"British battalion on the march,waterloo campaign" Topic

I'm working on a vignette (28mm figures), representing the 44th East essex marching away from quatre-bras towards waterloo. Can anyone help me with the positioning of the various troops and officers? Light company in front, BC behind or in front of the colours,…

Thanks in advance for any help.

I think the usual march formation was right flank (grenadiers) at the head of the column, left flank (lights) at the rear, unless they were expecting trouble ahead.

Grenadiers first, followed by companies 1 to 8 in that order with the lights in the rear.

There was a small space between each company of about 5m to 20m depending on weather you want open or closed columns. The major was at the columns front right. Drummers were positioned behind their respective companies. The colours were at the centre of the column with pioneers out in front clearing away any obstacles.

~~ = Spaces

~~oCapt~~~~0Major
----------------~o Sergeant
----------------~o Sergeant
~~~~dd~~~~Drummers x 2
~o~~o~~o~~~Officer/Sergeant/Officer

The above is repeated for each company formed in 2 ranks and deployed in a column of companies.

----------------o Company 1
----------------o Company 2
----------------o Company 3
----------------o Company 4
The battalion standards were positioned between the 4th and 5th companies. As well as the 2 ensigns there were 4 colour sergeants.
----------------o Company 5
----------------o Company 6
----------------o Company 7
----------------o Company 8
----------------o Grenadiers

Fluff..
The 2nd battalion 44th East Essex was part of the 5th British Infantry Division, Commanded by Sir Thomas Picton. At Waterloo the battalion had 494 combatants and was commanded by Lt.Col J.M Hammerton. It was deployed on the ridge behind and to the left of Le Haie sainte to the extreme left of the hedge row. It would have been part of the defense against the attack by D'Erlon(possably firing upon Marcognet's brigade) and would have seen the initial advance of the scots greys.

marching away to Waterloo they were covered in horseshoe marks having been run down at QB! A tricky detail to add to the uniforms!

Another detail you might be interested in is that the Regiment was accompanied by Lieutenant-General Archibald Campbell, the father of Lt John Campbell of the Light Company, who rode a little grey pony and stood with the regiment as a spectator.

Wounded of the 44th are mentioned as being carried away from QB on Dutch artillery limbers.

The colours were carried by Ensign Gillespie of No.8 Company and Ensign James Christie of No.6 Company (who got a lance through his tongue and jaw for the trouble).

Any more help with 44th let me know.

Thank you all for the usefull comments. Will come back next week with some suggestions.

Rgds

To Lord Hill,

I was thinking about adding a cart or carriage for supplys or wounded when you mentioned the dutch/belgian gun carriages. At the re-enactment at QB i noticed the DB guns beeing brownisch of colour? As far as I know the DB where using french guns and where painted a greyish colour?? Would there be a carriage attached to the limber or how would they load the wounded?

sorry old chap – no idea!

Lord Hill, I thought it was the 69th who were ridden down (and lost a color), while the 44th stood in square, got shot up by French guns and fled to the Bois de Bossu. But then I lost track of my copy of Becke's "Last Campaign of the Armee du Nord" many years back. It also had good descriptions of Ligny and Wavre.

You're quite right vtsaogames – sorry, senility setting in. The quote I had in mind was ""He was limping along, very sore and lame, and feelingly declaimed against the common notion that a horse will not tread on a man lying on the ground. His jacket was blackened with the marks of horse shoes."
I had it in my mind that it was from an officer in the 44th but you're quite right – the quote describes a Captain Barlow of the 69th.

The 69th were ridden down at QB, and lost their colour, it being prised from the dead arms of Ensign Clarke, hacked down by 23 sabre cuts. It was the second colour they had lost, having lost the other one at Bergen op Zoom less than a year previously.

33rd & 73rd Regiments of Foot also broke an ran into the Bossu woods. The 30th formed square and held fast.

The incident with the 44th happened easrlier in the day with Pires lancers coming round the back of the 42nd form their right flank and onward along the line into the 44th. The 42nd formed square with the lancers in the middle of them, took heavy losses – esp officers – but killed the lancers and threw their bodies out of the square. The 44th reversed the rear rank and gave fire to drive off the lancers; there was a strugle here for the colours, with the ensign taking a lance through the eye, but the colours held fast by the regiment.

Being near the colours was not a good place to be in a battle…..