Description
autograph letter signed by Henry Wayland Powell, Captain and Lieutenant, 1st Guards, to Sir Henry Martin Baronet, 26 Upper Harley Street, Cavendish Square, London, describing his experiences at Waterloo where he was stationed on the position occupied by the 1st (later Grenadier) Guards on the ridge above the Chateau of Hougoumont. Contains a sketch map of the Guards' positions above the chateau, and in the orchard and buildings, and autograph address panel on verso of last leaf and autograph title page on verso of page 1, (9 pages, some dirt-staining, repaired split at top of fold)
Footnote
Waudor/or Vaudor close to Binch 20th June 1815
"I wrote you a few hasty lines from our bivouac, after the battle of Mount St Jean, or as it will probably be called Waterleud; and I will now endeavour to give you a slight sketch of our proceedings, since we left Engeen? On the 15th ------- on the evening of the 15th we heard that the French ....... ........the frontiers, and our received orders to hold ourselves ready for marching and at 2 o'clock in the .......: we got our orders and were off at 3 --- we marched to Braine le Comte and proceeded to a bivouac near Nivelle, and whilst we were settling ourselves, came an order to move to the left, thro' Nivelle, and having........ it, we heard the firing very close, and soon met a number of wounded Belgians coming in ----- at 5 o'clock Gen Maitland galloped up, and ordered Simpson with the Grenadiers (my company) to drive the French out of a wood and in about ½ an hour we perfectly? cleared it, and when we ....... at the end of the wood, they threw in a most thunderous fire of round and grape shot, from which we found it ....... to retire, we got out of the wood, in another part, and the enemy immediately advanced columns to attack us, which deployed? very regularly?, and drove us a short way back; however we advanced again, and they gave way; having retired to their guns, they again advanced upon us, and having driven us back a second time, their cavalry attempted to charge us, but a square of black Brunswickers brought them up, while we very nimbly slipped into the wood, on our right; and having lined? the ditch, paid them handsomely; our loss was however very severe, and we found great difficulty in forming our line again; but at last they effected it with the 3rd Battalion, and everything was driven before them, and we maintained the wood the whole night.--------The Prussians? and French had been engaged from two in the morning in the position of Fleurus, and the former had been driven back; the French then tried to get ............ of the road to Brussels: they had had a severe contest with the Dutch, and one of our Divisions, and had succeeded in driving the Dutch out of the Wood (Bossee or Haloge?/I think it is called) we arrived at the very moment their skirmishers were appearing when we dashed in, and cut them up properly: our loss this time was very severe, out of 84, I had only 43 left in my Compa' ------- at night the remains of the battalion, bivouaced at the head of the road, during which a large force arrived to our assistance; they call this the action of the Quatre bras. -----In the morning of the 17th the enemy made no further attempt against us, and as the Prussians had retired during the night, we did the same, very leisurely, about 11 o'clock; and took up a position in front of a village, called Waterloo, at a point where the ........., or high road to Brussels crosses that from Nivelle to Namur; here we remained quiet through the night, except that it rained more furiously there I ever experienced in Spain; we were quite wet thro', and literally up to the ancles in mud -------The Cavalry were engaged the 17th and the Hussars could not make much impression upon their heavy armed apparently; and poor Elphinstone was wounded, and taken prisoner but escaped; the Life Guards behaved most nobly, and carried every thing before them. ------On the morn' of the 18th June we were all in the expectation of something being done, but first I must give you some idea of our position, it ran from the Brussels road or Chau ....?, to the right, about a mile and ½ in length; and then turned to the right, very sharply, and crossed the Chaussee? to Namur which ..... Chaussees, crosses each other; so that we were nearly in a quarter circle; at the turn, and at the bottom of a slope, was a farm and orchard, called Mont St Jean; this was the key of our position, and in front of our centre. On this front the most serious attacks were made -----At 12 o'clock the column of the Enemy moved down from the heights they had occupied the night before, and our Artillery, which had been placed all along our front, began to cannonade them most furiously, which their artillery returned, and it was calculated that 300 pieces were in use that day--- The infantry were drawn up in columns, under the ridge of the position we were at the..... (or ...../with two Battalions of Brunswickers, the 3rd Reg' was in columns in front of the turn?; and the Coldstream at the farm house; the light infantry of the division were to defend the orchard, and small wood close to it: the 3rd Division on the left of our squares; were also in squares; under cover of the ridge: unfortunately for us, during the cannonade the shot and shells which went over the artillery, fell into our squares, and I assure you I never was in a more awful situation: Col Cooke my captain (and commander of the Battalion) was struck with a grape shot, as he sat on the ground next to me--------The Enemy now made an attack of Infantry and Cavalry, on the left, in hopes of carrying the Chaussee to Brusselles, but the Guns cut them to pieces, every time they advanced; they then attempted to charge the Gun with Cavalry, but the squares kept up so ......a fire, they never could reach our Guns, tho' the Artillery men were obliged to leave them: when the enemy found the attempt fail on this point, he ordered an attack on the Farm House, which was necessary for him to possess?, in order to .... the right of our position; here it was that the serious struggle took place ; two Companies of Light Infantry under Lord Saltoun, disputed the wood, and orchard, most gallantly, but were at last obliged to retire under the House; when the Enemy were charged by the Light Infantry of the 2nd Brigade, (the Coldstream and 3rd) and driven back with great loss; at this period the Coldstream entered the House, which the Enemy set fire to, by Shells but did not entirely consume it, and the enemy were foiled in two successive attempts; and were each time, severely cut up by the Artillery -----When the Enemy failed in their attack on our squares, our Cavalry rushed out from between them, and cut them up more completely; when he found these efforts vain, he began his attack upon the centre, where we were posted; he first endeavoured to carry the Guns with his Cavalry, which came up most gallantly, but the Squares sent them to the right about, three times in great stile, I never saw anything so fine----- The Cavalry, as before, rushing out, and picking up the deserted cannon: after their failures, he brought up his Garde Imperiale, just opposite our Brigade, which had formed in line, on their advancing; we were all lying under shelter of a small bank, as they covered their advance with a most? terrible fire of grape, and musketry, Bonaparte led them himself to the rise of the hill, and told them "that was the way to Brusselles", we allowed them to come within about a hundred yards, when we opened so destructive a fire, that there were soon about three hundred of them on the ground, and they began to waver; we immediately charged but they ran as fast as possible, the Duke of Wellington observing this crisis, brought up the 95th and 42nd, taking the enemy in flank?, and leading them himself quite close up and, the Column was entirely dispersed-----after this we were again annoyed? with grape, and musketry, which obliged us to retire: on looking, we saw Column of the Chasseurs de la Garde Imperiale, we immediately started double quick to meet them, firing as hard as we could, all the time, but they had had so proper a reception just before, that they never let us come near them; when they turned the rout? became general, we ran on as fast as we could, and the Cavalry started after them, we got about two miles that evening, taking ourselves 30 pieces of Cannon, nothing could be more complete, or decisive. -------The Duke's Army was reckoned at 73,000 in the field, and it is said that our loss has been about 20,000, killed and wounded -----The French it is reported had 135,000 and have lost 57,000 killed and wounded, and 13,000 prisoners, and 211 pieces of Artillery; we having taken 165, and the Prussians the rest, fortunately the Prussians arrived first? on the field, at the moment the Enemy fled; so that they continued the pursuit.
H W Powell Capt. 2nd Lieutenant First Regiment Foot Guards
PS I have given a sketch of our position (to amuse Sir Henry) on the other side. You will see that my account relates principally to the part taken by the Guards, as of course my observation was chiefly confined to where I was myself situated."
Note: The author was commissioned into the 1st Guards on 22 January 1813 and served at Walcheren and in the Peninsula. He was the son of Thomas and Clarissa Powell and married in 1816 Eliza Buckworth. They had a son in January 1820 and three further children. He left the service in 1821 and in 1828 purchased the Foxlease estate in Lyndhurst, Hampshire. He died on 17th July 1840. There is a monumental inscription to him in Lyndhurst Church, Hampshire.
At Waterloo he served in Lieutenant Colonel Cooke's company of the 2nd Battalion.
It was the 1st Guards who, along with the 52nd Light Infantry, took part in repelling the attack of the Imperial Guard. Wellington addressed them with the famous lines: 'Now Maitland, now's your time.', and then 'Stand up Guards. Make ready. Fire.'