Name Jean van | ||
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Died June 18, 1815, Waterloo, Belgium | ||
Major General Jean Baptiste Baron van Merlen (Antwerp, 15 April 1773 – Battle of Waterloo, 18 June 1815) was a Dutch-Belgian army officer who fought in the Napoleonic Wars. He was a Knight and Officer of the Legion of Honour.
Biography
At the Battle of Lützen on 2 May 1813, Merlen commanded the 1st Brigade in the 3rd Light Cavalry Division under Louis Pierre Aimé Chastel. The division belonged to the I Cavalry Corps led by Victor de Fay de La Tour-Maubourg. The brigade counted only 22 officers and 520 men and included elements of the 6th, 8th, 25th and Portuguese Legion Chasseurs à Cheval and the 6th Hussars.
Up until 1815 van Merlen had fought in the French army, including in the Peninsular War as a cavalry commander against the British Army. In the Waterloo Campaign he fought against the French in the Duke of Wellington's army as commander of the 3rd Light Brigade in the Dutch Cavalry Division. Van Merlen died in the battle of Waterloo.
In 1815, King William I of the Netherlands decided that his new army needed experienced officers, even if they had recently fought under Napoleon. Therefore, a number of royalists with scant battle experience lost their positions as regimental commanders. The exception was Willem François Boreel who was intensely loyal but had not led troops in battle for 20 years. Boreel was appointed commander of the 6th Dutch Hussar Regiment in Merlen's brigade. At the Battle of Quatre Bras on 16 June 1815 he ordered a charge before the regiment had formed properly and failed to hold back a reserve in case of defeat. The result of the disorderly charge was a rout of the 6th Hussars and the loss of 13 men killed and a large number of men with saber and lance wounds. This unfortunate rout, which occurred in full view of allied soldiers, persuaded many British officers that the Dutch were bad troops, when in fact the problem was Boreel's poor regimental leadership.