The Battlefield Terrain At 4 A.M. on the morning of June 27, 1743 the Pragmatic Army departed Aschaffenburg and marched downstream approximately three miles to Klein Ostheim. The order of march was: British and Austrian cavalry in the vanguard, followed by British and Hanoverian infantry, the baggage train, Austrian infantry, the British and Hanoverian Guards Brigade, and elements of the Hanoverian cavalry bringing up the rear. King George had placed his best troops in the rear with expectations of fighting a withdrawal action with the French. MAP ONE: Disposition of the opposing French and Allied forces at noon on June 27, 1743. Grammont had already given up his strong defensive position north of Dettingen. Note the presence of French batteries on the opposite bank of the Main. Map from Fortescue's History of the British Army. Volume II. The allies reached Klein Ostheim at 7 A.M. and came to a halt. The entire army had to pass through the town on a single road as shown in MAP ONE. Beyond the town a lone bridge crossed a small rivulet, the Steinbach Stream, which flowed out of the Spessart Hills on the allied right and into the Main River on their left. Noailles had positioned one of his batteries on the south bank of the Main where it commanded a field of fire over the Steinbach bridge. The allied cavalry crossed this bridge and fanned out, facing the Main and the French battery. During the next four to five hours, these and other French batteries would rake the allied advance across the plain beyond Klein Ostheim. The next two miles between Klein Ostheim and Dettingen covered open ground. Another rivulet, the Forchbach Stream, entered the Main at Dettingen. The ground was very wet and marshy on both sides of the Forchbach and the plain was further constricted by the dense woods that cascaded down the Spessart Hills. A finger of woods jutted towards the high road, half way between the two towns. Another wooded area followed the Forchbach Stream and concealed a part of Grammont's French army. "It would be difficult to imagine a stronger position than that held by Grammont. The village of Dettingen stands in a defile; it is crossed in front by a stream, with treacherous and marshy banks; this, in turn, is covered by a morass. Grammont had under him the elite of Noailles' army with strict orders not to move his position, but to hold it to the death. The British must straggle through the morass, and flounder across the brook to reach the hollow way barred by the village, and held by 23,000 of the choicest troops of France, with cross fire of artillery covering their front. The valley, in a word, was a bottle, of which Dettingen was the cork!" --- Fitchett, Fights For The Flag, London, 1898 The Armies Deploy For Battle At 8 A.M. King George received word of Grammont's position at Dettingen and ordered Lord Stair to shake the army out into a line of battle. Fortescue states in his History of the British Army.Vol. 2 that the allies had sufficient frontage for only twenty-three battalions and a few squadrons of cavalry. The Pragmatic Army consisted of fortyone infantry battalions and seventy-two squadrons of cavalry. The narrowness of the field and the approach of Noailles from the rear precluded anything other than a head-on attack of Grammont's strong position. The allied deployment was made difficult by the presence of the baggage train and its attendant camp followers in the middle of the march column. Confusion turned to pandemonium when French round shot began to fall amidst the baggage train. It took Lord Stair an hour before he could bring up his artillery from the rear of the column and position it to silence the French guns across the Main. It took nearly four hours for the allies to deploy, but eventually the baggage was moved off the road and out of the way, behind the finger of trees that bisected the plain. Around noon, Grammont lost his patience and ordered his army to advance across the Forchbach Stream and deploy in the open ground south of Dettingen. Grammont later said that he thought the allies had somehow marched around him and that he was merely facing their rear guard. Other accounts suggest that Noailles had ordered Grammont to post a detachment in the town of Dettingen, and that the latter had misinterpreted the orders. Regardless, Grammont now abandoned his favorable position and moved his troops across the soggy ground. If he had performed this manoever while the allies were struggling to deploy, then it might well have been the telling blow; but now the advantage shifted to the allies, who were deployed and ready to fight. There is considerable information about the positioning of the British regiments, primarily from Fortescue, but only general data about the French deployment. We do know that the French Maison du Roi was stationed at its customary place on the far right of the French line and that the infantry was drawn up in three battle lines. The six battalions of French Gardes Francaises were posted in the front line. Estimates of Grammont's force range from 23,000 to 30,000 men while that of the Pragmatic Army was 40,000. However, half of the allied force was not engaged in battle due to the tight frontage available. The French now found themselves in some degree of disorder due to the act of advancing the line forward. "The General himself (Grammont) had not even formed in his head any order of battle; therefore every Body took his Post as he thought fitting. ..nor had we any first or second line formed." Grammont's subordinate commanders were not competent enough to draw up their units into a line of battle. Meanwhile, the Maison du Roi paraded in front of the British as if their mere presence were enough to win the coming battle. Battle of Dettingen: June 27, 1743 Historical Background Battlefield Terrain and Deployment The Battle of Dettingen Wargaming Dettingen Back to Seven Years War Asso. Journal Vol. VI No. 3 Table of Contents Back to Seven Years War Asso. Journal List of Issues Back to Master Magazine List © Copyright 1993 by James E. Purky This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other articles from military history and related magazines are available at http://www.magweb.com