Time to share some more first hand accounts of Waterloo from Sergeant Maudit, and also General Petit
General Petit, leading the Old Guard Grenadier Division, here details the deployment of the 1er Grenadiers at around 6pm.
“At the same time [towards 6 o’clock], the 1er Regiment de Grenadiers formed into two columns by division [in this context, 1 division means 2 pelotons, pelotons contained up to 50 men, I think], then later in two squares, one per battalion. The 2nd Battalion was placed to the right of the main road, on the top of the position dominating the small track which ran between the village of Planchenoit and the main road. It had to throw out skirmishers to the extreme right of the village to observe the enemy [the Prussians]. Several of these men were with Adjutant-Major Farre, whose horse fell into a ditch; this officer was injured. [From this account from Petit we can figure out that Sergeant Maudit was part of the 2nd Battalion]
The square of the 1st Battalion formed on the left of the main road, on the height that the Emperor had first occupied. There it was joined by six 8-pounders and by the Sapeurs and Marins of the Guard.”
The 1er Becomes Involved in the FightingHere Maudit gives an account of the events Petit recalled above.
"These two battalions [the two sent to Planchenoit] broke up their squares and formed close columns by platoons. Whilst they deployed for this attack, our square received the order to march by the fourth face, to take position on the top of a small knoll, at the foot of which we had been standing for several hours; the 12 pounder battery, that had previously been above us, now found itself, because of this move, in front of us and about 100 paces away. We dominated and guarded the by-road that went from Planchenoit to la Maison-du-Roi, by which the Prussians appeared to be advancing to cut off the army's retreat. each of our four companies received the order to detach twenty-five grenadiers as skirmishers on the extreme right of the village to observe and contain the enemy who was always looking to outflank the right of Duhesme's division.
Hardly had these hundred grenadiers moved a few yards from us, than they found themselves face to face with the Prussian skirmishers hidden in the edge of the wood and in the meadows that were on our right.
There, several grenadiers, who were furthest forward, fell, after a vigorous struggle and covered in wounds, into the hands of the Prussians, as well as adjutant-major Fare, who tried to protect and rescue them. This officer's horse was shot and fell into a ditch. A platoon of Prussians rushed upon him and fired at point blank range. By a miracle he was struck by only one ball but was so seriously wounded that the Prussians thought he was dead and did not take him. Unbelievably, he remained for six days on the battlefield without help, not being able to drag himself to the village, or even to the side of a road where the first person to pass would undoubtedly have helped him.
Captain Crette was killed there, shot at point blank by a Prussian sergeant whose shoulder he had cut through with a sabre blow and who nevertheless still had the courage to aim at his heart. His musket ball struck the cross [of the Legion of Honour] of this officer and knocked him down at the feet of Sergeant Major Stonop. At the same instant, the Prussian sergeant was cut down by one of Captain Crette's grenadiers.
In this incredible struggle of one against seven, several Prussians asked for mercy and received it. One of them threw himself at the feet of my friend Stonop, and begged for his life saying that his father was serving as marechal de logis in the 3rd Hussars.
In one of the orchards [around Planchenoit] officers and NCOs of the Old Guard [assumingly from the 2e Grenadiers or Chasseurs], attempted to rally some soldiers. They had managed to bring together about 150, as well as about thirty drummers of different regiments, when two rounds of caseshot knocked over this small group and nearly all the drummers; from then on it was impossible to stop the rout. "