Battle of Waterloo 18th June 1815
A year after being banished to the Mediterranean island of Elba, Napoleon escaped in March 1815 to reform his armies that had fought across Europe for the previous 25 years. Likewise the alliance of his former European enemies raced to reform their own armies.
Napoleon resolved to attack the British, Prussian, Dutch and Belgian armies before other countries could come to their assistance. The result was the Battle of Waterloo 15 Kilometres south of Brussels. As British troops arrived on the continent in April 1815 the Scots Greys were brigaded with two other regiments of Dragoons, the 1st Royal Dragoons and the 6th Inniskilling Dragoons to form the famous Union Brigade so named to mark the link between England (the Royals), Scotland (the Greys) and Ireland (the Iniskillings).
First British blood was drawn at Quatre Bras near Waterloo on 15th June 1815. The Scots Greys were called forward with the Union Brigade arriving outside Quatre Bras in the evening of 16th June where they spent the night in a clover field, the men standing at their horses’ heads. The horses were very tired after their long march of 54 miles and the men who had to exist on biscuits carried in their pocket, were hungry. A party sent to forage for food found some soldiers of the Highland Brigade who gave the most harrowing accounts of how the French cavalry had attacked them, inflicting heavy casualties.
Wellington waves to the Scots Greys near Quatre Bras.
At dawn on June 17th the order to withdraw was given, the infantry to retire down the main road, and the cavalry including the Union Brigade to form into a line behind to cover them. Throughout the day the withdrawal continued hard pressed by the French cavalry and artillery and obstructed by torrential rain. Eventually at nightfall a halt was called just south of Waterloo where the regiment was allocated a hollow alongside the main road among some green barley. The rain still fell in torrents and everyone was soaked and dispirited. At reveille it was still raining as the Scots Greys ate their ‘stirabout’ [oatmeal with water] and Corporal Dickson of F Troop was sent forward on picket as dawn broke and found himself overlooking the entire French army.
The Greys went into the battle three hundred and ninety-one strong; by the evening one hundred and two of them were dead and ninety-eight were wounded. These figures reversed the usual ratio of killed to wounded and may be explained by the nature of the Regiment's part in the battle. Formed up on the reverse slope of a ridge (in order to be invisible to the greater part of the French Army), the Regiment had had to wait for several hours. In front of them were the infantry of the 9th Brigade within the 5th Division, and the battalions within this Brigade were facing down the slope towards the masses of French infantry, advancing in columns across the valley and up the slope. The Brigade was ordered to open fire, and did so with great effect, the volleys of musket balls tearing bloody swathes through the French soldiers. Volley after volley shook and staggered the columns, yet they kept coming, so the Union and Household Brigades were ordered forward to lend their weight to the argument. The effect of these regiments of heavy cavalry charging down the slope and full tilt into the massed ranks of the French can be imagined. The two French Divisions commanded by Donzelot and Marcognet, within the 1st Infantry Corps of the French Armee du Nord commanded by General Jean Drouet, Comte d'Erlon, were cut to pieces or trampled by the wielded steel and thundering horseflesh of the Union Brigade and Household Brigade (Life Guards and Royal Horse Guards). Two French standards, only recently given to the 45th and 105th Regiments of Infantry by the newly-returned Emperor, and topped with their glittering gilded eagles, were taken by the Royals and the Greys. Sergeant Charles Ewart relieved the 45th Infantry of its rallying-point early in the engagement and cut down two other French soldiers as well as the standard-bearer in order to keep his prize, which he was ordered to take to the rear before rejoining the Regiment. Ewart was an expert swordsman, at a period when strength with the sword was more important than grace or skill, and adept at handling an ugly, badly-balanced, poor quality weapon which was little use when used at the point or thrust and scarcely better at cutting; that he managed to use it with such frequent and terminal effect speaks more for the strength of his arms, shoulders and back than for the efficiency of his weapon. He had already spoilt the day of a decidedly unchivalrous French officer by the time he got stuck into the standard-bearer of the 45th. This bad-mannered Frenchman had had his life spared by Ewart on the request of Cornet Francis Kinchant at the beginning of the action but had then, when Ewart's back was turned, pistolled Kinchant in gratitude. Hearing the shot and seeing his officer fall, Ewart had an understand–able sense of humour failure and promptly decapitated the Frenchman. In later years Ewart referred to his capture of the eagle but seldom, and always with unfailing modesty, giving the impression that he was far prouder of the summary justice dealt to an enemy who had shown such a poor grasp of good manners. Ewart's move to the rear with his captured standard and eagle may well have saved his life and preserved the trophy for the Regiment. As he was trotting rebelliously to the rear- having been ordered so to do by the Brigade commander - the Greys swept onward into the valley, cutting, slashing and cheering, and up the facing slope through a field battery of French cannon - whose gunners were given short shrift - far further than they should have advanced. As a result, the horses became quite blown and the Regiment unable to rally, escape quickly or properly defend itself when it was fallen upon in revenge for its slaughter by the 6th and 9th Cuirassiers of Farine's Brigade of Cavalry. Attempting to return through the now largely disabled guns of the French artillery, the Regiment was attacked in the flank by the 4th Lancers and seriously cut up. Lieutenant-Colonel Hamilton, commanding the Regiment, was wounded in both arms and attempted to lead the Greys out of the action while holding the reins in his teeth; he was soon shot dead. Amazingly, a remnant of the Greys survived the action and, temporarily brigaded with the Life Guards, repeatedly attacked French infantry positions on occasions during the remainder of the battle.
As the tide began to turn in Wellington's favour, and the Imperial Guard were broken by the fire of the Foot Guards and as Napoleon turned to flee, so the surviving Regiment joined in the pursuit to end the matter. As memories of the horror of the battle faded, and as its glories became magnified in the telling and by the passage of years, so the stories began. As Britain grew stronger, largely as a result of the defeat of France at Waterloo, so the true historical significance of the battle began to be appreciated and one of its most famous episodes, the charge of the Scots Greys, became a subject for artists and myth-makers. Historical accuracy is the first casualty in the pursuit of romance and, while the friendly link that has bound the Greys and the Gordon Highlanders so closely over the years is to be valued, there is no doubt that the 92nd never rode into action at Waterloo hanging onto the stirrup-leathers of the Greys. It is probable that many Gordons were trampled or knocked over as the Regiment rode through the 92nd in their eagerness to get at the French. Of far greater interest and significance remain the sword said to have been used at Waterloo by Charles Ewart and the bullet-holed saddle that bore Lieutenant James Gape into action and out again on 18 June 1815. Both are displayed in the Regimental Museum in Edinburgh Castle
Fight For The Standard . A depiction of Sergeant Charles Ewart, having taken the standard from the standard-bearer of the 45th French Infantry, defending his prize from recapture by a French lancer. Painted in 1847, a year after Ewart's death, this massive canvas, approximately 11ft x 9ft, is a highly romanticised view of Ewart as the noble Victorian hero. Artist: Richard Ansell 1815 - 1885