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wellington at waterloo

Discussion in '"Today in History", Literature & Media Review' started by kevin, Feb 16, 2006.

  1. kevin Active Member

    Country:
    England
    I starting a new project of wellington at waterloo. The figure will be a basic historex figure with bits added. After looking looking thought various books i have his uniform sorted but have a few problems with his horse. they are as follows:-

    1) what type of saddlecloth was it wearing and colour?

    2) what type of harness and colour?

    3) What there a saddlebag of any sort ?


    Thanks

    kevin
  2. Blind Pew A Fixture

    Country:
    United-Kingdom
    Dear Kevin, good question indeed!
    I could only find one picture, and as luck would have it, the bit you're after was obscured. Typical. I couldn't see any saddlebags on it. Harness appears to be nothing out of the ordinary and looks to me to be in a dark leather. Saddlecloth? Well this appears to be a navy/dark blue and it if helps, appears to be very similar in overall shape to the standard Historex 'saddle with cloth British style' part number 477. Wellington himself is depicted wearing a long cloak-type coat, due to the day's poor weather I presume, so some of the saddlery is, as I say obscured. Hope this helps mate.........
  3. herbwf Member

    Country:
    United-States
    Keven,
    There is a painting by Aylard entitiled "The Morning of Waterloo". It shows Wellington getting a cup of tea from the men of the 95th Rifles. The orriginal is at the Royal Green Jackets Museum I think.

    The photo, in one of my books, of the painting shows the horse to be chestnut(?) with small diamond shaped blaze and white stockings. Tack appears to be brown.
    There appear to be no saddlebags and the saddleblanket is hard to make out but seems rather plain.

    Wellington's coat is plain as well, with no braid evident. It looks to be the cutaway type with a high collar. In this picture his sash is very evident.

    The book is Military Illistrated's Rifleman, Elite Soldiers of the Wars Against Napoleon by Philipp Elliot Wright.

    This sounds like it would be a great excuse to take a trip to Winchester and see the orriginal if it is there:). You might also check with royalgreenjackets.co.uk

    Good luck,
    Herb Forgey
  4. renarts Active Member

    Country:
    United-States
    Sounds like a very cool project. Only found a little from what I had book marked from a different research project I was working on. Don't know if it will help but certainly gives some more charachter to his horse.

    [IMG]
    The Duke of Wellington's famous horse was Copenhagen. Born in 1808, he was a chestnut stallion of 15 hands. Sired by Meteor, who was second in the Derby of 1786, Copenhagen was a failed race horse. He won only one minor race at Newmarket in 13 outings. He was then shipped off to Spain during the Peninsular War and it was here that he was purchased by Wellington in 1813.

    Copenhagen carried the Duke throughout the day at Waterloo and, to illustrate that he was a horse of some spirit, he tried to kick him when he dismounted at the end of the battle. After Waterloo, he was retired to the Duke's country estate at Stratfield Saye where he lived out his life. He died in 1836 at the age of 28. He was given a funeral with full military honours on the estate. His grave, which can be seen today, is marked by a magnificent turkey oak tree planted in 1843 by Mrs. Apostles, the Duke's housekeeper.

    [IMG]
  5. Johan Well-Known Member

    Country:
    Belgium
    ... Still, Copenhagen was fast enough to outrace the French mounts, and saved the Duke from getting captured or worse on at least one occasion; I seem to recall one such occasion when they narrowly escaped French cavalry by jumping into a square of Highlanders.

    ... Well, seems that 1 horse may have changed history that day, eh ? ;)

    You're right about the horse kicking at the Duke at the end of the day; but during the battle it served Wellington very well, and I believe he made some mention of that in one of his letters ... must look that up in one of my books; oh yes, there's pictures of drawings of Copenhagen and of his last resting place in "Waterloo Men" by Philip Haythorntwaite.

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