At last the mareschal de Contades seemed inclined to retreat through the defiles of Wittekendstein to Paderborn; but he was fain to change his resolution, in consequence of his having received advice, that on the very day of his own defeat the duke de Brissac was vanquished by the hereditary prince in the neighbourhood of Coveldt, so that the passage of the mountains was rendered impracticable. The duke de Brissac had been advantageously encamped, with his left to the village of Coveldt, having the Werra in his front, and his right extending to the salt-pits. In this advantageous situation he was attacked by the hereditary prince and general de Kilmanseg, with such vivacity and address that his troops were totally routed, with the loss of six cannon, and a considerable number of men killed, wounded, or taken prisoners. After the battle of Minden, colonel Freytag, at the head of the light troops, took, in the neighbourhood of Detmold, all the equipage of the mareschal de Contades, the prince of Condé, and the duke de Brissac, with part of their military chest and chancery, containing papers of the utmost consequence. [522] [See note 4 C, at the end of this Vol.]
GENEEAL IMHOFF TAKES MUNSTER.
Prince Ferdinand having garrisoned Minden, marched to Hervorden; and the hereditary prince passed the Weser at Hamelen, in order to pursue the enemy, who retreated to Cassel, and from thence by the way of Marburg as far as Giessen. In a word, they were continually harassed by that enterprising prince, who seized every opportunity of making an impression upon their army, took the greatest part of their baggage, and compelled them to abandon every place they possessed in Westphalia. The number of his prisoners amounted to fifteen hundred men, besides the garrison left at Cassel, which surrendered at discretion. He likewise surprised a whole battalion, and defeated a considerable detachment under the command of M. d’Armentieres. In the meantime, the allied army advanced in regular marches; and prince Ferdinand, having taken possession of Cassel, detached general Imhoff with a body of troops to reduce the city of Munster, which he accordingly began to bombard and cannonade; but d’Armentieres being joined by a fresh body of troops from the Lower Rhine, advanced to its relief, and compelled Imhoff to raise the siege. It was not long, however, before this general was also reinforced; then he measured back his march to Munster, and the French commander withdrew in his turn. The place was immediately shut up by a close blockade, which, however, did not prevent the introduction of supplies. The city of Munster being an object of importance, was disputed with great obstinacy. Armentieres received reinforcements, and the body commanded by Imhoff was occasionally augmented; But the siege was not formally undertaken till November, when some heavy artillery being brought from England, the place was regularly invested, and the operations carried on with such vigour, that in a few days the city surrendered on capitulation.
Prince Ferdinand having possessed himself of the town and castle of Marburg, proceeded with the army to Neidar-Weimar, and there encamped; while Contades remained at Giessen, on the south side of the river Lahn, where he was joined by a colleague in the person of the mareschal d’Etrées. By this time he was become very unpopular among the troops, on account of the defeat at Minden, which he is said to have charged on the misconduct of Broglio, who recriminated on him in his turn, and seemed to gain credit at the court of Versailles. While the two armies lay encamped in the neighbourhood of each other, nothing passed but skirmishes among the light troops, and little excursive expeditions. The French army was employed in removing their magazines, and fortifying Giessen, as if their intention was to retreat to Franckfort-on-the-Maine, after having consumed all the forage, and made a military desert between the Lahn and that river. In the beginning of November, the duke de Broglio returned from Paris, and assumed the command of the army, from whence Contades and d’Etrêes immediately retired, with several other general officers that were senior to the new commander.
The duke of Wirtemberg having taken possession of Fulda, the hereditary prince of Brunswick resolved to beat up his quarters. For this purpose he selected a body of troops, and began his march from Marburg early in the morning on the twenty-eighth day of November. Next night they lay at Augerbauch, where they defeated the volunteers of Nassau; and at one o’clock in the morning of the thirtieth they marched directly to Fulda: where the duke of Wirtemberg, far from expecting such a visit, had invited all the fashionable people in Fulda to a sumptuous entertainment. The hereditary prince having reconnoitred the avenues in person, took such measures, that the troops of Wirtemberg, who were scattered in small bodies, would have been cut off if they had not hastily retired into the town, where however they found no shelter. The prince forced open the gates, and they retreated to the other side of the town, where four battalions of them were defeated and taken; while the duke himself, with the rest of his forces, filed off on the other side of the Fulda. Two pieces of cannon, two pair of colours, and all their baggage, fell into the hands of the victors; and the hereditary prince advanced as far as Rupertenrade, a place situated on the right flank of the French army. Perhaps this motion hastened the resolution of the duke de Broglio to abandon Giessen, and fall back to Friedberg, where he established his head-quarters. The allied army immediately took possession of his camp at Kleinlinnes and Heuchelam, and seemed to make preparations for the siege of Giessen.
A BODY OF PRUSSIANS MAKE AN INCURSION INTO POLAND.
While both armies remained in this position, the duke de Broglio received the staff as mareschal of France, and made an attempt to beat up the quarters of the allies. Having called in all his detachments, he marched up to them on the twenty-fifth day of December; but found them so well disposed to give him a warm reception, that he thought proper to lay aside his design, and nothing but a mutual cannonade ensued; then he returned to his former quarters. From. Kleinlinnes the allied army removed to Corsdoff, where they were cantoned till the beginning of January, when they fell back as far as Marburg, where prince Ferdinand established his head-quarters. The enemy had by this time retrieved their superiority, in consequence of the hereditary prince being detached with fifteen thousand men to join the king of Prussia at Fribourge, in Saxony. Thus, by the victory at Minden, the dominions of Hanover and Brunswick were preserved, and the enemy obliged to evacuate that part of Westphalia. Perhaps they might have been driven to the other side of the Ehine, had not the general of the allies been obliged to weaken his army for the support of the Prussian monarch, who had met with divers disasters in the course of this campaign. It was not to any relaxation or abatement of his usual vigilance and activity, that this warlike prince owed the several checks he received. Even in the middle of winter, his troops under general Manteuffel acted with great spirit against the Swedes in Pomerania. They made themselves masters of Damgarten, and several other places which the Swedes had garrisoned; and the frost setting in, those who were quartered in the isle of Useclom passed over the ice to Wolgast, which they reduced without much difficulty. They undertook the sieges of Demmen and Anclam at the same time; and the garrisons of both surrendered themselves prisoners of war, to the number of two thousand seven hundred men, including officers. In Demmen they found four-and-twenty pieces of cannon, with a large quantity of ammunition. In Anclam there was a considerable magazine, with six-and-thirty cannon, mortars, and howitzers. A large detachment under general Knobloch surprised Erfurth, and raised considerable contributions at Gotha, Isenach, and Fulda; from whence also they conveyed all the forage and provisions to Saxe-Naumberg. In the latter end of February, the Prussian major-general Wobersnow marched with a strong body of troops from Glogau in Silesia, to Poland; and, advancing by way of Lissa, attacked the castle of the prince Sulkowski, a Polish grandee, who had been very active against the interest of the Prussian monarch. After some resistance he was obliged to surrender at discretion, and was sent prisoner with his whole garrison to Silesia. From hence Wobersnow proceeded to Posna, where he made himself master of a considerable magazine, guarded by two thousand cossacks, who retired at his approach; and having destroyed several others, returned to Silesia. In April, the fort of Penamunde, in Pomerania, was surrendered to Manteuffel; and about the same time a detachment of Prussian troops bombarded Schwerin, the capital of Mecklenburgh. Meanwhile reinforcements were sent to the Russian army in Poland, which in April began to assemble upon the Vistula. The court of Petersburgh had likewise begun to equip a large fleet, by means of which the army might be supplied with military stores and provisions; but this armament was retarded by an accidental fire at Revel, which destroyed all the magazines and materials for ship-building to an immense value.