HORSE ARTILLERY GUNS AT WATERLOO. 
629 
their backs, when an overwhelming force of cavalry was immediately 
flung at them, and it was one long gallop to the position at Waterloo. 
Their way lay through country roads deep in mud, and the enemy were 
sometimes even with the guus, and once, when passing through some 
narrow lanes bordered with hedges, ahead of them galloping in the 
fields on either side. The report went into Brussels that they were cut 
to pieces, and it was my father's opinion that if he had had 9-prs. he 
could not have got away from them. The horses were in splendid 
condition, far better than their pursuers, but only once during the 
retreat did he gain sufficiently on them to halt and open fire and off 
again at a gallop after firing a few shots. On arriving at the position 
at Waterloo nearly all the horses had lost shoes on the heavy ground, 
some of them all four shoes, and they had to sit up all the night shoeing. 
After the action next day, being on the extreme left, the troop took 
part with the Prussians in the pursuit of the enemy until after dark. 
In my young days in the Regiment I frequently dined with my 
father's old friends at Woolwich, Sir Alexander Dickson, Sir Hew 
Ross, Sir Thomas Downman, Sir Augustus Frazer, and many other 
Peninsula and Waterloo officers junior to them, Dyneley, Cator, &c., 
and have heard the gallop of “E" Troop quoted as an argument in 
favour of 6-prs. of 6 cwt. rather than 9-prs. of 13 cwt. for R.H.A. 
attached to cavalry. The opinion of these experienced H.A. officers 
was in favour of 6-prs. for acting with cavalry, but also to have some 
troops of Horse Artillery armed with 9-prs. with the head-quarters of 
an army in the field. Sir Hew Ross's "A" Troop acted chiefly with 
the Light Division in the Peninsula. 
That comparison is, of course, now a thing of the past, but it was not 
so in the Crimean campaign nor in the Indian Mutiny, and in my very 
humble service I came to the same conclusion. 
I commanded the same “E" Troop, under a different letter (“D"), 
40 years after Waterloo, in 1855. It was then at Weedon armed with 
sixes, but was moved up to Woolwich and provided with nines, eight 
horses to the gun and ten mounted men to the detachment, being next 
for service, and it landed at Scutari with that armament, which con¬ 
tinued after returning home through a season at Aldershot, often acting 
with cavalry, until it went to India in 1857. 
It was armed with sixes when engaged in a flying column in Central 
India with the 17th Lancers and the 72nd on camels in pursuit of 
Tantia Topee. The advanced guard on two different occasions sent 
back word to me that it was no use for the guns to come on, as the 
ground was impracticable for artillery: once to cross a very deep and 
steep ravine with a stream at the bottom and a mere apology of a track, 
and once with the same sort of track where they thought the guns 
could not pass between the rocks. I had only one answer, viz.: that 
wherever cavalry could go Horse Artillery could follow, and we did so, 
without causing the slightest delay on both occasions. 
If we had had nines there must have been some delay and difficulty. 
Yours very truly, 
Lynedoch Gardiner. 
