Captain Richard Bogue

Richard Bogue commanded the Rocket Brigade (later called Rocket Troop) at Leipzig in October 1813 and was killed in action there. He was the youngest son of a doctor, born at Titchfield, Hants on 24 Oct 1782. He entered the Royal Military Academy at Woolwich on Jan 1797 and was commissioned into the RA on 14 Jul 1798. He served in the Peninsula and saw action in Sir John Moore’s retreat to Corunna as a captain in B Troop RHA. Bogue was put in command of the experimental detachment of 32 men to assist Sir William Congreve in developing his rockets for use in the RHA. Orders finally came on 7 June 1813 that the detachment should be brought up to strength and be designated the Rocket Brigade. After the recruits completed their training in rocket firing they sailed to Wismar in North Germany.
The battle of Leipzig lasted three days but the Rocket Brigade were not called upon until, on the third day, 18 Oct 1813, Bogue approached General Wintzingerode, commander of the allied army advance guard, and requested an opportunity to engage the enemy. His request was granted and he took the brigade to Paunsdorf where he successfully defeated 5 French battalions and cause them to surrender to his force of 200 gunners. He was then ordered to take his brigade to Sellerhausen. But they came under heavy fire from enemy artillery and skirmishers. It was a musket ball from a French rifleman that killed him, entering his head just below the eye and causing instant death. He was buried in the churchyard at Taucha 4 miles away and two years later a stone monument was erected over his grave. The Crown Prince of Sweden, commander of the allies, posthumously conferred the knighthood of the Swedish Royal Order of the Sword on Captain Bogue, and sent his widow a gift of 10,000 dollars. The portrait is from a watercolour by J Slater made in 1812.

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