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FRONTLINE STORIES

Borodina 1812
Waterloo 1815
19 June 1815
Brussels 1815
Waterloo 1815

Borodino 1812
Napoleon's Russian Campaign began on 25 June 1812. On 7 September the main Russian army under General Prince Kutuzov made a stand near the small village of Borodino, placing themselves between Moscow and the advancing French army under Napoleon. In less than a day more than a quarter of a million men and over 1,000 cannons were engaged in one of the greatest battles of history. By late November the remnants of the Grande Armée crossed the Berezina River and half a million soldiers were missing or dead. This marked the beginning of the end for the Napoleonic empire.

The following is an account of the Battle of Borodino by General Louis-Francois Lejeune (Baron Lejeune), a French army colonel who served under Napoleon as aide-de-camp during the 1812 invasion of Russia.

The village of Borodino, Russia, 7 September 1812
'About seven o'clock on the morning of the 7th the signal for the attack was at last given, and immediately 800 pieces of cannon on our side opened fire on an equal number of Russian howitzers and guns, the projectiles from which ploughed through our ranks with a hissing noise such as it is impossible to describe. As ill luck would have it, our reserves at the beginning of the struggle, even those of the cavalry, were rather too near the fighting, and, either from vainglory or more likely from fear of giving a false impression to the enemy, they would not retire the few hundred paces needed to place them in a position less exposed to useless danger, so that we had the grief of seeing thousands of gallant cavaliers and fine horses struck down, though it was of the utmost importance to us to preserve them.'

Extract from Souvenirs de l'Empire, published in Paris and later translated by A Bell as Memoirs of Baron Lejeune: Aide-de-Camp to Marshals Berthier, Davout and Oudinot (Longman, 1897).

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Waterloo 1815
'The first shots were fired around 11.30 on Sunday morning. By 9 o'clock that night, 40,000 men and 10,000 horses lay dead or wounded among the Belgian cornfields. First hand accounts of the day talk of being ridden over by cavalry constantly on both sides, there was so little room, so few places for the soldiers to manoeuvre. The field was a mass of mud, blood and bodies. The air was hung with a black pall of gunpowder discharge, which made it hard to see into the distance and irritated the eyes until they were red and running. The noise was unbearable, with gunshot, artillery, shouts of the fighting, moans of the dying, screams from the horses. Audible over the top of it was the drumming and bugle playing that was the only way to communicate to troops en-masse.'

Harry Smith was an officer in the 95th Regiment, serving under Wellington's Army. This is his account of the battle in which he fought.

The village of Waterloo, Belgium. 18 June 1815
'Late in the day, when the enemy had made his last great effort on our centre, the field was so enveloped in smoke that nothing was discernible. The firing ceased on both sides, and we on the left knew that one party or the other was beaten. This was the most anxious moment of my life. In a few seconds we saw the red-coats in the centre, as stiff as rocks, and the French columns retiring rapidly, and there was such a British shout as rent the air. We all felt then to whom the day belonged. It was time the 'Crisis' should arrive, for we had been at work some hours, and the band of death had been most unsparing. One Regiment, the 27th had only two officers Ieft - Major Hume, who commanded from the beginning of the battle, and another - and they were both wounded, and only 120 soldiers were left with them.'

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19 June 1815 - before daylight
'I had been over many a field of battle... I had never seen anything to be compared with what I saw. At Waterloo the whole field from right to left was a mass of dead bodies. In one spot, to the right of La Haye Sainte, the French Cuirassiers were literally piled on each other; many soldiers not wounded lying under their horses; others, fearfully wounded, occasionally with their horses struggling upon their wounded bodies. The sight was sickening, and I had no means or power to assist them. Imperative duty compelled me to the field of my comrades, where I had plenty to do to assist many who had been left out all night; some had been believed to be dead, but the spark of life had returned. All over the field you saw officers, and as many soldiers as were permitted to leave the ranks, leaning and weeping over some dead or dying brother or comrade.'

Extract from The Autobiography of Sir Harry Smith, 1787-1819: A classic story of love and war. Introduction by Philip Haythornthwaite. (Constable, 1999) �16.99.

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Brussels 1815
Lady Caroline Capel and her adult daughters had moved to Brussels in 1814 to escape her husband's debtors. She was pregnant with her 13th child, her baby due sometime in June. Her brother Lord Uxbridge (later the Marquess of Anglesey) was one of Wellington's leading commanders. The following is taken from a letter written by Caroline's daughter Georgy Capel to her grandmother, the Dowager Countess of Uxbridge.

Brussels, Belgium, around 26th June 1815
'How can I describe all the horrors of a Hospital Station - which Brussels is - The streets crowded with wounded wretches and with wagons filled with dead and dying - the atmosphere is so much affected by it that many English are thinking of quitting Bruxelles in fear of pestilence ..... We are all employed constantly in making Lint for the unfortunate wounded; it is impossible to shew more humanity than the Belgians do for them, all the shopkeepers spend much of their time in their service. Brussels looks very dismal indeed to us who have seen it in such gaiety, the Park quite deserted, nothing but wounded men wandering about. Hundreds of dead horses lying also, having been shot since they came into Town. Upon the Ramparts not far from us 3,000 dead bodies are exposed, there not being room to bury them; a gentleman who past thro the Plains of Waterloo yesterday declares that he saw several men living heaped upon dead bodies, indeed it is too horrible - the Duke of Wellington never was known to be in such low spirits as he was in consequence of the blood shed at Waterloo, which they say exceeded any that ever was shed at any other they remember.'

Extract from The Capel Letters 1814-1817. Edited by The Marquess of Anglesey (Jonathon Cape, 1955).

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Waterloo 1815
Major Frye travelled around Europe between 1815 and 1819. He did not fight in the battle of Waterloo, but visited the battlefield several days later and again two months after that. This is what he wrote.

Waterloo, Belgium, 22 June 1815
'The sight was too horrible to behold...the multitude of carcasses, the heaps of wounded men with mangled limbs unable to move, and perishing from not having their wounds dressed or from hunger, as the allies were, of course, obliged to take their surgeons and wagons with them... both allied and the French, remain in an equally deplorable state.'

Extract from After Waterloo: Reminiscences of European Travel 1815-19 by Major WE Frye. Edited by Salomon Reinach. (Heinemann, 1908).

These extracts and more can be found on Anne Woodley's website:
http://homepages.ihug.co.nz/~awoodley

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