Lieutenant-General Henry de Hinuber, (25 January 1767 – 2 December 1833) known in Hanover as Eduard Christoph Heinrich von Hinüber, was a Hanoverian army officer who commanded units of the King's German Legion (KGL) during the Napoleonic Wars. Initially serving in the Hanoverian Army, in 1782, he fought in the Second Anglo-Mysore War in India. He was present at the Siege of Cuddalore and remained in India until 1792. The French Revolutionary Wars began a year later and Hinuber served in the Flanders Campaign.
Hinuber was one of the first Hanoverians to offer his services to the British Army when Hanover was invaded in 1803. Given command of the 3rd Line Battalion of the KGL, he fought in the Hanover and Copenhagen Expeditions before commanding a brigade in a diversionary attack in the Bay of Naples in 1809. He was promoted to major-general in 1811 and given command of a brigade in Lord Wellington's Peninsular War army in 1813.
Hinuber commanded his brigade at the Battle of Nivelle in 1813 and then at the Siege of Bayonne the following year, when he led the response to the French counter-attack. At the start of the Hundred Days, Hinuber was in command of the 4th Division but, replaced by a more senior officer, he refused another command and missed the Battle of Waterloo. He joined the army of the new Kingdom of Hanover in 1816, commanding several infantry brigades, and was promoted to lieutenant-general in both British and Hanoverian service. In 1831, Hinuber received his last command, the 2nd Division of a corps of the German Federal Army. He died in Frankfurt two years later.
Early life Eduard Christoph Heinrich von Hinüber was born on 25 January 1767 in London. Known to family and friends as Harry, he was the son of Hanoverians Carl Heinrich von Hinüber (1723–1792) and Margarethe Ludovica von Reiche (1736–1815). His elder brother was , and he had four other siblings. His father was the German tutor to George II's children. Hinüber, who was fluent in English, lived with his parents in London until he reached the age of 10 or 12, at which point he was sent to live with his uncle in Hanover so that he could receive German education. There his family was part of the bureaucratic elite and relatives such as played an important part in the moulding of Hanoverian culture.
Hanoverian Army Home service Hinüber joined the Hanoverian Army as a cadet in the Hanoverian Foot Guards in April 1781 and was commissioned as an ensign in the 15th Infantry Regiment on 1 July. George III ruled both Hanover and Britain, and so the regiment had been formed in May to go to India and reinforce the British Army in the Second Anglo-Mysore War. In fighting this, the Kingdom of Mysore was allied with France, which was at war with Britain in the Anglo-French War. The Hanoverians had contracts to serve in India for seven years. The regiment underwent a seven-month period of training in Hanover and then from October in England. Hinüber was promoted to lieutenant on 27 November. The 15th left for Madras in March 1782, arriving in September.
India Hinüber was part of an Anglo-Indian army which attacked the French-held city of Cuddalore on 13 July 1783. In a bloody engagement the British failed to break through the French defences. A quarter of the Hanoverians became casualties, including Hinüber who was wounded in action. The allied force occupied the abandoned French outposts around the city and instead began to besiege Cuddalore. Disease was rife in the camps of both the defenders and attackers, and the siege was still ongoing in July when news of the Treaty of Paris ending the Anglo-French War reached it. The Hanoverians were kept on in India afterwards, some moving into Mysore to continue the Second Anglo-Mysore War, reinforcing Mangalore and attacking Cannanore. Conflict with Mysore ended in March 1784. By August 1785 the Hanoverians were serving as the garrison at Arcot, where they stayed until being transferred to Madras in 1787.
While in India, the regiment was renumbered as the 14th Infantry Regiment and Hinüber was promoted to captain on 6 April 1788. The seven-year contracts of the Hanoverians began to end in the following year, but when the Third Anglo-Mysore War began it was requested that some stay on in India. The troops were given the choice of returning to Europe or staying on for another year. Hinüber opted for the latter, finally departing in July 1792. The Hanoverians had taken high losses through battle and disease, only half surviving. Hinüber was one of the last Hanoverians to leave the sub-continent.
Flanders and defeat
Upon returning from India, Hinüber's regiment was reformed as the 14th Light Infantry Regiment. The French Revolutionary Wars began in February 1793, and for the first two years of the conflict Hinüber and his regiment were stationed in the Netherlands. Fighting the Flanders Campaign, the regiment was seconded to serve with the British Army on 22 January 1794, formed in two battalions. In April the regiment was sent to join the garrison of Menin, which was preparing to be besieged by the French. On 29 April the 1,800-strong garrison escaped a besieging French army of 14,000 men, suffering heavy casualties as it fought through to Roeselare.
The regiment subsequently formed part of the Northern covering column during the defeat at the Battle of Tourcoing between 17 and 18 May. By 15 August the two battalions of the regiment had separated, one garrisoning Sas van Gent and Hulst, and the other defending Sluis. The latter battalion became prisoners of war on 25 August when the port was captured. The campaign over, the last units of the British Army sailed from the continent on 1 June 1795. The Hanoverians returned to their native country, garrisoning barracks and settling to recruit themselves back to full strength.
Hinüber was promoted to major on 26 October 1798, joining the 6th Infantry Regiment. The Hanoverian Army served in relative peace until the Napoleonic Wars began in 1803; France successfully invaded Hanover, occupying the capital on 4 June. The Hanoverian Army retreated into Saxe-Lauenburg but quickly surrendered. Under the Convention of Artlenburg on 5 July the army was disbanded, ending Hinüber's service.
British Army Forming the King's German Legion
Hinüber was one of the first Hanoverian officers to travel to Britain and offer their military services there, arriving at Harwich on about 31 July. George III formed the King's German Legion (KGL) as a unit for displaced Hanoverians, and the officers were given temporary ranks in the British Army. In British service Hinüber chose to go by the name of Henry de Hinuber, but was also recorded as Heinrich von Hinüber. In early August he was stationed at Plymouth organising German arrivals, as well as recruiting Portuguese, Danish, Austrian, and Norwegian prisoners of war from the prison hulks there.
The initial patent for the KGL required it to reach 400 men within three months. Working closely with a fellow Hanoverian, Friedrich von der Decken, Hinuber initially expressed doubts to him that they would be able to meet the 400-man requirement. Hinuber championed the recruitment from prison hulks to bolster their numbers. By 3 October the regiment had reached a complement of 450. The KGL expanded quickly as the month went on, and an officer of Hinuber's seniority was no longer needed to chivvy recruitment at Plymouth. On 13 October he was transferred to command the new regimental depot, situated on the Isle of Wight, with about 1,000 men under his command. Initial expectation had been to form one light infantry battalion from the men at the depot but, when more recruits arrived than expected, the KGL expanded with artillery and cavalry as well. Soldiers who had previously served in either of these branches were taken away from Hinuber's main cadre, leaving the remainder there to form the 1st and 2nd Line Battalions.
Hinuber joined the newly formed 1st Battalion, and was given the British rank of major on 17 November. The KGL continued recruitment on the European mainland through this period, with a headquarters at Husum from where Germans could travel to Heligoland before reaching Britain. In April 1804 Hinuber was given command of this system, travelling to Husum to help raise the 3rd Line Battalion which was officially formed in May. He was promoted to lieutenant-colonel on 16 June, commanding the new battalion, and relinquished his recruiting duties on 21 September.
Initial service Hinuber was promoted to colonel on 9 July 1805 and in November led his battalion in the Hanover Expedition, an attempt to liberate the Electorate. The force began to besiege Hamelin, but on 2 December the allied Austro-Russian army was defeated at the Battle of Austerlitz, forcing the withdrawal of the expedition.
The KGL returned to Britain in February 1806 and Hinuber's was one of several battalions that moved on to garrisons in Ireland. In June 1807 the 3rd was part of two KGL divisions sent in an army to Swedish Pomerania to assist the Russians. Landing on Rügen in early July, it was withdrawn from mainland Europe again when Russia brokered a peace with France in the Treaties of Tilsit later in the month. The battalion then joined another expedition, this time to Copenhagen. The KGL led the initial assault on 24 August as a prelude to the bombardment of the city which began on 2 September. Copenhagen surrendered five days later. The force returned to Britain in October. In late December Hinuber's battalion was one of four from the KGL sent to Lisbon. Upset by storms in the Bay of Biscay, the British were not able to arrive before the French took control of the city. The force was moved to serve as part of the garrison on Sicily, arriving after five months at sea on 24 March 1808.
Having remained in Sicily, in mid-1809 Hinuber was given command of a KGL brigade as part of a diversionary attack on islands in the Bay of Naples, intended to take pressure off their Austrian allies on the continent. The brigade contained his own battalion and the KGL's 4th Line Battalion. The force, commanded by Lieutenant-General Sir John Stuart, sailed on 11 June and reached Ischia on 24 June. The neighbouring island Procida capitulated on 26 June and after a siege Ischia surrendered on 30 June. Offensive operations at Scylla went on from 13 June, but by 28 June the town had not been captured. As the Royal Navy was unable to guarantee the lines of supply for the army, Stuart chose to evacuate the two captured islands. The whole force had returned to Sicily by 26 July.
Hinuber continued on in the Mediterranean after the completion of his brigade command and was present in September 1810 during the defence against Marshal Joachim Murat's attempted invasion of Sicily. On 4 June 1811 Hinuber was promoted to major-general and given a position on the military staff in Sicily. Having held only temporary rank, Hinuber was granted permanent rank as a British major-general on 18 August of the following year; this was a reward for all KGL officers after the success of the Legion cavalry at the Battle of Garcia Hernandez on 23 July. Hinuber continued as colonel of the regiment, or colonel commandant, of the 3rd Line Battalion for the rest of its existence.
Peninsular War Hinuber served in Sicily until 30 October 1813 when he joined the army of Field Marshal Lord Wellington in the Peninsular War. He had been given command of the KGL brigade serving as part of the 1st Division on 25 June but, as he was still serving in Sicily, Colonel Colin Halkett had acted in his stead. Hinuber's new command was the largest brigade in Wellington's army, totalling five KGL battalions with 3,000 men between them. It contained the 1st and 2nd Light Battalions and the 1st, 2nd, and 5th Line Battalions. He subsequently led his brigade at the Battle of Nivelle on 10 November, participating in diversionary attacks on the fortified river.
Investment of Bayonne