One of my favourite quests is to correct errors of long standing. Even Georges Six was prone to the odd error here and there. A friend of mine in France, who is a descendant of Generale Claude-Etienne GUYOT told me some years ago that Six was wrong in stating that Guyot was captured at Kulm in August 1813. Guyot's carnets covering the period made no mention of any such incident. I obtained a copy of this officer's Etats de Service from Vincennes and it is not mentioned in those documents either. My informant states he believes that the error was first originated by Baron Fain. The Baron probably confused Guyot with, Generale QUIOT who was indeed present at Kulm and taken prisoner. The pronunciation of the two names is quite similar but QUIOT's full name was Generale Joachim-Jerome QUIOT de PASSAGE. Very many historians the world over, have since taken Six as gospel and as a result, are wrong. However this is not an isolated incident of mistaken identity. Another case concerned Generals Michel-Marie PACTHOD and Jacques-Pierre-Louis-Marie-Joseph PUTHOD when one officer received the promotion intended for the other.

A typical incident of inaccuracy concerns "Horne's History of Napoleon" published around the turn of the century. In this book Horne states on page 416 that Generale d'Henin was overheard inciting his men to defect to the Allies. The book went on to say, that d'Henin later lost a leg during the battle. I have seen very many Orders of Battle for l'Armee du Nord at Waterloo but no mention has ever been made of d'Henin. I obtained the Etats de Service of this soldier and not only did he never lose a leg, he was not even on the field, having been made Commandant le department de Loir et Cher from 23rd May 1815. To check another source I obtained a copy of d'Henin's entry in the "Collection de la Moskowa" from le Musee de l'Armee in Paris and again no mention of either Waterloo or the loss of a leg.

d'Henin was a particularly interesting character. Captured in 1803 while serving in Santo Domingo, he was brought to England and paroled at Chesterfield where he spent the next eight years. During this period of captivity he met a Scottish girl named Eleanor Dickson. The two were married on 1st May 1806 and had three children: a boy Arthur-Jules-Alexandre born on 15th November 1805 some six months before the marriage. A second child, a girl, Sabine-Ann-Hamilton was born in November 1808 and the third, another girl was born some seven years later. Abell stated that d'Henin didn't always enjoy the best of health during this period of captivity and he spent some time at Harrogate in an attempt to obtain some improvement. Also according to Abell, Eleanor was a lady of some considerable wealth.

Like General Charles Lefebvre-Desnouettes who was captured at Benevente, Spain on 29th December 1808 and was paroled at Cheltenham, d'Henin returned to France in time to take part in the ill fated Russian Campaign of 1812. Perhaps with hindsight both would have preferred to have remained prisoners. Lefebvre-Desnouettes could have done so, for he engineered his own escape using a signet ring given to him by the Emperor as a bribe, and disguised his wife by dressing her up as an hussar trooper. As a matter of interest the signet ring used by Lefebvre is to be found today in the Museum in Cheltenham.