Good afternoon everyone. Calling all Robert Burnhams ! (lol)
Bob…, Hi. I’ve a ‘Hougoumont’ question for you. But firstly, a quick update.
As I mentioned to Zack the other day, my manuscript is finally finished and I’m now going through the pain-in-the-neck stage of indexing plus verifications.
One such item on the check-list involves info sourced from John Franklin, unfortunately, he has since ‘gone-to-ground.’ (hence my question)
About ten years ago, John shared with me the fact that 49 Guardsmen were Courts-Martialled following the battle…, and as you know, my book revolves around the atrocious, bad decision-making of Lt. Col. Macdonell, plus his follow-up scapegoat Courts-Martial.
I have the court documents relating to the accusations and verdicts of all the Scots and Coldstream Guards…, but nothing about the Grenadier Guards. John wrote the following…
15 x Grenadier Guards.
18 x Scots Guards.
16 x Coldstream Guards.
However, the last GrenGds Court-Martial in Belgium was at Enghien…, and the next was at Bois de Boulogne, Paris. (all ‘good guys’ at Waterloo apparently) In the meantime, according to the above, that was not the case.
Bob…, as you and your circle of specialist-friends know a lot about this Regiment, do you know of any archive/book that mentions such a court-case ? Please note that all three RHQs know absolutely nothing about the affair.
Permit me to mention something that just might jog someone’s memory…
During the first breach of the Northgate, the two Light Companies of GrenGds were along the sunken lane to the rear of the farm. Saltoun to the east with Milne to the west – Milne then intervened and was mortally wounded, Capt. Luttrell wounded…, then the 16-year-old Ensign Greville took over command of Milne’s support platoon, while the assault platoon mopped-up the 40-odd Frenchmen. This meant that Greville’s Sergeant (with the platoon outside) would have sent an NCO forward to inform Macdonell who was still in the wood, that there was mayhem in the northern courtyard.
As for Macdonell, and following a catastrophic search-and-rescue attempt, that bad news would have been enough to provoke PTSD in any stable-minded officer. However, Macdonells’ thoughts would also have noticed that this NCO-messenger was not with Saltoun on the eastern side of the farm, and as the Courts-Martial charges were all ‘trumped-up,’ this could have been used against the 15 in court.
John then added that the GrenGds Courts-Martial was just as exciting as the SG and CG…, indicating that his research had been exhaustive, obviously leaving little room for mistakes.
Unfortunately, there doesn’t seem to be additional information at Kew. As such, is it possible that John misread the Field Reports and added Enghien and Bois de Boulogne to the Hougoumont incident ?
Lol…, not stopped since we last met up at the Sand Pit at Waterloo.
Yours Aye…, Iain.
Iain -
I have not been able to find any record of them being court-martialed. Have you checked with Zack White who did his PhD on court-martials?
Bob