Guns.Ammunition Carriages.
A.B.C.D.E.F.G.H.I.
Sir H. D. Ross’sTroop5··167··2··9
Sir R. Gardiner’s”··516··72··9
Lt.-Col. Webber Smith’s”··516··72··9
Captain Mercer’s (G)”5··167··2··9
Major Ramsay’s”5··167··2··9
Major Bull’s”····66····9··9
Captain Whinyates’s”··516··51612
15151242211920666

N.B.—Major Beane’s Troop, when it arrived, was armed like Sir H. Ross’s.

This change of armament proved very beneficial at Waterloo; but the credit of introducing it seems to have been ascribed, without reason, to the Duke of Wellington. Frazer’s Letters, p. 551. Writing two days after the battle, Sir A. Frazer said: “I must be allowed to express my satisfaction, that, contrary to the opinion of most, I ventured to change (and under discouraging - circumstances of partial want of means) the ordnance of the Horse Artillery.” And again: “I bless my stars that I had obstinacy enough to persist in changing the guns of the Horse Artillery.” The forethought was certainly more consistent in one who was an able and enthusiastic Horse-Artilleryman, than in one who, like the Duke of Wellington, knew little of Artillery details or tactics.

Mercer’s Diary, vol. i. p. 160.

The arrangement and constitution of a troop of Horse Artillery at Waterloo are given with minuteness by General Mercer in his Diary. Taking the troop, which he commanded, although only its 2nd Captain,[45] as a sample of those more heavily armed, it appears that each gun, and the howitzer, were drawn by 8 horses, and each waggon by 6. Each of the six mounted detachments required 8 horses; 5 were required for the staff-sergeants and farriers; 18 for the spare-wheel carriage, forge, curricle-cart, baggage-waggon, &c.; 17 horses for officers, and 6 mules, and 30 spare, additional horses. This gave a total of 226 per troop. There were 23 non-commissioned officers, artificers, and trumpeters; 80 gunners, and 84 drivers. On parade, the 5½-inch howitzer was the right of the centre division of the troop. It was of this troop that Blücher said, at the review near Ibid. p. 217. Grammont on the 29th May, that “he had never seen anything so superb in his life;” concluding by exclaiming, “Mein Gott! dere is not von orse in dies batterie wich is not goot for Veldt-Marshal!”

There is in the official correspondence of May and June 1815, a collection of quaintly amusing letters from various 2nd Captains of Artillery in Belgium, who, prior to the war, had been left in undisturbed command of their batteries,—their 1st Captains being specially employed—and who now wrote begging that the latter should not be allowed to join, and thus rob them of their chances of distinction and preferment. One of these—Captain Napier—wrote direct to the Master-General, protesting against the appointment of Captain Bolton to command his battery; which, he wrote, “hurt him much.” Little did he think as he wrote that a mightier hand than the Master-General’s was in a very few days to cancel the appointment, and that ere the first battle should be over, he should resume the command, vacant by his senior’s death! Pages might be filled with instances of this resentment at the presence of a 1st Captain; nor were they confined to attempts to prevent the seniors from joining. One 2nd Captain, whose commanding officer was wounded at Quatre Bras, wrote off immediately, begging the Master-General to appoint no one in his place, but to leave the command in his hands.

When the Allies were ready, as far as equipment was concerned, Brussels remained the head-quarters of the Duke of Wellington, and the army was scattered through the country, in a way which has excited much criticism among continental writers. Napoleon, when he fought the battles of Ligny and Quatre Bras, had hoped to find the English army still in its cantonments; but he was disappointed, for it had quitted them, and commenced to concentrate on the 13th and 14th June. His intention had been to defeat the Prussians, and compel them to retire on the base of their communications and supplies, and to compel the advanced part of the Anglo-allied army to retire from Quatre Bras on Brussels. In neither particular were his hopes fulfilled. He certainly compelled the Prussians, after their defeat at Ligny on the 16th June, to retire; but they quitted the main road to Namur, along which Napoleon expected that they would continue their retreat, and marched to Wavre by a road parallel to that occupied by Wellington between Quatre Bras and Brussels. This brilliant movement was unsuspected by Napoleon, whose remissness after Ligny and during the early part of the 17th was unaccountable. Disappointed in his Sir G. Wood to D.-A.-G. 24/6/15. plans with regard to the Prussians, he failed also in his purpose against the English. Marshal Ney with two corps attacked part of the Allied force at Quatre Bras, a place in front of the village of Genappe, where two main roads—from Genappe to Charleroi, and Namur to Nivelle—cross one another. The endurance of the Allies was tried to the utmost by having to wait the arrival of reinforcements, and to fight against superior numbers, but it was rewarded by a Cust. complete, although costly, victory. The first attack was received by the Belgians; but Picton’s English division, over 7000 strong, soon came up, followed by over 6,500 Brunswickers and Germans. The battle commenced at 2 P.M. on the 16th; and at 4 o’clock the Duke of Wellington came on the field with a brigade of foreign cavalry, and assumed the command. Later in the evening, the 1st British division, under Generals Cook and Maitland, with its artillery, arrived from Enghien, having marched for a period of fifteen hours;[46] and with the approaching darkness came the retreat of the French on Frasnes. This defeat ruined the French Emperor’s plans, and paved the way for the greater defeat of the 18th.

Sir G. Wood to D.-A.-G. 24/6/15.

The following field-officers, troops, and brigades of Artillery were present at the battle of Quatre Bras:—

Lieut.-ColonelS. G. Adye, commanding the Artillery of the 1st Division.
”Sir A. Frazer, commanding Royal Horse Artillery.
”Sir J. Hartmann, commanding King’s German Artillery.
”Sir J. May, Assist. Adjutant-General.
”Sir A. Dickson.