PREPARATIONS FOR THE DEFENCE OF HANOVER.
Having thus described the progress of the Prussians in Bohemia, we must cast our eyes on the transactions which distinguished the campaign in Westphalia. To guard against the storm which menaced Hanover in particular, orders were transmitted thither to recruit the troops that had been sent back from England, to augment each company, to remount the cavalry with the utmost expedition; not to suffer any horses to be conveyed out of the electorate; to furnish the magazines in that country with all things necessary for fifty thousand men. Of these, twenty-six thousand were to be Hanoverians, and, in consequence of engagements entered into for that purpose, twelve thousand Hessians, six thousand Brunswickers, two thousand Saxe-Gothans, and a thousand Lunenburghers, to be joined by a considerable body of Prussians, the whole commanded by his royal highness the duke of Cumberland. The king of England having published a manifesto, dated at Hanover, specifying his motives for taking the field in Westphalia, the troops of the confederated states that were to compose the allied army, under the name of an army of observation, began to assemble with all possible diligence near Bielefeldt. Thither the generals, appointed to command the several divisions, repaired to settle the plan of operations with their commander, the duke of Cumberland, who having left London on the ninth of April, arrived on the sixteenth at Hanover, and from thence repaired to the army, which, having been joined by three Prussian regiments that retired from Wesel, consisted of thirty-seven battalions and thirty-four squadrons. Of these, six battalions and six squadrons were posted at Bielefeldt, under the command of lieutenant-general baron de Sporcken; six battalions, under lieutenant-general de Block, at Hervorden; six battalions and four squadrons, under major-general Ledebour, between Hervorden and Minden; seven battalions and ten squadrons, under lieutenant-general d’Oberg, in the neighbourhood of Hamelen; and five battalions and four squadrons, under major-general de Hauss, near Nienburgh. The head-quarters of his royal highness were at Bielefeldt.
SKIRMISHES WITH THE FRENCH.
In the meantime, the French on the Lower Rhine continued filing off incessantly. The siege of Gueldres was converted into a blockade, occasioned by the difficulties the enemy found in raising batteries; and a party of Hanoverians having passed the Weser, as well to ravage the country of Paderborn as to reconnoitre the French, carried off several waggons loaded with wheat and oats, destined for the territories of the elector of Cologn. On the other hand, colonel Fischer having had an engagement with a small body of Hanoverians, in the county of Tecklenburgh, routed them, and made some prisoners. After several other petty skirmishes between the French and the Hanoverians, the duke of Cumberland altered the position of his camp, by placing it between Bielefeldt and Hervorden, in hopes of frustrating the design of the enemy; who, declining to attack him on the side of Bracwede, after having reconnoitred his situation several days, made a motion on their left, as if they meant to get between him and the Weser. This step was no sooner taken, than, on the thirteenth of June in the afternoon, having received advice that the enemy had caused a large body of troops, followed by a second, to march on his right to Burghotte, he ordered his army to march that evening towards Hervorden; and, at the same time, major-general Hardenberg marched with four battalions of grenadiers, and a regiment of horse, to reinforce that post. Count Schulenberg covered the left of the march with a battalion of grenadiers, a regiment of horse, and the light troops of Buckenburgh. The whole army marched in two columns. The right, composed of horse, and followed by two battalions, to cover their passage through the enclosures and defiles, passed by the right of Bielefeldt; and the left, consisting of infantry, marched by the left of the same town. The vanguard of the French army attacked the rear guard of the allies, commanded by major-general Einsiedel, very briskly, and at first put them into some confusion, but they immediately recovered themselves. This was in the beginning of the night. At break of day the enemy’s reinforcements returned to the charge, but were again repulsed, nor could they once break through lieutenant-colonel Al-feldt’s Hanoverian guards, which closed the army’s march with a detachment of regular troops and a new raised corps of hunters.
DUKE OF CUMBERLAND PASSES THE WESER.
The allies encamped at Cofeldt on the fourteenth, and remained there all the next day, when the enemy’s detachments advanced to the gates of Hervorden, and made a feint as if they would attack the town, after having summoned it to surrender; but they retired without attempting any thing further; and, in the meantime, the troops that were posted at Hervorden, and formed the rear guard, passed the Weser on the side of Remen, without any molestation, and encamped at Holtzuysen. A body of troops which had been left at Bielefeldt, to cover the duke’s retreat, after some skirmishes with the French, rejoined the army in the neighbourhood of Herfort; and a few days after, his royal highness drew near his bridges on the Weser, and sent over his artillery, baggage, and ammunition. At the same time some detachments passed the river on the right, between Minden and Oldendorp, and marked out a new camp advantageously situated, having the Weser in front, and the right and left covered with eminences and marshes. There the army under his royal highness re-assembled, and the French fixed their head-quarters at Bielefeldt, which the Hanoverians had quitted, leaving in it only a part of a magazine, which had been set on fire. By this time the French were in such want of forage, that M. d’Etrées himself, the princes of the blood, and all the officers without exception, were obliged to send back part of their horses. However, on the tenth of June, their whole army, consisting of seventy battalions and forty squadrons, with fifty-two pieces of cannon, besides a body of cavalry left at Ruremonde for the conveniency of forage, was put in motion. In spite of almost impassable forests, famine, and every other obstacle that could be thrown in their way by a vigilant and experienced general, they at length surmounted all difficulties, and advanced into a country abounding with plenty, and unused to the ravages of war. It was imagined that the passage of the Weser, which defends Hanover from foreign attacks, would have been vigorously opposed by the army of the allies; but whether, in the present situation of affairs, it was thought advisable to act only upon the defensive, and not to begin the attack in a country that was not concerned as a principal in the war, or the duke of Cumberland found himself too weak to make head against the enemy, is a question we shall not pretend to determine. However that may have been, the whole French army passed the Weser on the tenth and eleventh of July, without the loss of a man. The manner of effecting this passage is thus related: mareschal d’Etrées, being informed that his magazines of provisions were well furnished, his ovens established, and the artillery and pontoons arrived at the destined places, ordered lieutenant-general Broglio, with ten battalions, twelve squadrons, and ten pieces of cannon, to march to Engheren; lieutenant-general M. de Chevert, with sixteen battalions, three brigades of carabineers, the royal hunters, and six hundred hussars, to march to Hervorden, and lieutenant-general marquis d’Armentieres, with twelve battalions, and ten squadrons, to march to Ulrickhausen. All these troops being arrived in their camp on the fourth of July, halted the fifth. On the sixth, twenty-two battalions, and thirty-two squadrons, under the command of the duke of Orleans, who was now arrived at the army, inarched to Ulrickhausen, from whence M. d’Armentieres had set out early in the morning, with the troops under his command, and by hasty marches got on the seventh, by eleven at night, to Blankenhoven, where he found the boats which had gone from Ahrensberg. The bridges were built, the cannon planted, and the intrenchments at the head of the bridges completed in the night between the seventh and eighth. The mareschal having sent away part of his baggage from Bielefeldt on the sixth, went in person on the seventh at eleven o’clock to Horn, and on the eighth to Braket. On advice that M. d’Armentieres had thrown his bridges across without opposition, and was at work on his intrenchments, he went on the ninth to Blankenhoven, to see the bridges and intrenchments; and afterwards advanced to examine the first position he intended for this army, and came down to the right side of the Weser to the abbey of Corvey, where he forded the river, with the princes of the blood, and their attendants. On the tenth in the morning he got on horseback by four o’clock, to see the duke of Orlean’s division file off, which arrived at Corvey at ten o’clock; as also that of M. d’Armentieres, which arrived at eleven, and that of M. Souvre, which arrived at noon. The mareschal having examined the course of the river, caused the bridges of pontoons to be laid within gunshot of the abbey, where the viscount de Turenne passed that river in the year one thousand six hundred and seventy-three, and where the divisions under Broglio and Chevert now passed, it on the twelfth and thirteenth. These two generals being informed of what was to be done upon the Upper Weser, attacked Minden, and carried it, whilst a detachment of the French entered the country of East Friesland, under the command of the marquis d’Auvel; and, after taking possession of Lier, inarched on the right side of the Ems to Embden, the only sea-port the king of Prussia had, which at first seemed determined to make a defence; but the inhabitants were not agreed upon the methods to be taken for that purpose. They therefore met to deliberate, but in the meantime, their gates being shut, M. d’Auvel caused some cannon to be brought to beat them down; and the garrison, composed of four hundred Prussians, not being strong enough to defend the town, the soldiers mutinied against their officers, whereupon a capitulation was agreed on, and the gates were opened to the French commander, who made his troops enter with a great deal of order, assured the magistrates that care should be taken to make them observe a good discipline, and published two ordinances, one for the security of the religion and commerce of the city, and the other for prohibiting the exportation of corn and forage out of that principality. The inhabitants were; however, obliged to take an oath of allegiance to the French king.