In closing the account of the services of the Twelfth Light Dragoons in the Peninsula, it is worthy of being recorded, that the regiment never had a piquet surprised, nor a patrole taken; neither did any instance of desertion occur.
1815
In February, 1815, the regiment marched to Reading, in consequence of some disturbances in Berkshire.
After commanding the regiment for twenty-three years, General Sir James Steuart Denham, Baronet, was removed to the Scots Greys, and was succeeded by Lieut.-General Sir William Payne, Baronet, from the Nineteenth Light Dragoons, by commission dated the 12th of January, 1815.
His Royal Highness the Prince Regent, appreciating the important services rendered by the army during the war, conferred rewards for gallant conduct on officers and corps; and the Twelfth Light Dragoons were authorized to bear on their guidons and appointments the word "Peninsula," to commemorate their services in Portugal, Spain, and the south of France, under Field-Marshal His Grace the Duke of Wellington. Their commanding officer, Colonel the Honorable F. C. Ponsonby, was rewarded with a medal and two clasps for the battles of Barrosa, Salamanca, and Vittoria. Before these distinctions were all conferred, the reappearance of Bonaparte in France,—his re-assumption of the imperial dignity,—and the flight of Louis XVIII. from Paris to the Netherlands, occasioned a British army once more to take the field against the legions of the usurper.
Six troops of the Twelfth Light Dragoons, commanded by Colonel the Honorable F. C. Ponsonby, embarked at Ramsgate, in the beginning of April, 1815, leaving a depôt of two troops in England, (which was subsequently augmented to four,) and landing at Ostend, on the 3rd of that month, advanced up the country; they were formed in brigade with the Eleventh and Sixteenth Light Dragoons, under Major-General Sir John Ormsby Vandeleur. Soon after their arrival in Flanders, they were reviewed by the Duke of Wellington, who was pleased to express his "approbation of their appearance; that he was happy at having again under his orders, a corps which had always been distinguished for its gallantry and discipline, and he did not doubt, should occasion offer, but it would continue to deserve his good opinion; and he hoped every man would feel a pride in endeavouring to maintain the reputation of the regiment."
When Bonaparte endeavoured, by a sudden advance of his numerous legions, to interpose between the British and Prussian armies, and beat them in detail, the Twelfth Light Dragoons were suddenly ordered to march, on the morning of the 16th of June, to Enghien, from whence they continued their route, a great part of the way at a trot, to Quatre Bras, where they arrived at sunset, at the moment when the French troops, under Marshal Ney, were withdrawing from the contest. The regiment bivouacked on the ground behind the field of battle, and furnished small piquets along the front, in communication with the infantry. On the following day, when the army made a retrograde movement, to keep up the communication with the Prussians, the Twelfth Light Dragoons withdrew by the lower road, through the woods and open grounds, passed the river Dyle, at a deep ford, below Genappe, and took post on the left of the position, in front of the village of Waterloo, where they bivouacked in the open fields, and were exposed to a heavy rain during the night.
On the following morning (18th June) two powerful armies confronted each other; each occupied a range of heights of easy access, and a narrow valley was between them. Both armies were confident in their leader, and, as daylight appeared, they prepared to engage in deadly conflict.
The Twelfth Light Dragoons were formed in column of squadrons, and posted in a pea-field, above Papilot, a short distance from the left of the fifth division, which formed the left of the British infantry. Soon after mid-day Count D'Erlon's corps attacked the British left, but was repulsed, on which occasion a brilliant charge was made by the Royals, Greys, and Inniskilling Dragoons. One column of the enemy, on the extreme right of the attacking force, had not been engaged, and it continued to advance. Major-General Vandeleur had proceeded, with part of his brigade, to support the Royals, Greys, and Inniskilling Dragoons, whilst re-forming after their charge; but the Twelfth remained on the left, and Colonel Ponsonby, having authority to act discretionally, resolved, notwithstanding the inferiority of his numbers, to attack the French column with the regiment. He formed the Twelfth in open column, cautioned the men "to be steady, and do their duty," and led them forward over ploughed ground, saturated with rain, to attack this formidable column of infantry, which was supported on the flank by lancers, and covered by the fire of artillery from a rising ground in its rear. As the French column crossed the valley between the two armies, the Twelfth passed the hedge-row occupied by the Highlanders, and descended the rising ground on which the British line was formed, exposed to the fire of the enemy's artillery, and receiving a volley from the column of infantry, to which the slope, the regiment was descending, rendered it a conspicuous mark. As the regiment moved forward, it gradually increased its pace; the men were anxious to charge; but Colonel Ponsonby, whose courage they admired, and in whose talents they placed unlimited confidence, restrained their ardour, that he might maintain their compact formation, and reserve the power of the horses for the critical moment. When that moment arrived, he gave the word "Charge." The French, dismayed by the heroic bearing of the regiment, gave way, and the Twelfth plunged at speed into the column, broke its formation, and cut down the French soldiers with a terrible carnage. The moment the regiment had cut through the infantry, it was stopped by the columns of reserve, and charged by the lancers. Having succeeded in the object of the charge, Colonel Ponsonby was anxious to withdraw the regiment, and spare his men, who were fighting against fearful odds; but friends and foes were mixed in a confused mêlée; the colonel fell, dangerously wounded, and the regiment withdrew from the unequal contest.
After returning from the charge, the regiment was re-formed under Captain (now Colonel) Stawell; its loss had been severe; of the three squadrons, which ten minutes before had gone into action, one-third had fallen; it was found necessary to tell off the regiment into two squadrons, and the grief of the soldiers was great at the absence of their colonel, of whose fate they were ignorant[5]. Major James Paul Bridger, whose charger was killed in the attack, procured another horse, and assumed the command of the regiment.