Medal for Brunswick Contingent.—On October 30th, 1824, Duke Charles II decided to award a medal to those who formed the Brunswick Contingent, which came to England in 1809 with the Duke Frederick William, and took part in the Spanish and Portuguese war against Napoleon. The Contingent fought in nearly all the battles between 1810-14. The officers received a silver medal, and sub-officers and privates one of bronze. The medal, 13∕16 in. in diameter, has a plain double border, and is suspended from a crimson ribbon by means of a loop and ring. On the obverse is a wreath of laurel and oak and PENINSULAR; on the reverse is a military trophy with a studded shield, arranged sideways, on which the Duke's initials, C. C., are arranged in monogrammic form.
Medal for British German Legion.—King Ernest Augustus founded, on May 11th, 1841, a medal for distribution to the survivors of the British German Legion, who had served in the Peninsular War between 1803-14. The medal, having a double rim, was of bronze made from captured cannon. One and seven-twentieths inch in diameter, it bears on the obverse a cross patée with double raised edges, in the centre of which is the King's monogram, E. A. R., surmounted by a crown; on the reverse within a laurel wreath is the inscription TAPFER UND TREU (Brave and Loyal), and within the rim KÖNIGLICH-DEUTSCHE LEGION (Royal German Legion). The medal is suspended from a 1⅖ in. white ribbon, with yellow stripe near the edge, by means of a ring and loop. I have in my possession one without the inscriptions, a laurel wreath and 1813 entirely filling the reverse. (See facing page [58].)
Eve of Waterloo.—On February 27th, 1815, Napoleon, untamed by adversity, escaped from Elba, and on March 1st landed at Cannes in Provence with 1,000 determined followers, but so rapidly did the people rally to his standard that by the 20th he had reached Paris with an army of such proportions that Louis was compelled to retire to Ghent, and the Bourbon dynasty was again forgotten. Early on the morning of June 12th Napoleon quitted the capital, on the 14th joined the army collected on the frontier, and commenced his last campaign, which was to terminate on the 18th at Waterloo. Wellington had been sent to take charge of an army which he described in a letter as "very weak and ill-equipped, and a very inexperienced staff," but we now know that, though it was "a green army," the right material was there, and only required the moulding of opportunity to make good form. Wellington's army comprised British, Hanoverian, and Belgian troops, with contingents of Nassau and Brunswick Oels. Of the 78,500 men comprising it, only about 43,000 were British, German, or Hanoverians. By the 18th it had been reduced to 74,040. The Prussian army was 115,000 strong. The French army, estimated at not less than 154,370, with 296 pieces of cannon—and variously at 127,000, 122,000, and 115,000, with 350 guns—was mainly composed of men "whose trade was war, and whose battles were as many as their years"; so that against the heterogeneous mass of men of various tongues commanded by Wellington, his great opponent was to hurl an army of veterans who could well be called upon to repeat the deeds of Marengo, of Friedland, and of Austerlitz. As it happened, the raw levies of Britain were to emulate the deeds of their brethren at Badajoz and Albuera.
On June 15th Napoleon's army crossed the Sambre, and on the morning of the 16th at Ligny he forced back the Prussians, but Blucher—falling back upon Wavre instead of Ligny—upset the French General's calculations. Meanwhile Wellington, having made arrangements with Blucher, was with his officers in the celebrated ballroom of the Duchess of Richmond at Brussels. Two hours after midnight the gaiety of the brilliant ballroom was subdued, and following the "sound of revelry by night" came "the cannon's opening roar" at Quatre Bras.
Quatre Bras.—By 8 o'clock the British had left Brussels, the 42nd and 92nd Highland Regiments having assembled to the sound of the pibroch, "Come to me and I will give you flesh"—an invitation to the wolf and raven, for which, as Forbes relates, the coming day did in fact spread an ample banquet. At 2 o'clock, after a march of 20 miles in sultry weather, they arrived at the hamlet of Quatre Bras, to find the Prince of Orange pluckily but feebly endeavouring to check the enemy, who had already gained Le Bois de Bossu. There, at the intersection of the Charleroi-Brussels and Namur-Nivelle roads, 7,000 Dutch-Belgians with 16 guns and no cavalry stood against Marshal Ney with 16,000 infantry, 1,700 cavalry, and 36 guns. It was, indeed, an unequal contest until the arrival of Pack's and Kempt's brigades. Wellington at once decided the wood must be taken, and then ensued an exceedingly sanguinary conflict ere, with the ultimate arrival of the Guards, the French were forced to retire. The Guards (mostly young soldiers) had arrived from Enghein after a march of 27 miles, having started at 3 o'clock in the morning to join the main body. They had halted at Nivelles to rest and feed, but the arrival of a Staff officer, urging them to hurry on, induced them to abandon their meal, and resume their march. They arrived on the field of battle at an opportune moment, and then, despite their fifteen hours' march without food or drink, the first brigade of Guards, having loaded their muskets and fixed bayonets, pushed their way into Le Bois de Bossu, and within half an hour regained possession of it, but they could do no more than hold it. Meanwhile a series of splendid struggles had been taking place. When the 95th had been ordered to clear Le Bois de Bossu, the Royals and the 28th (Gloucesters) were severely engaged on the left, while the 44th, the 42nd and 92nd Highland Regiments were hotly assailed on the right.
The 28th, after gallantly standing its ground under a furious cannonade, was suddenly, and on three different sides, assailed by French cavalry. Two faces of the square were charged by the lancers, while the cuirassiers galloped down upon another. It was, as Maxwell states, a trying moment. "There was a death-like silence; and one voice alone, clear and calm, was heard. It was their colonel's (Sir Philip Benson), who called upon them to be 'steady!' On came the enemy! The earth shook beneath the horsemen's feet, while on every side of the devoted band the corn bending beneath the rush of cavalry disclosed their numerous assailants. The lance-blades approached the bayonets of the kneeling front rank—the cuirassiers were within forty paces—yet not a trigger was drawn; but, when the word 'Fire!' thundered from the colonel's lips, each face poured out its deadly volley—and in a moment the leading files of the French lay before the square, as if hurled by a thunderbolt to the earth. The assailants, broken and dispersed, galloped for shelter to the tall rye, while a stream of musketry from the British square carried death into the retreating squadrons."
BRUNSWICK WATERLOO MEDAL.
SAXE-GOTHA-ALTENBURG WATERLOO MEDAL.