Waterloo_ June 18, 1815_ The Battle for Modern Europe - Andrew Roberts [21]
Sergeant Ewart later recalled how he captured the coveted French standard:
I took the Eagle from the enemy: he and I had a hard contest for it; he thrust for my groin — I parried it off, and I cut him through the head: after which I was attacked by one of their Lancers, who threw his lance at me, but missed the mark by throwing it off with my sword by my right side; then I cut him from the chin upwards, which cut went through his teeth. Next I was attacked by a foot soldier, who, after firing at me, charged me with his bayonet; but he very soon lost the combat, for I parried it, and cut him down through the head; so that finished the combat for the Eagle.6
This was the point at which the British cavalry ought to have stopped, regrouped and returned to their posts. For many, however, this was their first battle experience, and instead, exhilarated by their success over d’Erlon’s corps, they disastrously charged onwards. In a sense, therefore, Uxbridge did indeed ‘run away’ with Wellington, or at least with a good proportion of his cavalry arm. Although they had some success in cutting down some gunners of the Grand Battery, Ponsonby’s Union Brigade went far beyond the point that the rest of the Anglo-Allied army was able to protect them. Despite Ponsonby and his staff’s efforts they could not halt their troops. It was said that one officer was heard to cry out ‘To Paris!’as he charged by.
French retribution was swift and merciless; spotting their opportunity, Jacquinot’s lancers and Farine’s cuirassiers attacked from both right and left and exacted a terrible toll on the British cavalry, killing or wounding one-third of their number. Ponsonby himself paid for his inability to rein back his over-enthusiastic troopers with his life, killed by a French lancer after he had surrendered.
Although Somerset’s Household Brigade also went on too far after dispersing d’Erlon’s corps, it reined in long before Ponsonby had done. The cavalry retreat was covered by Major-General Sir John Vandeleur’s 4th Cavalry Brigade and Ghigny’s Belgian and Dutch Light Dragoons, who managed to repulse bodies of French lancers that were chasing troopers of the Scots Greys back to the British lines. Of the 2,500 cavalry who had charged, over a thousand did not return.
Captain Tomkinson of the 16th Light Dragoons recorded the destruction in his Diary of a Cavalry Officer·.
Towards the close of the evening the whole brigade did not form above one squadron … There was one squadron of the 1st Dragoon Guards in which not above one or two returned. They rode completely into the enemy’s reserve, and were killed. The enemy, I suspect, did not spare a single prisoner who fell into their hands. It is impossible to suppose a whole squadron killed without one man surrendering.7
Although the aftermath had been disastrous — the Union Brigade’s remaining strength meant that it could not contribute further as a functioning unit — nonetheless d’Erlon had been completely and demoralisingly repulsed, and had lost a quarter of his men, with around 2,000 captured. Napoleon’s original plan of how to achieve victory had been foiled. With the struggle continuing over Hougoumont, and La Haye Sainte still in Major Baring’s hands, if only just, Napoleon had not so far managed to impose his will upon any section of the battlefield. Meanwhile the Prussians were arriving in ever-increasing numbers from the east, directed to the vital points by Wellington’s Prussian liaison officer, the redoubtable