Smashed Armor Hit By A Cannonball During Battle Of Waterloo Goes Viral For Claim That Soldier Was Merely “Wounded”

If you happen to be a fan of Monty Python, you will appreciate the fact that many people are laughing at information posted on social media about the Battle of Waterloo. You might even say that the wearer of the armor received nothing but a scratch when they were hit by a cannonball.

In fact, after saying that the person who wore the armor was “wounded,” it was an instant hit on social media. Suddenly, Monty Python fans were coming out of the woodwork with all types of comments from that movie, regarding it as being only a flesh wound or a scratch.

Antoine Fauveau was the 23-year-old man who wore the armor. As seen in the tweet below, there is a cannonball entry hole on the right side of the armor’s chest and an exit wound at the back. Obviously, this would’ve killed anyone who was wearing the armor at the time.

According to Daily Mail, history professor Tony Pollard shared that the breastplate was hit by a 9-pound cannonball. It was likely fired at the Battle of Waterloo and it is now on display at the Musee de l’Armee in Paris.

Armor of a soldier wounded by a cannonball at the battle of Waterloo in 1815.pic.twitter.com/ynp8qmW43I

— Figen (@TheFigen) January 3, 2022

Pollard went on to say that the armor was likely pulled off of Fauveau and kept as a souvenir before the cavalryman was thrown into an unmarked grave along with many other French soldiers.

It wasn’t long after the information was posted online that jokes started coming in. It included everything from quotes from the Monty Python movie to memes.

Pollard, on the other hand, was not very happy about people poking fun at this historical event. He said: “It is not a joke or a Monty Python sketch about a scratch. It might not seem so funny if we knew more about the man and his death.”

He also added a little more to the content, saying that the ground was softened due to recent rains when the Battle of Waterloo took place so it was unlikely that the cannonball bounced and hit the cavalryman. More than likely, it was a direct hit.

Pollard spoke about the massive trauma that would have destroyed every organ in the cavalryman, but the armor would’ve held his torso together after the cannonball passed through.

More than likely, the young soldier only had about seven days of training before he went out to battle. He was assigned as a cavalryman conscript to the fourth company, 2nd Carabiner Regiment in the French army.

Likely, he died as they took place in one of the charges against the center and right lines of the Duke of Wellington’s army. They were ordered to make the charges, which were difficult because of all of the mud at the time.

Prior to the time that Fauveau’s body was thrown into the mass, unmarked grave, the breastplate was removed. He referred to it as being a “prized trophy” but keeping it actually allowed them to discover who wore it many years later. It seems as if there was a pay book lodged in the padding of the breastplate that wasn’t discovered for some time.

Some of the information in the book described the soldier, which makes him more of a person rather than just an interesting story. It seems as if he was a dairyman that was about to get married and he had a “long, freckled face with a large forehead, blue eyes, hooked nose & a small mouth.”