The Battle of Waterloo
18 Jun 1815
H Troop, as it was known at the time was posted from Warley to Canterbury on 11 April 1811 and
remained there until 1 April 1815. In June 1815 Brevet Major N Ramsay was appointed
Commander of the troop on his predecessor’s promotion and it was him that would lead H Troop at
the Battle of Waterloo.
Major Ramsay with H Troop, as with all the Royal Horse Artillery, did not see action for the first day
of the campaign; it was not until the night of 16 June 1815, when Wellington had decided to
abandon his position at Quatre-Bras, that the Royal Horse Artillery were brought into the Battle.
The 17 June saw, in particular Mercer’s, Bull’s and Ramsay’s Troops, very heavily engaged in
delaying the French advance while Wellington broke contact and then reestablished himself at
Waterloo. By the afternoon the brunt of the fighting fell upon the Light Cavalry Brigade which
Ramsay was supporting. It was a hard fight and Ramsay himself was wounded. The French only
broke off the action when they ran into the whole of the Duke’s Army at Waterloo.
It rained all night of 17/18
June turning the ground into a
quagmire; so marsh like was
the ground that Napoleon had
to wait until 1100 hrs before
he could begin his assault on
the Allied position. His plan
was to launch a feint against
the Allied right and get
Wellington to commit his
reserves, and then by a series
of mass attacks, heavily supported by artillery, blast a hole through Wellington’s now weakened
centre. The Allied Army, broken in half, could then be destroyed again the Foret de Soignes. It was
a plan dependant on mass rather than mobility; unimaginative in conception, its execution was
careless. The feint attack against Hougoumont not only failed to fool Wellington, it was allowed to
absorb too much of the French Army. The mass attacks against the centre were uncoordinated;
infantry and then cavalry were each thrown alone and unsupported against the Allied centre. This
was against all accepted practice and the infantry were driven off by artillery fire and shock cavalry
action. The cavalry were unable to make much impression on the squares of infantry; when a
foothold was gained it was not consolidated. Finally the Imperial Guard was hurled back by the
close quarter fire of musket and canon.
The Royal Horse Artillery was initially deployed in the reserve. H
Troop were positioned in between Bull’s and Webber Smith’s Troop
along the Hougoumont-Haye Sainte Ridge behind the feeble cover of
stunted hedges. It was a superb enfilade position covering the whole
of the Allied centre. From there, early on in the attack on
Hougoumont, French Tiraileurs were closely engaged with the Guards
defending the chateau. There was fierce combat in the wood next to
the chateau and Bull’s Troop was ordered to support the Guards with
their 5.5” howitzers. Major Bull fired into the wood but could not see
the effect of his fire. Ramsay, who was to Bull’s left, could; he sent
runners to Bull to inform him of the effectiveness of his shooting. This
is perhaps the first recorded instance of observed and corrected
indirect fire.
The Duke had only two instructions for his artillery;
they were not to engage the enemy batteries but to
conserve their ammunition against the French
attacks; and they were to retire into the protection of
infantry squares when threatened by French cavalry.
The battle was so hot that despite the Duke’s
precautions the artillery exhausted its field reserves
of ammunition and suffered heavy losses. With the
attacks on the Allied centre, first the infantry of
d’Erlon and then the cavalry of Ney, the artillery was
pushed even further forwards over the ridge. H
Troop suffered very heavily from the fire of mounted
sharpshooters who accompanied the cavalry
attacks, it was during one of these attacks that Major
Ramsay was killed, shot by a sharpshooter. The
Troop suffered so badly that by the end of the day,
Lieutenant Sandilands was the only officer out of five
to be left unwounded. During the final stages of the
French cavalry attacks, Bull’s Troop had to dispatch
men to help man the guns of H Troop. The Troop
fought long and hard and helped to break up the final
assaults of the French upon La Haye Sainte.
Major Norman Ramsay was buried where he fell by
his Troop, but his body was later disinterred and
reburied in Scotland where it remains today.
On completion of the operations in France, H Troop
returned to England and was posted to Woolwich in
1816.