READING HALL

THE DOORS OF WISDOM

ANNALS OF WAR

1703.

1. DEFECTION OF THE DUKE OF SAVOY FROM FRANCE.—2. WAR ON THE RHINE.—3. SIEGE OF BONN. 4. MARSHAL DE V1LLER0Y COMMANDS THE FRENCH FORCES.—5. MARSHAL VILLARS GAINS THE BATTLE OF HOCHS'! ADT OVER COUNT STYRUM.—6. OPDAM ROUTED BY MARSHAL BOUFLERS.—7* MARLBOROUGH TAKES HUY AND LIMBURG. 8. MARSHAL VILLARS REPLACED BY THE DUKE OF BURGUNDY.— 9. BATTLE OF SPIREBACH.—10. WAR IN IT4LY.—11. WAR IN SCAN­DINAVIA.—12. NAVAL WAR.

1.Defection of the Duke of Savoy from France.

The King of France began the new year by creating ten new marshals of France, which with the nine existing made the number nineteen. The wits of the court remarked, “C’étaient pour n’en pas manquer.” They were none of them men of great distinction, and Louis XIV kept to the services of the original nine, even when his fortunes were at the lowest. The most important event of this year, in its military prospects, was the defection from the French alliance of the Duke of Savoy, who was a blood relation of Louis XIV, and father-in-law both of the Duke of Burgundy and of the young King of Spain. This circumstance was not made known to the French armies till late in the year; but so badly did the Duke of Savoy manage his affairs, that he left 5000 of his men at the very time serving in the army of the Duke of Vendôme, who immediately disarmed them. The King of Portugal, who had at first acknowledged Philip as King of Spain, seized an early opportunity to conclude a treaty with England, his old ally; by which he bound himself to receive in his kingdom a combined army of English and Dutch, and to furnish 28,000 Portuguese troops against the Bourbons. After some hesitation, the Duke of Schomberg was appointed to the command of this allied force.

2.War on the Rhine.

By the death of the Prince of Saarbrück, and of the Earl of Athlone, Marlborough was relieved from the jealousy of the two rivals, who had competed with him for the command-in-chief of the allied armies. The death of his only son had, however, detained him in England, so that in the mean time, and by his advice, Rheinberg was invested and reduced by the Prussian troops; and the capture of the fortress was followed by the blockade of Gueldres, the only place still held by the enemy in Spanish Guelderland. The result of the last campaign had been to remove the seat of war from the Dutch frontier and the Rhine, to the Meuse and the French and Spanish frontiers; and Marlborough had now formed an extensive plan for the invasion of French Flanders and Brabant; but in this, as in almost every instance, his genius was shackled by the timidity of the States General. To soothe their alarms, he reluctantly consented to open the campaign with the siege of Bonn, upon the Rhine, a frontier town of great importance, from its commanding the passage of that river, and the transit of military stores and provisions for the use of either army. Notwithstanding the obstruc­tions with which he had to struggle, Marlborough drew his troops from their quarters with his usual diligence and activity, so that by the 2nd of April he had assembled an army of sufficient force at once to protect Liège. To execute this intended enterprise, he gave to Overkirk the command of the corps of observation, and he himself proceeded towards Bonn.

3. Siege of Bonn.

The allied force intending to undertake the siege consisted of forty battalions and sixty squadrons, with a train of 100 pieces of artillery. The trenches were opened on the 3rd of May. The plan was, to have three different attacks: the first under Coehoom was to be directed against the fort on the other side of the Rhine, and the second and third were to be directed against the city and outworks, under the hereditary Prince of Hesse-Cassel and General Fagel.

4. Marshal de Villeroy commands the French Forces.

Meanwhile the French took the field under the joint command of Villeroy, (who had been released by the exertions and influence of the king,) and Bouflers, unwilling to remain on the defensive, advanced against the covering army of Overkirk; but although they employed the utmost haste in getting their troops together, they were not sufficiently prompt to effect their purpose; for although they collected 40,000 men, and had advanced as far as Tongeren, yet the approaches against Bonn were pushed with such rapidity, that the fort was taken on the 9th. The Marquis d’Alegre, who was intrusted with the defence, made as vigorous a resistance as his means permitted; nevertheless the place capitulated on the 16th of May, and Marlborough was glad to be thus enabled to go to the assistance of Overkirk, and therefore did not insist on the condition that the garrison should become prisoners of war. On the 17th he effected a junction with the Dutch commander, and established his head-quarters at Moechst, a monastery in the vicinity of Maestricht. Before quitting Bonn, Spaar and Opdam however, he embarked on the river twenty battalions of foot, and twenty-one squadrons of horse, under the command of Coehoorn; were to go by land to Bergen-op-Zoom with twenty other battalions, where they were all to assemble in order to threaten Antwerp and invade West Flanders.

5. Marshal Villars gains the Battle of Hochstadt, 20 September 1703, over Count Styrum.

Marshal Villars received orders to join the Elector of Bavaria, and was reinforced by a body of troops from Tailard, with which he was to advance. Marshal Tallard had in the mean time extended his forces along the Upper Rhine and Moselle, and reduced Treves and Traerbach; and in accordance with the grand plan laid down for the campaign, Marshal Villars broke up from his winter-quarters on the 9th of March, and before Marlborough had arrived from England had reduced the important fort of Kehl; then striking across the Black Forest had joined the Elector of Bavaria; routed 20,000 of the emperor’s troops under Count Styrum, took Augsburg and threatened the road to Vienna. This was on the 18th of September. The French had their position at Hochstadt, from which this battle takes its name with them, creating some confusion with the famous battle of the same name gained by Marlborough the following year, which the French also call Hochstadt. Owing to a mistake Count Styrum attacked prematurely and brought on an action that lasted nine hours. Styrum was defeated and driven back to Nordlingen “sans Equipages et sans munitions” (With loss of bag and baggage).The Gallo-Bavarian force consisted of seventy-two squadrons and forty-eight battalions, and was commanded by the Elector of Bavaria and Marshal Villars. They even reached Ratisbon, where the diet of the empire were assembled, and took possession of the gate of the city.

6. Opdam routed by Marshal Bouflers.

The French army under the command of Marshal Villeroy and Bouflers counted at this time sixty-one battalions and 118 squadrons, whilst Marlborough’s army opposed to them consisted of fifty-nine battalions and 125 squadrons. The French had intrenched camps on the Mehaigne and on the verge of the frontier between Antwerp and Ostend; and to maintain their defences they had established two flying camps, one under the Marquis of Bedmar of forty battalions and twenty-seven squadrons, and the other under the Count de la Motte. To the former were opposed Coehoorn with the Dutch troops from Bonn, who had his head-quarters at Stabroek, east of the Scheldt, whilst Spaar kept de la Motte in check, and Opdam was at Bergen-op-Zoom; both ready to be supported by Coehoorn in an attempt to surprise Antwerp. Marlborough’s plan for the campaign was to reduce Antwerp and Ostend: and with this view, he had so placed himself as to detain the main French army at a distance, and yet be ready to gain the advance by a rapid movement and effect a junction with the Dutch, so as to interpose his army between the different bodies of the enemy. The most profound and accurate combinations are, however, easily frustrated by the slightest want of concert in the subordinate agents. Contrary to the express orders and views of the generalissimo, Coehoorn on the 26th of June crossed the Scheldt to Liefkenshoek; and, on the ensuing morning, he and Spaar made a combined attack on the enemy’s lines: the latter penetrated to the villages of Stecken and Steenbroek with considerable loss, and Coehoorn forcing the works at the front of Callo reduced fort St. Anthony. Opdam broke up the same evening from Bergen-op-Zoom, and on the 29th took up a position at the village of Ekeren, a little to the north of Antwerp. The French perceiving that the ill-judged irruptions of Coehoorn and Spaar had broken the connexion that had existed between the three different bodies of the Dutch army and left Opdam without support, seized the opportunity for an attack. Bedmar, instead of suffering himself to be diverted to oppose incursions, which could produce no permanent effect, maintained his position, whilst Marshal Bouflers with 20,000 men, principally cavalry, marched in all haste to Antwerp, which he reached on the 30th, and immediately united with Bedmar. Their combined forces sallied through the northern gates of the city, with equal silence and celerity, and advanced on the road towards Ekeren, but they detached a corps to seize Stabroek, the post which Coehoorn had imprudently quitted, and cut off the road to Lille. Opdam, although apprised of the march of the French, supinely remained at his post, till it was too late to obviate the effects of his negligence. He rode out to reconnoitre the hostile columns; and discovering his danger, endeavoured to regain his camp, but finding all the avenues to it occupied, he left his troops to their fate, and provided for his own safety. After wandering the whole day through remote and solitary paths, he reached Breda, carrying himself the disastrous intelligence that his whole force had been cut off. General Schlangenberg, on Opdam’s disgraceful flight, assumed the command of the troops, and availing himself of the dykes and natural defences of the country, effected his retreat to Lillo, by repulsing the detachment that opposed him, with a loss comparatively trifling. The French captured four guns, several mortars, baggage, ammunition, and colours.

7. Marlborough takes Huy and Limburg.

Marshal Villeroy in this interval did not remain idle, nor allow the Duke of Marlborough to do so, but marched with his whole army to Brabant, which obliged the duke to move likewise: and on the 2nd of July, he encamped between Mott and Balen. On the march he was apprised of the irruptions of Coehoorn and Spaar, and of the disaster that had befallen Opdam. Not discouraged, however, but deeply chagrined by their imprudence, he resumed with new zeal his design of attacking the French lines, and reducing Antwerp. With this view he moved his camp to Thielen on the 5th of July. The Dutch authorities, however, would not share the responsibility attached to such an attempt. Marshal Villeroy, being now joined by Marshals Bouflers and Bedmar, advanced to Sandhofen. The British commander on the 7th transferred his camp to Vorstlaar. The French still approaching Antwerp established themselves in the strong position of St. Job, and on the 22nd the duke moved to Brecht, half a league from the French camp; having by importunity extorted the consent of the Dutch government to attack the enemy. In the interval, a violent quarrel had broken out between the Dutch generals, respecting Opdam’s affair, and Coehoorn, in a fit of resentment, left the army, so that the command devolved on General Schlangenberg. On the 23rd of July, at three in the morning, Marlborough advanced at the head of his cavalry, and arriving at the great heath of Antwerp, made signals to Schlangenberg to join him with the troops from Lille. Villeroy had declared he would wait for the duke with a view to give him battle; but, on his approach, the French marshal setting fire to his camp, retired behind his lines, which were but one hour’s march from his camp. At ten o’clock the Dutch troops joined ; and the junction being effected, the two armies encamped ; that of Marlborough between Camphout and Westdon, and that of Schlangenberg at Capelle. Next morning the generals went under an escort of 4000 horse to view the lines. The French allowed them to come so near as to beat back their outguard. The lines were found to have a fosse twenty-seven feet broad with nine feet of water in them, so that it was resolved not to attack them, but that the army should return to the Meuse, and invest Huy. With this object, the allied army formed a camp on the 15th of August at Vai Notre Dame, whilst the French army moving in a parallel direction, established themselves in the position of Wasseige. On the 16th Huy was invested, and the trenches opened the ensuing night. In a few days the forts surrounding the place were reduced, and batteries being raised against the castle, the governor was constrained to surrender on the 27th of August. Again the duke renewed his entreaty to be allowed to attack the French lines, and a council of war was held at Vai Notre Dame, where it was again discussed. The English generals, and those of the auxiliary troops of Denmark, Luneburg, and Hesse, supported Marlborough, but he was again opposed by the Dutch deputies, who expatiated on the risk and danger of such an enterprise. The duke was made quite ill by this discussion, which lasted six days, but he was obliged to give way.

Notwithstanding the heavy rains which deluged the ground, the allied army was again in motion on the 6th of September, and on the 10th Limburg was invested. The trenches were opened with all diligence, and the batteries began to play on the 25th. A wide breach was soon effected, and on the 27th the governor with a garrison of 1400 men surrendered at discretion. With this success the active operations of the campaign in Flanders closed.

8. Marshal Villars replaced by the Duke of Burgundy.

After Marshal Villars and the Elector of Bavaria had reached Ratisbon, they had a violent quarrel and separated, and the elector employed himself in reducing some frontier fortresses. In the meantime the Duke of Burgundy was nominated in the place of Villars to the command of the French army in Germany. On the 6th of September he took the command, and on the 2nd of October obtained possession of Old Brisach after thirteen days’ open trenches. His royal highness obtained great honour by his skill in this transaction, whilst he charmed the army by his affability and military bearing, but after this success he returned to Versailles. Marshal Tallard now laid siege to Landau, and the Prince of Hesse passed the Rhine at Spire to interrupt it. Tallard would not await him in his lines, but leaving a mere guard in the trenches he directed a considerable body under M. de Pracontal, who commanded, to march round on his left, whilst he moved straight on his enemy.

9. Battle of Spirebach. 15 November 1703 

Tallard had the defect of being shortsighted, and it was said of him with reference to this defect and his immoderate ambition, “Que sa vue étoit courte, mais ses vues étoient longues.” He was always dependent on the sight of those around him. Accordingly on the 18th of October, M. de Waillac, who was charged with the duty of keeping the marshal informed of the enemy’s movements, mistaking a movement of the allied cavalry on the left, for a retreat, M. de Tallard, in his eagerness, ordered his troops to charge, although they were still in column. They penetrated the allies who were in order of battle, and then deploying, checked by their fire the advance of the allied cavalry. The French cavalry then came forward, and drove the enemy back upon their infantry, who accordingly escaped with great difficulty. M. de Pracontal, however, advancing on Spirebach was driven back by the enemy, who held that rivulet successfully, and forced him to go back. The Prince of Hesse (who afterwards became King of Sweden) distinguished himself by uncommon marks of courage and presence of mind in this combat. Three horses were successively killed under him, but after incredible efforts he was forced to retreat with the loss of some thousands. The French paid dear, however, for their victory, and Pracontal was of the number of the slain; indeed the whole thing was a blunder of Tallard’s, and he was fortunate in succeeding at all. It was the only victory he ever gained. At this battle the bayonet is first mentioned, “arme terrible dont l’usage était alors plus familier à nos troupes qu’à celles de l’ennemi.” After a month’s open trenches Landau was reduced on the 14th of November, which secured to the French their communication with the forces collected beyond the Black Forest. The campaign in Germany was finished with the reduction of Augsburg by the Elector of Bavaria, who took it in the month of December, and agreed to its being secured by a French garrison.

10.War in Italy.

The Duke de Vendôme was to have united the French and Italian armies and to have penetrated into the German dominions, but the defection of the Duke of Savoy obstructed the attempt. In order to protect this sovereign from the insults of the French, a body of imperial horse under Visconti immediately joined him, and Count Stahremberg at the head of 15,000 men marched during the worst season of the year, and by roads that were deemed impassable. The French harassed Visconti on his march, and soon surrounded him in many different places on the route, but he surmounted all these difficulties with invincible courage and perseverance, and joined the Duke of Savoy at Canelli in time to secure the country of Piedmont.

11.War in Scandinavia.

The war on the shores of the Baltic Sea continued its independent course, neither influencing nor in any degree affecting the interests of the great contest going on between the Western Powers but, at the same time, exhibiting in action the three great qualities of military daring:—the unprincipled ambition of Augustus, King of Poland; the gallant dash and reckless intrepidity of Charles, King of Sweden; and the steady perseverance, and contention with adverse fortune, of the Czar Peter. No commanding military event however signalized this year, though none of the three sovereigns were idle in their own peculiar manner. King Augustus, a refugee from his kingdom, kidnapped John Sobieski, who was about to be elected King of Poland in his stead, and Charles XII fixed upon the Pala­tine, Stanislaus Leczinski, to occupy the throne in his place. Stanislaus was elected solely at the dictation of Charles, in opposition to the cardinal legate and the whole Polish people; but he was scarcely in­stalled king, when Augustus, at the head of 20,000 men, surprised and almost captured him in his capital at Warsaw. Charles XII was at this time amusing himself in capturing towns belonging either to Poland or the czar. On the 5th of September he invested Leopold, and took it by assault the next day. The Czar Peter was quietly consolidating his empire, and having cleared the way by several conquests this year, laid the foundations of his great capital, St. Petersburg, at the mouth of the Neva, where within five months a Dutch merchant ship arrived in its port to trade—so expeditiously did it rise into existence. Nor did he omit to secure it from the insult of enemies, for he forthwith traced the site of the impregnable fortifications of Cronstadt, which leaving Menschikoff to construct, he himself repaired to the other extremes of his empire, to the Caspian and the Sea of Azoff, to watch over or defend his shores for his country­men or from his enemies. It is said that when the Swedes were driven by the czar from the island on which Cronstadt is now built, they left nothing behind them but a camp-kettle. This now gives the name to the island in Russian, and the French call it L’Isle de Caudron.

12. Naval War.

The confederates did not reap any material advantages from the naval operations of this year. On the 21st of May, Captain Roemer Vlak, commanding the Dutch ship “Moidenberg,” with five ships of war and a convoy, engaged five ships of the French navy, carrying seventy or eighty guns each, commanded by the Marquis de Coetlogon, near St. Ubes. The fight began at eleven and lasted till night, and was contested with great firmness and spirit on either side. Vlak’s ship was at length obliged to strike, after severely crippling his antagonist, and he himself lost an arm and died. In the end the five Dutch ships were obliged to surrender, but the vessels they convoyed all escaped and ran into Portuguese ports. The French navy had also seme successes this year. On the 10th of May a French squadron under M. de Gabaret beat off an English squadron off Guadaloupe, and on the 10th of August M. de St. Pol took some cruisers off the north of Scotland. M. de Forbin made himself formidable to the commerce of the empire in the Adriatic, and M. Duquesne bombarded the town of Aquileia. Sir Cloudesly Shovel sailed from Spithead on the 1st of July, and landed a corps of 2500 marines under Brigadier-General Seymour at Valencia. One object of this armament was to assist the Cevennese, who had been persecuted on account of their religion, and had solicited support, but another and more important one was to endeavour to raise the standard of the Archduke of Austria in the peninsula. The admiral went thence to the Duke of Narbonne with some refugees and French pilots, who had concerted with the Cevennese: but the Marshal de Montreuil having intimation of their design, took measures to prevent all communication between the fleet and the coast. On November the 16th three of our ships, the “Oxford,” “Warspite,” and “Lichfield,” captured a French fifty-two gun ship, the “Hazardous,” Captain De la Rue. In the West Indies Captain Hovenden Walker, with six ships of the line and transports with four regiments, was despatched by Sir George Rooke from the Mediterranean, and being joined by some troops under General Coddrington, they made a descent upon the French island of Guadaloupe, when they razed the fort, burned the town, and ravaged the country, but were obliged to re-embark with precipitation, on an alarm that the French had landed 900 men to oppose them. Vice-Admiral Graydon had been sent out to succeed Benbow, but had not sailed many days, before he fell in with part of the French fleet commanded by Du Casse, very full and richly laden. Captain Cleland, of the “Montagu,” engaged the sternmost, but was called off by a signal from the admiral, who proceeded on his voyage without taking further notice of the enemy. At his return to England an inquiry was set on foot as to his conduct, and he was dismissed the service. The only exploit of any success this year was that obtained by Admiral Dilkes, who in the month of July sailed to the coast of France with a small squadron, and took or destroyed about forty ships in the neighbourhood of Granville. The English navy, how­ever, sustained a most severe loss, through a dreadful tempest, on the 27th of November, by which thirteen ships-of-war were lost, together with 1500 men, including Admiral Beaumont, who was then at anchor in the Downs observing the Dunkirk squadron.

1704.

1. THE ARCHDUKE CHARLES PROCLAIMED KING OF SPAIN.—2. WAR IN GERMANT.—3. MARLBOROUGH TAKES THE FIELD.—4. HE ADVANCES INTO THE EMPIRE.—5. THE MARSHALS VILLEROY AND TALLARD FOLLOW HIM.—6. BATTLE OF DONAUWORTH OR THE SCHELLENBERG. MARLBOROUGH DEFEATS THE ELECTOR.—7- THE ARMIES OF MARSHALS TALLARD AND VILLEROY SEPARATE.— 8. PRINCE EUGENE JOINS MARL­BOROUGH.—9. THE BATTLE OF BLENHEIM OR BLINDflElM.—10. CON­SEQUENCES OF THE VICTORY.—11. THE WAR IN FLANDERS.—12. THE WAR IN ITALY.—13. THE REVOLT IN HUNGARY.—14. THE WAR IN SCANDINAVlI. 15. THE WAR IN SPAIN. 16. ADMIRAL SIR G.ROOKE CAPTURES GIBRALTAR.—17. NAVAL BATTLE OFF MALAGA.