Ruins Chateau Hougoumont Napoleon Nivelles Battle Waterloo Belgium building
Château d'Hougoumont is a large farmhouse situated at the bottom of an escarpment near the Nivelles road in Braine-l'Alleud, near Waterloo, Belgium. The escarpment is where British and other allied forces faced Napoleon's Army at the Battle of Waterloo on June 18, 1815. The name "Hougoumont" is derived from "Gomme Mont" which means "Gum hill". It was built on a little hill with pine trees around it, from which pine gum was collected to make turpentine. Before the battle started, Hougoumont and its gardens, located on the allies' right flank, were hastily garrisoned and fortified by the light company of the 2nd Battalion, Coldstream Guards under the command of Lt-Colonel Henry Wyndham, in the farm and chateaux, and the light company of the 2nd Battalion, Third Guards, under Lt-Colonel Charles Dashwood, in the garden and grounds. (Both part of General John Byng's 2nd Brigade of Guards.) The two light companies of the 2nd and 3rd Battalions, First Guards were initially positioned in the orchard, under the command of Lt-Colonel Lord Saltoun. Lieutenant-Colonel James Macdonnell, Coldstream Guards, had overall command of Hougoumont. Napoleon planned to draw Wellington's reserve to Wellington's right flank in defence of Hougoumont and then attack through the centre left of the British and allies' front near La Haye Sainte. Wellington recorded in his despatches "at about ten o'clock [Napoleon] commenced a furious attack upon our post at Hougoumont" Other sources state that this attack was at about 11:30. The historian Andrew Roberts notes that, "It is a curious fact about the battle of Waterloo that no one is absolutely certain when it actually began." (Although this may be put down to the fact that the time pieces of the French and British present were set to their 'local' times and would have had a 1 hour difference). The house and its immediate environs were defended by four light companies of Guards and the wood and park by Hanoverian Jäger and the 1/
Size: 4973px × 3632px
Photo credit: © 19th era / Alamy / Afripics
License: Royalty Free
Model Released: No
Keywords: -fashioned, 18, 1800, 1815., 19th, 2d, academic, age, allied, ancient, antique, antiquity, army, battle, belgium., black, book, bottom, braine-alleud, british, bw, bygone, century, chateau, château, classical, copy, cut, cutout, de, drawing, duplicate, embossed, empire, engrave, engraved, engraver, engraving, escarpment, etching, expression, faced, farmhouse, figure, forces, formal, front, frontispiece, graphic, hand, heritage, historic, history, hougoumont, illustration, image, imperial, june, large, late, lifelike, majesty, margin, master, monotone, napoleon, national, nineteenth, nivelles, notable, obscure, obsolete, olden, original, paper, period, pictorial, picture, portrait, pre, press, print, printed, printing, prior, proof, publication, publicity, queen, rare, real, realism, realistic, reference, relief, replica, represent, representation, repro, reproduce, reproduction, retro, review, road, romantic, ruins, situated, social, standard, steel, studio, style, subject, teach, time, title, tool, topic, topical, tract, true, unusual, victoria, victorian, visual, waterloo, white.
