"Several years afterwards I inquired of the Surgeon of his regiment, and found that he had recovered with the loss of his teeth on both sides, but that no injury was done either to the upper or lower jaw, the ball having passed between them. The man's name was Pye, the son of an English clergyman, who had left his home and enlisted as a dragoon—he was probably a relation of Southey's predecessor, the poet laureate of that name. After I had got as many of our men ready to march as were in the village of Waterloo, we were just setting off when we were joined by a party from Brussels under the command of a senior officer to me, who had gone there to dinner the day before we proceeded to join the regiment, taking the field of battle on our way, where we found the dead officers of the regiment and buried them, and then proceeded on. But we did not come up with the regiment till the day after when we found it encamped for the night, and my troop without an officer."
Copy of a letter from A. J. Hamilton, Esq., of Dalziell House, Lanarkshire, N.B., a Subaltern in the Scots Greys at the Battle of Waterloo, giving an account of the battle. John W. Hozier, Major, Royal Scots Greys, has recorded:—N.B.—The above has been copied from a letter in the possession of John Hamilton, Esq. of Dalziell House, Lanarkshire, N.B., whose Father was the writer of the original letter.
"Camp, near Mons,
"June 24th, 1815.
"Dear Captain,
"Till this day, I have had no time to write to you. You must have received e'er this the accounts of what happened on the 18th, the slaughter of both armies has been terrible; we have lost three-fourths of our officers in killed and wounded, 200 men, and nearly 800 horses, which was a pretty day's work. The Grays took an Eagle, and the Royals another. I was Orderly Officer to General Ponsonby, and was with him till he fell, the aide-de-camp and I then cut our way through the enemy who had got into our rear.
"The first thing we did in the morning was to charge a column of French infantry who had forced the left centre of our position, supported by the Cuirassiers and some of the Imperial Guard; they had just driven the Belgians from the heights and got possession of six guns, when Ponsonby led on the Brigade in line; they immediately halted, fired a volley which dropped a few of us, not a man or horse went about, and in a minute we were in the middle of them; those to the rear of the column still continued to fire at us. After killing I can't tell what number, we made all the rest prisoners, about 3,000, which were immediately sent to the rear. Nothing could stop the men; they went on, took a great many of the enemy's guns, and then, instead of halting, charged the Lancers and Cuirassiers. At this moment I lost sight of the General, who was killed, and cut my way to the rear, we being completely overpowered by a fresh column of Infantry firing upon us and by the Cuirassiers and Lancers having by this time rallied. We then retired and three squadrons were formed, nine in the Brigade. We were then led to the centre of the Army, where the battle became dreadful. We then charged a square of Infantry on our left, and the Life Guards on our right; between the two were formed the French Cuirassiers, and each flank of our two Brigades rested on a square of Hanoverian Infantry. At this moment everyone thought the battle lost, when we charged and the Life Guards and one half of our men were destroyed. We threw the French into some confusion. The two Brigades, the Life Guards and ourselves, were then formed into one squadron of about 50 file, and we again charged the Cuirassiers in front of us; after which we stood, and the French did the same, and fired at each other with our carbines, not being more than forty yards from each other, both afraid to advance for fear of the Infantry giving way. The French then brought up their guns close to us, and our guns came up also and fired grape shot, the French throwing something like broken glass amongst us, at least it seemed so, which made some dreadful wounds. The Prussians fired the right of the French and they gave way; all our light cavalry then charged, and we pursued them as long as we could see them.
"Signatures of Officers Present of the 2nd (or R.N.B.) Regiment of Dragoons entitled to share of Prize Money granted for the Waterloo Campaign."
"Canterbury 29 May 1817."