War Medals and Their HistorySteward, William Augustus
History
War Medals and Their History
Steward, William Augustus
Great Britain. Army -- Medals, badges, decorations, etc.; Great Britain. Royal Navy -- Medals, badges, decorations, etc.
=The Price of Victory.=--But the Old Guard, true to their traditions,
made a last desperate stand in square against the British cavalry;
it was desperate and grand, but ineffectual, and again they turned
and fled, and "the finest army, for its numbers, that France had ever
embattled in a field was utterly defeated, and the dynasty of that
proud spirit for whom Europe was too little was ended." Over the
terrible carnage which followed I must draw a veil, for the unrelenting
animosity of the Prussians to the French led them to retaliate in
a most vindictive manner, and thousands who had bravely fought and
survived the day lived only to fall ignominiously under the revengeful
sabre or thrust of Prussian lance. When Wellington recrossed the
battlefield, where the destiny of Europe had been changed by the defeat
of the greatest of the world's generals, he could have had little
stomach for supper, for he had to pass over that 2 square miles of
Belgian territory where 50,000 dead or wounded men and horses lay--the
terrible price of victory.
The following British regiments were represented at Waterloo: 2
squadrons 1st and 2nd Life Guards; 2 squadrons Royal Horse Guards
(Blue); 1st Dragoon Guards; 1st Royals,* 2nd Royal North British
Dragoons* (Scots Greys); 6th Inniskilling Dragoons*; 12th, 13th,
16th Queen's and 23rd Light Dragoons; 7th, 10th Royal; 15th King's;
18th Hussars; 2nd and 3rd Batts. 1st Foot Guards (Grenadiers); 2nd
Batt. 2nd Foot Guards (Coldstreams); 3rd Batt. 3rd Foot Guards (Scots
Guards); 3rd Batt. 1st Royal Scots; 1st Batt. 4th; 3rd Batt. 14th;
1st Batt. 23rd Royal Welsh Fusiliers; 1st Batt. 27th Inniskilling;*
1st Batt. 28th (Gloucesters); 2nd Batt. 30th; 1st 32nd; 33rd; 1st
Batt. 40th; 1st Batt. 42nd Black Watch*; 2nd Batt. 44th; 51st; 1st
Batt. 52nd; 2nd Batt. 69th; 1st Batt. 71st Highland Light Infantry;
2nd Batt. 73rd Perthshires (2nd Batt. Black Watch); 1st Batt. 79th
Cameron Highlanders; 1st Batt. 92nd Gordon Highlanders; 1st, 2nd, and
Prov. Batts. 95th; 8 Troops Royal Horse Artillery; 6 Brigades Royal
Artillery; Corps of Royal Artillery Drivers; Royal Foot Artillery;
Royal Engineers; Royal Sappers and Miners; Royal Waggon Train; Field
Train Department of the Ordnance; Royal Staff Corps; Commissariat
Department; Ordnance Medical Department, and the following units of the
King's German Legion: 1st and 2nd Light Dragoons; 1st, 2nd, and 3rd
Hussars; 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, and 8th Line Battalions, and 1st and
2nd Light Battalions: the total present being about 2,308 officers and
42,120 non-commissioned officers and men.
[Illustration: PISTRUCCI'S WATERLOO MEDAL.
(See page 373.)]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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