The Battle for Marengo looks likely to drag on for many years to come
THE campaign to repatriate the bones of perhaps the most famous horse in military history back to Buttevant has been dealt a massive blow by British authorities.
As reported earlier this year in The Corkman, Cork County Councillor Bernard Moynihan (FF) had led the rallying cry for Napoleon Bonaparte’s mount Marengo to be brought back to the town and put on display in a planned new museum.
Folklore has it that the white charger, which saw action under ‘Old Boney’ at the battles of Austerlitz, Jena and Waterloo, was actually sold at the famous Cahirmee Fair in Buttevant.
After Napoleon’s defeat at Waterloo in 1815 Marengo was captured alive by Grenadier Guards and taken back to England as a spoil of War. Following his death in 1831, Marengo’s skeleton was put on display at the now defunct Royal United Services Museum and then at Britain’s National Army Museum in Chelsea.
In recent years the skeleton, which had been held together by iron bars and bolts, has undergone a painstaking restoration and now stands proudly in a new display case at the London museum.
At the behest of Cllr Moynihan, the council’s Kanturk/ Mallow committee had written to the museum requesting that Marengo’s skeleton be shipped back to Buttevant.
At the time Cllr Moynihan said he hoped it would become the centrepiece of a museum planned for the town, which would also include some of the more than 2,700 items found by archaeologists during the towns recent streetscaping works.
While there may be some debate about Marengo’s origin, with people from the village of Bartlemy saying he was bought there and some historians claiming he was bought in Egypt, Cllr Moynihan said he had no doubt the horse was sold at Cahirmee.
“Having Marengo’s bones back in Buttevant would have the potential to be a fantastic tourist attraction for the town,” he said.
However, in their reply to the council, the National Army Museum has poured cold water on any hope of Marengo’s skeleton coming to Buttevant permanently.
Its director, Janice Murray, said the skeleton would be a key exhibit in the newly refurbished museum’s Battle Gallery, which she said would not be overhauled for “some years to come.”
“Therefore, I cannot respond positively to any request at this time,” she wrote.
However, she did not completely write off the chances of the skeleton coming to Buttevant on loan.
“We are always happy to consider requests for future loans and once your plans for the new museum in Buttevant are developed, that would be the time to discuss the possibility of a loan,” she added.
Cllr Moynihan admitted he was disappointed with the reply.
“The indications are that if this were to happen, it would not do so for a number of years. I was hoping it would happen relatively quickly, but I will keep the pressure on and push this in the future,” he said.
Cllr Moynihan said the news was a “step backwards” in the context of the proposed museum for Buttevant.
“It is something that we are looking into at council level. But, this has come as a blow because we had hoped Marengo would be the centrepiece of the new museum,” he said.