Royal Artillery Mounted Rocket Corps, 1812

Aquatint by J C Stadler after Charles Hamilton Smith, 1812.

Although the British Army had experimented with rockets designed by Sir William Congreve, comptroller of the Woolwich Laboratory, prior to the Battle of Waterloo (1815), the Duke of Wellington was always suspicious of their merit and he only allowed one rocket troop to take part in the campaign. They were equipped with six 12, 18 and 24 pounder rockets. Their performance at Waterloo was mixed. One observer noted that:

'most of them, on arriving about the middle of the ascent, took a vertical direction, while some actually turned back upon ourselves - and one of these, following me like a squib until its shell exploded, actually put me in more danger than the fire of the enemy throughout the day.'

From Charles Hamilton Smith's 'Costumes of the Army of the British Empire, according to the last regulations 1812', published by Colnaghi and Company, 1812-1815.