Orders, Decorations and Medals

An original Waterloo Campaign letter from Surgeon Swinton Macleod, who was attached to 42nd Foot (Black Watch), ink, single folded sheet of paper, dated at ‘Antwerp July 1st 1815’, the reverse, with text to left and right, and addressed in the centre to his sister ‘Mifs Macleod, King’s College, Aberdeen’, and bearing four stamp marks. The content discussing the panic that ensued in Brussels after the action at Quatre Bras and the accelerate movement of wounded to Antwerp by canal:

‘All had been agitation and alarm on the preceding evening, but it being circulated that we had gained the advantage, all was quiet and the wounded received into the hospital and dressed as fast as they came in. I was engaged of course, along with the others in doing this, but on returning after an absence of one hour to dinner, I found the scene quite altered, all now hurry and confusion, every preparation was making for a general removal of all the wounded. They had but just lain down, were hurried out of bed and carried upon wagons to the canal leading to Antwerp. Boats were served and they huddled as many as possible on board them. The cause of this was accounts which were just received that the Prussians and the English after suffering immensely, had fallen back and that the French were only 9 miles distant from Brussels ... Such a scene of confusion and distraction I never witnessed. Hundreds of people on foot or horseback and in carriages of all kinds, hurrying along. Reports that the French were entering at the other end of the town. Wounded wretches laying on the road unable to help themselves or escape. Add to all this that during the whole period it rained with the greatest fury - prodigious! Thinking it nonsense waiting on the barge longer, as there was no prospect of getting away, I set out and meeting a wagon with 4 horses cooly led the foremost by the head and began to unyoke them. The driver stared but I continued. I was in uniform and he did not resist. I chose the best pair, fixed them to my boat and set off ... ’

two or three tears with minimal loss of text, otherwise generally in good condition £200-250

Swinton Macleod (1777-1847) entered the Army Medical Establishment as a Hospital Mate in June 1800 and quickly saw service in the Mediterranean, including Egypt and Malta. Having been appointed an Assistant Surgeon to the 47th (Lancashire) Regiment of Foot in the summer of 1801, he transferred to the 42nd Foot (Black Watch) as a Surgeon in July 1803, in which capacity he was present with the regiment in the Peninsula and Waterloo campaigns. He retired as a Deputy Inspector of Hospitals in late 1829.