CAMPAIGN GROUPS AND PAIRS 802
The Peninsula and Waterloo pair awarded to Lieutenant Lewes Geismann, 5th Line Battalion, King’s German Legion
MILITARYGENERAL SERVICE 1793-1814, 3 clasps, Fuentes D’Onor, Salamanca, Vittoria (Louis de Giesmann, Lt. 5th Line B. K. G.L.); WATERLOO 1815 (Lieut. Lewes Geismann, 5th Line Batt. K.G.L.) fitted with original steel clip and later ring suspension, edge bruising and contact marks, otherwise good very fine and better (2)
£4000-5000
From the Collection of Napoleonic War Medals formed by the late R. W. Gould, M.B.E Previously sold at auction in 1921, by Baldwin in 1935 and by D.N.W. in April 2003.
.
Lewes Geismann joined the King’s German Legion in August 1812 and served in the Peninsula in 1812-13; in Southern France 1813 -14; in the Netherlands 1814; the campaign of 1815 and the battle of Waterloo where the 5th Line Battalion suffered 162 officers and men killed wounded or missing out of a strength of 379.
The Wheatley Diary – A Journal and Sketchbook kept during The Peninsular War and the Waterloo Campaign, written by Lieutenant Edmund Wheatley, gives an excellent account of the exploits of the 5th Line Battalion in Southern France in 1813 and 1814, as well as at Waterloo. An anecdote in Wheatley’s diary for the campaigning near Bayonne in 1814 briefly mentions Ensign Geismann:
‘On getting into the heat of the fight I found the warfare an unpleasant one, as not a soul could be seen. Now and then a voice in the hedge would say ‘Français ou Anglais?’ and a thrust through the bush was an answer. Our Brigade Major, Dreschel, lost his life that way. The same question was put to him and instead of jumping into it, he proudly answered, ‘A German,’ when a ball in his groin convinced him how much the snake in the bush respected his nativity. Giesmann and Buhse seized the Frenchman and sent him in the rere, an honorable prisoner. Lord Ellenborough would have acted otherwise. What incongruity!’
At Waterloo, the 5th Line Battalion suffered most of their casualties defending the rear of La Haye Sainte. At first the 1st Light, 5th Line and 8th Line Battalions were attacked by a body of cuirassiers. The 1st Light and 5th Line, protected by British cavalry, were enabled to form square but the cuirassiers made repeated attacks on the square of the 5th Line Battalion, retiring after each unsuccessful charge into a hollow where they were protected from the fire of the square.
A little later, as the 5th Line Battalion stood in square behind the hollow road, a column of French infantry having debouched from La Haye Sainte, Sir Charles Alten sent Colonel Ompteda directions to deploy the 5th Line Battalion and attack the column. Ompteda represented that such a movement could not be made without a useless sacrifice of men, more particularly as a body of the enemy’s cavalry lay in wait on the other side of the ravine. At this moment the Prince of Orange rode up and ordered Ompteda to deploy; on the same reparations being made to his royal highness, he impatiently repeated the order, upon which Ompteda instantly mounted his horse, gave the fatal word of command, and led forward the battalion. His gallant men jumped cheerfully over the ravine in their front, and fell upon the French column with a loud hurrah! The column gave way and fled but, just at the same moment, the enemy’s horsemen rushing from their ambuscade, came thundering down upon the flank and rear of the German battalion. The consequence may be imagined; the battalion was literally ridden over, and the slaughter was tremendous. Lieutenant Wheatley later wrote:
‘On recovering my senses, I looked up and found myself, bareheaded, in a clay ditch with a violent head-ache. Close by me lay Colonel Ompteda on his back, his head stretched back with his mouth open, and a hole in his throat.’
The brave Colonel Ompteda was dead along with his adjutant, with eight other officers wounded and about 130 men struck down. Lieutenant Colonel von Linsingen and about eighteen men (including Geismann) were all of the battalion that remained together after this fatal charge.
Lieutenant Geismann, along with other officers of the King’s German Legion, was placed on Half Pay in February 1816.
www.dnw.co.uk
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104 |
Page 105 |
Page 106 |
Page 107 |
Page 108 |
Page 109 |
Page 110 |
Page 111 |
Page 112 |
Page 113 |
Page 114 |
Page 115 |
Page 116 |
Page 117 |
Page 118 |
Page 119 |
Page 120 |
Page 121 |
Page 122 |
Page 123 |
Page 124 |
Page 125 |
Page 126 |
Page 127 |
Page 128 |
Page 129 |
Page 130 |
Page 131 |
Page 132 |
Page 133 |
Page 134 |
Page 135 |
Page 136 |
Page 137 |
Page 138 |
Page 139 |
Page 140 |
Page 141 |
Page 142 |
Page 143 |
Page 144 |
Page 145 |
Page 146 |
Page 147 |
Page 148 |
Page 149 |
Page 150 |
Page 151 |
Page 152 |
Page 153 |
Page 154 |
Page 155 |
Page 156 |
Page 157 |
Page 158 |
Page 159 |
Page 160 |
Page 161 |
Page 162 |
Page 163 |
Page 164 |
Page 165 |
Page 166 |
Page 167 |
Page 168 |
Page 169 |
Page 170 |
Page 171 |
Page 172 |
Page 173 |
Page 174 |
Page 175 |
Page 176 |
Page 177 |
Page 178 |
Page 179 |
Page 180 |
Page 181 |
Page 182 |
Page 183 |
Page 184 |
Page 185 |
Page 186 |
Page 187 |
Page 188 |
Page 189 |
Page 190 |
Page 191 |
Page 192 |
Page 193 |
Page 194 |
Page 195 |
Page 196 |
Page 197 |
Page 198 |
Page 199 |
Page 200 |
Page 201 |
Page 202 |
Page 203 |
Page 204 |
Page 205 |
Page 206 |
Page 207 |
Page 208 |
Page 209 |
Page 210 |
Page 211 |
Page 212 |
Page 213 |
Page 214 |
Page 215 |
Page 216 |
Page 217 |
Page 218 |
Page 219 |
Page 220 |
Page 221 |
Page 222 |
Page 223 |
Page 224 |
Page 225 |
Page 226 |
Page 227 |
Page 228 |
Page 229 |
Page 230 |
Page 231 |
Page 232 |
Page 233 |
Page 234 |
Page 235 |
Page 236 |
Page 237 |
Page 238 |
Page 239 |
Page 240 |
Page 241 |
Page 242 |
Page 243 |
Page 244 |
Page 245 |
Page 246 |
Page 247 |
Page 248 |
Page 249 |
Page 250 |
Page 251 |
Page 252 |
Page 253 |
Page 254 |
Page 255 |
Page 256 |
Page 257 |
Page 258 |
Page 259 |
Page 260 |
Page 261