fought or won. Those who witnessed the most sanguinary contests of the Peninsular war, declared they had never seen so terrible a carnage; and the Prussians pronounced even the battle of Leipsic not to be compared to it. The dead could not be numbered; and by those who visited this dreadful field of glory, and of death, the day after the battle, the spectacle of horror that it exhibited can never be forgotten. their suffering enemies a striking and noble contrast to the brutality with which the French had treated our prisoners. The desolation which reigned on the scene of action cannot easily be described. The fields of high standing corn were trampled down, and so completely beaten into the earth, that they had the appearance of stubble. The ground was completely ploughed up in many places with the charge of the cavalry, and the horses' hoofs, deep stamped into the earth, left the traces where many a deadly struggle had been. The whole field was strewed with the melancholy vestiges of war and devastation-soldiers' caps, pierced with many a ball, and trodden under foot-eagles that had ornamented them-badges of the legion of honour-cuirasses-fragments of broken arms, belts and scabbards innumerable-shreds of tattered cloth, shoes, car thers steeped in mud and gore-French novels, and German Testaments-scattered music belonging to the bands-packs of cards, and innumerable papers of every description, that had been thrown out of the pockets of the dead, by those who had pillaged them. French love-letters, and letters from mothers to their sons, and from children to their parents, were scattered about in every direction. Amongst the thousands that were examined, it was, however, remarkable, that they found only one English letter. It was from a soldier's wife to her husband. The mangled and lifeless bodies were even then stripped of every covering-every thing of the smallest value was already carried off. The road between Waterloo and Brussels, which passes for nine miles through the thick shades of the forest of Soigny, was choked up with scattered baggage, broken waggons, and dead horses. The heavy rains, and the great passage upon it, had rendered it almost impassable, so that it was with extreme difficulty that the carriages containingtridge boxes, gloves, highland bonnets, feathe wounded could be brought along. The way was lined with unfortunate men who had crept from the field, and many, unable to go farther, lay down and died :-holes dug by the road side served as their graves, and the road, weeks after the battle, was strewed with the tattered remains of their clothes and accoutrements. In every village and hamlet,-on every road,-in every part of the country, for thirty miles round, wounded soldiers were found wandering; the wounded Belgic and Dutch stragglers exerting themselves to the utmost to reach their own homes. So great were the numbers of the wounded, that, notwithstanding the most the most active and unremitting exertions, the last were not removed from the field of battle into Brussels until the Thursday following. It is impossible for words to do justice to the generous kindness, and persevering care and attention, shown by the inhabitants of Brussels and Antwerp, and the whole of the Belgic people, towards these poor sufferers. Nor should the humanity shown by the British soldiers themselves be unnoticed. The wounded of our army, who were able to move, employed themselves in tying up the wounds and administering to the wants of Upon this field were performed deeds of valour as heroic as any which swell the page of history. Of those who performed them, many rest in the bed of honour, and those who survive will never relate the story of their own achievements. Modesty is ever the concomitant of true courage; and thus actions, which, could they have been witnessed, would have been the theme of an applauding world, are now unknown and unadmired. It is difficult to say who were bravest where all were brave. Every individual erected to himself a monument of glory, and the only distinction between the officers and troops was that of rank, Official List of regiments under the command of field-marshal duke of Wellington, on Sunday, June 18, 1815; and the total loss of the British and Hanoverians, from June 16th to 26th, 1815. To which is added, the computed losses of the Dutch and Prussians, during the campaign in the Netherlands. General Staff 1st Life Guards 2d Life Guards Royal Horse Guards, Blue 1st Dragoon Guards 2d Dragoon Guards 2d, or Royal N. B. Dragoons 6th Dragoons 7th Hussars 10th Hussars 11th Light Dragoons 12th Light Dragoons 13th Light Dragoons 15th Hussars 16th Light Dragoons 18th Hussars 23d Light Dragoons OFFICERS. 76 3424 RANK AND FILE. Killed. Wounded. Missing, Killed. Wounded. Missing. Total. 46. 3 0 0 217 5 3 11 0 2d Ditto 1st Hussars, ditto 2d Hussars, K.G.L. Royal Artillery Ditto, K.G.L. 0 Royal Engineers Royal Staff Corps Royal Sappers and Miners 1st Foot Guards 0 9 Ditto, 3d battalion 2d Coldstream regiment 1. 3d Foot Guards, 2d battalion 3 1st Foot (Royal Scots), 3d batt. 4th Foot, 1st battalion 8 27960 0 101 0 9 Ditto, 2d battalion 7th Foot, 1st battalion 14th Foot, 3d battalion 23d Foot 27th Foot, 1st battalion 28th Foot, ditto 478 29th Foot, ditto 30th Foot, ditto 32d Foot 279 33120 The Prussian ditto, collectively, from the first commencement of hostilities to the close of the battle of Waterloo, In the church of Waterloo are the two following Inscriptions, on plain mural tablets, opposite to each other: Το the Memory of Major Edwin Griffith, Lieutenant Isaac Sherwood, Lieutenant Henry Buckley, Officers in the XV. King's Regt. of Hussars. [British Who fell in the Battle of Waterloo, June, XVIII, MDCCCXV, This stone was erected by the officers of that regiment, as a testimony of their respect. Dulce et decorum est pro patriá mori. The victory was not more owing to the unequalled bravery of the subordinate officers and troops, than to the skill, the gallantry, and firmness of their illustrious commander. In all the great achievements which he had hitherto performed, he had never maintained so arduous a struggle, he had never gained so complete and glorious a triumph. In the whole course of this well-fought day not one error can be laid to his charge. He anticipated every intention of the enemy, and was always found precisely on the spot where his skill and influence were most necessary to animate or direct his troops. Wherever danger was most imminent he was uniformly present, yet with a coolness equal to his valour, he restrained the impatience of his troops till the decisive moment, and, notwithstanding the brilliant vicissitudes of the day, adhered to the prudent and well digested plan on which he had determined to act. 66 If any thing could add to the lustre of his fame, it would be the singular modesty with which he relates the glorious and important events of the day, and the candour with which, in a letter to his mother, he speaks of his discomfited enemy. Napoleon did his duty. He fought the battle with infinite skill, perseverance, and bravery; and this I do not state from any personal motive of claiming merit to myself, for the victory is to be ascribed to the superior physical force and constancy of British soldiers." The feeling which this battle produced in England will never be forgotten by the present generation. Accustomed as we were to victory upon the land, as well as upon the seas, since the star of Wellington had risen: confident as we were in our general and our army, even they who were most assured of success dreamed not of a triumph so signal, so sudden, so decisive. The glory of all former fields seemed, at the time, to fade before that of Waterloo. At Cressy, at Poitiers, at Agincourt, the ease with which victory had been obtained appeared to detract from the merit of the conquerors, and the multitudes of our enemies had been delivered into our hands by their own insolence and presumption. Blenheim had been less stubborn in the conflict, less momentous in the consequences; and all the previous actions of our great commander, from Vimiera and Assaye to Thoulouse, now seemed mere preludes to this last and greatest of his triumphs. Heavy as was the weight of private sorrow for the dead: severe as was the public loss in the fall of Picton, Ponsonby, and many others, the flower of the British youth, the pride and promise of the British army, still we were spared that grief which, on a former occasion, had abated the general joy, and caused the nation almost to regret the victory of Trafalgar. The first consideration, when joy and astonishment admitted leisure for reflection, was how to express our sense of this great exploit; how to manifest our gratitude to the army and its leader; how to discharge our obligation: the mighty debt which was due to the living and the dead. The merits of the army were properly estimated, and the rewards were extended to every rank and every individual. Every regiment which had been present was permitted thenceforth to bear the word Waterloo on their colours; all the privates were to be borne, on the muster-rolls and pay-lists of their respective corps, as Waterloo men, and every Waterloo man allowed to enter that day's work as two years service in the account of his time, or for a pension when discharged. The subaltern officers were in like manner to reckon two years service for that victory; and a benefit not less important was on this occasion extended to the whole ariny, by a regulation, enacting that henceforward the pensions granted for wounds should rise to the rank which the officer might after wards attain, so that he who was maimed when an ensign, should, when he became a general, receive a general's pension for the injury which he had endured. It was decreed by the legislature that a national monument should be erected in honour of the victory, and in commemoration of the men who fell; and upon the suggestion of Mr. Williams Wynn, it was determined that the name of every man who had fallen should be inscribed on this memorial of national glory and public gratitude. For Wellington alone no new distinction adequate to his merits could be found. From his knighthood to his dukedom, he had won all the titles that his sovereign could confer: but the parlia |