“Maryland shall be heard from this day!”
-Colonel Smallwood, Battle of Long Island.
As far as Wellington and the Brigade of Guards is concerned, we are probably dealing with a situation where the stress and anxiety of the situation got to the British commander. He had suffered a bad day, after all. When the troops of the Middle Guard advanced in three or four hollow squares they struck a portion of the Anglo-Dutch line held by the British Brigade of Guards and the 52d Light Infantry. The Guards Brigade was lead by a general named Maitland. Wellington was standing beside Gen Maitland, both on horseback, behind the battle line. The troops were lying down just behind the crest of the ridge where they were more or less hidden from sight and somewhat protected from artillery fire. As the French force approached with much cheering and drumming to within fair musket range ( 60 to 40 yards) there was nothing to indicate that there was anything in their front. Sensing the critical moment Wellington shouted to Maitland, “Maitland, now’s your time. Up Guards and at them.” The actual orders were passed by Maitland to the battalion commanders and by them to the company commanders who could actually be heard by the troops. The actual orders given by the company officers were probably: Stand up! Front! Carry arms! Forward march! Halt! Present! Take aim! Aim low! Fire! Re-load! Present! Take aim! Aim low! Fire! Charge bayonet! Forward march! Just shouting “Stand up” doesn’t accomplish much but it does suggest just how excited Wellington was at the moment.
At Picket’s Charge at Gettysburg, the two leading brigades of Picket’s Division probably covered a front of a half mile with a third brigade 400 yards or so in the rear. Pettigrew’s Division, the other half of the assault force, was another quarter mile to the north and likewise initially had a front of about a half mile. It was impossible for any inspirational rant by any general officer to be heard by more than a mere handful of privates. As usual the privates got their speech from their company officers and that was probably a warning that the file-closers would shoot any unwounded man who fell out of ranks. The only reliable speeches I know of are General Armistead going over the wall in front of Cushing’s Battery screaming “Virginians with me, with me,”and General Kemper shouting “There’s the guns, boys, go for ‘em,” just before he was shot down in front of the wall. These things were seldom as romantic and gallant as people would like to think.
Isn’t that just in the film?
Continuing the digression…
War of the Quadruple Alliance (1718-20)
Third Anglo-Dutch War (1672-4)
(Although, in both those cases, British involvement in the fighting on land, as opposed to at sea, was limited.)
From
“‘Heads Up, By God!’ French Cavalry At Eylau, 1807 And Napoleon’s Cavalry Doctrine”
By Cadet Waitman Beorn
United States Military Academy, West Point, New York
“In the early afternoon of 8 February 1807, … A cavalry force of some 10,700 sabers, led by Marshal Murat, readied itself for a desperate mission: charge the center of the Russian line and prevent the them from advancing on Napoleon’s ruptured center. Among these 80 squadrons of cavalry sat Colonel Lepic of the Mounted Grenadiers of the Imperial Guard, waiting for the order to advance. Under fire from a sixty to seventy gun battery in the Russian center, he noted some of his troopers ducking incoming shells. “Heads up, by God!” he cried, “Those are bullets- not turds.” Moments later, he and his cavalrymen would step off on one of the most magnificent cavalry charges in military history.”
I can’t get a direct link to the article but it is at this site.
(By Union General Hancock): (before being fatally shot): “They couldn’t hit an elephant at this dis…” :smack:
Not Hancock. It was Old Uncle John Sedgwick at Spotsylvania in May,1864.
The Hancock quote is from the third day at Gettysburg when informed that Rebel troops were coming over the stone fence that marked the Second Corps firing line. A brigade commander asked permission to shift his formations to fill the gap and Hancock’s response was “Go it there and pretty goddamned fast.” Shortly afterwards Hancock was shot in the groin and suffered a wound that he never really recovered from.
Another good one, although it was a private message from President Lincoln to one of his generals (and, alas, didn’t seem to do much good when all was said and done): http://showcase.netins.net/web/creative/lincoln/speeches/hooker.htm
Not “shout,” but my musicologist uncle was thrilled when he found an untrained tenor; he claimed that tenors trained in the operatic tradition do a lot of work on getting their voices to carry in a large place (not every theater has the acoustics of the Sidney Opera). Since his focus was on baroque music, played in smaller settings, he needed a tenor whose voice wouldn’t deafen a “crowd” of two dozen in a chapel.