THE DUKE OF WELLINGTONNAPOLEONTHE FRENCHBARRIERCENTERWELLINGTON’SPIGSTY
For almost the entire
day, this building of
rough stone served
Lieutenant Graeme as
a raised sniper position.
From that time on, his
comrades called him
“lord of the pigsty.”BARN
Baring’s men had
used the barn door
for fi rewood the
night before, so
the French troops
tried repeatedly
to storm the barn.
After the battle
their bodies were
piled up outside.ORCHARD
The sharpshooters
of the German unit
hid in the tall grass
of the orchard until
they were forced to
retreat back to the
farmhouse.know it takes precise coordination
to advance a large number of troops
across a battlefi eld, and a lack of
leadership can throw the operation
into disarray. During the Peninsular
Wa r, Lindau watche d e ntire confuse d
and disoriented regiments come to
a standstill after losing their offi cers,
which had made them easy prey. The
same thing is happening outside of
the farmhouse, where the advancing
French troops are halted by a hail of
extremely accurate gunfi re from the
400 German defenders. The problem:
Now the French are trying desperately
to breach the outer wall that provides
Lindau’s cover. By fi ring through the
loopholes in the wall, he fells several
French soldiers at a time. “They stood
so closely packed that several times
I saw three or four fall by one bullet,”
he’d later recall. The battle is brutal.
The fi elds are soaked with blood, and
the bodies are stacked several deep.
The cries of the wounded are drowned
out by the thunder of the artillery. The
losses on the Legionnaires’ side are
relatively modest. And Major Baring?Lindau sees his commander riding a
fresh horse after having lost his fi rst.
It will not be his last horse of the day.GEORG BARING (2 PM)
Back in action, despite being
wounded...
Baring’s men had begun the fi ght with
the standard issue of 60 rounds each,
but that provision is now running out.
He has repeatedly requested more
ammunition, but none can be sent,
and confronted with 20,000 French
soldiers, his men cannot retreat now.
A Lüneburg Light Infantry Battalion
tries to join the farmhouse defenders
but is cut down by the French cavalry.
With ammunition running ever lower,
Baring looks around and counts some
300 of his men still standing. From the
roof of the pigsty, Lieutenant Graeme
and a sharpshooter are sniping at the
advancing French soldiers. Private
Lindau, losing blood after being shot
in the head, stays at his post at the
barn’s entrance. He now shoots the
horse out from under a French offi cer
and then uses his rifl e butt to fi nish
off the wounded man. The situation
changes dramatically around 3 PM,
when Napoleon orders Marshal Ney
to capture the farmhouse of La Haye
Sainte. Baring watches as the French
turn their artillery to fi re directly on
the farmhouse and prepare to assault
it. This time the infantrymen are being
preceded by companies of sappers
who are equipped with axes to knock
down the barriers and doors. Baring
realizes he is on the receiving end of
Napoleon’s undivided attention now.
The emperor of France is apparently
determined to turn the farmhouse into
a mass grave...