Henry de Hinuber

Lieutenant-General Henry de Hinuber KCB KCH (25 January 1767 – 2 December 1833), known in Hanover as Eduard Christoph Heinrich von Hinüber, was a Hanoverian infantry officer who commanded units of the King's German Legion (KGL) during the Napoleonic Wars.

He joined the army of the new Kingdom of Hanover in 1816, commanding several infantry brigades, and was promoted to lieutenant-general in both British and Hanoverian service.

[9][10][11] Disease was rife in the camps of both the defenders and attackers, and the siege was still ongoing in July when news of the Treaty of Paris ending the American Revolutionary War reached it.

The Hanoverians were kept on in India afterwards, some moving into Mysore to continue the Second Anglo-Mysore War, reinforcing Mangalore and attacking Cannanore.

[2][9][26] The Hanoverian Army served in relative peace until the Napoleonic Wars began in that year; France successfully invaded Hanover, occupying the capital on 4 June.

[9][28] George III formed the King's German Legion (KGL) as a unit for displaced Hanoverians, and the officers were given temporary ranks in the British Army.

[30] Working closely with a fellow Hanoverian, Friedrich von der Decken, Hinuber initially expressed doubts to him that they would be able to meet the 400-man requirement, and he championed the recruitment from prison hulks to bolster their numbers.

[32] The KGL expanded quickly as the month went on, and an officer of Hinuber's seniority was no longer needed to chivvy recruitment at Plymouth.

[2][34] The KGL continued recruitment on the European mainland through this period, with a headquarters at Husum from where Germans could travel to Heligoland before reaching Britain.

[9][35][36] Hinuber was promoted to colonel on 9 July 1805 and in November led his battalion in the Hanover Expedition, an attempt to liberate the Electorate.

Landing on Rügen in early July, it was withdrawn from mainland Europe again when Russia brokered a peace with France in the Treaties of Tilsit later in the month.

[45] Having remained in Sicily, in mid-1809 Hinuber was given command of a KGL brigade as part of a diversionary attack on islands in the Bay of Naples, intended to take pressure off their Austrian allies on the continent.

[46] Hinuber continued on in the Mediterranean after the completion of his brigade command and was present in September 1810 during the defence against Marshal Joachim Murat's attempted invasion of Sicily.

[1] Hinuber served in Sicily until 30 October 1813 when he joined the army of Field Marshal Lord Wellington in the Peninsular War.

Despite the part played by the brigade, Hinuber's commanding officer Lieutenant-General Sir John Hope downplayed its role, refusing to name any of the units involved.

[59][60] Annoyed by Hope's conduct, Hinuber wrote to the colonel-in-chief of the KGL Prince Adolphus, Duke of Cambridge, to complain.

Adolphus replied to Hinuber that he expressed "to all the officers and men, my public approbation of their conduct, and the satisfaction which I feel in being at the head of such a corps".

Nonetheless, Hinuber also wrote to Major-General Edward Pakenham, Wellington's adjutant general: ...the silence of [Wellington] in this instance cannot be attributed to casual omission, but must be founded on some particular reason, and the only one which we can at all guess at – however painful to our feelings – is that from some circumstance unknown to us, we have incurred his lordship's displeasure, and that laboring under such, we must necessarily be precluded from the honours which a public notice of our services, would otherwise have bestowed upon us.

[61]Wellington sent a terse reply to Hinuber through Pakenham on the matter, with the latter reporting to Hinuber that: ...am desired to observe that [Wellington] has ever had the pleasure in being satisfied with the conduct of the legion...I am in no way authorized to enter into further explanation on the subject to which your communication relates, but I should recommend you to subdue any anxiety that may have risen...[62]Early in the morning on 14 April a French deserter from Bayonne came to Major-General Andrew Hay, commanding the piquets, to warn him of the French plan to make an attack on the Anglo-Spanish besieging force.

[65] Hinuber sent two of his battalions to attack the St. Etienne church alongside the remainders of the piquets from the 38th Regiment of Foot, and through another bayonet charge the village was re-taken.

Over the ensuing two hours the French sent out tirailleurs and groups of men to continue the fight but they were all pushed back, the defenders being assisted by a cannon that was brought up.

[66] Losses were high for the brevity of the engagement; the KGL had 189 casualties including Hinuber, who received a severe contusion, and his brigade major who was killed.

[9][67][68] The military historian Sir William Napier noted that "...the readiness and gallantry with which General Hinuber and his Germans retook St. Etienne saved the allies from a very terrible disaster".

[9][67] A Subsidiary Army was afterwards formed to continue on in mainland Europe, and Hinuber was given command of the KGL Division within it, stationed mostly at Tournai and Mons.

[1] Napoleon escaped from his confinement on Elba in March 1815, restarting the conflict, and Wellington returned to the continent to form a new Anglo-Allied Army.

Wellington wrote to the Military Secretary, Major-General Sir Henry Torrens, on 2 May requesting clarification as to whether he was required to give Hinuber command of a new division made up of all the KGL in the army.

Torrens wrote back on 5 May that: ...though [Adolphus] puts a very high value on [Hinuber's] services, he could not consider himself justified in authorising that the Legion should be kept together in order that he should command them...[Wellington] will be pleased to accept the resignation of his Staff appointment.

Hinuber thus missed the Hundred Days campaign which culminated in the Battle of Waterloo, but was still listed as one of the recipients of the thanks of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for the victory.

[9] The military historians Ron McGuigan and Robert Burnham argue that if Hinuber had stayed with the army through the campaign, the high level of casualties amongst the generals would have made him a divisional commander anyway.

With Napoleon defeated for a final time, the KGL was disbanded on 24 February 1816 and Hinuber placed on British Army half pay.