134 
CAPTAIN BOGUE AND THE ROCKET BRIGADE. 
the action on the morning of the 18th, Captain Bogue addressed him¬ 
self to General Winzingerode, commanding the advance of the Crown 
Prince, expressing his desire to see the enemy, and requesting permission 
to engage. The General, much struck with the gallantry and spirit of 
the address, granted as a guard a squadron of dragoons, and requested 
Captain Bogue to follow his own plans and judgment. Captain Bogue 
lost no time in advancing to the attack of the village of Paunsdorff, 
then in possession of five of the enemy’s battalions, upon whom he 
opened, in advance of the whole army, a most destructive fire. This was 
returned by musketry, and for some time a very hot combat ensued, 
when the enemy, unable to withstand the well directed fire of Captain 
Bogue’s brigade, fell into confusion and began to retreat. 1 2 Captain 
Bogue, seizing the moment, charged at the head of the squadron of 
cavalry, and the enemy, terrified at his approach, turned round, and 
taking off their caps, gave three huzzas , and every man, to the number 
of between two and three thousand, surrendered to the Rocket brigade, 
which I believe, did not exceed 200 men. 3 
The intelligence of this success being communicated to the Crown 
Prince, he sent his thanks to Captain Bogue for such eminent services, 
requesting at the same time that he would continue his exertions; and 
the brigade proceeded in consequence to the attack of (I believe) the 
village of Sommerfeldt still further in advance. Sir C. Stewart 
accompanied the brigade and I was of the party. The situation taken 
up on the flank of the village was exposed to a most heavy fire, both 
of cannon balls and grape shot from the enemy’s line, and from the 
riflemen in the village. A ball from the latter soon deprived us of the 
exertions of poor Bogue; it entered below the eye and passing through 
the head, caused instantaneous death. 
You will see, I am sure, how impossible it is for me to say anything 
that can do justice to such actions. I had long been happy in the 
acquaintance of Captain Bogue; and no one, I am sure, more sincerely 
than I do, regrets the loss of a man whom I was most proud to have it 
in my power to call a friend and a brother soldier. It remains for me 
1 We learn from a memorandum presented in May, 1815, to the Duke of Wellington, concerning 
the armament with both guns and rockets of the 2nd Socket troop, that when entirely equipped 
with rockets, their mode of use had been “ to employ that arm on proper occasions in salvoes 
projecting 20 shells and case shot or even more ; and in favourable ground even double that 
number, a mass of fire which, when judiciously used, must be productive, as at the battle of Leipsic 
and on the Grourda, of the greatest physical and moral effect, both from the novelty of the weapon, 
the extraordinary and appalling noise accompanying its flight from the first moment of ignition to 
that of the explosion of the projectile, and from its visibility during the flight.” 
2 Lieut.-General Charles William Vane, Marquis of Londonderry (formerly Sir C. Stewart), in 
his narrative of the war in Germany and France in 1813 and 1814, speaks thus of the rockets at 
Leipsic:— 
“ Congreve’s formidable weapon had scarcely accomplished the object of paralysing a solid 
square of infantry, which, after our fire, delivered themselves up, as if panic struck, when that 
estimable man and gallant officer, Captain Bogue, of the British Eoyal Artillery, received a mortal 
wound in the head, which at once deprived society of a noble character and this country of his 
valuable services. Lieutenant Strang ways,* who succeeded in the command of the brigade, received 
the Prince’s Eoyal thanks, conveyed through me, for the important assistance they had rendered. 
I felt great satisfaction at witnessing, during this day, a species of improved warfare, the effects of 
which were truly astonishing and produced an impression upon the enemy of something super¬ 
natural.” 
* Sane’s List, No. 1365. 
