The most underrated unit at Waterloo
As yesterday's question sparked some fun and interesting chat, here's another one with no right answer that we can throw out there (especially off the back of the Forgotten Foreign Forces pods): Which unit in any of the three armies of the Waterloo campaign do you think has been unfairly underrated, and why? (If you would rather talk about a brigade or type of unit, rather than a specific regiment, then be my guest!)
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Bearing in mind I can only read English and French, I have found a reference in Gareth Glover’s 'Waterloo Archive Volume V: German Sources', the following: ‘Detailed Report on the Corps of Troops of His Serene Highness the Duke of Brunswick from the 15th to and including the 18th June 1815', From the British Library.
...The corps was posted on the crest of the plateau behind the farm [Hougoumont], and the Avantgarde was immediately detached to its garden in support of an English regiment of Guards of Byng’s brigade that defended it. The Leib and 1st Light Battalions were posted close to its rear on an elevation, to cover it and act as a reserve; in front of the former was a horse battery… During this time, the Avantgarde was strongly engaged in the defence of Hougoumont where it defended the park of the château most tenaciously and repulsed the enemy’s attack.
Then later, after the great cavalry attacks;
The buildings were set on fire with incendiary fire and the garrison was driven out into the park [we know this is not true as the buildings remained occupied, but so it may have appeared to someone on the ridge] which was defended step by step by the English regiment of Guards together with our Avantgarde who eventually had to yield to the enemy’s superior numbers. On Lord Hill’s orders, the Leib Battalion was sent to the park when it was already too late, because the dispersed English and Brunswickers, driven out of the park, hardly had time to form up and defend themselves against the enemy’s light cavalry. After this attack had been repulsed, the Leib Battalion moved forward and took up position in part of the park, while the English Guards Regiment again formed up and advanced to the right of Hougoumont and there took its stand. Next to it, the Avantgarde Battalion had also formed up. At the same time, the 1st Light Battalion was detached to move into the park; having the Leib Battalion on its left flank, it maintained liaison with it by a line of skirmishers, whereupon the enemy infantry was driven out of the park. The two battalions formed in columns after they arrived in the open on the far side of Hougoumont.
Casualties for the Avantgarde Battalion are given as 9 men killed and 4 officers and 43 men wounded at Waterloo.