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Message:: [QUOTE="acanthite, post: 429986, member: 6647"]A co-worker of mine (noncollector) showed me some coins left to him from his grandmother (German descent). In the box was a medal from the Battle of Waterloo: BRITISH CAMPAIGN MEDAL Hanoverian medal for Waterloo 1815 Obv: Bust of Prince George III facing right – GEORG PRINZ REGENT 1815Rev: Laurels, standards – HANNOVERSCHER TAPFERKEIT WATERLOO JUN XVIII The edge of this medal is impressed with details of the recipient: SOLDAT .............................. LANDW. BAT. MUNDEN (I have omitted the soldier's name for reasons of privacy)(LANDW. BAT. stands for Landwehr Battalion, which was a name given to certain German defense forces in the 19th Century)(MUNDEN is the name of a town in present-day central Germany, presumably which the soldiers in this battalion called home.) <img src="http://i182.photobucket.com/albums/x7/karakorum_photos/MD_Waterloo-1815.jpg" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" /> I decided to do some research on the medal. A brief history of the battle as it relates to the battalion of the recipient soldier follows: This medal was given to all soldiers present under the command of the Duke of Wellington at the battles of Ligny, Quatre Bras, and Waterloo by the British government. The Munden Battalion, in which this particular soldier fought as an infantryman, was commanded by one Major de Schmidt and had somewhere in the range of 660-700 men. This battalion, along with that of Lueneburn, Verden, and Osterode, made up the 4th Hanoverian Brigade, under the command of Colonel Best. The 4th Hanoverian Brigade, along with the 10th British Brigade commanded by Major-General Sir Lambert, formed the sixth division of the army. This, in turn, was part of the reserve corps under the command of the Duke of Wellington. During the Battle of Waterloo on June 18, 1815, the 4th Hanoverian Brigade was stationed on Wellington's far left flank (thus to the east, see map below) on a bluff overlooking the farm of Papelotte. They saw action various times during the day, as the French probed for weakness along this part of the flank. Munden counted six officers wounded at day's end. It was in this area of the battlefield that, late in the afternoon, the Prussian forces merged with the east flank and pressed hard on the French. The arrival of the Prussian forces, along with a string of unsuccessful attacks by Marshal Ney's cavalry forces in the center of the line, turned the battle decisively against Napoleon.  <img src="http://i182.photobucket.com/albums/x7/karakorum_photos/800px-Battle_of_Waterloo_svg.png" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" />(map from Wikipedia)[/QUOTE]

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