relieved them. The cavalry and artillery, moved as they had been directed to do, after having suffered severely from the superior fire of the Sikhs, which took them in flank, while the infantry were advancing to the charge. Now, under the persuasion that a general retreat was ordered, they pursued their course towards Ferozepore. The movement brought them round the flank of the Sikhs, who, mistaking the object of it, suddenly abandoned their guns and fled.

347 Killed.—European officers, 37; native ditto, 17; non-commissioned, drummers, rank and file, 630; syces, drivers, &c., 10. Total, 694.

Wounded.—European officers, 78; native ditto, 18; non-commissioned, drummers, rank and file, 1,610; syces, drivers, &c., 12; warrant officers, 3. Total, 1,721.

Grand total of all ranks, killed and wounded, 2,415.

Return of ordnance captured during the action of the 21st and 22nd instant. Total, 73. Many of these guns have long Persian inscriptions on them, and very old dates; some are highly ornamented, carriages in good repair, and closely assimilating to those in use with the Bengal artillery the whole well fitted for post guns; the metal in these guns is much heavier than those of a similar calibre in use in the Bengal artillery.

Two more guns were discovered at Sooltan-Khan Wallah, of which no return has yet been received.

348 Sir Hugh Gough’s Despatch.—Camp Ferozeshah, 22nd December, 1845.

349 “The Sikhs and the Campaign.”

350 “The Sikhs and the Campaign.”

351 At every point the intrenchments were carried. The horse-artillery galloped through, and both they and the batteries opened such a fire upon the broken enemy as swept them away by ranks. “The fire of the Sikhs,” says the commander-in-chief, “first slackened, and then nearly ceased; and the victors then pressing them on every side, precipitated them over the bridge into the Sutlej, which a sudden rise of seven inches had rendered hardly fordable. The awful slaughter, confusion, and dismay were such as would have excited compassion in the hearts of their conquerors, if the Khalsa troops had not, in the early part of the action, sullied their gallantry by slaughtering and barbarously mangling every wounded soldier whom, in the vicissitudes of attack, the fortune of war left at their mercy.”—The Sikhs and the Campaign.

352 Lieut.-Colonel Harvey Jones, R.E.

353 Napier.