Collected Reminiscences of Waterloo

The Guards at Waterloo

HOUGOUMONT

'The success of the battle of Waterloo turned upon the closing of the gates of Hougoumont.'

-- WELLINGTON

A distinguished novelist, Sir A. Conan Doyle, has told, and Sir Henry Irving has realised for us in life-tints on the stage, the story of Corporal Gregory Brewster's daring deed at the great North Gate of Hougoumont, in dashing through the flames with a wagon-load of ammunition for the defenders; but another heroic incident took place at the same spot, which was of even greater interest, and certainly produced results of much greater importance.

All British and French writers agree that the chateau and farmhouse of Hougoumont formed the key to Wellington's position at Waterloo. When Lord Uxbridge asked the Duke which was the material point of his operations in case any accident should overtake him, the reply was, 'Keep Hougoumont.' Victor Hugo, describing the battlefield, writes: 'Hougoumont: this was the beginning of the obstacle, the first resistance which that great woodcutter of Europe called Napoleon encountered at Waterloo – the first knot under the blows of his axe. Behold the court, the conquest of which was one of Napoleon's dreams. This corner of earth, could he but have seized it, would perhaps have given him the world likewise.'

To hold this vital point in his line of battle, Wellington chose the Coldstream Guards, under Lieutenant-Colonel Sir James Macdonell, a gigantic, broad shouldered Highlander from Invergarry; and to these same broad shoulders and the perfervidum ingenium Scotorum, which at the supreme moment and crisis of the assault refused to yield, Wellington after the battle accorded the laurels of victory. [Macdonell had obtained a gold medal for distinguished service at the battle of Maida, Sicily, 1806.] When appealed to, in awarding the prize of five hundred pounds bequeathed to 'the bravest soldier in the British army at Waterloo,' Wellington wrote: 'The success of the battle of Waterloo turned upon the closing of the gates of Hougoumont. These gates were closed in the most courageous manner at the nick of time by Sir James Macdonell. I cannot help thinking, therefore, that Sir James is the man to whom you should give the five hundred pounds.' Like a true Highland gentleman, Macdonell handed over the money to the stalwart sergeant who, shoulder to shoulder with this colonel of the Guards, had forced back the door on its hinges in face of overwhelming numbers of the enemy.

The following details of this soul-stirring incident are gathered from the most reliable French and British sources: The Coldstream Guards, who, with the 3rd or Scots Guards, formed the and Brigade of General Cook's Division of Guards, arrived on the field of battle at five o'clock on the evening of the 17th June, wearied with the long march from Quatre Bras, where they had helped the Highland Brigade to win a costly victory. It was then a fine evening; but at seven o'clock, when Macdonell's men advanced to take possession of the château and grounds, a tremendous storm of rain, wind, lightning, and loud thunder broke over the country. Nor were they a moment too soon: for hardly had they closed the gates before a party of French cavalry approached at full speed and sought to seize the orchard. A short and sharp encounter satisfied the enemy that the attempt with their numbers was fruitless.

All that night the small garrison were kept at work by Macdonell in strengthening the buildings for defence; and in the morning they started to Pierce the brick walls of the orchard and garden for loopholes, and to erect low platforms for the second firing-line which should shoot over the walls. All the gates giving access to the chateau or the farm were barricaded with flagstones, beams, broken wagons, and the like; but the great North Gate leading to the British ridge was left open to allow of free ingress for ammunition and reinforcements if necessary. This open gateway constituted a source of much danger, as by a rush the enemy might at any moment force an entrance before a sufficient number of the defenders could rally to the spot.

Early in the morning of the 18th, Wellington and his staff rode down to the spot. Müffling, the Prussian officer, and other foreigners were with them. Taking a survey of the defences, the Duke expressed himself well satisfied. 'Now Bonaparte will see how a general of Sepoys can defend a position,' he said; and was about to remount, when Müffling expressed some doubt as to the possibility of the post being held against assault. Wellington merely pointed to Macdonell, to whom he had been giving some final instructions, and remarked, 'Ah! you do not know Macdonell.'

After the battle – after Napoleon had sent his brother Jerome against Hougoumont; after the divisions of Foy, Guilleminot, and Bachelu had hurled themselves against it; after nearly the entire army corps of Reille had been employed against it, and had miscarried; and Kellerman's iron hail had exhausted itself on this heroic section of wall – Wellington again met Müffling near the chateau, and shouted exultantly to him, 'Well, you see, Macdonell held Hougoumont after all.'

The first French gun was fired at half-past eleven, and was the signal for a general advance of their 6th Division, under Jerome Bonaparte, which attacked the wood on the south side of the position with great impetuosity, in the face of a heavy artillery fire from Major Bull's howitzer horse battery – to whom the Duke gave orders in person with the effect that the French columns were twice checked ere they entered the wood and drove off the Hanoverians and Nassauers posted there. Time after time the attack was renewed, the defenders contesting every inch of ground and making a rapid advance at the first indication of hesitancy in the attack.

Slowly and surely the French infantry pressed back the skirmishers of the Guards through the beech wood into the alley of holly and yew trees running round the north and west sides of the position. Under the belief that this hedge formed the only obstacle to a rush into the garden and orchard, the Frenchmen, mistaking the red colour of the brick wall for the British uniform, sprang rapidly forward only to find themselves the target for a deadly tire, which burst upon them from loopholes and platforms along the garden wall. Though staggered for a time, the assailants, rendered frantic by the unexpected obstacle, and constantly reinforced from the main body, rallied, and obtaining a vast preponderance of force, swept round the flanks of the farmhouse, and, like the onward sweep of a tidal wave, carried all opposition before them. The French had ascertained that the defenders received their supplies of ammunition and were being reinforced from time to time by way of the great North Gate.

It was therefore determined to make a fierce onslaught on this portion of the line of defence. To this point, accordingly, General Bauduin, the Commander of the first Brigade of Jerome's Division, directed the advance of the 1st Regiment of Léger Infantry. Later, seeing Bauduin fall mortally wounded just before the gateway was reached, the colonel, Cubières, assumed the direct command, and with loud shouts rode forward towards the one vulnerable spot in the armour of the defence. In order to beat down all opposition he ordered forward a party of Sapeurs, at whose head he placed a brave young officer, the Sous-Lieutenant Legros, but better known among the soldiers as 'L'enfonceur,' otherwise 'the smasher,' who, though at the time an officer of Light Infantry, had served for a period with the Engineers, and was recognised by all as a brave and capable leader for the task in hand.

Seizing a hatchet, and waving his comrades to follow, Legros rushed past the blazing haystack, the dense black smoke from which filled the lane and hid from the defenders the terrible danger which now threatened their position.

At this critical moment the group of Guardsmen who had been holding tenaciously to the lane leading to the gateway were compelled by the overwhelming smoke and heat produced by the burning hay, and now by the rapidly increasing pressure of their enemies, to relinquish their post. Seeing themselves about to be outflanked and their retreat cut off by a force now entering the 'friendly hollow way' from the other or east end, the Guards withdrew into the great courtyard of the farm, and hastened to close the great North Gate.

THE FORGOTTEN RANK AND FILE

This handful of Guardsmen, upon whose courage and devotion to duty must now depend the fate of Hougoumont, and, in Wellington's own words, 'the success of the battle of Waterloo': who were they? From contemporary newspapers, from short obituary notices, and from the lists of Yeomen of the Guard, Bedesmen of Westminster Abbey, Tower, and Chelsea Pensioners, and the like, it has been possible to trace a few of these brave men. How difficult the task has become is shown by the fact that Mr Dalton's Roll-call, published in 1890, contains the names of but a few out of the many who fought in the rank and file of the regiments of Foot Guards. Thousands are as forgotten as 'autumnal leaves that strew the brooks in Vallombrosa'

The party now retiring slowly into the courtyard consisted of men from the light companies of the Coldstreams and of the 3rd or Scots Guards. Among them were two brothers, Graham by name, natives of the County Monaghan, also two sergeants of the Scots Guards – Bryce M'Gregor, a native of Argyleshire, who enlisted at Glasgow in 1799, and remained in the service till 1822; and Sergeant-Major Ralph Fraser, a veteran who had served with distinction in Egypt in 1801, in Hanover, at Copenhagen, and in the Peninsula, where he was twice badly wounded. Upon these men then fell the brunt of the determined attack of Cubières' regiment, headed by Legros and his Sapeurs.

A fierce hand-to-hand fight now ensued. Step by step the gallant defenders were forced to give ground. Then, in order to create a diversion, Sergeant Fraser, while his comrades made for the gate, rushed forward into the thickest throng of the enemy, alone and at great personal risk, and attacked the mounted officer whom he saw urging his charger forward with the obvious intention of preventing the heavy gates from being closed. With a powerful thrust of his sergeant's halberd he pulled the officer, who was no other than Cubières himself, from the saddle; and then, with a swiftness which utterly disconcerted the Frenchmen around him, he 'rode into the courtyard on the Frenchman's horse' before the surprised assailants had realised his daring design.

Fraser was, however, closely followed by Legros and about a hundred of the enemy, who, parrying the vigorous bayonet-thrusts of the defenders, threw their combined strength upon the partially closed gate; and, mid the crash of falling timbers and the rattle of crumbling masonry, the great North Gate of Hougoumont was captured.

Only for a moment did victory rest with the Frenchmen. Attracted by the loud shouts of 'Vive l'Empereur!' and the counter-cries for help from the hard-pressed defenders of the gate, Macdonell, calling the three officers near him to follow, made for the courtyard. The sight which met his gaze was sufficient to stagger even the bravest heart.

Already a hundred Frenchmen had entered the gateway, and some had penetrated as far as the wicket-gate of the inner yard by which he and his party must pass from the garden to reach the North Gate. Here a dozen Frenchmen of the 1st Léger Regiment had been surrounded by a number of Hanoverian infantrymen, who had been driven into the garden from the orchard by the overwhelming numbers of the enemy. In a few moments the fight here was over, and the intruders hunted down; but not before the Frenchmen had the satisfaction of seeing a young Hanoverian lieutenant, Wilder by name, pursued by another party of Frenchmen towards the farmhouse, and, at the moment when he grasped the handle of the door, cut down by a ferocious Sapeur, who hewed off his hand with an axe.

On entering the courtyard, Macdonell saw that the Guardsmen there were defending themselves at the entrance to the cowhouse and stables which ran eastwards from the gate, and that several of their number were lying wounded at the doorway. Among these latter was one of the brothers Graham of the Coldstreams. From the windows of the parlour, 'from behind the walls, from the summits of the garrets, from the depths of the cellars, through all the airholes, through every crack in the stones, the Guards, now in ambush, were firing upon the French in the yard.

At the chateau, the defenders, besieged on the staircase and massed on the upper steps, had cut off the lower steps.' Today, the ends of these broken stones resemble broken teeth of some monster as they project from the ruined wall, and among the nettles around still lie the blue slabs which formed the steps; above, but inaccessible, are the stairs where the Guards held their ground. Well may Victor Hugo declare: 'This corner of the earth, could Napoleon have held it, would have given him the Sovereignty of the world.'

However, it was not to be. Macdonell, as we have said, was a man of giant stature and breadth of frame; and when he rushed like an infuriated lion upon the Frenchmen around the gate they scattered before him. With him were the handful of young officers, whose names have been honourably preserved to us by Siborne, the Kinglake of the Waterloo campaign. They were, like Colonel Macdonell, all officers of the Second Battalion of the Coldstreams. Captain Harry Wyndham (afterwards General Sir H. Wyndham, K.C.B., M.P.) was a son of the third Earl of Egremont, and had already seen eight general engagements in the Peninsular war, although on the day of the battle of Waterloo he was not yet twenty-five years old.

Besides earning immortal fame by the heroic deed which we are now about to relate, Wyndham is remembered by an incident which occurred immediately after the battle as darkness was falling upon the field. Pressing on in the general pursuit of the French, he saw one of the Imperial carriages attempting to escape, and soon ascertained that the occupant was none other than Napoleon's brother Jerome against whose columns he had been fighting all day. Quick as thought he opened the carriage-door, only to catch a glimpse of Jerome as he leapt out by the other door and disappeared in the darkness.

SERGEANT JOHN GRAHAM

Following Wyndham into the courtyard came Ensigns Gooch (afterwards Colonel) and Herrey; and as they approached the small tower and well in the centre of the farmyard they were joined by Sergeant John Graham of the light company of their regiment, who, as already described, had, with his now wounded brother and Sergeants Fraser and MacGregor, been holding, the enemy in check and preventing them from setting the stables and barn near the great North Gate on fire. As this small party approached the gate there appeared before them, at the further end of the narrow way, a strong reinforcement of French infantry pouring in from both flanks. The British officers became at once roused to frenzy by the thought of the dire calamity which must befall the whole army if they should fail. With Hougoumont taken, Napoleon could entrench himself in the key to the British position, enfilading the right wing and opening the highway by the Nivelles road direct to Brussels.

The little party of officers no sooner burst in fury upon the Frenchmen near the gate than they turned tail and broke up into several parties, some taking refuge in the open cart-shed adjoining the gate, and others making for the barn, where many of the British wounded were lying, and through which there was a direct road to the south or French side of the position. The remainder stood their ground, awaiting the arrival of the reinforcements now in sight. In less time than it takes to relate, Macdonell and Sergeant Graham placed their broad shoulders against the open gates and, while their comrades engaged and overcame the daring spirits among the enemy who struggled to resist, the heavy doors were swung together, and – Hougoumont was saved!

Immediately stone slabs, broken beams, and the remains or wagons and farm implements were heaped against the gate, and then the storm of baffled and impotent rage burst against the outside. In another instant the heavy crossbar which held the doors together was fixed by Graham, and the blows of hatchet and bayonet beat unavailingly on the solid planks of which the gate was composed. Long afterwards the imprint of bloody hands upon the gatepost and timbers told the tale of the frantic disappointment and passion of the assailants, which became fiercer as the cries of the hunted Frenchmen still within the yard became gradually silenced in death. As at Quatre Bras the 42nd Highlanders (the Black Watch) received the French cavalry into the still unformed square, then closing its ranks, turned upon the intruders and exterminated them, so now the Guards at Hougoumont proceeded to dispose of Cubières' Light Infantry one by one.

So fierce now became the pent-up wrath of the baffled enemy that an effort was next made to scale the high brick archway above the gate, and for this purpose a tall French Grenadier, amid the shouts of his comrades, mounted on their shoulders, and leaning over the top, took deliberate aim at Captain Wyndham, who at the moment was holding a musket in one hand while directing Sergeant Graham where to rest a massive beam of wood which Graham had brought to strengthen the gate. Noticing the Frenchman's movement and intention, Wyndham calmly handed the musket to Graham, who was a marksman of note, and with a significant gesture indicated the sharpshooter, whose musket was levelled, and who had merely to draw the trigger. Instantly grasping the situation, Graham took aim and fired.

Two shots rang out, but the Frenchman's weapon discharged itself harmlessly in mid-air, and he fell backwards on the heads of his companions, pierced through the brain. At the same moment the assailants were taken in rear by a force of four companies of the Coldstream Guards under Colonel Alexander Woodford, a Peninsular veteran, who afterwards rose to the rank of Field-Marshal and survived till August 1870. Woodford's men fixed bayonets and charged. The enemy immediately gave way and withdrew from the contest, which enabled Woodford to enter the farm; by a side-door in the lane. Woodford had come at the personal request of Wellington himself to assist Macdonell; but although senior in rank to that gallant officer, he refused to supersede him.

The French continued during the whole of the day to renew their attack, but at no time; were they able to enter the farm. As already stated, the attack had begun at half-past eleven; the assault on the great North Gate took place at one o'clock and was succeeded by a series of determined attacks by the whole of Bachelu's Division till three o'clock, when it became apparent to Napoleon, that these troops were being thrown away without result, and that now a different line of action must be adopted. He resolved to make the position untenable by setting the whole of the buildings on fire.

Among the two hundred and fifty pieces of artillery which Bonaparte had brought into the field of battle were a number of howitzers, which he directed to be formed into a powerful battery in order that their fire might be concentrated upon the chateau and farm. It was not long ere the projectiles thrown among the inflammable materials accumulated in the farm caused them to burst into flame. The great barn, filled, as we have seen, with wounded Guardsmen, was the first to catch fire; then followed the outhouses on the north side of the chateau and the farmer's house; and, finally, the chateau itself burned furiously.

Amid dense volumes of black smoke, which attracted the attention of the combatants far and near – producing a temporary lull in the general engagement – the roofs of these buildings were seen to fall in, in quick succession, sending vast sheets of flame upwards, with brilliant effect. It speaks well of the discipline of the defenders that, although many of the Guardsmen had brothers and kinsmen lying wounded within the burning buildings, it was recognised by all that the defence of their various posts was the first duty of each man, and not one left his rank, terrible as was the anxiety to save the wounded, until the permission of the officer in command had first been obtained.

It was at this moment that Sergeant Graham, whose post was now at the hastily improvised banquette composed of benches, tables, chairs, and other like materials, appealed to Colonel Macdonell to allow him to withdraw from the fighting-line. Macdonell consented; but he asked Graham, whose bravery was well known to him, why he should retire when matters were at such a critical point. 'I would not,' said Graham, 'only my brother lies wounded in that building which has just caught fire.'

Leave was cheerfully granted; and Graham, laying down his musket, ran into the blazing building, lifted his brother to a place of safety in a ditch close by, and was back at his post almost instantly. Grahams wounded brother survived to thank his commanding officer, who in his turn repeatedly expressed his admiration for the high sense of duty and the brotherly affection shown by these lads from County Monaghan.

Nor did Macdonell forget the sergeant's gallant behaviour: for not only did he keep him in mind in various ways till Graham died at Kilmainham on 23rd April 1843, but when the Duke of Wellington awarded the Norcross bequest of five hundred pounds to Colonel Macdonell as 'the bravest soldier at Waterloo,' it was to Graham that he passed on the gift, with the remark, 'I cannot claim all the merit due to the closing of the gates of Hougoumont: for Sergeant John Graham, who saw with me the importance of the step, rushed forward, and together we shut the gates.' The other brave fellows who had held the post at the lane and gate till succour arrived were not altogether forgotten: for it appears that Sergeant-Major MacGregor retired after twenty-two years' service with a considerable pension, and was selected as one of the Yeomen of the Guard, and was thus well provided for till his death on 27th November 1846. Sergeant-Major Ralph Fraser was, after his discharge in 1818, appointed a Bedesman in Westminster Abbey, where he continued till he was, over eighty years of age.

Besides receiving from Wellington the high honour of being credited with the 'success won at Waterloo 'through his stout defence, Macdonell was recognised by the Prince Regent and by the Emperor of Austria, who made him a Knight of the Order of Maria Theresa. He afterwards became General Sir James Macdonell, G.C.B., Colonel-in-chief of the Highland Light Infantry. Of this officer, it is interesting to note that his family, the Macdonells of Glengarry, Inverness-shire, were of very ancient descent from the Lords of the Isles, and that Colonel Alexander, the eldest brother of Sir James, was the Fergus MacIvor of Sir Waiter Scott's Waverley. The family were much reduced and the estates heavily mortgaged in consequence of the prominent part taken by them in the Jacobite risings of 1715 and 1745, when, as official documents show, they brought five hundred clansmen into the field. The result was that at the death of Colonel Alexander Macdonell, in 1828, the whole of the estates were sold, and the chieftain's son and immediate followers emigrated to Australia. The hero of Hougoumont survived till 15th May 1857, and with him ended the direct male line.

On the French side, General Baron Bauduin died of the wounds received in the attack, aged forty-seven; and at the door of the little chapel of the chateau, to which, when the gate was closed, he had fled for safety, was found the corpse of Sous-Lieutenant Legros of the 1st Léger Regiment, still holding the axe in his hand with which he had beaten in a panel of the massive gate.

A FINE INCIDENT

Legros' colonel, Baron de Cubières, afterwards made General and Governor of Ancona in 1832, was loud in his praise of the British soldiers, who, when he was unhorsed by Sergeant Fraser and fell severely injured, 'forbore to fire upon him, and to this he declared he owed many good years since the battle,' as Sir Alexander Woodford tells us.

Today the great North gateway still stands much as it stood on the day of the battle, though the brick arch and massive beam on which it rested have long since disappeared. A bit of the north door, broken by the French, hangs suspended to the wall of the farmhouse. This consisted, till recently, of four planks nailed to two crossbeams, 'on which the scars of the attack are visible,' says Victor Hugo. He adds: 'Bauduin slain, Foy wounded: conflagration, massacre, carnage; a rivulet formed of English blood, French blood, German blood, mingled in fury; a well crammed with corpses; the regiment of Nassau and the regiment of Brunswick destroyed; Duplat killed, Blackman killed, the British Guards mutilated, twenty French battalions, besides the forty from Reille's Corps, decimated; three thousand men in that hovel of Hougoumont alone cut down, slashed to pieces, shot, burned – and all this so that a peasant can say today to the traveller, "Monsieur, give me three francs, and if you like I will explain to you the affair of Waterloo."

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