Given the question: Facts: - death place: cowley , devon - battles: buenos aroostook war aires expedition of 1807 waterloo campaign and waterloo - death date: 1868 - allegiance: united of great britain and ireland kingdom kingdom of great britain , united kingdom - commands: g , 1815 d troop royal horse artillery 6th company 5th troop battalion royal artillery royal artillery , nova scotia dover garrison royal horse artillery in the waterloo campaign - awards: waterloo medal - birth date: 1783 - serviceyears: 1798 to c. 1854 - name: alexander cavalie mercer - branch: british army - unit: royal horse artillery - image: captainmercer.gif - birth place: kingston upon hull , yorkshire - laterwork: author and artist - rank: general Based on these bullet points, write a short biography describing the life of cavalie mercer .
The answer is:
alexander cavalie mercer -lrb- 28 march 1783 -- 9 november 1868 -rrb- 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 .it is one of the few accounts of the period written by an artillery officer .mercer remained in the peacetime army , twice serving in canada .he was a painter of some merit , and a number of his watercolours of canadian landscapes were purchased by the national gallery of canada in the 1980s .