Captain Thomas Wildman served as an aide-de-camp (ADC) for Henry William Paget, the Earl of Uxbridge, during the Battle of Waterloo, 18 June 1815. During this period, each British general officer was permitted to have at least one ADC, acting as a personal assistant, secretary and confidant. Wildman was splattered with blood while at Uxbridge’s bedside, helping with the procedure to amputate the officer’s leg, shattered by French artillery.
At Waterloo, Uxbridge was in command of 13,000 cavalry and 44 guns. He led multiple charges at Napoleon’s infantry, with reportedly nine horses shot from under him. Fighting valiantly until the end of the battle, a deadly canister shot from one of the last French cannons fired that day struck him. The shot, one of several small metal balls that had…