Daniel Mackinnon Colonel Daniel Mackinnon ( 1791 – 22 June 1836 ) was a Scottish Colonel of the Coldstream Guards who played an important part at the Battle of Waterloo . Family . Daniel was the younger son of William Mackinnon , eldest son of the Clan MacKinnon Chief in the western Highlands , and the nephew of General Mackinnon who was killed at the storming of Ciudad Rodrigo . Enters army . At the age of fourteen he entered the army as an Ensign in the Coldstream Guards , and shortly after accompanied the regiment to Bremen . In 1807 the battalion to which he belonged sailed for Copenhagen , and after the capture of that city it returned to England . Peninsula . In 1809 the Coldstream Guards embarked for the Iberian Peninsula , and was present in all the great battles there against the Napoleon ic forces , beginning with Talavera and ending with Toulouse . Having attained the rank firstly of lieutenant , then Captain , Mackinnon was appointed aide - de - camp to General Stopford , and distinguished himself throughout the campaign by his cool daring . On one occasion , when the army was passing a defile where British troops were debouching from it under destructive fire , the troops found Captain Mackinnon coolly shaving himself in a spot where the danger was greatest . Encouraged by this , the soldiers rushed forward and drove the French before them . Waterloo . In 1814 Mackinnon was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel . Early in June 1815 , he embarked with another officer at Ramsgate in an open boat , in order to join his regiment who were quartered near Brussels , and arrived the next morning at Ostend . He was present at the engagements of the 16th and 17th , and at the Battle of Waterloo on the 18th where he had three horses shot from under him . In advancing to charge the French , leading a portion of his regiment , he received a shot in his knee which killed his horse and in falling he lost his sword . He fell close beside a French officer who was even more severely wounded , and in taking the latter ' s sword gently told him he hoped they might sup together that night . On recovering his legs he again mounted , urging on his men , advancing at their head . In the latter part of the day Colonel Mackinnon was ordered to occupy the farm of Hougoumont , where he was placed with about 250 of the Coldstream Guards and the first regiment of the Grenadier Guards . Aware of the great importance of this position , flanking the British Army , the Duke of Wellington sent orders that it be defended to the last . On this point Napoleon directed his efforts , ordering battalion after battalion to the assault , with terrific carnage . Notwithstanding the pain of his wound , and his leg being almost disabled , Colonel Mackinnon continued to defend that perilous post until the advance of the whole British line , and the subsequent route of the French Army put an end to the struggle of the day . When the action was over Mackinnon collapsed from loss of blood and fatigue and was sent on a litter to Brussels to recover . In 1826 he purchased the majority in the Coldstream Guards which gave him the rank of full colonel in the British Army , and the command of the regiment to which he had been attached all his military life . Military author . King William IV had expressed a desire that every officer in command of a regiment should furnish the Horse Guards with some account of it , and Colonel Mackinnon wrote a work that was to become well - known : " The Origin and Services of the Coldstream Guards " , which was published in 1833 . Marriage . After the peace , Daniel Mackinnon married the eldest daughter of the Member of Parliament for Poole , John Dent .