Adventures in Holland and at Waterloo; and Expedition to Portugal

by Thomas Knight

The inhabitants of Brussels were informed that Napoleon had captured Field-Marshal Wellington; they were all up in arms in Brussels, throwing their baggage into the river to prevent the French from plundering. The British Army faced about, made a heavy charge on the French, and drove them back to their former position (in the wood). We kept skirmishing, taking up ground in different positions, till close up nightfall, when we observed some heavy columns coming up from the rear, from the Brussels side. We expected it was Grouchy, with 40,000 French troops. I made the remark that we were all hemmed in betwixt two fires; but, however, it turned out to be Blucher with the same reinforcement for us. We brought our right shoulders forward, and we made a desperate attack on the French. I witnessed the French firing over their shoulders at us, under their retreat. Leaving the farm and the wood to our right, when up the brow of the hill leading towards Brussels, about half a mile distant,—the French officers of all ranks and soldiers lay so thick on the ground that you could scarcely get a yard of ground but what we stumbled against either a horse or man,—we came into the road leading from Brussels to Paris. By this time it became nightfall with us. We took up our position on the right of the road, and threw ourselves down on the ground to have some rest. We had nothing to eat; and were almost asleep before we reached the ground. Awaking early on Monday, 19th, we could scarcely believe our eyes, that there were only six of us together. We went on foraging. Some Brunswickers and ourselves got a big “porker” in the farmyard; we brought him into camp and hoisted him on three poles, and put a good fire under his jacket; so, as it was getting ready, we cut off slices of it to our heart’s content. We managed to get some wine, when we proceeded on our way. We came down to a village, distant about half a mile, called Floreice, on the main road from Brussels to Paris—that which the French occupied during the three days of Waterloo. We went out in search of our comrades, and had some of the Brunswickers with us. On the right of the Paris road, about half a mile from the village, we discovered some of the rifles, as we thought; but they turned out to be Brunswickers, for their uniform and ours were so much alike. We were informed by an officer of that corps that an officer and some of the rifles lay over to the left of the road; and the officer, discovering us, jumped up and shook us by the hand; glad he was to see us alive. Out of 205 rank and file who went into the field on the 18th June, about eleven o’clock, 172 killed and wounded were lost, leaving thirty-three men. We lay there that day and part of the next, when we had orders to advance. We refreshed ourselves with fruit from the roadside. The potato fields suffered much also. When encamped our swords and bayonets served us for spades.

On our journey to Paris, we travelled at the rate of four leagues (twelve miles) per diem. At the end of the day, as soon as the tents were pitched, throwing my accoutrements and knapsack into the tent, and taking my haversack and canteen, I used to make an object of proceeding into the country to procure some provender. I one day had to visit a wine cellar. I took a good drop of wine, filled my canteen, and brought up a pitcher with a portion of wine in it; and who should be in the room but the provost-marshal. As soon as he saw me deliver the pitcher in the kitchen, he kicked it over with his foot, called the sergeant of the provost, and told him to go down into the cellar and bring up a soldier: I had concealed myself behind the door of the cellar. The sergeant passed me, went down, looked about, but could not discover me; he went up and told the captain that I was not there, saying that the cellar was too dark for him to see me. I was in a rifle dress. “Take a light down, sergeant,” said the provost-marshal, which he did, and then hunted about for me again, but still could not find me. However, in coming up the cellar steps, he saw me behind the door, and brought me into the apartment where the captain was standing. “Oh,” he said, “Mr Rifleman, I have got you at last. I have had a great deal of trouble in catching you.” He ordered the sergeant to appoint four men to take me to the rear guard; so the four men came up and told me to march on, one on each side and two in the rear, the captain giving them strict orders not to let me go. They brought me down to the rear guard, and put me into an apartment where there were twenty more prisoners. The captain also gave orders to the sergeant to “fall us in,” and march us into an orchard to receive the punishment that was to be inflicted upon us. “Come, Mr Rifleman,” he said, “I will begin with you first.” He just read over a small sentence to me, to the effect that I was to receive twenty-four lashes, and ordered me to strip off. I was tied to an apple-tree, and, coming round me, the captain said, “If you will join the provost, it will prevent you from being punished.” “No, captain,” I answered; “I will not leave my regiment.” He then ordered the drummer to put the “cat” on my back. When I had received one dozen, the captain again told me if I would consent to his request he would cease flogging me. I still refused, and he ordered the drummer to give me the other dozen. As soon as they had finished they took me down, and the captain ordered the sergeant to empty my canteen of the wine; they then gave me my canteen and haversack and told me to proceed to the camp. I picked up my clothing, and went over a wall out of the orchard. I then commenced to put my clothes on. In the meantime they had another man tied up to the same tree as I had been at, and, I believe, they gave him five or six lashes, when he bellowed out, begging for mercy, and said that he would never plunder any more if the captain would let him down. I heard no more of him, but proceeded towards the camp, leaving the Provost about half a mile to the rear of me. I got into a farm house and filled my canteen with good wine again, and was fortunate enough to pick up part of a loaf. Coming out of the yard I knocked a fowl down, put it into my haversack, and proceeded into the camp. It was late in the evening. I went into the officers’ marquee and told him what had taken place, giving him full particulars. He asked me to pull off my clothes and he examined my back. “Oh!” he said, “they have not hurt you much.” But I told him I felt very sore, and that I should be hardly able to carry my knapsack on the morrow. He said he would get it put on the baggage waggon, so that I had nothing to carry but my accoutrements, sixty rounds of ball cartridge in my pouch, and forty in my haversack; the weight of these caused my shirt to stick to my back, and gave me great pain. Afterwards I usually kept myself very quiet.

The Prussians had the advance of the British Army, when the French came up the River Seine, which they had to cross. They opposed the Prussians. An express order came to the rear for the British Army to push forward in forced marches; so we proceeded on at the rate of twenty-one miles per diem, under a broiling sun, and, on the third evening we formed on the top of the hill where the Prussians were encamped. On the following morning we erected a substantial battery. By giving the French a few rounds from the artillery, after a short time, we compelled them to move. Word was then given to charge, and we drove them across the river; but before we arrived at the river, the enemy blew up the Bridge of Lourai, which left them on the St. Denis side, and we on the other.

We discovered a flour mill on the banks of the river, and I said to one of my comrades, “I will go down and see if I can find some flour.” Accordingly, I proceeded to the mill, got inside without any difficulty, and discovered a large flour bin, in which I found as much flour as my haversack would hold. In coming down the mill steps from out of the mill, I met another man coming up upon the same errand as myself; he called out, “Miller, what is the price of a sixpenny loaf?” I said, “Faith, comrade, if I have a white jacket, I have no white feather; better to be a miller than starving.” As my uniform was all green, the flour on the skirts of my coat caused me to appear more like a magpie than a rifleman. There was plenty of wine in all the farm houses, and I availed myself of it by mixing it with the flour, by which we soon had a good pot of dumplings; it made good “prog,” I can assure the reader.

Our pontoons being someway down the river, the Prussians went down to cross the pontoons—the boats came up the river the following day to take the British army over. As soon as we all got across the river, the Prussians and the British army made a rapid attack across St. Denis until we came up to where there was a bridge leading across an arm of the river; the bridge was obstructed by trees being thrown across it to prevent us from crossing. On each angle of the bridge, there was a chevaux de frise, and in the main road a large trench was cut about twelve feet deep, and twelve feet wide; and also a barricade formed across the road, consisting of empty wine casks filled with earth, &c.; but in spite of all this opposition, our artillery unyoked their horses from the guns to draw the trees from off the bridge; the sappers and miners also cleared away to let the army over, and filled up the trenches. After we got across upon the main road, our cavalry sounded the trumpet, and the light infantry the key bugles, and the bands played from the regiments of the line. We had about three miles to go before we entered Paris; the Prussians on our right were bombarding the outlets of the city. Previous to our arrival within a quarter of a mile of the township, they sent out a flag of truce, agreeing to surrender Paris to us; so we marched into the town with colours flying and drums beating, the people on the tops of the houses, and leaning over the balconies, some thousands of them singing out, “Vive le Roi!” and others, in opposition, “Vive Napoleon!” But witnessing the number of the army, they thought it best to desist; we went through the Palais Royal, and then marched out and took up our quarters convenient to the river; the fifty-second light infantry and the seventy-first Scotch regiments, and the rifles, occupied the opposite side of the road to that on which the seventy-second light infantry were; a portion of the cossacks were stationed along with us, and also the artillery; the commissariat took up their department on one side of the camping ground to serve us out with rations. I often amused myself by looking at the river side, and going into a river on top of the horses’ backs naked: when the horse would be out of his depth, he would strike off swimming, and the man would swim alongside of the horse; they used to go a considerable way from the bank, turn their horses heads round, and swim back after them.

The constant practice amongst the soldiers was plunder. When the inhabitants came out to see the soldiers, before they returned to the town they were robbed; reports went to Wellington about these offences, and upon all those that were caught corporal punishment was inflicted. When our light brigade was in camp, scarcely a day passed without some flogging; I was very keen myself to see if I could get something in the way of provender to enable me to be strong and long-winded. I went out one night with several others about a mile from the camping ground, to procure some vegetables in the gardens belonging to the Pizans, or market-gardeners; we had a strong mud wall to go over, dividing the road from the garden, about ten foot high; we all got over the wall and went up through the gardens, and the owners of the place hearing us began to fire away with their old muskets at us, and compelled us to retire. In coming back to cross the wall, I made a leap with the rest of my comrades—unfortunately, in trying to get over, I caught hold of the top of the wall, which being, as I said before, of mud, gave way, and down I came on the broad of my back inside the garden again; and I was alarmed about my bones, when I concealed myself under the wall. The gardeners were at this time going up and down looking for us; they were calling out, in French, “Sacre non de dieu!” (which means in plain English, “Damn your eyes and limbs!”) also, that “we were a lot of thieves.” There was a dog not far from me, that set to howling, which enlightened them as to where I was concealed, when they all came up and dragged me out by the collar, and vowed vengeance on me; they brought me to the gateway, and in pushing me through the gateway into the road, one fellow gave me a rap on the back of the head with a pole, which made me see all the colours of the rainbow; I thought this was too much to stand from a Frenchman: but their being too strong for me, I proceeded quietly to the camp determining to watch my chance. We used often to meet them coming into market with their vegetables, so, instead of going over mud walls any more, we helped ourselves from their carts to get an excellent supply.

Our field-days were on Tuesdays and Fridays, something better than a league of three miles towards St. Denis, in an angle of Mont Mart. We used to go through our evolutions, of forming line and squares, &c., during the day, and then retire to camp. Some time in August (I cannot remember the exact date), there were two men ordered by Wellington to be executed; one belonged to the 71st regiment of the line, and the other to the 52nd light infantry. The 71st man was to be hung on a tree, and the 52nd man to be shot; and, as the regiment stood in close column to watch the execution, placed in such a position that every man could witness it, the man was first hanged; and we then changed front to the rear to witness the man who was to be shot; when we faced about, the man was kneeling on his coffin, and his grave before him; the Chaplain was praying with the man some considerable time while he was on his coffin, and when the Chaplain was about to bid him farewell, he shook hands with him. Immediately the provost-marshal ordered the sergeant to draw the cap over his eyes; as soon as he did so, the General of the Brigade gave orders for the men to prime and load. Just as the men were coming to the “recover,” and then to the “present,” waiting for orders to fire, an orderly dragoon came into the field as hard as he could; the General called out to stop the execution till the dragoon came up; when he arrived before the General, he pulled round his sabretash, and presented a despatch from Wellington to the General of Brigade; when he opened it and discovered the contents, he ordered the man to be liberated, and the cap to be drawn from off his head, which was thrown on the ground, and unfastened his arms, which were pinioned behind him. He jumped off the coffin, and stood for a minute or two quite confused, when he wheeled himself about and went up through the columns as smart as ever I saw a man walk. The General called out to form line of regiments, to step off in slow time by subdivisions, and to march past the gallows where the man was hanging from the tree, for an example against plundering. The General called out to the Colonels to march their regiments to their respective camping grounds; which we did, the band playing “Over the hills and far away,” leaving the corpse hanging on the tree behind us. Some short time after this occurrence, all hands were to attend parade—sick, lame and lazy—at the square of the general hospital. There was a man brought up by the provost to be flogged for plundering; his sentence was for 1,000 lashes. When he was tied up to the triangles, he received 500 lashes and never cried “Oh!” to it; the other 500 were to be delivered at another time. He was conveyed away to the hospital to be dressed by the doctor, and we marched back to the camping ground. A fortnight after, the brigade all mustered again and assembled in the general hospital yard; the man was brought out and then received the other 500 lashes; at the first lash the blood spurted out, but he took the whole of the lashes without uttering a word; and we marched back again to our camping ground.

We used to have parades and field-days as usual. Nothing more took place of any importance, as far as I witnessed, until the early part of October, when the brigade all fell in one morning, marched toward the city, and formed in line, with the cavalry and artillery on each flank, and there remained till further orders, while they were taking down the statues that Bonaparte had taken from other countries. From the sulky looks of the inhabitants that day, we expected some disturbance; but seeing the numbers of the allied army, they kept themselves quiet. We marched back into the camp during the evening, and there lay till further orders. On the 12th of October we had orders to break up camp, and our brigade marched to Versailles, four leagues from Paris, and there to remain till further orders. Our brigade field-days were as usual; there was very little I can give an account of for the short time that we were in Versailles. The Rifles were then ordered to march to Calais, to embark for Great Britain. We went on board the troop ship after stopping in Calais only two days. The Jewish inhabitants came on board to know if any of the soldiers had anything to dispose of; they said they would buy anything, so the men asked them would they buy blankets, and they replied they would—those being the campaign blankets; the men asked how much they would give for a blanket, they said eighteen francs, to which some of us agreed, some selling half a one only, which my comrade and myself did, dividing one between us for our use, and selling the other and dividing the money. I purchased a few articles with the proceeds, from the French Jews, such as I stood in need of.

The following morning we proceeded on our way, and the second day we sighted Dover, at which place we had to land. We found on the beach, Colonel Duffay (formerly belonging to the forty-third light infantry) who took the command from Colonel Ross; he gave orders for all those that had articles on the top of their knapsacks to take them off and to leave them on the beach; I picked up some of my things and concealed them about me as well as I could; we then marched up to the quarter-master’s stores—companies being called for, and the list being gone over to go forward and give in their blankets, haversacks, and canteens: some had none, others threw in half a one, but those were as well off who threw in nothing, as those who had only a half one. After this had been done, we marched to the heights, and took up our position in barracks, and there remained till further orders.

Our parades and duty were very moderate; we remained here for two months, when we had orders to march to Ramsgate, to embark on board of troopships for Ireland. We disembarked six miles from Waterford, at a place called Darsage—marched six miles into Waterford, took up our position on the Quay, and there remained till the billets were issued out—only one night. The following morning we marched to New Ross, in the County of Wexford, twelve miles; we came up to the bridge leading into the town, when the band struck up playing through the town, and we formed in the Market Square. Shortly after the billets were handed out by the sergeants of companies; I received a billet for six of us, and went to the house, which was a huckster’s shop. The woman of the house said, “Well, men, we have not much room to put you into;” but we said we could put up with that; so she showed us an apartment where we had to reside, and we put our knapsacks, &c., all up on one side of the room and slept on the other. We came out into another apartment to get a smoke of our pipes, where there was a large turf fire, and we sat down beside if, and the woman of the house asked us if we would take any refreshments, and we replied that we would; she asked us what we would take, and we said “anything;” so with that she put a big pot on the fire, full of potatoes, about fourteen pounds. While they were boiling, she threw in a quantity of eggs on the top, and set about laying the tablecloth; she then took a lot of bacon and fried two pansfull of it, and set it all down before us, with plenty of good table ale, bread, &c. After we had made a good meal, I asked the woman of the house what the expenses would be, she said, “Two tenpenny pieces;” I said to my comrade, “You pay threepence halfpenny, and I will do the same.” I told two others to pay the same, and two threepence each, making in all one and eightpence; after we had smoked our pipes a bit, we made our departure to go to the town; we went into the market and saw a great quantity of provisions; I asked the price of potatoes per stone, and was told three halfpence; I asked what the eggs were per dozen, they told me two pence; how much the bacon was per lb., they said three halfpence. I thought to myself our dinners were charged for very moderately. We then retired down through the town, and took two or three glasses of whisky. In the evening we returned and took some more refreshment, the following morning we did the same, and continued this kind of living until Monday.