8

The Struggle for Hougoumont

The Château d’Hougoumont was a key component of Wellington’s defensive line and had to be held at all costs. The château complex, a working farm, consisted of the main house surrounded by farm buildings joined by a high wall. Beyond this was a garden, orchard and a not inconsiderable wood.

The farm is well calculated for defence. The dwelling house in the Centre was a strong square building, with small doors and windows. The barns and granaries formed nearly a square, with one door of communication with the small yard to the South [i.e. facing the French] and from that yard was a door into the garden, a double gate into the wood, under or near the small houses, which I conclude you call the Gardener’s house; and another door opening into the lane on the West. There was another carriage gate at the North-West angle of the great yard, leading into the barn, which conducted to the road to Braine-le-Leud.¹

It is this northern gate which, described above by Lieutenant Colonel (later Lieutenant General) Alexander Woodford of the Coldstream Guards, was to acquire great significance in the battle to come.

Such was the importance of Hougoumont, Wellington placed troops that he could rely upon – the Guards – there. The light company of the 2nd Battalion, Coldstream Guards, was stationed in the farm and château, with the light company of the 2nd Battalion, 3rd Guards, in the garden and grounds, and the two light companies of the 2nd and 3rd Battalions of the 1st Guards in the orchard. The Guards were supported by the 1st Battalion, 2nd Nassau Regiment, with additional detachments of jägers and landwehr from Kielmansegge’s 1st (Hanoverian) Brigade.

Command of Hougoumont was entrusted to Lieutenant Colonel James Macdonnell of the Coldstream Guards. The place had been fortified as much as was possible in the few hours before the first shots of the Battle of Waterloo rang out. The walls had been loopholed, firing platforms had been built and tiles had even been removed from the roof to allow men to fire down upon the attackers.

It was the artillery of General Reille which fired those first shots upon the British positions, marking the start of the assault upon Hougoumont in a contest that would last all day.

Reille gave the job of attacking Hougoumont to Prince Jérôme-Napoléon Bonaparte’s 6th Division. Napoleon had no interest in taking such a strong position, all he expected of his younger brother was that he would draw into the struggle for the château as many British troops as possible so that when the Emperor delivered his main assault upon the centre-left of the Anglo-Netherlands line, Wellington would have no reserves to call upon.

The first attack was delivered by General Baron Bauduin’s 1st Brigade supported by two batteries of horse artillery. George D. Standen was an Ensign with the 3rd Foot Guards:

I heard voices, and the drummers beating the pas de charge, apparently belonging to Jerome’s left Column. I was then in a small field like a crescent on the right flank of the house, adjoining the lane going to Charleroi road from the house, but I am inclined to think they belonged to the right or centre Column. When in turn we retreated, our attacks became more feeble. Although we drove them out, our advances became shorter. They fed an immense force of skirmishers; we had no support.²

The French tirailleurs ran into the woods with bayonets fixed, but were halted by the fire of three companies from the Nassau regiment and the Hanoverian jägers, some 600 men in total. Increasing numbers of French were thrown into the wood and the defenders withdrew, disputing every tree and bush.

It took an hour for the French to clear the wood. They had suffered heavy losses, with Bauduin being just one of many officers being killed or wounded. This was as far as Jérôme’s men were supposed to go. With the wood in French hands Reille could bring up the rest of his force hidden by the trees. But the men of the 1st Brigade, seeing themselves only thirty yards from the château and lacking the officers to restrain them, charged across the open ground. They were cut down by heavy fire from the Guards and were driven back into the wood.

This part of the action was watched by Jean-Victor Constantine-Rebècque, Chief of Staff to the Netherlands Army:

The enemy, suffering considerably from the firing coming from the walls, turned his efforts against the 1st Battalion of the 2nd Nassau Regiment which was defending the orchard that flanked the garden. The battalion was overwhelmed and forced to give way; it retreated and the enemy captured the hedge which fronted the orchard, destroying it in several places.³

With the allied troops having been forced back into Hougoumont, Sir Augustus Frazer, who commanded the Royal Horse Artillery knew that there were only Jérôme’s men still in the wood. This, he believed, gave him a chance to use his troop of howitzers commanded by Major Bull, with their ability to engage in indirect fire:

I … was rejoiced to hear that his Grace had determined not to lose a wood, 300 yards in front of the part of the line, which was really our weakest point … Whilst looking around, remarking again that the weak point was our right, and imagining that the enemy, making a demonstration on our centre and left, would forcibly seize the wood, and interpose between us and Braine le Leud, would endeavour to turn the right flank of our second line … I met Lord Uxbridge, who very handsomely asked me what I thought of the position, and offered me the free use of the Horse artillery.

In a moment Bell [Adjutant of the Horse Artillery] was sent for the Howitzer troop, and I rode up and told the Duke I had done so. By this time the enemy had forced a Belgian battalion [the 2nd Nassau Regiment] out of the orchard to the left of the wood, and there was a hot fire on a battalion (or four companies, I forget which) of the Guards stationed in the buildings and behind the walled garden. The Howitzer troop came up, handsomely; their very appearance encouraged the remainder of the division of the Guards, then lying down to be sheltered from the fire. The Duke said, ‘Colonel Frazer, you are going to do a delicate thing; can you depend upon the force of your howitzers? Part of the wood is held by our troops, part by the enemy,’ and his Grace calmly explained what I already knew. I answered that I could perfectly depend upon the troop; and after speaking to Major Bull and to all his officers, the troop commenced its fire, and in ten minutes the enemy was driven from the wood.⁴

Jérôme was determined not to be defeated and he fed increasing numbers into the fight. Such was the weight of the French attack, Wellington was compelled to reinforce the defending troops in Hougoumont, which was exactly what Napoleon wanted, though the Duke did so only sparingly. Lieutenant Colonel Woodford recalled the following:

At the time I was sent down to Hougoumont (about twelve o’clock or a little after), the Enemy had nearly got into the farmyard. We found them very near the wall, and charged them, upon which they went off, and I took the opportunity of entering the farm by a side door in the lane.

From that time there was much tiraillerie, some cannon and howitzer shots, which last I always considered set fire to the barns.

The tirailleurs on the rising ground along the eastern hedge never distinctly showed themselves, though they annoyed us very much by firing at the door which communicated between the courtyard and the garden, and of which they could see the top.

Several cannon shots went into the centre building, where some wounded Officers were lying … The heat and smoke of the conflagration were very difficult to bear. Several men were burnt, as neither Colonel Macdonell nor myself could penetrate to the stables where the wounded had been carried.⁵

Wellington had seen the fire breaking out inside Hougoumont and sent a note, written on ass or donkey skin, to Lieutenant Colonel Macdonnell:

I see that the fire has communicated from the hay stack to the Roof of the Chateau. You must however still keep your Men in those parts to which the fire does not reach.

Take care that no Men are lost by the falling in of the Roof or floors. After they will have fallen in occupy the Ruined Walls inside the Garden, particularly if it should be possible for the Enemy to pass through the Embers in the Inside of the House.⁶

According to Lieutenant Colonel Francis Home of the 2nd Battalion, 3rd Foot Guards, the situation of Hougoumont meant that,

it could not easily be touched by cannon &c, the wood protected it in front and on its right flank they could not bring guns to bear on it without coming close to the edge of the ridge and exposing themselves to our artillery. This in a great degree saved it. Many common shot and grape fell in my direction and perforated the walls in every part, but these reasons prevented it from being steady or effective.

It was this shot, Lieutenant Colonel Home believed, that was the cause of the fire in the buildings at the embattled château:

About half past one some shot or shells falling amid the stables of the chateau set them and the straw bales on fire, it burst out in an instant in every quarter with an amazing flame and smoke. The confusion at the time was great and many men burned to death or suffocated by the smoke. The Duke of Wellington was at this moment in considerable anxiety. He sent Lt Colonel Hamilton then aide to Sir E. Barnes [Adjutant General] to the chateau with orders to keep it to the last and if that could not be done from the fire as to occupy the strong ground on the right and rear and defend it to extremity. Colonel Hamilton delivered these orders to me and added these words ‘Colonel Home, the Duke considers the defence [of] this post of the last consequence to the success of the operations of the day; do you perfectly understand these orders?’

I said, ‘Perfectly, and you may assure the Duke from me that his orders shall be punctually obeyed.’

The fire was gradually diminished and about half past two Colonel Hepburn [commanding 3rd Foot Guards] arriving with some fresh troops, things got again into good order.⁷

Amongst those troops of the 3rd Foot Guards who were despatched down to Hougoumont was Ensign Henry Montagu:

I was attached to the 8th Company of the battalion and remained on the position above Hougoumont till about 2 o’clock, when the 6th, 7th and 8th companies marched down together, to the orchard on our left of the garden. On reaching the left corner of the lower fence, the 6th and 7th companies filed inside the hedge, while the 8th marched in file, up to the gate leading into the grass field beyond the orchard, where there was a road which led through the field, and along the outside of the garden wall.

There we began to form companies, when the French troops, standing in line in a rye field, immediately in our front, commenced firing by sections on us. As we got the company in line we replied as well as we could by file firing, but being much [restricted?] lost many men, and were obliged to retire slowly, firing, to the lower corner, where there was a deep lane.

Here we remained, being shortly afterwards [reinforced] by 2 companies of a Hanoverian regiment [presumably Kielmansegge’s men, unless Montagu was referring to the Nassau troops]. I remained here a considerable time with Colonel Mercer, who was occupied reforming stragglers and men who returned from carrying wounded officers to the rear.⁸

Lieutenant Colonel Daniel Mackinnon, serving in the Coldstream Guards, described his part in the fighting for Hougoumont in a letter from Brussels written on 23 June 1815:

Our division &c., &c., formed a centre a little above a large farm house (La Belle Alliance) [he actually means Hougoumont] which was the point attacked and occupied by the light company of the division &c., &c. The grenadiers and three other companies of the Coldstreams under my command were ordered to charge the enemy who had surrounded the house. I was wounded in the act, also had a beautiful grey horse shot, however, I did the best that lay in my power and succeeded in repulsing them till relieved by the remainder of the battalion; the whole were then obliged to fortify ourselves in the farm yard which we were ordered to defend, let what would oppose us; in short, we remained in it till night against repeated attacks of the French Army; at last it was demolished and burnt to the ground by the enemy’s cannon. My poor dun horse has been almost burnt to death, he lost an eye &c., &c. My servant says he must be shot. The day preceding I also lost a horse, so you will see I have lost all three of my English horses. The ball struck me exactly on the cap of the knee so you may suppose the pain is most excruciating.

Ensign George Standen continues his graphic account:

A haystack was set fire to in one of the attacks in which our Companies were repulsed, behind which we repeatedly formed and charged; I cannot speak as to time, but think between one and two the French drove the remaining few into the house. After a severe struggle the French forced the rear gate open and came in with us. We flew to the parlour, opened the windows and drove them out, leaving an Officer and some men dead within the wall.

During this time the whole of the barn and cart house were in flames. During the confusion three or four Officers’ horses rushed out into the yard from the barn, and in a minute or two rushed back into the flames and were burnt. I mention this as I had always heard horses would never leave fire; perhaps some beam or large piece of wood fell and astonished them.

The ditch at the corner of the wood leading into the orchard was full of dead bodies (we had blocked up the gate), as the French strove repeatedly and gallantly to get through in defiance of the fire from the loopholes so close to them.⁹

An unidentified officer of the 1st Guards replying to Siborne during his quest for information on the various stages of the battle, wrote:

Unfortunately for us, during the cannonade the shot and shells which passed over the artillery, fell into our squares, and I assure you I never was in a more awful situation. Col. Cook (who commanded the battalion) [Major General George Cook actually commanded the Guards Division] was struck with a grape shot as he sat on the ground next to me.

The Enemy now made an attack with infantry and cavalry on the left, in hopes of carrying the chaussee to Brussels; but the artillery guns cut them to pieces every time they advanced. They then attempted to charge the guns with cavalry; but the squares of infantry kept up so smart a fire that they could never reach our guns, though the artillerymen were obliged to leave them to get out of our fire.

When the Enemy found the attempt fail on this point, he ordered an attack on the farm-house, which it was necessary for him to possess in order to turn the right of our position. There it was that the serious struggle commenced. Two companies of light infantry, under Lord Saltoun, disputed the wood and orchard most gallantly, but were at last obliged to retire under cover of the house, when the enemy were charged by the light infantry of the 2d brigade (the Coldstream and 3d), and driven back with great loss. At this period the Coldstream entered the house which the Enemy set on fire by shells, but did not entirely consume it. The Enemy were foiled in two repeated attempts, and were each time severely cut up by the artillery. When they failed in their attacks upon our squares, the cavalry rushed out from between our squares and cut them up most desperately. When he found these efforts vain, he began his attack upon the centre. He first endeavoured to carry the guns with his cavalry, which came up most gallantly; but our squares sent them to the right about three times in great style. I never saw anything so fine, the cavalry rushing out and picking up the deserted cannon.¹⁰

Major General Cook survived the grape-shot injury but it cost him his arm. The fighting that led to so many suffering such wounds was described in the Lancaster Gazette of Saturday, 28 October 1815. This account was written at the village of Gommignies on 22 June:

About a quarter past eleven o’clock, A.M. the battle commenced, by the French making a most desperate and impetuous attack upon Hougomont; against which, as well as La Haye Sainte, they directed their most furious efforts during the whole day. Hougomont, however, appeared to be the principal object they had in view, since its possession would have uncovered our flank, and have afforded them a most fatal advantage over our line; in a word, had it been lost, nothing short of its being retaken at any rate could have repaired the misfortune. – The French opened upon us a dreadful cross fire from three hundred pieces of artillery, which was answered with a most uncommon precision from our guns; but to be just, we must own that the French batteries were served in a manner that was terrible. – During this period, the enemy pushed his troops into the orchard, &c &c and after its being contested for some hours, he succeeded in reducing our men to nothing but the house itself.

Every tree, every walk, every hedge, every avenue, had been fought for with an obstinacy almost unparalleled, and the French were killed all round, and at the very door of the house, to which, as well as a hay-stack, they succeeded in setting fire; and though all in flames over their heads, our brave fellows never suffered them to penetrate beyond the threshold; the greatest part of the wounded, on both sides, were, alas, here burned to death!

In consequence of this success on the part of the French, the Coldstream, and third regiment, were ordered into the wood, from whence they drove the enemy, and every subsequent struggle they made to re-possess themselves of it, proved abortive. The places of these two battalions of guards were supplied by two of our gallant friends, the black Brunswickers, who seemed, like salamanders, to revel in the smoke and flames. The 2d and 3d battalions of the first regiment were formed with the two battalions of Brunswickers into hollow squares, on the slope and summit of the hill, so as to support each other, and in this situation we all lay down, till between three and four o’clock, P.M. in order to avoid the storm of death, which was flying close over our heads, and at almost every moment carrying destruction among us; and it is, you will allow, a circumstance highly creditable to those men, to have lain so many hours under a fire, which for intensity and precision was never, I believe, equalled; with nothing else to occupy their attention, save watching their companions falling around them, and listening to their mournful cries.

It was about the time I have just named, that the enemy, having gained the orchard, commenced their desperate charges of cavalry, under cover of the smoke which the burning house, &c had caused; the whole of which the wind drifted towards us, and thus prevented our observing their approach.

After the battle, Wellington said that ‘the success of the battle of Waterloo turned’ upon the following incident, involving the northern gate:

The following details of this soul-stirring incident are gathered from the most reliable French and British sources. 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, Cubieres, 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,’ 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 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 McGregor, a native of Argyleshire, who enlisted at Glasgow in 1799; 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 Cubieres’ 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 Cubieres 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 Leger 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 air-holes, 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 … 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. They were, like Colonel Macdonell, all officers of the Second Battalion of the Coldstreams … 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 Eraser 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 would 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 cross-bar 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.¹¹

Richard MacLaurence was also involved in the fighting inside Hougoumont. He recalled his part in the events there for the Newcastle Journal on 12 January 1843:

Once the French broke into the courtyard, and such a scene of bayonet work I never before or since beheld. It was fairly a trial of strength – the French grenadiers were not to be trifled with and we looked like so many butchers, red with gore.

The struggle for Hougoumont continued all day, and inevitably, its defenders began to run out of ammunition. Staff officer Captain Horace Seymour explained how the Royal Waggon Train kept the defenders supplied, through, of course, that vital northern gate:

Late in the day of the 18th, I was called to by some Officers of the 3rd Guards defending Hougoumont, to use my best endeavours to send them musket ammunition. Soon afterwards I fell in with a private of the Waggon Train in charge of a tumbrel on the crest of the position. I merely pointed out to him where he was wanted, when he gallantly started his horses, and drove straight down the hill to the Farm, to the gate of which I saw him arrive. He must have lost his horses, as there was a severe fire kept on him. I feel convinced to that man’s service the Guards owe their ammunition.¹²

Lieutenant Colonel Francis Home tells of the final hours of the defence of Hougoumont, after the fires had been extinguished:

After that no very violent attack was made against this post but only a sharp firing kept upon it by light troops until about 6 in the evening when an attack being made along our whole line the enemy turned the left of the orchard and [pushed] the troops there back upon our right.

Things did not remain long in this situation and a general advance from our line won the day and freed the troops in Hougoumont from the fate which they would have met with from the enemy.¹³