All military records are kept in the
National archives in Den Haag.
Soldiers in 1815.
If you are looking for soldiers you should know the unit in which he was enlisted. Then you can easily ask for the unit's 'stamboek' (unit-book). Then you have to look for him. You will find many details in his records. These stamboeks are not containing any officers.
Officers in 1815.
Strange enough it's a lot more difficult to allocate officers to a certain unit. Yes, if you have his name you can simply look for him in an alphabetical register. Then you will find the "officers book' were to find him. BUT, these are also books per unit. AND starting only at October 1815 when the army reorganised to the "afdelingen". These books are thus 'afdelingen- officers books' Again, it's no problem at all when you know the name of the officer. You will find his whole record.
BUT if you like to know which officers were attached to a certain unit during Waterloo you will have a problem as there are no 'battalion books" which includes officers. Before the Napoleonic area, and after the Dutch government printed special 'red officers books', but again, not for these years.
So, how did I find all the officers of the Dutch 8th Militie? That was quit some task!
- I new offcourse that Lt-Kolonel de Jongh was the commander, so him I had quickly. During the reorganisation in October 1815 (when the 'afdelingen were invented') the officers of the whole afdeling (3 old battalions) went into one 'afdelingen- officers book". So that's easy! Except that De Jongh became 2nd colonel of an other 'afdeling' in October 1815 and therefore he was not found in the same book. Anyway, if you know in which afdeling a certain battalion went (you can find that on this website) you can ask for the book. There you will find all officers for the whole afdeling (3 battalions). You will then need to study which of these were formally enlisted with your battalion. Then you will end up with all officers who went from your battalion to the afdeling in October 1815. But that is not the complete list. All officers who left the battalion before October 1815 (because they were transferred, fired, killed or wounded etc) you will not find!
- Therefore you need to do more research. In the Dairy of van Zuylen (also on this site) you will find many officers names. In that way I found several additional ones.
- I had also the luck that De Jongh was writing his memoirs (also on this site). Several officers are mentioned there.
- And the last option is the archives itself. There are many many documents about this period and in many of them you will find strength-figures with commanding officers and location of units. There I did find several officers as well.
- For all killed and wounded officers there is a summary in the appendix of Wüppermann's book (literature 44, elsewhere on this site). But I am not sure if this is complete. When time comes I will publish the list on this site.
Good luck!
The 5th Militia under Luit-Kolonel Westenberg during Quatre Bras at the Gemioncourt farm.
The arty unit will depict Bijleveld's Horse Battery, allthough there is no proof that Bijleveld had
guns inside the farm. He was positioned south of the farm in the
morning of the 16th, and later in the day north of the farm. Note the Flag on the left of the picture!
