The war in Germany still raged with unrelenting fury, and the mutual rancour of the contending parties seemed to derive fresh force from their mutual disappointments; at least the house of Austria seemed still implacable, and obstinately bent upon terminating the war with the destruction of the Prussian monarch. Her allies, however, seemed less actuated by the spirit of revenge. The French king had sustained so much damage and disgrace in the course of the war, that his resources failed, and his finances fell into disorder; he could no longer afford the subsidies he had promised to different powers; while his subjects clamoured aloud at the burden of impositions, the ruin of trade, and the repeated dishonour entailed upon the arms of France. The czarina’s zeal for the alliance was evidently cooled by the irregular and defective payments of the subsidies she had stipulated. Perhaps she was disappointed in her hope of conquest, and chagrined to see her armies retire from Germany at the approach of every winter; and the British ministry did not fail to exert all their influence to detach her from the confederacy in which she had embarked. Sweden still languished in an effectual parade of hostilities against the house of Bran-denburgh; but the French interest began to lose ground in the diet of that kingdom. The king of Prussia, howsoever exhausted in the article of men, betrayed no symptom of apprehension, and made no advance towards a pacification with his adversaries. He had employed the winter in recruiting his armies by every expedient his fertile genius could devise; in levying contributions to reinforce the vast subsidy he received from England, in filling magazines, and making every preparation for a vigorous campaign. In Westphalia, the same foresight and activity were exerted by prince Ferdinand of Brunswick, who in the beginning of summer found himself at the head of a very numerous army, paid by Great Britain, and strengthened by two-and-twenty thousand national troops.
No alteration in the terms of this alliance was produced by the death of William, landgrave of Hesse-Cassel, who breathed his last, in an advanced age, on the twenty-eighth day of January, at Rintelen upon the Weser. He was succeeded in the landgraviate by his son Frederick, whose consort, the princess Mary, daughter to the king of Great Britain, now, in quality of governess of her children, assumed the regency and administration of the county of Hanau-Muntzenberg, by virtue of the settlement made in the lifetime of her father-in-law, and confirmed by her husband. She had for some years been separated from him, and resided with his father, at whose decease she retired with her children to the city of Zell. The present landgrave, who lived at Magdebourg as vice-governor under the kin g of Prussia, no sooner learned the news of his father’s death, than he sent an intimation of it to that prince and the king of Great Britain; declaring, at the same time, that he would scrupulously adhere to the engagements of his predecessor.
GEORGE II. 1727-1760
The advances towards a peace, which had been made in the preceding year by the kings of England and Prussia, in their declaration published at the Hague by prince Louis of Brunswick, seemed to infuse in the neutral powers a good opinion of their moderation. We have already seen that the king of Spain offered his best offices in quality of mediator. When a congress was proposed, the states-general made an offer of Breda, as a place proper for the negotiation. The king of Great Britain, by the mouth of his ambassador, thanked their high mightinesses for the sincere desire they expressed to put an end to the ravages of war, which had extended desolation over the face of Europe: he readily closed with their gracious offer; and in consequence of his high regard and invariable friendship for their high mightinesses, wished earnestly that it might be acceptable to the other powers at war. The French king expressed his sentiments nearly to the same purpose. His ambassador declared, that his most christian majesty was highly sensible of the offer they had made of Breda for holding the congress; that, in order to give a fresh proof of his sincere desire to increase the good harmony that subsisted between him and the states-general, he accepted their offer with pleasure; butas he could take no step without the concurrence of his high allies, he was obliged to wait for their answer, which could not fail to be favourable, if nothing remained to be settled but the place for holding the congress. King Stanislaus having written a letter to his Britannic majesty, offering the city of Nancy for the same purpose, he received a civil answer, expressing the king of England’s sense of his obliging offer, which however he declined, as a place not conveniently situated for all the powers interested in the great works of pacification. Civilities of the same nature likewise passed between the sovereign of Nancy and the king of Prussia. As the proposals for an accommodation made by the king of England and his allies might have left an unfavourable impression of their adversaries had they been altogether declined, the court of Vienna was prevailed upon to concur with her allies in a declaration professing their desire of peace; which declaration was delivered, on the third day of April, by the Austrian minister residing at the Hague, to his serene highness prince Louis of Brunswick; and a paper of the same nature was also delivered to him separately by the French and Russian ministers. 558 [See note 4 N, at the end of this Vol.] These professions, however, did not interrupt the operations of the campaign.
Though the French army under the mareschal duke de Broglio remained in cantonment in the neighbourhood of Friedberg, and prince Ferdinand had retired from Corsdorff to Marburg, where in the beginning of January he established his head-quarters, nevertheless the winter was by no means inactive. As far back as the twenty-fifth day of December, the duke de Broglio, having called in his detachments, attempted to surprise the allied army by a forced march to Kleinlinnes; but finding them prepared to give him a warm reception, nothing but a cannonade ensued, and he retreated to his former quarters. On the twenty-ninth, colonel Luckner, at the head of the Hanoverian hunters, fell in with a detachment of the enemy, consisting of four hundred men, under the command of count Muret. These he attacked with such vigour, that the count was made prisoner, and all his party either killed or taken, except two-and-twenty, who escaped. On the third day of January, the marquis de Vogue attacked the town of Herborn, which he carried, and took a small detachment of the allies who were posted there. At the same time the marquis Dauvet made himself master of Dillembourg, the garrison of the allied troops being obliged to retire into the castle, where they were closely besieged. Prince Ferdinand no sooner understood their situation, than he began his march with a strong detachment for their relief, on the seventh day of the month, when he attacked and totally defeated the besiegers, took seven hundred prisoners, including forty officers, with seven pair of colours, and two pieces of cannon. On that very day, the Highlanders, under major Keith, supported by the hussars of Luckner, who commanded the whole detachment, attacked the village of Ryebach, where Beaufremont’s regiment of dragoons was posted on the side of Dillembourg, and routed them with great slaughter. The greater part of the regiment was killed, and many prisoners were taken, together with two hundred horses, and all their baggage. The Highlanders distinguished themselves on this occasion by their intrepidity, which was the more remarkable, as they were no other than raw recruits, just arrived from their own country, and altogether unacquainted with discipline. On the eighth day of January, M. de St. Germain advanced on the left of the allies with the grenadiers of the French army, supported by eight battalions, and a body of dragoons; but he was encountered by the duke of Holstein, at the head of a strong detachment, in the neighbourhood of Ersdorff, who, by dint of a furious cannonade, obliged him to retreat with precipitation. After this attempt the French parties disappeared, and their army retired into winter-quarters, in and about Franckfort on the Maine; while prince Ferdinand quartered the allies at Cassel, Paderborn, Munster, and Osnabruck; this last place being allotted to the British troops, as being the nearest to Embden, where the reinforcements from Britain were to be landed. In the beginning of February, the hereditary prince of Brunswick, with the detachment of the allied army under his command, began his march from Chemnitz in Saxony for Westphalia, where he safely arrived, after having assisted at a long conference in Hamelen, with his father the reigning duke, his uncle prince Ferdinand, and some principal members of the regency of Hanover.
The French general continued to send out detachments to beat up the quarters of the allies, and lay their towns under contribution. In the beginning of March, the marquis de Blaisel marched at the head of two thousand four hundred men from Giessen, where he commanded, to Marburg, forced the gates of the town, and compelled the garrison of the allies to take shelter in the castle. As he could not pretend to undertake the siege of the fortress, by the fire of which he was exceedingly galled, he demanded of the town a contribution of one hundred thousand florins, and carried some of the magistrates along with him as hostages for the payment of this imposition. He afterwards appeared at Hombourg, Alsfeldt, and Hartzberg, the frontier posts of the allies; but did not think proper to attack either, because he perceived that measures were taken for his reception. The French, with all their boasted politeness and humanity, are sometimes found as brutal and rapacious as the most barbarous enemy. On pretence of taking umbrage at the town of Hanau Muntzenberg, for having without their permission acknowledged the regency of the landgraviate of Hesse-Cassel, they, in the month of February, ordered the magistrates of that place to pay, within the term of twenty-four hours, the sum of seven hundred and fifty thousand livres, on pain of being subjected to plunder. This order was signified by the prince de Robecq; to whom the magistrates represented the impossibility of raising such a sum, as the country was totally exhausted, and their credit absolutely destroyed, in consequence of their inability to pay the interest of the capitals negotiated in the course of the preceding year. He still insisted upon their finding the money before night; they offered to pay eighty thousand florins, which they raised with the utmost difficulty, and begged the payment of the rest might be postponed for a few weeks: but their request was rejected with disdain. The garrison was reinforced by two battalions, and four squadrons dispersed in the principal squares and markets of the city, and the gates were shut. They even planted cannon in the streets, and tarred matches were fixed to many houses, in order to intimidate the inhabitants. These expedients proving ineffectual, detachments of grenadiers entered the houses of the principal magistrates and merchants, from whence they removed all their best effects to the town-hall, where they were kept in deposit, until they were redeemed with all the money that could possibly be raised. This exaction, so little to the honour of a civilized nation, the French minister declared to the diet at Ratisbon was agreeable to the instructions of his most christian majesty.
By way of retaliation for the cruelty practised at Hanau, a detachment of the allied army under general Luckner was sent to raise contributions in Fulda, and actually carried off hostages from that city; but retired before a strong body of the enemy, who took possession of the place. From hence the French marched, in their turn, to plunder the towns of Hirchfeldt and Vacha. Accordingly, they appeared at Vacha, situated on the frontiers of Hesse, and formed the head of the chain of cantonments which the allies had on the Werra. This place was attacked with such vigour, that colonel Frey-tag, who commanded the post, was obliged to abandon the town: but he maintained himself on a rising ground in the neighbourhood, where he amused the enemy until two battalions of grenadiers came to his assistance. Thus reinforced, he pursued the French for three leagues, and drove them with considerable loss from Giessa, where they had resolved to fix their quarters. These skirmishes happened in the beginning of May, when the grand armies were just in motion to begin the campaign.
By this time the forces under the mareschal duke de Broglio were augmented to one hundred thousand; while the count de St. Germain commanded a separate army on the Rhine, consisting of thirty thousand men, assembled from the quarters of Dusseldorp, Cologn, Cleves, and Wesel. The second corps was intended to divide the allied army, which, by such a division, would be considerably weakened; and the French court threatened to form a third army under the prince de Soubise; but this did not appear. The duke de Broglio was in such high favour with the French ministry at this juncture, that he was promoted over the heads of many old generals, who now demanded and obtained their dismission; and every step was taken to render the campaign glorious to this admired commander: but notwithstanding all their care, and his own exertion, he found it impossible to take the field early in the season, from want of forage for his cavalry. While his quarters were established at Franckfort, his troops were plentifully supplied with all sorts of provisions from the Upper Rhine; but this convenience depended upon his being master of the course of the river; but he could not move from this position without forfeiting the advantage, and providing magazines for the use of his forces; so that he was obliged to lie inactive until he could have the benefit of green forage in his march. The same inconveniences operated more powerfully on the side of prince Ferdinand, who, being in an exhausted country, was obliged to fall back as far as Paderborn, and draw his supplies from Hamburg and Bremen on the Elbe and the Weser. By this time, however, he had received a reinforcement of British troops from Embden, under the direction of major-general Griffin; and before the end of the campaign, the forces of that nation in Germany were augmented to five-and-twenty thousand; a greater number than had served at one time upon the continent for two centuries. The allied army marched from their cantonments on the fifth day of May, and proceeded by the way of Paderborn to Fritzlar, where, on the twentieth, they encamped: but part of the troops left in the bishopric of Munster, under general Sporcken, were ordered to form a camp at Dulmen, to make head against the French corps commanded by the count de St. Germain.
General Imhoff was sent with a detachment to Kirchaven on the Orme: and general Gilsoe, with another corps, advanced to the neighbourhood of Hirchfeldt on the Fulda. The former of these having ordered colonel Luckner to scour the country with a body of hussars, that officer, on the twenty-fourth of May, fell in with a French patrole, which gave the alarm at Butzbach; when the garrison of that place, amounting to five hundred piquets, under general Waldemar, fled with great precipitation. Being, however, pursued, and overtaken near a wood, they were routed and dispersed. Colonel Luckner, entering Butzbach, found a considerable quantity of forage, flour, wine, and equipage, belonging to the fugitives. What he could not carry off he distributed among the poor inhabitants, and returned to general Imhoff’s camp at Ameneberg, with about an hundred prisoners. This excursion alarmed the enemy to such a degree, that their whole army was put in motion; and the duke de Broglio in person advanced with a large body of troops as far as Friedberg: but undemanding the allies had not quitted their camp at Fritzlar, he returned to Franckfort, after having cantoned that part of his army in the Wetteraw. This alarm was not so mortifying as the secession of the Wirtemberg troops, amounting to ten thousand men, commanded by their duke in person, who left the French army in disgust, and returned to his own country. The imperial army, under the prince de Deuxponts, quartered at Bamberg, began their march to Naumberg on the twentieth of May: but one of their detachments of cavalry having received a check from a body of Prussians near Lutzen, they fell back; and on the fourth day of June encamped at Litchenfels upon the Maine. The small detachments of the grand armies, as well as those belonging to the bodies commanded by general Sporcken and the count de St. Germain, in the neighbourhood of Dusseldorp, skirmished with various success. The hereditary prince of Brunswick being detached from the allied army, with some battalions of grenadiers, and two regiments of English dragoons, advanced to the country of Fulda, where he was joined by the troops under general Gilsoe, and achieved some inconsiderable exploits, particularly at Hosenfeldt and Zielbach, where he surprised and took divers parties of the enemy.
By the twenty-fourth of June, prince Ferdinand, quitting his situation at Fritzlar, marched to Frillendorf, and encamped on the hills between Ziegenheim and Freysa; general Imhoff commanding at a small distance on the right, and the hereditary prince, now returned from Fulda, being posted on the left of the army. In the meantime, the duke de Broglio, assembling his forces between Merlau and Laubach, advanced to Neustadt, where he encamped on the twenty-eighth day of the month, and at the same time occupied a strong post at Wassenburgh. His intention was to penetrate through the country of Hesse into Hanover, and make himself entirely master of that electorate. With this view he resolved to effect a junction with the count de St. Germain, whom he directed to advance towards Brilau and Corbach; while he himself, decamping from Neustadt on the eighth day of July, advanced by the way of Frankenburg. Prince Ferdinand, having received intelligence that the count de St. Germain was in motion, began his march from Ziegenheim, and on the ninth day of July reached the heights of Bruneau, in the neighbourhood of Wildungen.
The hereditary prince, at the head of the advanced corps, reinforced with some battalions and squadrons under major-general Griffin, was sent forward to Sauxenhausen, whither the army followed the next morning. The hereditary prince continuing to advance, found the enemy already formed at Corbach; but judging their whole force did not exceed ten thousand infantry and seventeen squadrons, and being impelled by the impetuosity of his own courage, he resolved to give them battle. He accordingly attacked them about two in the afternoon, and the action became very warm and obstinate; but the enemy being continually reinforced with fresh battalions, and having the advantage of a numerous artillery, all the prince’s efforts were ineffectual. Prince Ferdinand, being at too great a distance to sustain him, sent him an order to rejoin the army which was by this time formed at Sauxenhausen. He forthwith made dispositions for a retreat, which however was attended with great confusion. The enemy observing the disorder of the allied troops, plied their artillery with redoubled diligence, while a powerful body of their cavalry charged with great vivacity. In all likelihood the whole infantry of the allies would have been cut off, had not the hereditary prince made a diversion in their favour, by charging in person at the head of the British dragoons, who acted with their usual gallantry and effect. This respite enabled the infantry to accomplish their retreat to Sauxenhausen; but they lost above five hundred men and fifteen pieces of cannon. General count Kielmansegge, major-general Griffin, and major Hill, of Bland’s dragoons, distinguished themselves by their conduct and intrepidity on this occasion. The hereditary prince exposed his life in the hottest part of the action, and received a slight wound in the shoulder, which gave him far less disturbance than he felt from the chagrin and mortification produced by his defeat.
Many days, however, did not pass before he found an opportunity of retaliating this disgrace. Prince Ferdinand, receiving advice that a body of the enemy, commanded by major-general Glaubitz, had advanced on the left of the allies to Ziegenheim, detached the hereditary prince to oppose them, at the head of six battalions of Hanoverians and Hessians, with Elliot’s regiment of English light-horse, Luckner’s hussars, and two brigades of chasseurs; on the sixteenth day of the month, he engaged the enemy near the village of Exdorf, and a very warm action ensued, in which Elliot’s regiment signalized themselves remarkably by repeated charges.*
* Though this was the first time that Elliot’s regiment appeared in the field, it performed wonders. They charged five different times, and broke through the enemy at every charge; but these exploits they did not achieve without sustaining a heavy loss in officers, men, and horses.
At length victory declared for the allies. Five battalions of the enemy, including the commander-in-chief and the prince of Anhalt Cothen, were taken, with six pieces of cannon, all their arms, baggage, and artillery. During these transactions, the mareschal duke de Broglio remained encamped on the heights of Corbach. He had, in advancing from Franckfort, left detachments to reduce the castles of Marburg and Dillembourg, which were occupied by the allies, and they fell into his hands, the garrison of both being obliged to surrender prisoners of war. These were but inconsiderable conquests; nor did the progress of the French general equal the idea which had been formed of his talents and activity. The count de St. Germain, who was his senior officer, and believed by many to be at least his equal in capacity, having now joined his corps to the grand army, and conceiving disgust at his being obliged to serve under the duke de Broglio, relinquished his command, in which he was succeeded by the chevalier de Muy. At the same time, the marquis de Voyer and the count de Luc, two generals of experience and reputation, quitted the army, and returned to France, actuated by the same motives.
The allied army having moved their camp from Saxenhansen to the village of Kalle near Cassel, remained in that situation till the thirtieth day of July, when the troops were again put in motion. The chevalier de Muy, having passed the Dymel at Stradtbergen, with the reserve of the French army, amounting to thirty-five thousand men, extended this body down the banks of the river, in order to cut off the communication of the allies with Westphalia; while the duke de Broglio marched up with his main wing to their camp at Kalle, and prince Xavier of Saxony, who commanded their reserve on the left, advanced towards Cassel; prince Ferdinand, leaving general Kielmansegge with a body of troops for the defence of the city, decamped in the night of the thirtieth, and passed the Dymel without loss between Gibenau and Dringleberg. The hereditary prince, who had the preceding day passed the same river, in order to reinforce general Sporcken, who was posted near Corbeke, now reconnoitred the position of the enemy, and found them possessed of a very advantageous camp between Warbourg and Ochsendorff. Prince Ferdinand having resolved to attack them, ordered the hereditary prince and general Sporcken to turn their left, while he himself advanced against their front, with the main body of the army.. The enemy was accordingly attacked almost at the same instant, both in flank and in rear, with equal impetuosity and success. As the infantry of the allied army could not march fast enough to charge at the same time, the marquis of Granby was ordered to advance with the cavalry of the right; and the brigade of English artillery, commanded by captain Phillips, made such expedition, that they were up in time to second the attack in a most surprising manner. The French cavalry, though very numerous, retired at the approach of the marquis, except three squadrons, who stood the charge and were immediately broken. Then the English horse fell upon the enemy’s infantry, which suffered greatly, while the town of Warbourg was assaulted by the Britannic legion. The French, finding themselves hard pressed on both flanks, as well in front as in rear, retired precipitately, with considerable damage, occasioned chiefly by the British cannon and dragoons, and many were drowned in attempting to ford the Dymel. The battalion of Maxwell, and a brigade under colonel Beckwith, composed of grenadiers and highlanders, distinguished themselves remarkably on this occasion. The enemy left about fifteen hundred men killed or wounded on the field of battle; with some colours, and ten pieces of cannon; and about the same number were made prisoners. Monsieur de Muy lay all night under arms, on the heights of Volk-Missen, from whence he next day retired towards Wolfshagen. On the evening of the battle, the marquis of Granby received orders to pass the river in pursuit of them, with twelve British battalions and ten squadrons, and encamped at Wilda, about four miles from Warbourg, the heights of which were possessed by the enemy’s grand army. 561 [See note 4 O, at the end of this Vol.] By this success, prince Ferdinand was enabled to maintain his communication with Westphalia, and keep the enemy at a distance from the heart of Hanover; but to these objects he sacrificed the country of Cassel: for prince Xavier of Saxony, at the head of a detached body, much more numerous than that which was left under general Kielmansegge, advanced towards Cassel, and made himself master of that city; then he reduced Munden, Gottengen, and Eimbeck in the electorate of Hanover. All that prince Ferdinand could do, considering how much he was out-numbered by the French, was to secure posts and passes, with a view to retard their progress, and employ detachments to harass and surprise their advanced parties. In a few days after the action at Warbourg, general Luckner repulsed a French detachment which had advanced as far as Eimbeck, and surprised another at Nordheim. At the same period, colonel Donap, with a body of the allied army, attacked a French corps of two thousand men, posted in the wood of Sababourg, to preserve the communication between their grand army and their troops on the other side of the Weser; and, notwithstanding the strength of their situation, drove them from their posts, with the loss of five hundred men, either killed or made prisoners; but this advantage was overbalanced by the reduction of Ziegenheim, garrisoned by seven hundred men of the allied army, who, after a vigorous resistance, were obliged to surrender themselves prisoners of war.
On the fifth day of August, prince Ferdinand, being encamped at Buhne, received intelligence that a considerable body of the enemy, amounting to upwards of twenty thousand men, were in motion to make a general forage in the neighbourhood of Geismar. He passed the Dymel early in the morning, with a body of troops and some artillery, and posted them in such an advantageous manner, as to render the enemy’s attempt totally ineffectual, although the foragers were covered with great part of their army. On the same morning, the hereditary prince set out on an expedition to beat up the quarters of a French detachment. Being informed that the volunteers of Clermont and Dauphiné, to the number of one thousand, horse and foot, were cantoned at Zierenberg, at a small distance from the French camp at Dierenberg, and passed their time in the most careless security, he advanced towards them from his camp at Warbourg, within a league of their cantonment, without seeing any of their posts, or meeting with any of their patrols, a circumstance that encouraged him to beat up their quarters by surprise; for this service he pitched upon five battalions, with a detachment of Highlanders, and eight regiments of dragoons. Leaving their tents standing, they began their march at eight in the evening, and passed the Dymel near Warbourg. About a league on the other side of the Dymel, at the village of Witzen, they were joined by the light troops under major Bulow; and now the disposition was made both for entering the town, and securing a retreat in case of being repulsed. When they were within two miles of Zierenberg, and in sight of the fires of the enemy’s grand guard, the grenadiers of Maxwell, the regiment of Kinsley, and the Highlanders, advanced by three separate roads, and marched in profound silence: at length the noise of their feet alarmed the French, who began to fire, when the grenadiers proceeded at a round pace with unloaded firelocks, pushed the piquets, slew the guard at the gate, and rushing into the town, drove everything before them with incredible impetuosity. The attack was so sudden, and the surprise so great, that the French had not time to assemble in any considerable number; but they began to fire from the windows; and in so doing, exasperated the allied troops, who, bursting into the houses, slaughtered them without mercy. Having remained in the place from two to three in the morning, they retreated with about four hundred prisoners, including forty officers, and brought off two pieces of artillery. This nocturnal adventure, in which the British troops displayed equal courage and activity, was achieved with very little loss; but after all, it deserves no other appellation than that of a partisan exploit; for it was attended with no sort of advantage to the allied army.
Considering the superiority of the French army, we cannot account for the little progress made by the duke de Broglio, who, according to our conception, might either have given battle to the allies with the utmost probability of success, or penetrated into the heart of Hanover, the conquest of which seemed to be the principal object of the French ministry. Instead of striking an important stroke, he retired from Immenhausen towards Cassel, where he fortified his camp as if he had thought himself in danger of being attacked; and the war was carried on by small detachments. Major Bulow, being sent with a strong party from the camp of the allied army at Buline, surprised the town of Marburg, destroyed the French ovens, and brought off a considerable quantity of stores and baggage, with some prisoners. He met with the same success at Butzback, where he surprised and took two companies belonging to the regiment of Baugrave, and retired with this body to Franckenberg, where he joined colonel Forsen. On the twelfth day of September they made a movement towards Franckenau; and M. de Stainville, who was posted with a body of French troops at Merdenhagen, advanced to check their progress. He came up with their rear in the neighbourhood of Munden, and attacked them in passing the river Orck with such vigour, that Forsen, with some of his cavalry, was taken, and Bulow obliged to abandon some pieces of cannon. The action was just determined, when this last was reinforced by the hereditary prince of Brunswick, who had made a forced march of five German miles, which had fatigued the troops to such a degree, that he deferred his attack till next morning; but, in the meantime, M. de Stainville retired towards Franckenberg. The Hanoverian general Wangenheim, at the head of four battalions and six squadrons, had driven the enemy from the defiles of Soheite, and encamped at Lawenthagen; but, being attacked by a superior number, he was obliged in his turn to give way, and his retreat was not effected without the loss of two hundred men, and some pieces of artillery. When the enemy retired, general Wangenheim repassed the Weser, and occupied his former situation at Ussar. Meanwhile, general Luckner gained an advantage over a detachment of French cavalry near Norten. Prince Ferdinand, when mareschal Broglio quitted his camp at Immenhausen, made a motion of his troops, and established his head-quarters at Geismer-wells, the residence of the landgrave of Hesse-Cassel; from thence, however, he transferred them, about the latter end of September, to Ovilgune, on the Westphalian side of the Dymel.
Such was the position of the two opposite grand armies, when the world was surprised by an expedition to the Lower Rhine, made by the hereditary prince of Brunswick. Whether this excursion was intended to hinder the French from reinforcing their army in Westphalia—or to co-operate in the Low Countries with the armament now ready equipped in the ports of England; or to gratify the ambition of a young prince, overboiling with courage and glowing with the desire of conquest—we cannot explain to the satisfaction of the reader; certain it is, that the Austrian Netherlands were at this juncture entirely destitute of troops, except the French garrisons of Ostend and Nieuport, which were weak and inconsiderable. Had ten thousand English troops been landed on the coast of Blankenburg, they might have taken possession of Bruges, Ghent, Brussels, and Antwerp, without resistance, and joined the hereditary prince in the heart of the country; in that case he would have found himself at the head of thirty thousand men, and might have made such a diversion in favour of Hanover, as to transfer the seat of war from Westphalia into Flanders. The empress-queen might, indeed, have complained of this invasion, as the formality of declaring war against her had not been observed by Great Britain; but considering that she was the declared enemy of Hanover, and had violated the barrier-treaty, in establishing which the kingdom of Great Britain had lavished away so much blood and treasure, a step of this kind, we apprehend, might have been taken, without any imputation of perfidy or injustice. Whatever the motives of the prince’s expedition might have been, he certainly quitted the grand army of the allies in the month of September; and traversing Westphalia, with twenty battalions, and as many squadrons, appeared on the Lower Ehine, marching by Schermbeck and Dusseldorp. On the twenty-ninth day of the month he sent a large detachment over the river at Rocroot, which surprised part of the French partisan Fischer’s corps at Ehynberg, and scoured the country. Next day, other parties, crossing at Eees and Emmerick, took possession of some redoubts which the French had raised along the bank of the river; and here they found a number of boats sufficient to transport the rest of the forces. Then the prince advanced to Cleves; and at his approach the French garrison, consisting of five hundred men, under the command of M. de Barrai, retired into the castle, which, however, they did not long defend; for on the third day of October they capitulated, and surrendered themselves prisoners of war, after having in vain endeavoured to obtain more favourable conditions.
A more important object was Wesel, which the prince invested, and began to besiege in form. The approaches were made on the right of the Ehine, while the prince in person remained on the left to cover the siege; and kept his communication open with the other side, by a bridge above, and another below the place. He had hoped to carry it by a vigorous exertion, without the formality of a regular siege; but he met with a warmer reception than he expected; and his operations were retarded by heavy rains, which, by swelling the river, endangered his bridges, and laid his trenches under water. The difficulties and delays occasioned by this circumstance entirely frustrated his design. The French, being made acquainted with his motions, were not slow in taking measures to anticipate his success. M. de Castries was detached after him with thirty battalions, and thirty-eight squadrons; and, by forced marches, arrived on the fourteenth day of October at Ehynberg, where the prince’s light troops were posted. These he attacked immediately, and compelled to abandon the post, notwithstanding all the efforts of the prince, who commanded in person, and appeared in the warmest parts of this short but sanguinary affair. The enemy leaving five battalions, with some squadrons, at Ehynberg, marched by the left, and encamped behind the convent of Campen. The prince, having received intimation that M. de Castries was not yet joined by some reinforcements that were on the march, determined to be beforehand with them, and attempt that very night to surprise him in his camp. For this purpose he began his march at ten in the evening, after having left four battalions, and five squadrons, under general Beck, with instructions to observe Rhynberg, and attack that post, in case the attempt on Campen should succeed. Before the allied forces could reach the enemy’s camp, they were under the necessity of overpowering Fischer’s corps of irregulars, which occupied the convent of Campen, at the distance of half a league in their front. This service occasioned some firing, the noise of which alarmed the French army. Their commander formed them with great expedition, and posted them in the wood, where they were immediately attacked, and at first obliged to give ground; but they soon retrieved all they had lost, and sustained without flinching an unceasing fire of musketry, from five in the morning till nine at night, when they reaped the fruits of their perseverance. The hereditary prince, whose horse was killed under him, seeing no prospect of success in prolonging an action which had already cost him a considerable number of men, thought proper to give orders for a retreat, which was not effected without confusion, and left the field of battle to the enemy. His loss on this occasion did not fall short of sixteen hundred choice men, killed, wounded, and taken; and his loss fell chiefly on the troops of Great Britain, who were always found in the foremost ranks of danger. All the officers, both of infantry and dragoons, distinguished themselves remarkably, and many were dangerously wounded. Among these, the nation regretted the loss of lord Downe, whose wounds proved mortal: he was a young nobleman of spirit, who had lately embraced a military life, though he was not regularly trained in the service.
Next day, which was the sixteenth of October, the enemy attacked an advanced body of the allies, which was posted in a wood before Elverick, and extended along the Rhine. The firing of cannon and musketry was maintained till night. Meanwhile, a column of the French infantry, commanded by M. de Cabot, marched through Walach, and took post among the thickets, at the distance of a quarter of a league, in the front of the prince’s army. By this time the Ehine was so much swelled by the rains and the banks of it were overflown in such a manner, that it was necessary to repair, and move lower down, the bridge which had been thrown over that river. This work was accordingly performed in the presence of the enemy; and the prince passing without molestation, proceeded to Bruymen, where he fixed his head-quarters. His passing the Ehine so easily, under the eye of a victorious army so much superior to him in number, may be counted among the fortunate incidents of his life. Such was the issue of an expedition which exposed the projector of it to the imputation of temerity. Whatever his aim might have been, besides the reduction of Wesel, with the strength of which he did not seem to have been very well acquainted, he certainly miscarried in his design; and his miscarriage was attended with a very considerable loss of troops, occasioned not only by the action, but also by the diseases engendered from the wet weather, the fatigue of long marches, and the want of proper conveniences; not to mention the enormous expense in contingencies incurred by this fruitless undertaking.
In the month of November, while he lay encamped in the neighbourhood of Schermbeck, a body of the enemy attempted to beat up his quarters; having received intimation of their design, he immediately called in his advanced posts, and made a disposition for giving them a proper reception. He abandoned the tents that were in the front of his camp, and posted his infantry in ambuscade behind those that were in the rear; at the same time he ordered some regiments of horse and hussars to fetch a compass, and fall upon the back of the enemy. This stratagem succeeded to his wish. The French detachment, believing the allies had actually abandoned their camp, began to pillage the tents in the utmost disorder: then the infantry sallied from the place where they were concealed, and fell upon them with great impetuosity: the artillery opened, and the cavalry charged them in flank. In a word, of twelve hundred who marched from Wesel on this expedition, scarcely two hundred escaped.
GEORGE II. 1727-1760
The duke de Broglio endeavoured, by sundry means, to take advantage of the allied army on the other side of the Weser, thus weakened by the absence of the troops under the hereditary prince; but he found prince Ferdinand too vigilant to be surprised, and too strongly situated to be attacked with any prospect of success. He therefore contented himself with ravaging the country by detachments: he sent M. de Stainville, with a considerable body of forces, to penetrate into the heart of Hanover; and on the fifteenth day of September, that officer, falling in with a detachment of the allies, commanded by major Bulow, attacked them near the abbey of Schaken. After a warm and obstinate engagement, they were defeated, and driven to Bulemont, with the loss of their cannon, baggage, and a good number of men, who fell into the hands of the victors. After this exploit, M. de Stainville advanced to Halberstadt, and demanded of that capital a contribution of one million five hundred thousand livres; but the citizens had been so drained by former exactions, that they could not raise above thirty thousand: for the remainder the French partisan took hostages, with whom he returned to the grand army encamped at Cassel, from whence they in a little time fell back as far as Gottengen.
As the enemy retreated, prince Ferdinand advanced as far as Hurste, where he established his head-quarters about the latter end of November. While he remained in this position, divers skirmishes happened in the neighbourhood of Gottengen. Major-general Briedenbach, at the head of two regiments of Hanoverian and Brunswick guards, with a detachment of cavalry, attacked, on the twenty-ninth day of November, the French post at Heydemunden, upon the river Worrau. This he carried, and took possession of the town, which the enemy hastily abandoned. Part of their detachment crossed the river in boats; the rest threw themselves into an intrenchment that covered the passage, which the allies endeavoured to force in several unsuccessful attempts, galled as they were by the fire of the enemy’s redoubts on the other side of the river. At length M. Briedenbach was obliged to desist, and fall back into the town; from whence he retired at midnight, after having sustained considerable damage. Prince Ferdinand had it very much at heart to drive the French from Gottengen, and accordingly invested that city; but the French garrison, which was numerous and well provided, made such a vigorous defence, as baffled all the endeavours of the allies, who were moreover impeded by the rainy weather, which, added to other considerations, prevented them from undertaking the siege in form. Nevertheless, they kept the place blocked up from the twenty-second day of November to the twelfth of the following month, when the garrison, in a desperate sally, took one of their principal posts, and compelled them to raise the blockade. About the middle of December, prince Ferdinand retired into winter-quarters; he himself residing at Uslar, and the English troops being cantoned in the bishopric of Paderborn. Thus the enemy were left in possession of Hesse, and the whole country to the eastward of the Weser, to the frontiers of the electorate of Hanover. If the allied army had not been weakened for the sake of a rash, ill-concerted, and unsuccessful expedition to the Lower Rhine, in all probability the French would have been obliged to abandon the footing they had gained in the course of this campaign; and, in particular, to retreat from Gottengen, which they now maintained and fortified with great diligence and circumspection.
Exploit of the Swedes in Pomerania..... Skirmishes between the Prussians and Austrians in Saxony..... Position of the Armies in Saxony and Silesia..... General Laudohn defeats General Fouquet, and reduces Glatz..... and then undertakes the Siege of Breslau, which is relieved by Prince Henry of Prussia..... The King of Prussia makes an unsuccessful Attempt upon Dresden..... He marches into Silesia..... Defeats General Laudohn, and raises the Blockade of Schweidnitz..... Action between General Hulsen and the Imperial Army in Saxony..... Dangerous Situation of the Prussian Monarch..... The Russians and Austrians make an Irruption into Brandenburgh, and possess themselves of Berlin..... The Ring of Prussia defeats the Austrians at Torgau..... Both Armies go into Quarters of Cantonment..... The Diets of Poland and Sweden assembled..... Intimation given by the King of Prussia to the States of Westphalia..... King of Poland’s Remonstrance..... Reduction of Pondicherry..... Part of the British Squadron wrecked in a Storm..... Death of King George II..... His Character..... Recapitulation of the principal Events of his Reign..... His Death universally lamented..... Account of the Commerce of Great Britain..... State of Religion and Philosophy..... Fanaticism..... Metaphysics and Medicine..... Mechanics..... Genius..... Music..... Painting, and Sculpture