page_title: Cavalié Mercer
section_title: Waterloo Campaign
hierarchical_section_title: Cavalié Mercer / Waterloo Campaign
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: Mercer's Troop embarked for Belgium on 11 April 1815, a few days after hearing of Napoleon's escape from Elba. From 1 May until the French invasion on 15 June it led a quiet life in the small village of Strijtem, west of Brussels. G Troop rode all day on 16 June, but arrived too late to participate in the Battle of Quatre Bras. It covered the retreat from Quatre Bras on 17 June, narrowly escaping capture by French cavalry. It was in the action at Genappe later the same day with the cavalry rearguard.
  Arriving on the field of Waterloo, Mercer's Troop briefly took up a firing position on the famous knoll behind the sandpit, which would feature in the fighting the following day. Mercer was still acting as rearguard for Wellington's army, not realising that the entire army had halted on the ridge immediately behind him. His troop exchanged fire with arriving French batteries before retiring.
  After a miserable, hungry night in the mud and rain in the orchard of Mont St Jean farm, where Mercer is fabled to have drunk port from a chicken shaped goblet, Mercer found himself without orders in the opening phase of the battle, as d'Erlon's infantry attacked Wellington's left. He was about to lead his troop into action on his own initiative when he was ordered to the extreme right of the line. That was a quiet sector, but in common with much of Wellington's artillery, Mercer disobeyed orders to refrain from counter-battery fire. He engaged enemy guns, attracting heavy fire from superior enemy artillery in return.
  In mid-afternoon Mercer's Troop was suddenly ordered into the hottest part of Wellingtons' line, between the crossroads and Hougoumont, where its position is now marked by a memorial. It deployed immediately behind the ridge road, which was on a low embankment. The bank provided excellent cover from enemy artillery and increased the effectiveness of Mercer's case-shot. The troop was between two squares of Brunswick infantry, whom Mercer regarded as unsteady. He was ordered to lead his men into the squares as cavalry closed, but decided they would be safer at their guns. Unlike all the other batteries in the sector, the troop's gunners never abandoned their guns to take refuge in the infantry squares.
  Massed French heavy cavalry attacked repeatedly from about 3.15 pm. The Grenadiers à Cheval of the Imperial Guard were already emerging through the smoke at the trot as Mercer's guns deployed, so the troop opened fire with case-shot at close range, causing terrible casualties. The French hesitated, then the front ranks attempted to retreat as the rear ranks pushed forward, causing them to mill about under the execution of Mercer's guns before they eventually withdrew.
  Before the second charge of the heavy cavalry, Mercer's Troop was harassed by close-range carbine fire from mounted French skirmishers, while Mercer held fire to conserve ammunition. To steady his men, Mercer promenaded across his troop's front on horseback, goading the enemy in French and attracting aimed but inaccurate carbine-fire in return.
  The second main attack came on in columns, led by cuirassiers. Mercer's Troop waited for them, double-loaded with case-shot over ball, and fired at 50 or 60 yards. Mercer reported that the whole front rank of the enemy went down, with the round-shot tearing through the column behind. The ground became virtually impassable with dead and wounded horses and men, so the enemy could not close the gun-line. Under the rapid fire of Mercer's Troop and the Brunswick infantry, the enemy fell like "grass before the mower's scythe". The greatest danger to Mercer's men came between the charges, from French skirmishers and artillery.
  The third and final charge stood little chance of reaching the guns. On each occasion individual cavalrymen passed between the guns, but only so as to escape to the British rear. As the third attack withdrew, the troop had to cease firing to allow the Duke of Wellington to pass along the road. Shortly afterwards Wellington's infantry advanced, leaving the guns on the ridge to engage masses of French troops i
caption: Wellington at Waterloo painting by Robert Alexander Hillingford showing Royal Horse Artillery on the left.
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