La Haye Sainte Farm on the battlefield of Waterloo

This is how La Haye Sainte looks today, much as it did when the French crept along this wall at about 18.00 in the afternoon of Sunday 18th June to storm the gates.

The King's German Legion (KGL) was stationed in the farm at the morning of the battle, they had to hastily fortify La Haye Sainte. The troops were the 2nd Light Battalion KGL commanded by Major Georg Baring, and part of the 1st Light Battalion KGL. During the battle, they were supported by the 1/2 Nassau Regiment and the light company of the 5th Line Battalion KGL. The majority of these troops were armed with the British Baker rifle, as opposed to the normal Brown Bess musket.

At 13:00, the French Grand Battery of heavy artillery opened fire before d'Erlon's Corps marched forward in columns. The French managed to surround La Haye Sainte and despite taking heavy casualties from the garrison, they attacked the centre left of Wellington's line.

As the centre began to give way and La Haye Sainte became vulnerable, Picton's division was sent to plug the gap. As the French were beaten back from La Haye Sainte, the heavy cavalry brigades under Somerset and Ponsonby attacked. This action relieved the pressure on the farm.

At 15:00, Napoleon ordered Marshal Ney to capture La Haye Sainte. While Ney was engaged in the attack on Allied squares, he failed to take La Haye Sainte.

At 17:30, Napoleon re-issued orders for Ney to take La Haye Sainte. The French had crept up close to the buildings by this time, along the eastern wall shown here.

At 18:00 Marshal Ney, heavily supported by artillery and some cavalry, took personal command of an infantry regiment (13th Legere) and a company of engineers and captured La Haye Sainte by assault. The light battalion of the German Legion, which occupied it, had expended all its ammunition and had to retreat. Allied forces were unable to counterattack immediately, as they were in squares over the ridge. The French brought up guns to fire from its cover, but riflemen of the 1/95 in the "sand pit" to the east of the farm, picked off all the gunners, so the guns were ineffective.

At 19:00, protected by the French garrison in La Haye Sainte, Napoleon's Imperial Guard climbed the escarpment and attacked Wellington the Allies on the ridge. This final attack was beaten back and became a rout around 20:10 as the French forces realised that with the arrival of the Prussians from the east, they were beaten. During the French retreat, La Haye Sainte was recaptured by the Allies, some time before 21:00, when Blücher met Wellington at La Belle Alliance.