NOTES ON THE HESSEN-KASSEL CONTINGENT AT THE BATTLE OF OUDENAARDE

from Martin Andrew Spindler

I am writing in response to the article in issue 4 by Alan Sapherson on Marlborough's Cavalry, which was in reply to an earlier question on the Allies cavalry at the battle of Oudenaarde in Issue 2. I am only in a position to comment on the contingent from Hessen-Kassel, as this is a subject of special interest to me and my references for this period are all primarily concerned with this force, however I hope that the following information may be of interest to the readership.

From the information available to me I would argue that the two dragoon regiments which form Starkenburg's Brigade in the Order of Battle, taken from the book by Schwenk, are not Hessen- Kassel dragoon regiments. Or rather, if they are, they are incorrectly named.

I can find no reference to either of Hessen-Kassel's two dragoon regiments being present at the Battle of Oudenaarde. This of course does not mean that they were not there, they very well may have been, espcially, since I can not find any reference to them being elsewhere at the same time. However, having said that, they were not there under the names given in the article. The names are not those of any Hessian cavalry regiments at this date.

There certainly was a dragoon regiment named after Prinz Philipp von Hessen-Homburg in the army, but only from 1698 to 1704. The unfortunate prince was to meet his death at the Battle of Speyerbach in 1703. During the following year the regiment was placed under the command of Generalmajor Georg Friedrich von Auerochs whose name it held until his death in 1731.

The senior dragoon regiment a( this time was the Erbprinz Dragoner, commanded either by Oberstleutnant Karl Heinrich von May or by Oberstleutnant Karl Gustav von Meysebusch who succeeded the former at some date during 1708. Whether the change took place before or after the battle is something I am unable to Find any information on.

Hessian regiments, along with those of other German states during this period, were [lamed either after their Inhaber or after the actual commander of the regiment. The Inhaber was an honorary title usually given to members from the ruling house and royal and princely lines from the other states of Germany.

My own reference works indicate that, although the two dragoon regiments may or may not have been in attendance, there certainly were two Hessen-Kasscl cavalry regiments present at the Battle of Oudenaarde. Both of these being regiments of horse. These were the Leibrcgiment, commanded by Generalmajor Rudolph von Hanstein, and Regiment zu Pferde Spiegel. The regiments were of two squadrons, each of three companies, with a strength of around 350 men, and were serving in the pay of the United Provinces.

There was one other Hessian formation present, this being the Regiment zu Fuss Prinz Maximillian von Hessen-Kassel. It had a single battalion, of ten companies, with a strength of around 800 men. It was also serving in the pay of the United Provinces.

OUDENARDE: AN ORDER OF BATTLE

from: A.V. Exelby

Herewith, Oudenarde Allied OB (the nearest we're likely to get, anyway). marked up to show the nationalities of units and generals.

SOURCES

OB of 30 May from Schwencke, Geschichte der hannover'schen Truppen im spanischen Erbfolgekrieg. Anlage no. 9, reproduced in Fcldzugc des Prinzen Eugen, vol. 10 (the photocopy is from the latter, as it is more readable than Schwencke's 'fraktur' type, but Schwericke identifies Hanoverian units and generals); and OB of 8 June reproduced in C.T. Atkinson, 'Oudenarde: the missing order of battle' in Fighting Forces, vol. 1 (1924). 489-97. These compared with various publications, e.g. Calendar of Treasury Books, Curt Jany's Geschichte der preussischen Armee vol. 1, the various parts of Belaubre et al., Les armees qui combattirent Louis XIV, Editions Brokaw pamphlets, and so on, to identify the nationality of the various units. Jany refers to an OB of 4 June in the Europische Mercurius for 1708; I have not been able to see this. No OB for closer to the battle has been found; there is no OB for Marlborough's army for 1708 that I could find in the Blenheim Palace manuscripts now in the British Library, and the fact that the Feldzuge... merely copied Schwencke suggests that European sources had no other either.

ARTILLERY

The Schwencke/FPE OB does not mention artillery. The Atkinson one shows a Dutch park of 66 pieces and a British one of 44 - many of these would in fact have belonged to the German allies (the Prussians alone had 10 3-pdrs). Jany mentions the artillery shown on the Europische Mercurius OB: 45 English cannon with 8 howitzers, the Dutch, 62 and 6 respectively. Very few of these guns were brought into action in the battle.

NUMBERS

Most of the OBs give around 112 battalions and 190 squadrons. Reliable contemporary works such as Brodrick's Compleat history of the late war concur. However, all the OBs are from al least a month before the battle and may well have been out of date by mid-July with other units having joined up, and the FPE (vol. 10, p.358) states that 116 and 205 were present at the battle; though it does not have an OB to back this up, the opinion of such an authoritative work compiled by careful experts cannot be ignored. I do not know where your figure of 150 squadrons comes from; I assume it is from Chandler, the only writer I am aware of who gives this total, for which he has never cited a source. I guess you have used the lists in his Art of Warfare in the Age of Marlborough; if so, I should stress that these are NOT to be relied On Without comparison with more detailed and careful works, as they contain a number of substantial errors.

MISSING UNITS

Various writers state that all 7 of the Walloon infantry regiments in Imperial service were at Oudenarde, but none of the units named in the Funckens' Lace Wars (vol. 2. p.98) are shown on the OBs. The English foot regiments of Prendergast and Erie are likewise sometimes given as having been present. Les armees qui combattirent Louis XIV, 3: Hesse- Cassel says that the Hessian cavalry regiments of Spiegel (carabiniers) and Hanstein fought there.

UNIDENTIFIED UNITS

Probably from the smaller German states as troops of the larger principalities were usually brigaded together. Saxe-Gotha and the Elector of Trier appear to have had contingents serving under Marlborough this year (the former providing 2 infantry and 2 dragoon regiments) but I do not have information on their armies sufficient to identify regimental names.

DANES

Identification is often tricky, as OBs usually show regiments under the colonel's name, but listings of the Danish army (even in Jahn's De Danske auxiliar-tropperne, which deals with this war) present regiments by regional or similar titles. Careful comparison with confirmed identifications in other OBs, particularly in the Blenheim OB analysed in the official Dutch army history, Het Staatsche leger, leaves me confident but not certain that I have got them right here. Of course, if I am wrong, there are a lot more units un-identified.

GENERALS

The Schwencke/FPE OB display does not clearly match the senior generals with their correct sectors of the line. To show the relationships better, I have underlined with a sqiggly line those generals who should be in front of the cavalry wings. National identities are for army of service, not country of birth. Brigadiers may be assumed to be of the same nationality as their brigades.

PRECEDENT IN PLACEMENT

It should come as no surprise that an era so status conscious should pay such careful attention to international royal precedence as is shown in the OB. Apart from the Walloon cavalry on the far right (a polite nod to the nominal pre-eminence of the Allies' contender as King of Spain), the position of honour on the right wing went to the troops of the Queen of Great Britain; the post of next distinction on the left was accorded to those of the King of Denmark. To the parvenu King in Prussia (royal crown acquired only 1701) went the inferior honour of right of the second line. The Dutch, as troops of a mere republic, filled up the gaps in the middle. If Imperialists had been present, they would have taken the right (as at Blenheim), since the Emperor outranked everybody.

SPECIFIC NOTES

1. Merode-Westerloo. Shown as 3 sqns on Atkinson version.
2- Shown as dragoons on the Atkinson version.
3. Foot Guards. Mostly Ist Foot Guards with detachment of Coldstreamers (Atkinson).
4. 1st & 2nd battalions 'Royal North British' = Royal Scots = Orkney's.
5. Heyden tot Ootmarssum.
6. Prince Albrecht of Brandenburg. The Hohenzollerns had close family ties with the Netherlands and held several colonelcies in the Dutch army.
7. Atkinson version shows this as 2 bns.
8. Nassau van Woudenberg
9. Belaubre et al. say this unit was in garrison
10. Crown Prince of Prussia (the future Frederick William I). See note 6.
11. The famous Blue Guards, Colonel Ouwerkerk.
12. Hesse-Cassel Dragoons.
13. Albemarle's.
14. Gardes te Paard (Horse Guards). Colonel the Earl of Galway.
15. Almost certainly Dutch, but the regiments of Albemarle's that I know of are already accounted for.
16. Very distinguished in the battle. Joined the army in June.
17. These are probably the Holstein-Gottorp regiments of Barrier and Aderkaa, under the Holstein Brigadier Barrier.
18. Probably Dutch, but identification not confirmed.
19. Johann Willem Friso, prince of Nassau, prince of Orange; regiment known as 'Oranje Friesland'.
20. Independent Liegeois - by contract with its colonel, not the Bishop of Liege.
21. Probably the regiment shown as the Hesse-Homburg cavalry by Belaubre et al. (a Dutch regiment paid by Groningen province). Atkinson version also shows as dragoons.
22. Probably the Palatine Venniger Gensdarmes regiment. Shown as cavalry in Atkinson version.
23. Henry Frederick, prince of Wurttemberg (Dutch, paid by Zealand province).
24. Almost certainly a regiment of the Count of Nassau-Ouwerkerk, a.k.a. La Lecq, who was also colonel of the Garde du Corps; but I cannot find this unit in Belaubre et al.
25. Nassau-Friesland Cavalry.
26. Garde du Gorps of the Stadtholder of Friesland.
27. Tentatively identified as Munster units the bishopric had regiments of these names in 1705-6, and some Munster units were with Marlborough In 1709.
28. Possibly Holstein-Gottorp units - U.Gen. van der Nath was a Holsteiner (he had been recalled home in February), as was Major-Gen. Bauditz, who was certainly a cavalryman.
29. Almost certainly Dutch, but I cannot trace in Belaubre et al. The partial listing of Dutch regiments in Charles Stewart Grant, From Pike to Shot, includes a Holland regiment with a 'Diesbergen' amongst its colonels, but this unit does not appear in Belaubre, from which Grant appears to have been working.
30. From the Atkinson version - handwriting unclear, but I think this is what it says, and there was a brigadier of this name.
31. Prussian brigading quite different in Atkinson version (which matches more closely the information in Jany). Guards & Kronprinz brigade under Trossel; Albrecht & Lotturn under Borck, Alt-Dohna, Donhoff & Erbprinz under Crone; Varennes, Grumbkow & Lattorf under Grumbkow.
32. Jorgen Rantzau, who was to be thrashed by the Swedes al Helsingborg, 1710.
33. Karl Rudolph, Duke of WurttembergNeustadt.
34. Probably Frederick, Erbprinz of HesseCassel, later Frderick 1, King of Sweden.
35. Probably Alexander von der Schulenburg (but there were an awful lot of Schulenburgs.
36. Hendrik, Count of Nassau-Ouwerkerk, gallicised as Auverquerque, anglicised as Overkirk.

FRENCH ORDER OF BATTLE

OB of 16th May provided; from FPE, vol. 10, which copied Pclet, Mcmoircs militaires... As with the Allied, it must have changed substantially before the battle: Brodrick gave the French army 124 battalions and 197 squadrons; FPE itself gave it 131 battalions (matching the OB exactly) and 205 squadrons, though pointing out, quoting Pelet, that only 68 battalions, the Maison du Roi, and 'some' squadrons actually fought in the battle, more than 50 battalions and around 180 squadrons remaining inactive observers of the battle. Jumbo Order of Battle (very slow: 304K)