The next stage of my Waterloo project will focus on the French cavalry charges and to that end I've been working on three double battalion squares from Chasse's Division. This has been a huge amount of work, and in all amounts to some 3,000 figures.

Chasse's Division had been deployed to the West of Wellington's line at Braine L'Alleud but were brought in to the rear of the centre to form six double battalion squares. The units were a mix of Dutch Line, Belgian Line, Militia and Chasseurs. I'm hugely indebted to my team of painters who have helped with these figures.

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Since it was sunny, I decided to get out all my completed squares and do a quick stocktake as follows:

2nd Dutch/35th Chasseurs Complete
4th/6th Dutch Militia Complete
12th/13th Dutch Line Complete
3rd/10th Dutch Militia Not done
3rd Belgian/36th Chasseurs Under way
17th/19th Militia Not done
1st KGL Complete
2nd KGL Complete
3rd KGL Complete
4th KGL Ready
71st HLI Complete
2nd 95th Complete
3rd/95th Ready
Half 52nd Complete
Half 52nd Complete
2nd/1st Foot Guards Complete
3rd/1st Foot Guards Complete
Saltzgitter Complete
Bremevorde Complete
Osnabruck Complete
Quackenbruck Complete
1st/51st Complete
1st/23rd RWF Complete
3rd/14th Buff Ready
2nd 69th/1st 33rd Complete
2nd 30th/2nd 73rd Complete
Bremen/Verden Complete
York/Grubenhagen Complete
5th KGL Under way
8th KGL Complete
1st KGL Light Not done
2nd KGL Light Complete
Nassau 1st/1st Complete
2nd/1st Complete
3rd/1st Complete
Brunswick 1st Line red Complete
2nd Line green nearly complete
3rd Line white under way
1st Brunswick Light yellow Complete
2nd Light buff Not complete
3rd Light orange Not complete
79th Camerons Complete
1st 95th Complete
1st 28th Glosters Complete
1st/32nd Cornwalls white Complete
1st/4th King’s Own blue Not done
1st/27th Inniskilling Complete
2nd/40th South Somersets buff Not done







Add these to the four battalions at Hougoumont, the 2nd Light KGL at la Haye Sainte and the battalion of Nassauers at Papelotte, 46 Allied battalions are complete. There are also 14 Prussian battalions complete, making 60 battalions, roughly 30,000 men. This figures does not include artillery, cavalry, staff, or of course, the French. Phew, this has taken some time!

As always outstanding, curious I have only known the 40th as the Somersets , they later became the 13th prince Alberts light infantry , but never previously seen them referred to as "south" Somersets, where have you got that from ?

There you go Alan:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/40th_(the_2nd_Somersetshire)_Regiment_of_Foot

Thank you, I may have missed it, but still can find no reference to "south" Somersets, it was the 1st Battalion that served at waterloo , the Somersets are the family regiment , my Dad`s Dad being the last to serve during WW1 but he had the good fortune to sent to India to serve with the battalion there and through no fault of his dodged the trenches. The Wiki post seems to be missing lots and may in fact have inaccuracies , but I am not inclined to pick it to bits. My Dad (92 and counting) has copies of the regimental history I bought his as a birthday present many years ago, and if we can find them easily I may do some fact checking on that Wiki post.

what a splendid sight, take my hat off to you and your helpers, this project just gets better with every post, really looking forward to seeing the completed work

Many thanks all! Alan, I think you may be getting confused between regiments. The 40th were amalgamated under the Childers Reforms to become the South Lancashire Regiment. Was your family connected to the Somerset Light Infantry?

Yes, the Somerset light infantry, now my understanding was/is the 40th were the Somersets, and at a review, whilst Wellington was prime minister they became the 13th foot, moving up in seniority no doubt in some part because they were with Wellington in every battle he fought against the French. After the first Afghan war that became Prince Alberts 13th Somerset light infantry (being the only unit to distinguish itself in that war) , those connected to the 13th were very proud of that fact too. Now I would never rule out being wrong, but the Regimental museum is here in Taunton, and I have been a regular visitor over the years. They have some truly impressive diorama`s of the regiments most famous actions , including Waterloo, Kabul and Kambula during the Zulu war, as well as some from both world wars. Everything I have read leads me to be quite confident, the Wiki article as I said earlier looks suspect .

As it happens, my very first job forty years ago was working for 6Bn The Light Infantry, (The Somerset LI) by then a TA unit based in Bath…. It was sister unit of the one in Taunton

I believe now even that has gone and all collapsed into ‘The Rifles’? I may be wrong.

Quite correct , there is still a Company sized unit, called the Somersets within the rifles.

Alan, You sound much more of an expert than me and it may be that the National Army Museum have this wrong, but they describe the 40th as being amalgamated with the 82nd to form the South Lancs. See their webpage on this here:https://www.nam.ac.uk/explore/40th-2nd-somersetshire-regiment-foot#:~:text=This%20infantry%20unit%20was%20formed,Volunteers%20(South%20Lancashire%20Regiment).

According to the National Army Museum, the 13th Foot was a different regiment (designated Light Infantry after the Napoleonic Wars and later titled the Somerset Light Infantry). The 13th wasn't at Waterloo (being in Canada). It wasn't amalgamated under Childers but was amalgamated with the Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry in 1959, later becoming part of the Light Infantry and then part of the Rifles. See here for the separate webpage:https://www.nam.ac.uk/explore/somerset-light-infantry-prince-alberts.

The twists and turns of individual regimental histories is terribly confusing so I could easily be wrong!

Another source is the Wiki page on the Childers reforms which shows that the 13th and 40th were different regiments and never amalgamated:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Childers_Reforms

Since reading your posts above I have speed read lots and must confess, my memory/recall has been at least in part at fault, but it is interesting that different source material seem to have some information at least confusing erring to incorrect eg Mark Adkin and others refer to 1/40 in the Waterloo companion, you refer to them as 2/40 , other sources ,Somersets 1/13 and second battalion of Somerset's as 2/40. I will when time allows to re read my learning because there is information I have read in the distant past I cannot lay my hands on/remember the source.

I don't blame you Alan and I'm sure I can think of one mistake by me, namely to call them 'South' Somersets - not sure where I got that from!

The main point is that there were two Somerset regiments - the 13th and 40th, one of which had the subsidiary name '1st Somersets' and the other '2nd Somersets'; this could easily confuse the reader into believing that this was a battalion rather than regimental number.

The two regiments has thrown me, because there is a third, not linked to Waterloo or the Napoleonic to my knowledge , my other granddad served in WW1 with...the Somerset yeomanry a territorial cavalry unit. Back to the subject Ian Fletcher in Wellingtons Regiments refers to them as 2/40 ,so we have two respected authors on the subject not agreeing. It is a long time ago I read all I could lay my hands on regarding Waterloo , Wellington ,Napoleon etc, but for my own clarity I am planning another trip to the museum and to ask some questions, assuming they have someone there not using the same source material as us ;-) .

The 40th (2nd Somersets) had a second battalion for a while but it was disbanded. It was the 1st Battalion at Waterloo. You might therefore say they were the 1st/2nd/40th!

sommilmuseum.org.uk/somerset-lightinfantry/ a bit more clarity.