An interesting K.H. group of three awarded to Captain Ludwig Von Borstel, 1st Line...

An interesting K.H. group of three awarded to Captain Ludwig Von Borstel, 1st Line Battalion, King’s German Legion, who was severely wounded at St Etienne, near Bayonne in February 1814

The Royal Guelphic Order, K.H. (Military) Knight’s, breast badge, reverse with monogram ‘GR’ MDCCCXV, ring suspension; Military General Service 1793-1814, 9 clasps, Talavera, Busaco, Fuentes D’Onor, Ciudad Rodrigo, Salamanca, Vittoria, St. Sebastian, Nivelle, Nive (Louis Von Borstel, Capt. 1st Line Bn. K.G.L.); Germany, Hannover, Wilhelmskreuz for 25 years service as an officer, WR IV, gold (14ct, 9.63g), gold marks to suspension ring, about extremely fine, the M.G.S. retaining most of its original frosted finish (3) £8,000-£10,000

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Provenance: Morton & Eden, May 2004 (M.G.S. only, Hannoverian awards added to complete entitlement).

Hermann Christian Ludwig von Borstel was born in Hannover on 16 September 1776. He was one of the original members of the King’s German Legion, being commissioned, without purchase, on 17 March 1804, aged 28, into Captain Marschalk’s No 2 Company of the 1st Line Battalion. He was promoted to Lieutenant on 24 March 1804, with temporary rank (exact date of confirmation as Lieutenant is not known as his papers were lost in the wreck of the Augustus Caesar - see below) before being promoted, again without purchase, to Captain on 17 August 1809. Ludwig ‘anglicised’ his name when he came to England with the K.G.L., initially from Hermann Christian Ludwig von Borstel to the simpler Louis von Borstel. Later he changed the French sounding Louis to the more English sounding Lewis Borstel, which is the style he used to sign his service record in February 1829, even though the record shows his full Hannoverian name. He reverted to his correct German given names on his eventual retirement back to Hannover.

Ludwig von Borstel accompanied the expedition to Hannover in 1805 as part of the Anglo-Austro-Russian alliance formed to combat Napoleon’s forces which were advancing south out of northern Germany. Following Napoleon’s victory over the Austrians as Austerlitz in December 1805, control of Hannover fell to the Prussians and the Legion was immediately ordered to withdraw to England.

Shipwreck and Capture

Borstel next accompanied the successful expedition to Copenhagen in 1807. Following the capitulation of the Danes in September of that year, several ships were lost in a storm on the return journey to England. Three companies of the 1st line Battalion were embarked in the Augustus Caesar transport which, on the night of 27 October, came into a violent collision with the ship of war H.M.S. Inflexible, of sixty-four guns. The bowsprit of the man-of-war, bearing down upon the larboard side of the transport, passed through her main chains and carried away her mainmast. The masts, yards, and rigging of both vessels then got foul of each other and the smaller ship, thus entangled, became exposed to the tremendous thumping of the man-of-war, which threatened soon to reduce her to a wreck. Every effort was made on both sides to get clear, but the darkness of the night and the heavy sea rendered this extremely difficult, and nearly an hour had passed before the vessels could be disengaged. Meantime, five of the officers, Captain Laroche, Lieutenants von Borstel, Schlatter, Heine, and Colonel Ompteda, and about a hundred non-commissioned officers and men of the Legion, ventured to attempt escaping from the transport into the Inflexible. This was a hazardous experiment, as well in consequence of the violent concussion of the vessels, as of the number of spars that were falling about; however, although many were wounded, with the exception of one man, the whole gained the deck of the ship. By this time the transport presented a deplorable appearance. Of her three masts, the foremast alone remained standing; large breaches down to the very edge of the water had been made in both her sides; twelve out of fourteen guns which she carried had been either torn away, or forced through the deck into the hold; her boats were driven from their fastenings and damaged, and the whole of her bulwark had been carried away.

Thus disabled, she was totally incapable of following the fleet, which on the morning of the 30th was completely out of sight, and the wind coming on to blow a gale from the westward on the following day, she was driven before it towards the coast of Holland. Land was first seen on the morning of the 31st, and now the apprehension arose that the ship might be dashed upon the beach, for they could find no holding ground at sufficient distance from the coast to be secured against a land attack, and the vessel had drifted within half gunshot of the shore, before she could be brought to anchor. The sea broke over her with violence, and it did not seem probable that her shattered hull would hold much longer together; at noon, however, the gale subsided and some hope of safety was entertained. But now came the perils of the land, for the Dutch, who were allied to the French, having descried the vessel, had brought down a few guns to the shore, and from these soon opened a fire upon the luckless transport. The English signal of distress was then made, which caused the firing to be for a time suspended, but towards evening it was resumed, and continued until the master of the transport had been made by signal to understand that he was required to hoist a lantern at the mast head, which being done, the firing ceased, and the vessel, which had received but little additional injury from the ill directed shots, was left unmolested until morning. A Dutch naval officer then came off to the transport, and demanded the surrender of all on board as prisoners of war. Colonel von Ompteda felt that he had no alternative but to submit to this requisition, and his whole force, amounting to nine officers, and more than two hundred non-commissioned officers and soldiers, were, together with the crew of the vessel, disembarked and marched to the Hague, from which the landing place was about six miles distant. They were to have retained their baggage, but the boats being occupied, till nightfall with the disembarkation of the men its removal could not be attempted before morning, and then the vessel was no longer visible; for the wind getting up in the night, her destruction had been completed. During the violent storm several ships were wrecked, and 226 officers and men of the legion were drowned in the Channel, with another 450 or so captured on the beaches.

The men were afterwards removed to the fortress of Löwenstein, and the officers placed on their parole at Gorcum, The latter were exchanged, and returned to England in the following spring; but the non-commissioned officers and soldiers, being principally natives of those provinces which formed the new kingdom of Westphalia, were forced to enter the service of king Jerome [Napoleons’ brother who he had made king of Westphalia] which was a conglomeration of several occupied German states. From this rule, however, the greater part took the first opportunity of emancipating themselves.

The Peninsula War

Von Borstel served throughout the war in Spain and Portugal from 1808 until 1813, and in the south of France in 1813 and 1814. He took part in the crossing of the Douro, the battles of Talavera, Busaco, Fuentes D’Onor, siege of Ciudad Rodrigo, battle of Salamanca, storming of Burgos, battle of Vittoria, action at Tolosa, siege of St Sebastian, battles of the Nivelle and the Nive, and at the storming of St Etienne, near Bayonne, on which occasion von Borstel was severely wounded.

St Etienne, near Bayonne, February 1814

Lewis von Borstel was severely wounded leading his company at the storming ...