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Deploying into battle at Waterloo

How were the infantry brigades of the Netherlands, i.e. Dutch-Belgian forces actually deployed at the Battle of Waterloo?

Did they use some sort of seniority system like the British army? Or perhaps something more similar to their experience the last two decades as French allies?

Dutch Belgians battle of Waterloo

It is all very fine to write the next definitive history on the Netherlands army in 1815, but it has to be based on solid documentation. And in our first volume ‘From mobilisation to war’ we already presented the drill regulations for the new and young army had not yet fully materialized.

With all sorts of memoirs and accounts from officers telling: I was on the left or right of this & that unit, it is not per se easy to establish a coherent history. Fortunately there is the map of the Battle of Waterloo from the Brussels’ cartographer Benjamin Craan, produced by royal decree and published in 1816. And above all: Craan interviewed numerous officers in the preceding months after the battle from both opposing sides. Surely his depiction of deployed brigades of the Netherlands forces was correct?

Well, it still left me a little ambiguous. In fact what people say has to be corroborated with the drill regulations of the time. Proper documents. And in 1815 most Netherlands officers were well practiced by those 1791 French regulations. So could we look for an answer here? And next…. How to account for the foreign Nassau troops in service at the time with the army?

Nassau brigade

And then also another matter: how to incorporate such troops within Wellington’s seniority system of battle array on the field, so very well described in Muir’s essay in ‘Inside Wellington’s Peninsular army’?

Well, in the end it proved to all very simple once consulting advice from some members of our dedicated Facebook page or the forum of Napoleon Series, who showed up with evidence from the brigade drill regulations shortly after the campaign in 1816, called ‘Evolutiën der ligne’. The Dutch had already been accustomed to this deployment for many years, as a similar regulations for the Batavian Republic show the same numerical & democratic sequence of deployment in battle.

Bijlandt's brigade

Indeed, infantry brigades deployed in line, as on parade, with the oldest regular army units on the right (i.e Line or Jäger btns,), followed by and in numerical sequence the militia battalions. In fact the regular jäger battalion within each brigade could be posted either on the left or right wing. And as it goes to show here, the Nassau troops also adhered to aligning their battalions likewise.

As you understand, I go at great lengths to present this new history for you. And it is with the help, assitance of dedicated readers contributing at our Facebook page or on other forums. You see, I am a modern author and want to interact with my readers!

 

 

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