Though the French army under the mareschal duke de Broglio remained in cantonment in the neighbourhood of Friedberg, and prince Ferdinand had retired from Corsdorff to Marburg, where in the beginning of January he established his head-quarters, nevertheless the winter was by no means inactive. As far back as the twenty-fifth day of December, the duke de Broglio, having called in his detachments, attempted to surprise the allied army by a forced march to Kleinlinnes; but finding them prepared to give him a warm reception, nothing but a cannonade ensued, and he retreated to his former quarters. On the twenty-ninth, colonel Luckner, at the head of the Hanoverian hunters, fell in with a detachment of the enemy, consisting of four hundred men, under the command of count Muret. These he attacked with such vigour, that the count was made prisoner, and all his party either killed or taken, except two-and-twenty, who escaped. On the third day of January, the marquis de Vogue attacked the town of Herborn, which he carried, and took a small detachment of the allies who were posted there. At the same time the marquis Dauvet made himself master of Dillembourg, the garrison of the allied troops being obliged to retire into the castle, where they were closely besieged. Prince Ferdinand no sooner understood their situation, than he began his march with a strong detachment for their relief, on the seventh day of the month, when he attacked and totally defeated the besiegers, took seven hundred prisoners, including forty officers, with seven pair of colours, and two pieces of cannon. On that very day, the Highlanders, under major Keith, supported by the hussars of Luckner, who commanded the whole detachment, attacked the village of Ryebach, where Beaufremont’s regiment of dragoons was posted on the side of Dillembourg, and routed them with great slaughter. The greater part of the regiment was killed, and many prisoners were taken, together with two hundred horses, and all their baggage. The Highlanders distinguished themselves on this occasion by their intrepidity, which was the more remarkable, as they were no other than raw recruits, just arrived from their own country, and altogether unacquainted with discipline. On the eighth day of January, M. de St. Germain advanced on the left of the allies with the grenadiers of the French army, supported by eight battalions, and a body of dragoons; but he was encountered by the duke of Holstein, at the head of a strong detachment, in the neighbourhood of Ersdorff, who, by dint of a furious cannonade, obliged him to retreat with precipitation. After this attempt the French parties disappeared, and their army retired into winter-quarters, in and about Franckfort on the Maine; while prince Ferdinand quartered the allies at Cassel, Paderborn, Munster, and Osnabruck; this last place being allotted to the British troops, as being the nearest to Embden, where the reinforcements from Britain were to be landed. In the beginning of February, the hereditary prince of Brunswick, with the detachment of the allied army under his command, began his march from Chemnitz in Saxony for Westphalia, where he safely arrived, after having assisted at a long conference in Hamelen, with his father the reigning duke, his uncle prince Ferdinand, and some principal members of the regency of Hanover.
The French general continued to send out detachments to beat up the quarters of the allies, and lay their towns under contribution. In the beginning of March, the marquis de Blaisel marched at the head of two thousand four hundred men from Giessen, where he commanded, to Marburg, forced the gates of the town, and compelled the garrison of the allies to take shelter in the castle. As he could not pretend to undertake the siege of the fortress, by the fire of which he was exceedingly galled, he demanded of the town a contribution of one hundred thousand florins, and carried some of the magistrates along with him as hostages for the payment of this imposition. He afterwards appeared at Hombourg, Alsfeldt, and Hartzberg, the frontier posts of the allies; but did not think proper to attack either, because he perceived that measures were taken for his reception. The French, with all their boasted politeness and humanity, are sometimes found as brutal and rapacious as the most barbarous enemy. On pretence of taking umbrage at the town of Hanau Muntzenberg, for having without their permission acknowledged the regency of the landgraviate of Hesse-Cassel, they, in the month of February, ordered the magistrates of that place to pay, within the term of twenty-four hours, the sum of seven hundred and fifty thousand livres, on pain of being subjected to plunder. This order was signified by the prince de Robecq; to whom the magistrates represented the impossibility of raising such a sum, as the country was totally exhausted, and their credit absolutely destroyed, in consequence of their inability to pay the interest of the capitals negotiated in the course of the preceding year. He still insisted upon their finding the money before night; they offered to pay eighty thousand florins, which they raised with the utmost difficulty, and begged the payment of the rest might be postponed for a few weeks: but their request was rejected with disdain. The garrison was reinforced by two battalions, and four squadrons dispersed in the principal squares and markets of the city, and the gates were shut. They even planted cannon in the streets, and tarred matches were fixed to many houses, in order to intimidate the inhabitants. These expedients proving ineffectual, detachments of grenadiers entered the houses of the principal magistrates and merchants, from whence they removed all their best effects to the town-hall, where they were kept in deposit, until they were redeemed with all the money that could possibly be raised. This exaction, so little to the honour of a civilized nation, the French minister declared to the diet at Ratisbon was agreeable to the instructions of his most christian majesty.
By way of retaliation for the cruelty practised at Hanau, a detachment of the allied army under general Luckner was sent to raise contributions in Fulda, and actually carried off hostages from that city; but retired before a strong body of the enemy, who took possession of the place. From hence the French marched, in their turn, to plunder the towns of Hirchfeldt and Vacha. Accordingly, they appeared at Vacha, situated on the frontiers of Hesse, and formed the head of the chain of cantonments which the allies had on the Werra. This place was attacked with such vigour, that colonel Frey-tag, who commanded the post, was obliged to abandon the town: but he maintained himself on a rising ground in the neighbourhood, where he amused the enemy until two battalions of grenadiers came to his assistance. Thus reinforced, he pursued the French for three leagues, and drove them with considerable loss from Giessa, where they had resolved to fix their quarters. These skirmishes happened in the beginning of May, when the grand armies were just in motion to begin the campaign.
SITUATION OF THE FRENCH ARMIES.
By this time the forces under the mareschal duke de Broglio were augmented to one hundred thousand; while the count de St. Germain commanded a separate army on the Rhine, consisting of thirty thousand men, assembled from the quarters of Dusseldorp, Cologn, Cleves, and Wesel. The second corps was intended to divide the allied army, which, by such a division, would be considerably weakened; and the French court threatened to form a third army under the prince de Soubise; but this did not appear. The duke de Broglio was in such high favour with the French ministry at this juncture, that he was promoted over the heads of many old generals, who now demanded and obtained their dismission; and every step was taken to render the campaign glorious to this admired commander: but notwithstanding all their care, and his own exertion, he found it impossible to take the field early in the season, from want of forage for his cavalry. While his quarters were established at Franckfort, his troops were plentifully supplied with all sorts of provisions from the Upper Rhine; but this convenience depended upon his being master of the course of the river; but he could not move from this position without forfeiting the advantage, and providing magazines for the use of his forces; so that he was obliged to lie inactive until he could have the benefit of green forage in his march. The same inconveniences operated more powerfully on the side of prince Ferdinand, who, being in an exhausted country, was obliged to fall back as far as Paderborn, and draw his supplies from Hamburg and Bremen on the Elbe and the Weser. By this time, however, he had received a reinforcement of British troops from Embden, under the direction of major-general Griffin; and before the end of the campaign, the forces of that nation in Germany were augmented to five-and-twenty thousand; a greater number than had served at one time upon the continent for two centuries. The allied army marched from their cantonments on the fifth day of May, and proceeded by the way of Paderborn to Fritzlar, where, on the twentieth, they encamped: but part of the troops left in the bishopric of Munster, under general Sporcken, were ordered to form a camp at Dulmen, to make head against the French corps commanded by the count de St. Germain.
EXPLOIT OF COLONEL LUCKNER.
General Imhoff was sent with a detachment to Kirchaven on the Orme: and general Gilsoe, with another corps, advanced to the neighbourhood of Hirchfeldt on the Fulda. The former of these having ordered colonel Luckner to scour the country with a body of hussars, that officer, on the twenty-fourth of May, fell in with a French patrole, which gave the alarm at Butzbach; when the garrison of that place, amounting to five hundred piquets, under general Waldemar, fled with great precipitation. Being, however, pursued, and overtaken near a wood, they were routed and dispersed. Colonel Luckner, entering Butzbach, found a considerable quantity of forage, flour, wine, and equipage, belonging to the fugitives. What he could not carry off he distributed among the poor inhabitants, and returned to general Imhoff’s camp at Ameneberg, with about an hundred prisoners. This excursion alarmed the enemy to such a degree, that their whole army was put in motion; and the duke de Broglio in person advanced with a large body of troops as far as Friedberg: but undemanding the allies had not quitted their camp at Fritzlar, he returned to Franckfort, after having cantoned that part of his army in the Wetteraw. This alarm was not so mortifying as the secession of the Wirtemberg troops, amounting to ten thousand men, commanded by their duke in person, who left the French army in disgust, and returned to his own country. The imperial army, under the prince de Deuxponts, quartered at Bamberg, began their march to Naumberg on the twentieth of May: but one of their detachments of cavalry having received a check from a body of Prussians near Lutzen, they fell back; and on the fourth day of June encamped at Litchenfels upon the Maine. The small detachments of the grand armies, as well as those belonging to the bodies commanded by general Sporcken and the count de St. Germain, in the neighbourhood of Dusseldorp, skirmished with various success. The hereditary prince of Brunswick being detached from the allied army, with some battalions of grenadiers, and two regiments of English dragoons, advanced to the country of Fulda, where he was joined by the troops under general Gilsoe, and achieved some inconsiderable exploits, particularly at Hosenfeldt and Zielbach, where he surprised and took divers parties of the enemy.
By the twenty-fourth of June, prince Ferdinand, quitting his situation at Fritzlar, marched to Frillendorf, and encamped on the hills between Ziegenheim and Freysa; general Imhoff commanding at a small distance on the right, and the hereditary prince, now returned from Fulda, being posted on the left of the army. In the meantime, the duke de Broglio, assembling his forces between Merlau and Laubach, advanced to Neustadt, where he encamped on the twenty-eighth day of the month, and at the same time occupied a strong post at Wassenburgh. His intention was to penetrate through the country of Hesse into Hanover, and make himself entirely master of that electorate. With this view he resolved to effect a junction with the count de St. Germain, whom he directed to advance towards Brilau and Corbach; while he himself, decamping from Neustadt on the eighth day of July, advanced by the way of Frankenburg. Prince Ferdinand, having received intelligence that the count de St. Germain was in motion, began his march from Ziegenheim, and on the ninth day of July reached the heights of Bruneau, in the neighbourhood of Wildungen.