by the irresistible attack of the Life Guards:*-Immediately after the first charge, while the Life Guards were pursuing the French, three of their cuirassiers turned down a narrow lane, with a view of escaping that way, and they were pursued by Private John Johnson, of the 2nd. regiment. There proved to be no thoroughfare at the end of the road, when Johnson, though alone, attacked the three, and, after a slight resistance, they surrendered themselves prisoners. Several instances of distinguished bravery displayed by individuals of the Life Guards, have been recorded; amongst others, Corporal Shaw and Private Godley, of the 2nd. regiment. The former for his great prowess, and the number of cuirassiers he slew; and the latter for a distinguished act of bravery, namely, when his horse was killed, himself wounded, and his helmet knocked off, bareheaded as he was, he attacked a cuirassier, slew him, and mounted his horse. Shaw was killed in the first charge. Godley lived several years after, and a stone was erected to his memory by his comrades in the burial-ground of St. John's Wood, London, with appropriate devices and inscription. During the engagement the Duke of Wellington came to the head of the 1st. regiment of Life Guards, and thanked the squadrons for their gallant behaviour. Colonel Ferrier, of the 1st. Life Guards, before he fell had eleven times led his regiment to the charge. Several of these charges were made after his head was laid open by a sabre cut, and his body had been pierced by a lance. During the heat of the conflict Captain Alexander Kennedy Clark, (now Lieutenant-General A. K. Clark Kennedy, C.B.,) commanding the centre squadron of the 1st. Royal Dragoons, having led his men about two hundred yards beyond the second hedge on the British left, perceived, in the midst of a crowd of infantry, the eagle of the French 105th. regiment, with which the bearer was endeavouring to escape to the rear. Against this body of men Captain Clark instantly led his squadron at full speed, and, plunging into the midst of The Life Guards and Blues were without cuirasses at Waterloo; and the 1st. Foot Guards received the royal authority to be styled Grenadier Guards, to commemorate their having been victorious over the Imperial Guard. the crowd, overtook, and slew the French officer who carried the eagle. Several men of the Royal Dragoons coming up at the moment of its capture, Captain Clark gave the eagle to Corporal Stiles, and ordered him to carry it to the rear. The corporal was afterwards rewarded with an ensigney in the 6th. West India Regiment. Another eagle, that of the French 45th. regiment, was captured by Sergeant Charles Ewart, of the 2nd. Royal North British Dragoons. This gained for the gallant sergeant an ensigncy in the 3rd. Royal Veteran Battalion. The following is a remarkable instance of preservation:Lieutenant George Doherty, of the 13th. Light Dragoons, besides being severely wounded in the head, was struck by a ball, which was stopped and flattened by the interposition. of his watch. He had taken out his watch to remark the time, when the regiment was ordered to advance, and not being able to return it, he put it into the breast of his jacket, and thus, providentially, his life was saved. In one of the charges made by the 28th. regiment at Waterloo, a flag belonging to the 25th. French regiment was taken by Private John O'Brien, of the eighth company, who the moment after received a severe wound, which ultimately occasioned the loss of his leg. The trophy, however, was preserved, and sent to Major-General Sir James Kempt, who commanded the division, when the regiment arrived at Paris. One of the Duke's sayings has been preserved, and bears remarkably upon Waterloo; in the evening of that day he said to Lord Fitz Roy Somerset, "I have "I have never fought such a battle, and I trust I shall never fight such another." In the "Letters of Colonel Sir Augustus Simon Frazer, K.C.B.," commanding the Royal Horse Artillery in the army under the Duke of Wellington, edited by Major-General Edward Sabine, from which the above has been extracted, is this allusion to Waterloo:-"Never was there a more bloody affair, never so hot a fire. Bonaparte put in practice every device of war. He tried us with artillery, with cavalry, and, last of all, with infantry. The efforts of each were gigantic, but the admirable talents of our Duke, seconded by such troops as he commands, baffled every attempt." There is some difference of opinion as to the exact time the battle commenced. In the "Life of Lord Hill," by the Rev. Edwin Sidney, A. M., occurs the following:-"In reading the various accounts of this battle, it is curious to observe the discrepancies as to the time it commenced. Lord Hill has, however, settled this point. On arriving in London the autumn after the conflict, he passed his first evening at the house of his friend Lord Teignmouth. 'Can you tell me,' said Lord Teignmouth, at what time the action commenced?' replied, 'I took two watches into action with me. On consulting my stop-watch after the battle was over, I found that the first gun was fired at ten minutes before twelve.' Lord Hill Captain Moorsom, in his "History of the 52nd. Light Infantry," gives the following characteristic account of the commencement of the action:-"The night was wet and disagreeable, as usual before the Duke of Wellington's battles. As the morning broke, between four and five o'clock, Captain Diggle's company of the 52nd., and two or three companies of the 95th. Rifles, were sent into the enclosures of the village of Merbe Braine, with their front towards Braine-le-Leud. At twenty minutes past eleven a cannon-shot was fired. Diggle, a cool old officer of the Peninsula, took out his watch, turned to his subaltern Gawler, who was another of the same Peninsular mould, and quietly remarked, 'There it goes.' The leaders, in fact, had then opened the ball." In the "Life of Lord Hill," before quoted, occurs the following account of the final struggle:-"Sir Digby Mackworth, who was on the staff of Lord Hill, has kindly communicated what he witnessed of his General's efforts at the grand crisis of the day. 'He placed himself,' Sir Digby states, 'at the head of his Light Brigade, 52nd., 71st., and 95th., and charged the flank of the Imperial Guard, as they were advancing against our Guards. The Light Brigade was lying under the brow of the hill, and gave and received volleys within half-pistol-shot distance. Here Lord Hill's horse was shot under him, and, as he ascertained the next morning, was shot in five places. The general was rolled over and severely bruised, but in the mélée this was unknown to us for about half an hour. We knew not what was become of him; we feared he had been killed; and none can tell you the heart-felt joy which we felt when he re-joined us, not seriously hurt.' When the tremendous day was over, Lord Hill and his staff again re-occupied the little cottage they left in the morning. His two gallant brothers, Sir Robert Hill and Colonel Clement Hill, had been removed wounded to Brussels; the party was, nevertheless, nine in number. A soup made by Lord Hill's servant, from two fowls, was all their refreshment, after hours of desperate fighting without a morsel of food. Lord Hill himself was bruised and full of pain. All night long, the groans and shrieks of sufferers were the chief sounds that met their ears. It was to them all a night of the greatest misery. The men whom the nations of Europe were about to welcome with acclamations, and to entertain in palaces, could only exchange sigh for sigh with each other in a wretched cottage. Such is war even to the winners. May a gracious God soon make it to cease in all the earth!" The casualties amongst the officers of the British army, (including the King's German Legion,) amounted to one hundred and thirty-nine killed, five hundred and eighty-five wounded, and fifteen missing. The Hanoverian troops had twenty officers and three hundred and eight men killed, seventy-seven officers and one thousand two hundred and forty-four men wounded. The Brunswick troops had seven officers and one hundred and forty-seven men killed, and twenty-six officers and four hundred and thirty men wounded. The Nassau contingent had five officers and two hundred and forty-nine men killed, and nineteen officers and three hundred and seventy men wounded. Numerous as these casualties were, those of the French far exceeded them, amounting, according to the most correct calculations, to about thirty thousand. |