The Mysterious Cuirassier (1 Viewer)

[Octavian]

Hi all,
Through my research and study of the Napoleonic era, and the countlesss hours of sifting through books, websites and online historical forums, I happen to come across rather interesting accounts along these lines:

Evidently, there was a cuirassier officer who was saved by the British. He was brought inside a British infantry square, while the battle was still raging on, after being unhorsed and wounded. There, he received medical care which probably saved his life. In a short passage of Keegan's FoB, Chapter 3 Waterloo, 'The Wounded':
"... Hughes, the adjutant of the 39th, taking an unhorsed French officer of the 6th Cuirassiers from under his men's bayonets into the centre of the square for protection"

From another account, Waterloo Men by Philip. J Haythornthwait, & Bryan Fosten: ISBN 186126 2833 (Page 77) An incident occurred where a Cuirassier officer was taken into the square of the 2/30th.-2/73rd. Lt. Edward Macready of the 30th wrote in his memoirs that the Cuirassier officer was asked what force Napoleon had in the field, he replied with “a smile of mingled derision and threatening, ‘Vous verrez bientot sa force, Messieurs’

May have this incident (or similar), not necessarily involving the British, occured in any of these events involving the 6th Cuirassier regiment ?

1792: Siege of Lille and the Siege of Anvers
1793: Blockade of Maestricht, Nerewinden and Hondschoote
1794: Fleurus
1796: Altenkirchen
1800: Hochstett and Hohenlinden
1805: Verone and Caldiero
1807: Heilsberg
1809: Eckmuhl, Aspern-Essling and Wagram
1812: La Moskowa ( Borodino ), Winkowo and Malojaroslawetz
1813: Dresden, Wachau, and Leipzig
1814: Champaubert
1815: Waterloo

Can anyone shed some light on this information?

Best Regards

 

[fishead19690]

You should check over at the Armchair general forum if you haven,t already? they have a thread about this ongoing right now but I,m guessing that this is what might have sparked this thread from you?

 

[Octavian]

You should check over at the Armchair general forum if you haven,t already? they have a thread about this ongoing right now but I,m guessing that this is what might have sparked this thread from you?

Absolutely!!!

 

[VanguardFC007]

For those of you who are members of armchair general, is it a worth while forum to join? I checked it out a little bit and am on the fence. Part of me feels that I can get much more educated discussions here but I will listen to more experienced wisdom on the matter.

 

[Octavian]

For those of you who are members of armchair general, is it a worth while forum to join? I checked it out a little bit and am on the fence. Part of me feels that I can get much more educated discussions here but I will listen to more experienced wisdom on the matter.

Harris,
While I'm sure thats your prerogative, I can't really say anything I read, hear or see as gospel. Therefore, the information within this thread (from forums, book sources) in which i started is presented with open debate.

Personally, any information from their forum or any other source is simply more knowledge. So the fun part here is trying to seperate the truth from fiction. Even if they don't provide the same level of experienced wisdom or educated discussions, I do enjoy their forum and its not the bane of my exsistence.

While i respect your opnion (in which you are entitled to) and reference, I'd rather see the positive in something than the negative.

Best Regards

Now back to the topic.....

 

[VanguardFC007]

Hmm, I didnt mean to insult anyone on that forum, although reading what I previously wrote it does come off a bit that way. I think Ill have to lurk around armchair a little longer and see if I feel like jumping in. Thanks for the imput!

 

[Octavian]

Hmm, I didnt mean to insult anyone on that forum, although reading what I previously wrote it does come off a bit that way. I think Ill have to lurk around armchair a little longer and see if I feel like jumping in. Thanks for the imput!

Hi Harris,
Glad you didn't take my input the wrong way either. Youre a gentleman
Cheers

 

[Octavian]

Below is more information provided to me by a real connoisseur of the Napoleonic period. Its a wonderful read:

Take a look at “The Memorable Battle of Waterloo” by Christopher Kelly written in 1817. Google has it online. There are several mentions of this throughout the text.

http://books.google.com/books?id=9T...a=X&oi=book_result&resnum=6&ct=result#PPA1,M1

The relevant sections are in the “Interesting Anecdotes” section and are:

“Singular Encounter”

“French Cuirassiers”

These two small sections combined to give three different instances of French being spared by British, the second two specifically being cuirassiers.

It is actually a relatively strange occurrence to have spared the life of the cuirassiers in these instances because the cuirassiers were typically sobering wounded british outside of the squares and thus weren’t exactly looked on with a lot of pity when the situations were reversed.

Anyway, take a look through this work. It has some really interesting little anecdotes in it.

 

[VanguardFC007]

Very interesting stuff Octavian, Ill have to spend some time reading it in the morning.

 

[Spitfrnd]

I will have to take a look also. Just a perhaps obvious observation would be that officers of all sides were generally accorded special treatment as gentlemen (presumptively anyway), if for no other reason than to provide for exchanges for one's own captured officers. That would explain the events you noted.

 

[VanguardFC007]

I didnt find the story in there but maybe I didnt look hard enough or somebody can enlighten me. I recall a story of a French Cuirassier being shot off his horse during the charge. After all the other cavalry had rode off he stood up, removed his saddle and was cheered back to French lines by British soldiers. Is this story recognized by anyone?

 

[FirstLegion]

I didnt find the story in there but maybe I didnt look hard enough or somebody can enlighten me. I recall a story of a French Cuirassier being shot off his horse during the charge. After all the other cavalry had rode off he stood up, removed his saddle and was cheered back to French lines by British soldiers. Is this story recognized by anyone?

Look on page 95 (heading singular encounter) and page 97 (heading French Cuirassiers).