Jean-Baptiste van Merlen
Command Ratings
Jean-Baptiste van Merlen (also recorded as Joannes Baptista van Merlen) was born in Antwerp on 11 May 1772, in the Austrian Netherlands. He entered military life before the French annexations of the 1790s and served through successive regime changes in the Low Countries, moving between forces that included the Brabant revolutionary troops, the Batavian Republic, the Kingdom of Holland, the French Empire, and finally the army of the United Kingdom of the Netherlands.
He began service in 1788 as a volunteer in Brabant during the disturbances that led into the Brabant Revolution. In 1795, after the creation of the Batavian Republic, he transferred into Batavian service and shifted from infantry to cavalry, accepting a reduction in grade to enter a mounted regiment. On 10 July 1795 he became a first Lieutenant in the Batavian hussars. On 4 April 1798 he was promoted to ritmeester (captain).
In 1799 his regiment fought against the Anglo-Russian invasion of Holland. He was engaged in the actions around Bergen, Alkmaar, and Castricum (1799), fighting in the operations that ended with the evacuation of the invading force. In 1800 he campaigned along the Main and was engaged at Oberschwappach (often given as Oberschwach in older summaries) and in the siege of Würzburg (1800), remaining with cavalry forces operating on the German front in the War of the Second Coalition.
In 1805 his regiment served with the forces assembled for the campaign against Austria; it formed part of the army corps commanded by Auguste de Marmont and took part in the Ulm operations (September–October 1805). After the Batavian Republic became the Kingdom of Holland in 1806, van Merlen entered the royal guard establishment and advanced rapidly. On 23 October 1806 he was made a lieutenant-colonel in the Royal Guard Hussars of King Louis Bonaparte.
When the Kingdom of Holland was annexed by France in July 1810, van Merlen and the former Dutch Guard cavalry were absorbed into the French Imperial system. On 11 November 1810 he transferred into the 2e Régiment de lanciers of the Imperial Guard (the “Red Lancers”), a unit formed largely from the former Dutch Royal Guard. He served in connection with the war in Spain, and on 11 March 1812 the remaining Dutch hussar element was incorporated as a squadron of the Guard lancers with van Merlen as its colonel. When the Guard lancers marched for the 1812 campaign, he remained at Versailles in command of the regimental depot and was involved in suppressing General Malet’s attempted coup in Paris (October 1812).
On 12 January 1813 he was promoted to général de brigade. On 1 March 1813 he received command of a light cavalry brigade for the new campaign in Germany. In the spring campaign he served in the mounted arm and fought at Lützen on 2 May 1813, where he commanded a brigade in the light cavalry division of Louis-Pierre Chastel within the I Cavalry Corps under Victor de Fay de La Tour-Maubourg. His wartime status was also marked by French imperial and associated honors, including appointment as an Officer of the Légion d’honneur, and knighthoods in the Order of the Union and the Order of the Réunion; he also bore the title Baron de l’Empire.
After the fall of Napoleon’s Empire and the reconstitution of the Netherlands, van Merlen entered the army of the United Kingdom of the Netherlands. In the Waterloo campaign of 1815 he commanded a Dutch light cavalry brigade (commonly identified as the 2nd Dutch Light Cavalry Brigade / 3rd Light Brigade in the Dutch cavalry division). In the opening operations he was tasked with screening and observation duties on the approach routes toward Brussels, including the road from Mons. He fought at Quatre Bras on 16 June 1815, where his brigade was heavily engaged in the day’s fighting. At Waterloo on 18 June 1815 his brigade was initially held in reserve and later employed during the battle’s cavalry phases. Late in the day he was struck by a cannonball and mortally wounded; he died on the battlefield on 18 June 1815.
Van Merlen was buried at Waterloo in the Church of Saint Joseph. He had married Reina Gesina Star Lichtenvoort at Groningen in June 1799; they had a son, Bernard van Merlen (1800–1890), who also served in the 1815 campaign and later became a general.
Sources
X 05-06 Italy; XX 09 Spain – Talavera; XX 13-14 Dennewitz, Leipzig, Craonne; XX (1st LC) 14; X (Dutch-Belgian) 15 L, Quatre Bras, Waterloo (KIA)