Netherlands Artillery
in the Waterloo Campaign
Part II:
The Netherlands Artillery Officers
Introduction
reviewed by Geert van Uythoven, The Netherlands
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At right, Geert van Uythoven
Although this might have been the case with certain individuals as it will be the case in all armies - and indeed the Netherlands army was young - the picture painted is incorrect, and not based on facts.
The behaviour of the Netherlanders during the Waterloo Campaign certainly shows a dedication to the Netherlands nation and a reliability above all doubt, which is ignored most of the time. Indeed, the Netherlands army was build from scratch and most units had a lack of training, especially in coordinated operations of bigger formations, as already explained in the previous part of this series. Many enlisted men were raw. But in contrast most officers were at least equally experienced, maybe even more, as their British, German, and Prussian colleagues.
To illustrate this for the artillery, I have compiled biographies of all officers that came to the foreground during the Waterloo campaign, as not much is known about them and nearly all historians did not bother to research this. Of some officers information is scarce. Of others, especially those having participated in nearly all campaigns during the Napoleonic Wars and those that distinguished themselves,
more information could be found. And rather interestingly, of the twenty-three officers listed, eleven made it to general and two were killed in battle. The officer with the longest service record in the artillery was Willem Du Pont with in 1815 forty-five years of service with the artillery, not surprisingly appointed as General-Inspector of the Artillery. But also many company commanders had served with the artillery for many years, as for example Bijleveld (thirteen years), Gey (at least ten years), Petter (twenty years), and Spies (twenty-one years).
Distinguishing themselves in French service, a number of them became a member of the Legion d’Honneur. Well, its time to let the records tell their own story…
Netherlands Artillery in the Waterloo Campaign 1815 Part II: Artillery Officers
Netherlands Artillery in the Waterloo Campaign 1815 Part I [FE71]
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Many historians have made a case out of the unreliability of the ‘Dutch-Belgians’, as the Netherlanders are still wrongly called most of the time; proclaiming their lack of backbone and their lack of experience.