Auction Catalogue

6 & 7 December 2017

Starting at 10:00 AM

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Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

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Lot

№ 905

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7 December 2017

Hammer Price:
£5,000

Three: Sergeant Charles Maxen, King’s German Legion

Military General Service 1793-1814, 9 clasps, Talavera, Busaco, Fuentes D’Onor, Ciudad Rodrigo, Salamanca, Vittoria, St. Sebastian, Nivelle, Nive (Charles Maxen, Serjt. 5th Line Bn. K.G.L.); Waterloo 1815 (Serj. Charles Maxen, 5th Line Batt. K.G.L.) fitted with contemporary silver clip and original steel ring suspension; King’s German Legion Volunteer Medal, bronze, unnamed as issued, light contact marks, otherwise generally very fine (3) £3800-4200

Provenance: Glendining’s, May 1909; Palmer Collection, Glendining’s, June 1919.

Charles Maxen was born at Gottingen, Hanover, and served with the King’s German Legion in the Peninsula, and in the 7th Company of the 5th Line Battalion at Waterloo. He was discharged in 1815.

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 were all of the battalion that remained together after this fatal charge.