| La Haye Sainte |
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During the night from the 17th to the 18th, the main door to the courtyard of the farm was used as fire wood and burned by the occupying troops. Therefore, when the KGL was stationed in the farm at the morning of the battle, the company had to hastily fortify La Haye Sainte. The troops were the 2nd Light Battalion King's German Legion commanded by Major Baring, (part)of the 1st Light Battalion KGL and the light company of the 5th Line Battalion KGL. Later in the day they were supported by 1/2 Nassau Regt. The majority of these troops were armed with the Baker rifle as opposed to the normal Brown Bess musket of the British Army. Both Napoleon and Wellington realized its strategic position and it was fought over and around during most of the day. At 13:00 - The Grand Battery of heavy artillery opened fire before D'Erlon 's Corps marched forward in columns (54th & 55th Ligne), they managed to surround La Haye Sainte and despite taking heavy casualties from the garrison they attacked the centre left of Wellington's line. As the centre began to give way and La Haye Sainte became vulnerable, Picton 's division was sent to plug the gap. As the French were beaten back from La Haye Sainte, the heavy cavalry brigades under Somerset and Ponsonby attacked. This action relieved the pressure on the fortress farm. At 15:00 - Napoleon ordered Marshal Ney to capture La Haye Sainte. While Ney was engaged in the glorious but futile 8,000 man cavalry attack, unsupported by infantry or cannon, on Allied squares on the Brussels side of the ridge, he failed to take La Haye Sainte. At 17:30 Napoleon re-issued orderes for Marshal Ney to take La Haye Sainte. The French had worked up close to the buildings by now. At 18:00 Marshal Ney, heavily supported by artillery and some cavalry, took personal command of an infantry regiment (13th Legere) and a company of engineers and captured La Haye Sainte with a furious assault. "The light battalion of the German Legion, which occupied it, had expended all its ammunition" and had to retreat. Allied forces were unable to counter-attack immediately as they were in squares over the ridge. The French brought up guns to fire from its cover, but Riflemen of the 1/95 in the "sand pit" to the East of the farm, picked off all the gunners, so the guns were ineffective. At 19:00 - thanks to the French garrison in La Haye Sainte the met Wellington at La Belle Alliance . Today La Haye Sainte is in private ownership and a family home. On the walls are memorials for the KGL and the French. Opposite the house is a monument for the officers and the soldiers of the KGL. EXTERNAL LINKS
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