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A BLOODY
DAY
A BLOODY
DAY
THE IRISH AT WATERLOO
DAN HARVEY
First published in 2017 by
Merrion Press
10 George’s Street
Newbridge
Co. Kildare
Ireland
© 2017, Dan Harvey
9781785371264 (paper)
9781785371271 (PDF)
9781785371424 (Kindle)
9781785371431 (epub)
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
An entry can be found on request
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
An entry can be found on request
All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved
alone, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or
introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any
means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise)
without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the
above publisher of this book.
Cover design by www.phoenix-graphicdesign.com
Cover front: Henri Félix Emmanuel Philippoteaux, The Battle of Waterloo:
The British Squares Receiving the Charge of the French Cuirassiers, 1874
(GL Archive/Alamy Stock Photo)
Printed in Ireland by SPRINT-print Ltd
DEDICATION
The Irish engagement with the Battle of Waterloo was of some considerable significance. They were good soldiers, fought well, and in no small measure helped Wellington earn his victory. This book is dedicated to those ‘forgotten Irish‘ who fought, bled, and died at the Battle of Waterloo.
AUTHOR’S NOTE
I am a military man, so I have a mission in choosing to write this account of the Battle of Waterloo. It is primarily to raise an awareness that there were native-born soldiers from Ireland on the battlefield; next, to offer a deeper understanding of why this participation was so large and prominent; and finally, Waterloo examined through an ‘Irish’ lens sees it exemplifying how Ireland’s heritage has been constructed historically. Ireland’s heritage is about its identity, and the Battle of Waterloo was an exciting episodic event which enlivens an examination of this identity, placed, as it is, in the context of the creation of a modern Europe.
PREFACE
There is one past, but many histories. There was one Battle of Waterloo, but many versions. There was one Anglo-Allied Army, but many nationalities. There was one outcome, but many unknowns. One of the biggest unknowns was that many Irishmen participated. The Battle of Waterloo is itself a good story, highly dramatic, hard-fought, the outcome of which was in the balance to its very end. The story of the part played by the Irish is equally enthralling and must necessarily mention an ‘Irish’ presence, an ‘Irish’ prominence and an ‘Irish’ pride of participation. There was one Wellington, and many other Irish.
At mid-afternoon on the 18 June 1815 in the valley below the ridge of Mont-St-Jean near the Belgian village of Waterloo, Irishman Major General Sir William Ponsonby K.C.B of Imokilly, County Cork, commander of the 2nd British Cavalry (Union) Brigade was killed during a cavalry change. Later in the day, and on the ridge of Mont-St-Jean, Major Arthur Rowley Heyland from Castle Roe, Count Derry, was killed in action at the close of battle while leading the 1st Battalion of the 40th (2nd Somersetshire) Regiment of Foot. Arthur Rowley was buried near to where he fell on the battlefield of Waterloo. One of those who continued to contribute to lead the 40th Foot’s steadfast defence of an exposed position was Captain Conyngham Ellis from Abbeyfeale, County Limerick. Two years later, Conyngham Ellis, now a major, died of wounds received at Waterloo.
Determined not to be forgotten in the event of his death during the up-coming campaign, later called the ‘Hundred Days’ campaign because of the time between Napoleon’s escape from Elba and his final exile to St Helena, Ensign (Second-Lieutenant) Edward Hodder from Fountainstown, near Crosshaven, County Cork, carved his name on about a dozen beech trees along the back avenue to the farm on which he was raised. (He carved the words ‘E. Hodder Fountainstown 1815’. The trees have nearly all gone now, but there are still a couple of them standing and when pointed out, the carving is still possible to see.) Edward Hodder survived the battle but was wounded and lost a leg. The story, still within the family today, is that when he returned without his leg he built himself a wheelchair and wheeled himself down to the beach in Fountainstown regularly, a distance of a mile. On his way back he would bring stones from the beach and he eventually built himself a path that enabled him to wheel himself to the farm’s walled garden. He died in 1868.
Edward Costello, born in Mountmellick, County Laois, in 1788 enlisted with the 95th Rifles as a private soldier in 1807 and subsequently saw extensive service in the Peninsular War (1808-1814) and at Waterloo. He wrote a memoir of his service, The Adventures of a Soldier (London 1852). His memoir is a valuable record of this period, not only as one of comparatively few Irish military accounts, but due to its coming from an enlisted man, rare in a period when the average British army private soldier was illiterate. Officers’ memoirs and journals tended to dominate instead.
On 23 April 1845, as an in-patient of the Royal Hospital Kilmainham, Dublin, James Graham from County Monaghan died. On the occasion, a number of British newspapers and journals published fulsome obituaries of the ex-soldier, formerly of the Light Company, 2nd Battalion, Coldstream Guards, describing him as ‘the bravest of the brave at Waterloo’, a tribute paid to very few common soldiers of the era.
In March 1892 in the town of Sherbrooke in the province of Quebec, Canada, 97-year-old Irishman Maurice Shea from County Kerry died. Born at Prior near Tralee in 1795, he enlisted in the British army and fought at the Battle of Waterloo as a private in Number Nine Company of the Second Battalion of the 73rd Highlanders. Maurice Shea continued to serve with the 73rd until leaving the army as a corporal in 1822. He eventually settled in Canada, living there until his death. He was generally credited as being the last surviving British veteran of the Battle of Waterloo.
Arthur Wesley, later Field Marshal Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, a ninth generation member of the Colley Family who settled in Ireland about 1500 (while the first of the Wellesleys is believed to have arrived earlier around 1170 with Henry
