1701
War was resolved upon: the standing armies were augmented; and while the din of hostile preparation was heard on every side, the ROYAL IRISH regiment was placed upon a war establishment, and embarked for Holland, where it arrived, with several other corps, in July, 1701, and was placed in garrison at Huesden. On the 21st of September it was reviewed on Breda-heath by King William III.
1702
Quitting Huesden in March, 1702, the regiment proceeded to Rosendael, where the British infantry was assembled under Brigadier-General Ingoldsby; and at this place the troops received information of the death of King William III., on the 8th of March, and of the accession of Queen Anne.
From Rosendael the regiment marched to the duchy of Cleves, and formed part of the army encamped at Cranenburg during the siege of Kayserswerth, on the Lower Rhine, by the Germans. A French force of very superior numbers attempting to cut off the communication of the army at Cranenburg with Nimeguen, the troops struck their tents on the 10th of June, and by a forced march during the night arrived within a few miles of Nimeguen as the French legions approached. Some sharp fighting occurred, in which the British corps in the rear-guard evinced great gallantry, and the army effected its retreat under the works of the fortress.
Additional forces having arrived from England, the Earl of Marlborough[19] assumed the command of the allied army, and by a series of skilful movements he forced the French army to make a precipitate retreat from the frontiers of Holland to their own lines, and he twice attempted to bring on a general engagement under advantageous circumstances, but was restrained by the Dutch field deputies. The French forces having fled to their lines, the English General resolved to attack their fortified towns, and the ROYAL IRISH regiment was one of the corps detached from the main army to undertake the siege of the fortress of Venloo, situate on the east side of the river Maese, in the province of Limburg.[20] On the west side of the river was a detached fortification of five bastions, called Fort St. Michael, against which the British troops carried on their approaches;—the Dutch and Germans attacking other parts of the town: the whole were under Veldt-Marshal Prince Nassau-Saarbruck. The approaches being carried to the foot of the glacis, orders were given to storm the covered-way, and make a lodgment on the top of the glacis; and the ROYAL IRISH regiment, being on duty in the trenches at the time, was appointed to make the attack, together with the grenadiers of the brigade, and a party of chosen fusiliers. Captain Parker has given the following account of this attack:—
"The Lord Cutts sent for all the officers, and told them, the design was to drive the enemy from the covered-way, that they might not disturb the workmen in making a lodgment; however, if the enemy gave way with precipitation, we were to jump into the covered-way, and pursue them, let the consequence be what it would. We all thought these were very rash orders, contrary both to the rules of war, and the design of the attack.
"About four in the afternoon (18th September), the signal was given, and, according to our orders, we rushed up the covered-way; the enemy gave us one scattering fire, and away they ran: we jumped into the covered-way, and ran after them. They made to a ravelin, which covered the curtain of the fort, in which were a captain and sixty men. We, seeing them get into the ravelin, pursued them, got in with them, and soon put most of them to the sword. They that escaped us fled over a small wooden bridge, that led over the moat to the fort; and here, like madmen, without fear or wit, we pursued them over that tottering bridge, exposed to the fire of the great and small shot of the fort. However, we got over the fausse-braye, where we had nothing for it but to take the fort or die. They that fled before us climbed up by the long grass that grew out of the fort; so we climbed after them. Here we were hard put to it to pull out the palisades, which pointed down upon us from the parapet, and, was it not for the great surprise and consternation of those within, we could never have surmounted this very point: but, as soon as they saw us at this work, they quitted the rampart, and retired down to the parade in the body of the fort, where they laid down their arms and cried for quarter, which was readily granted them. Thus were the unaccountable orders of Lord Cutts as unaccountably executed, to the great surprise of the whole army, and even of ourselves, when we came to reflect on what we had done."
The enemy had about four hundred killed, and two hundred made prisoners. The British loss, in killed and wounded, did not exceed forty men.
Captain Parker, of the ROYAL IRISH regiment, adds,—"This affair was the occasion of another almost as surprising. An express came to Prince Nassau which gave an account that Landau was taken; whereupon he ordered the army to draw down near the town, to fire three rounds (as a feu de-joie); the cannon also of all the batteries, the mortars, and cohorns, were ordered to fire, with the troops, into the town. When the garrison and inhabitants saw us drawing down on all sides, they judged it was with a design of making such an attack on the town as we had made on the fort, which struck such a terror into them, that the magistrates begged the Governor to capitulate, and not suffer them all to be put to the sword. The first round of all our batteries, and the small shot of the army, so affrighted them, that men, women, and children, came flocking to the ramparts with white cloths in their hands, crying, 'Mercy! mercy!' and the Governor, in as great a consternation as the rest, sent out an officer to the Prince to desire a capitulation, which was immediately granted; as we had other sieges to carry on this season, the Prince allowed them honourable terms."