42nd Foot (The Black Watch) - finished!

The last few weeks have been spent finishing off these guys and it took a lot longer than I had expected. As far as I was concerned I had nearly finished this unit a few years ago - they just needed a few little details and a few extra men. However, like the Firth of Forth of Bridge (the moment you have finished painting it, it is time to start painting it again), by the time I got round to finishing these guys my painting had improved and the old faces looked so badly done that I had to redo the whole lot!

So I repainted all of the faces and most of the tunics and added about 30 new guys, the command, some casualties etc.
The 42nd had suffered so badly at Quatre Bras - caught out by the long corn, French cavalry had caught them in the open - that at Waterloo the regiment numbered barely 200 men. This then, is an acurate depicted of what their square would have looked like at Waterloo - surprisingly tiny.

 I suspect that such a small unit would have needed to be merged with another - the 44th in their brigade was even more reduced in number - so perhaps the two regiments formed one square. This had happened at Quatre Bras and we know that the regiments of Halkett's brigade did so at Waterloo (33rd & 69th, 30th and 73rd). There's no primary evidence for this (that I know of) but it makes sense I think.

This is the first square I have done where I have added special corner pieces. I'm like them, they make the square look much more realistic, and (one day!) I shall go back and add corners to the other completed squares.

The figures are mostly Victrix with a few Foundry, Perry and Front Rank. Huge thanks to Steve and Julian at Victrix who helped me out massively by letting me have some extra kneeling rank.

The Grenadier company. One of the many unique quirks of the 42nd, besides the unusual plumes etc, was that the Grenadier Company was Number 2 and the Light Company number 3 (normally, regiments numbered them 1 and 10 respectively). The Grenadier company marched from Brussels with a nominal strength of 71 me but suffered severely at Quatre Bras. As with the rest of the regiment, the level of experience in the ranks of the Black Watch may rank among the highest of any on the fields of Waterloo (including the French Old Guard). This is a bold claim to make but many of these men had been fighting since the late 1790s. They had fought in Egypt, in the Coruna compaign, and then for four hard years through Portugal, Spain and France. Only 18 men of the Grenadier Company lived to receive their Peninsula War medal in 1848 (or bothered to apply for one).  These 18, however, give an indication of the experience of this battalion being awarded a total of 99 clasps including 8 clasps for Coruna.  The other companies contain similar numbers.

Here (on the right) is Number 8 company - this was perhaps the best place to be standing at Waterloo - it lost no men! (all of its casualties had fallen at Quatre Bras). The most common places of origin for men in this company were Aberdeenshire and Invernesshire. Unusually, however, it contained four non-Scots – William Mitchell and James Wylie 2^nd from Armagh, Timothy Driscoll from Cork and Benjamin Vint, from Potson in Yorkshire. 

The old chap kneeling with his bonnet off is JamesWylie (the 1st). Born in Perth, he had first served with the Banffshire Fencibles from 1798 before joining the 42nd in 1802. He was discharged in 1817 aged 40 in consequence of being consumptive. He was only 5' 3" tall!

So many officers had fallen at Quatre Bras that most companies at Waterloo were commanded by Serjeants or Ensigns. Here is number 5 Company which was left with only one Serjeant, John Anton, and Ensign Aleander Cumming after the 16th June. Standing beside Ensign Cumming is Private James McDonald, one of the oldest and most experienced soldiers in the Black Watch at Waterloo (and at 5' 10½” was also one of the tallest). He had joined the Regiment from the Militia in 1790, and by Waterloo was 47 years old. He was discharged in 1817 in consequence of length of service and of “visceral obstructions brought on by Walcheren fever.”

Here is Number 7 Company which  suffered the high casualty rate in the battalion. This may be because it seems to have suffered more at Waterloo than others . Captain Mungo McPherson was the only Captain in the Regiment wounded on that day and both Colour Serjeants were also wounded on the 18^th.  Amongst the dead, Privates Fraser, Greenhill and McKerrie were all killed at Waterloo.  

It was the the third time Captain McPherson had been a casualty,  having been wounded at both the Nivelle and Toulouse.  He retired as a Major in 1826 and died at Hastings in 1844.

 

On the right is the Light Company - it had suffered particularly badly at Quatre Bras and, in addition to the killed and wounded, 6 men had been taken prisoner. At the corner, holding the extra canteen (thirsty work), is Corporal John Arnott, who was wounded in the right breast at Waterloo.  From the Gorbals he had enlisted in 1802 aged 19 and served throughout the Peninsula – from Coruna to Toulouse.  He was discharged in 1824 and was granted a pension of 1s 11d per diem.  He died at Bridge Street, Rothesay, in 1864.

 I think I've put the flags on the wrong side (I'm new to flags) - the union jack should go on the right officially I read yesterday. I'm not too bothered - hopefully this applied when marching in square or forming line - I can't imagine when you were huddled in the middle of a square surrounded by French cavalry, you bothered too much about which side was right and which was left!

All of the senior officers had either been killed or wounded at Quatre Bras so the regiment was commanded at Waterloo by Captain John Campbell. He had received a gold medal in the Peninsula for his conduct at Orthes and had rallied the regiment at Toulouse.  In 1831 he married a Parisian woman Louise Gabriell Clementine Bernie and died at Marsailles in 1841.

We don't know who carried the Colours at Waterloo - presumably anyone who was left standing!

 I like these pics inside the square - they give a good idea of what it was like I think, though I will have to add some drummers and a lot more casualties!

I've got most of the next week off and I'm going to try and do a marathon stint on the next job - the 44th Foot (East Essex) - to complete Pack's Brigade. The 44th, understrength even before the campaign had started, were so reduced after Waterloo that they could form only four companies. I'm therefore going to do four companies of 40. As mentioned above, I imagine such a small unit would have been merged with another to form square.

Watch this space! Hopefully I'll have them completed and posted here by next week!

The 15th (King's) Hussars

These have taken a while - I've been working on them on and off over the last year whenever I needed a break from scarlet tunics. Various sources mention that the 15th wore shakos at Waterloo and while I've done the 10th in their glorious red shakos, I decided this lot would look a bit more "campaign" and thus modified them all to have covered shakos. I really like the "rag-tag" look of this lot - they were a hardened load of veterans and colourful characters from the Peninsula, so I think it suits them. Figures are a mix of Perrys, old Foundry and my own Frankenstein creations. These last were made with spare French hussar legs, Warlord horses, and various Victrix/Perry arms and heads. Ages ago I asked if anyone had any spare legs and received two very generous donations from Stefan Schultz and Fons at Mabuhay Miniature Painting Service  http://www.mmps.asia/ - so thanks very much again guys! Here at last is the completed project! All the heads have been converted (using Perry French infantry in covered shakos).

In addition to some sources mentioning the 15th in shakos I was also swayed by this premlinary sketch by the artist George Jones for one of his Waterloo paintings in 1815. Sold at Christie's for £2,100 in 2008, it shows his preparation for a larger painting through copying the details of various uniform details - there is a beautifully detailed shako of the 10th Hussars but it's the full sketch of the hussar that I found so interesting. Maybe it's not a hussar from the 15th - it could be a Prussian or some KGL unit - but whatever, it does clearly show how shakos were covered in oilskin. If it IS an officer from the 15th then I have painted all the trousers stripes the wrong colour! Most sources show them as red, but this chap's are clearly white. I'm not going to lose any sleep over it, just thought it was a fascinating painting.

 The 15th Hussars had a nominal strength of 460 men (and thus probably an actual strength in the field of around 390 men divided into 6 Tropps. These 60 therefore show No.1 Troop. 

 Being stationed on the extreme west of the battlefield, the 15th saw little action at Waterloo and sufered relatively minor casualties, most of which came from artillery fire. Wheeler of the 51^st Foot, posted nearby, recalled, “A shell now fell into the column of the 15^th Hussars and bursted. I saw a sword and scabbard fly out from the column.”

The average date of enlistement of all NCOs and Privates was 1806, meaning that on average a soldier had already served 9 years before Waterloo. The average date of enlistment of Privates was 1812, with nearly all having served in the Peninsula.

The Regiment was predominately English with only a handful of Scots, Welsh and Irish. The most common county of origin was Wiltshire, with Berkshire, Hampshire, Somerset and Middlesex also strongly represented.

 No.1 Troop was also known as "Wodehouse's Troop" being commanded by Captain Philip Wodehouse (front above). Wodehouse was a Peninsula veteran and had received two musket balls through his shako at the siege of San Sebastian. The National Army Museum holds a letter penned by him on the day after Waterloo – written, he says, on the battlefield using a drum as a desk – addressed to his beloved, a Miss Parry. The brief note assures her he suffered no harm in the battle and closes "if a cannon ball hits me tomorrow I believe I will die thinking of you."  He later rose to be a Colonel of the 1^st Life Guards and retired in 1837.

To the right of his Captain rides Serjeant Thomas Bishop who had served with the regiment since 1800. From Stoke-under-Ham, Somerset he was aged 33 at Waterloo. Behind them rides Regimental Trumpet Major William Hyde.

Three characters of No.1 Troop - Private Adam Brewer was born in Middleheim in the German States. He had enlisted in 1805 and took part in the Coruna campaign, seeing action at Sahugen. He later returned to the Peninsula and was present at Vitoria, Orthes and Toulouse,

Private Samuel Morgan, from Amersham, had worked as a saddler before joining the Regiment. He had served in the Peninsula from 1813-14.  He died of his wounds at the General Hospital, Brussels, on 5^th July.

Private Robert Daintry, also wounded (in left shoulder). Born Pangbourne, Berks, he enlisted in 1804 and served in the Corunna campaign and later at Vitoria. He was discharged shortly after Waterloo and in 1843, then aged 57, was admitted as a Chelsea Pensioner.

I've now done a squadron of each of the 4 British hussar regiments. I'm still building more, so next I suppose I need to start working on a second squadron of each. As long as I live to be 324, I should have everything completed eventually.