page_title: Cavalié Mercer
section_title: G Troop
hierarchical_section_title: Cavalié Mercer / G Troop
caption_attribution_description: A British 9-pounder gun. The barrel was cast by K &amp; C King, Woolwich, England, in 1815. The barrel is just over 6 feet long, weighs 1350 pounds and can fire a 9-pound solid shell to 1400 yards. This gun is one of two such bronze pieces owned by the Royal Canadian Military Institute, in downtown Toronto, Canada. The other, also cast by K &amp; C King, is dated 1813. A plaque mounted beside the guns contains a typographical error, which incorrectly states that the pieces could fire 3-pound projectiles. In fact, as 9-pounders, they both were built to fire 9-pound projectiles. The guns are currently in secure storage while the RCMI building is rebuilt. Reopening is expected in late 2013. Both RCMI guns are mounted on cast aluminum American Civil War reproduction carriages. The original - and proper - British wooden carriage is substantially different in design from this cast aluminum carriage. Several years ago, RCMI knowingly opted to mount both guns on these incorrect carriages because upkeep of the original wooden carriages became prohibitively expensive, due to the ravages of weather. Both guns were a gift in 1900 from the Minister of Militia, the Right Honourable Frederick Borden. www.rcmi.org and http://www.rcmi.org/index.php?action=display&amp;cat=16
context_page_description: Alexander Cavalié Mercer was a British artillery officer. Although he rose to the rank of general, his fame is as commander of G Troop Royal Horse Artillery in the thick of the fighting at the Battle of Waterloo, and as author of Journal of the Waterloo Campaign.
  Mercer's six-gun horse artillery troop arrived too late for the Battle of Quatre Bras, but it fought with the cavalry rearguard covering the army's retreat to Waterloo. The troop fought on the extreme right wing of Wellington's army at Waterloo, before being moved into the thick of the fighting nearer the centre of the line. There it beat off repeated charges by French heavy cavalry, disobeying orders to abandon the guns and retire inside nearby infantry squares as the enemy closed. The location of this action is marked by a memorial on the Waterloo battlefield. After the battle, Mercer's troop marched on Paris with the Allied armies, and formed part of the army of occupation.
  Mercer's Journal is an important source for historians of the Waterloo campaign, as well as a detailed description of the landscape and people of Belgium and France in the early 19th century.
context_section_description: In 1815 Mercer was acting commander of what was officially G (Dickson's) Troop, Royal Horse Artillery, but is usually referred to as Mercer's Troop or Mercer's Battery. Its modern successor is G Parachute Battery (Mercer's Troop) Royal Horse Artillery, part of 7th Parachute Regiment Royal Horse Artillery, which currently serves in the field artillery role with 16 Air Assault Brigade, and is equipped with the L118 Light Gun.
  G Troop served on the 1807 Buenos Aires expedition, but the G Troop of Waterloo was formed from the amalgamation of two other RHA troops before leaving Colchester for Belgium. It had the pick of the horses from each, and was therefore regarded as an exceptionally fine unit. When reviewing the cavalry at Grammont on 29 May 1815, Blücher is supposed to have said "there is not one horse in this battery that is not fit for a field marshal". The troop had five 9-pounder guns (which had recently replaced some of the RHA's 6-pounders) and a 5½" howitzer, 80 gunners, 86 drivers and 226 horses.
caption: A 9-pounder gun of 1813–1815.
exif: {"Image Make": "Canon", "Image Model": "Canon PowerShot A620", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "180", "Image YResolution": "180", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image DateTime": "2006:09:03 18:21:02", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Centered", "Image ExifOffset": "196", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "180", "Thumbnail YResolution": "180", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "5108", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "6272", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/125", "EXIF FNumber": "4", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0220", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2006:09:03 18:21:02", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2006:09:03 18:21:02", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF CompressedBitsPerPixel": "3", "EXIF ShutterSpeedValue": "223/32", "EXIF ApertureValue": "4", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "95/32", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF Flash": "88", "EXIF FocalLength": "73/10", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "3072", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "2304", "Interoperability InteroperabilityIndex": "R98", "Interoperability InteroperabilityVersion": "[48, 49, 48, 48]", "Interoperability RelatedImageWidth": "3072", "Interoperability RelatedImageLength": "2304", "EXIF InteroperabilityOffset": "2206", "EXIF FocalPlaneXResolution": "768000/71", "EXIF FocalPlaneYResolution": "768000/71", "EXIF FocalPlaneResolutionUnit": "2", "EXIF SensingMethod": "One-chip color area", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF DigitalZoomRatio": "1", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard"}