The AK- 47 of the Napoleonic Wars
MODEL 1810 INDIA
PATTERN MUSKET TYPE II
Nicknamed “Brown Bess,” the standard-issue musket of the British military had a nominal caliber
of .75 inches, but the size of the ball was .693. The Model 1810 was a redesign of the 1793 model.
Nearly 3 million of these two designs were produced between 1795 and 1815. After the Battle of
Waterloo restored peace to Europe, Britain sold off more than 700,000 of the muskets, mostly to
South American nations that were fi ghting to throw off Spanish rule.time to make a difference. He’s aware
that the only other hope for survival
lies in retreat. Now he has little time
to weigh all the options because the
French are attacking again in force.
Baring makes one last futile request
for ammunition and prepares to face
the a r my of at tacke r s. O nce again the
French set fi re to the barn, but the
Legionnaires manage to put it out.
Since their ammunition is now all but
exhausted, they are easy prey for the
French, who climb onto the roof of
the house and stables to fi re on the
defenders below. Soon the attackers
are surging into the compound, where
many of them are bayoneted, slowing
down their assault. Baring knows that
the situation has become hopeless,
and retreat is no longer a disgrace.
So he leaves a small detachment to
defend the farmhouse, among them
Lieutenant Graeme, who later noted
that the French “all looked frightened
and as pale as ashes.” Initially only
a few dozen of Baring’s troops rally
on the main position. There they are
charged by French cavalrymen, but
supplied with fresh ammunition from
comrades of the 1st Light Battalion,
they drive them off.
The importance of the farmhouse
becomes clear as the French fi nally
do break through. “It was instantly
fi lled with enemy infantry,” recalls the
British Army Captain Jonathan Leach.“They kept up a dreadful fi re from the
loopholes and windows.” In an effort
to exploit his breakthrough, Marshal
Ney requests fresh troops. Napoleon
is said to have replied: “Where does
he expect me to fi nd troops? Does
he expe c t me to make the m?” Private
Lindau and a number of his comrades
have fallen into the hands of French
soldiers, who force them out from the
barn, through the gate, and down the
road toward enemy lines. Napoleon’s
luck is fading, though. Large numbers
of Prussians are now approaching
from his right, and his only remaining
chance appears to lie in confronting
Wellington’s forces head on.
The French Imperial Guard passes
the farmhouse and turns left to attack
the allied lines. The whole area is now
covered with wounded men; chaos
reigns, and the noise is deafening.
Baring is on horseback once again,
only to lose yet another horse, which
falls and pins him to the ground. He
begs his men to get him another, but
his command is crumbling, and they
refuse. Getting up to his feet, Baring
limps to a house behind the lines
where he is able to fi nd and mount a
riderless horse. Back in the saddle,
he tries to motivate the allied soldiers
he sees fl eeing in a panic, but they
ignore him. Then suddenly he hears
a shout of “Victory, victory!” Baring’s
defense of the farmhouse delayedNapoleon long enough for Prussia’s
Field Marshal Blücher to arrive. The
allied troops retake the farmhouse,
and Ensign Frank, one of Baring’s
men who has been hiding the entire
time under a bed, can fi nally emerge.
Baring has no other men under his
command, but he calls the roll one
la st time and discove r s that 42 of the
original 400 men are still with him.
The battle is over, and the allies are
victorious. While the French captured
the farmhouse of La Haye Sainte for
a time, the resistance of Baring and
his brave men ultimately secures the
allied victory at the Battle of Waterloo.EPILOGUE
When Napoleon suffered a defeat at
Waterloo on the night of June 18, 1815,
his fate was sealed. After the Battle
of Leipzig (October 16 – 19, 1813), he
had been forced to abdicate and go
into exile. But that was a lesser defeat.
The Treaty of Fontainebleau granted
him the island of Elba as well as a
large annual income, and he retained
the title of emperor. Four days after
his defeat at Waterloo, however, he
was forced to abdicate again, but this
time the British government sent him
to the island of Saint Helena in the
South Atlantic. While the climate was
pleasant and Napoleon’s food good
and plentiful, his health deteriorated
over the next two years, possibly due
to inactivity. It declined rapidly in early
1821, and by May of that year he was
dead. Modern research suggests that
he likely die d of an advance d ca se of
gastric cancer, which had started out
as a bacterial infection that produced
ulcers in his stomach.May 2020 80 ideasanddiscoveries.com