Indies Brigade
Military unit in the Napoleonic Wars / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Indies Brigade or Indian Brigade (Dutch: Indische Brigade or Indiaansche Brigade), also referred to as the Dutch Indies Brigade or Netherlands Indies Brigade, was a Dutch-Belgian military unit which took part in the Waterloo Campaign and subsequent invasion of France in 1815. It was sent to the Dutch East Indies together with the Commissioners-General of the Dutch East Indies after the Hundred Days to fulfill its mission as the core of the future Royal Netherlands Indies Army in October 1815.
The brigade was composed of some 3,500 men[1] recruited to garrison the Dutch colonies in the West Indies (Suriname and the Netherlands Antilles) and in the Dutch East Indies.
In the Waterloo Campaign, the Brigade was part of the 1st Dutch-Belgian division (lt.-general Stedman and (nominally) Prince Frederick of the Netherlands). The unit was under the command of Lieutenant-General Baron Carl Heinrich Wilhelm Anthing, a German officer in Dutch service, and consisted of:
- the 5th East Indies Regiment of the Line (Oost-Indisch regiment No. 5) under G.M. Busman, consisting of two battalions
- the 10th West Indies Battalion of light infantry (Bataljon West-Indische jagers No. 10) under H.W. Rancke
- the 11th West Indies Battalion of light infantry (Bataljon West-Indische jagers No. 11) under Frederik Knotzer
- a light battalion (Bataljon flankeurs) under Willem Schenck
- a battery of foot artillery with six 6-pdr guns and two 5.5 in howitzers
- a baggage train