14 July 1815 - Capel
Sight-seeing to Waterloo was commonplace and Georgy Capel went there herself on the 14th of July;
"...the Field of Battle is not quite sweetened but I should thing this hot weather wd. prevent its
continuance as the unfortunate dead Bodies are only slightly covered with earth. A great number of bodies
have been in found in the corn by the Reapers within the last day or two, and it is said that the People
living nr. Waterloo have realised fortunes by plunder, there are remaining upon the field thousands of the
most moving English and French letters from the friends of the fallen, and caps pierced with balls and all
the inside filled with congealed Blood....."
Georgy Capel had some advantage of knowing a little more of the battle itself than many others in Brussels.
Her uncle, Lord Uxbridge, led the allied cavalry and had visited them during the three day campaign to let
them know what was happening. He had lost his leg in the last hours of the battle of Waterloo - or more
precisely, had it amputated. So the family also knew first-hand the rigours of battlefield medicine.
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Mid August 1815
Major Frye returned to the battlefield with his brother-in-law and nephew in mid-August,
by that time the bodies were at least covered, but signs of the battle remained - as did;
"Cuirasses, helmets, swords, and various other spoils of war found on the spot, were offereed
for sale by some boys and eagerly bought up as relics."
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