Deadlier than the Male...

Bland's Dragoons at Dettingen. Women's work, apparently...

Long time since I updated any of my blogs. Things have been busy yet again, what with work, other family obligations and until recently "election fever" (in both Canada and the US, and probably sometime soon in Japan- I'm something of a political junkie).

I have also been trying to reduce eyestrain by not spending any more time on the computer than necessary! Still, I have had the opportunity to get in at least a little painting time, so the hobby hasn't been completely dormant for me.

Anyway, Let me atone for the silence with something for Remembrance Day. While surfing through Google Books, I came across Mary Ralphson, redoubtable trooper of dragoons- quite an amazing story actually. We're not looking at a character from a Jane Austen novel here! More like someone who has stepped out from the pages of Sterne's Tristram Shandy or from one of those Rowlandson etchings of 18th C. life.

To have been able to have survived childhood illnesses, poor food and bloody battles, and not to have shuffled off the mortal coil until the age of 110, meant that you just had to have been made of sterner stuff than other mortals!

Read on...

THE SCOTS MAGAZINE, AND EDINBURGH Literary MISCELLANY:
Being a GENERAL REPOSITORY OF LITERATURE, HISTORY, AND POLITICS

FOR 1809.

Ne quidfalsi dlcere audeat, ne quid veri non audeaí.

VOL. LXXI.

EDINBURGH

Mary Ralphson, whose maiden name was Cameron, was born in the neighbourhood of the old castle of Inverlochy, once a royal residence, near Fort William, in the parish of Kilmanivaig, in the dreary district of Lochaber, Inverness-shire, on the 1st of January 1698, O. S. Early in life she married Ralph Ralphson, a private dragoon*.

On the war breaking out in French Flanders, in 1741, she embarked with her husband, and shared in the toils and vicissitudes of the troops, whom she afterwards accompanied in the battle of Dettingen, June 15, 1743 (OS).

In this engagement (fought by the British and French, the former commanded by George II. and the brave Earl of Stair, and the latter by Marshal Noailles,) being on the field during the heat of the conflict, and surrounded with heaps of slain, she observed a wounded dragoon fall by her side. (She) disguised herself in his clothes, mounted his charger, and regained the retreating army, in which she found her husband.

She was also present at the unfortunate affair of Fontenoy, May 1st, 1745, fought by the British and Austrians, under William, Duke of Cumberland, against the French, under Marshal Count de Saxe.

When the rebellion broke out in Scotland, in September 1745, Mrs Ralphson accompanied her husband to Britain, his regiment being among those sent to the north on that occasion. In this expedition she was present at the skirmish at Clifton, near Penrith, where the highlanders sustained some loss. On the 17th of January 1740, she was present at the defeat of the royal army at Falklrk, under Gen. Hawiey. In April, same year, she was present at the defeat of the highland army, by the Duke of Cumberland, at Culloden, near Inverness.

When the rebellion was quelled at home, Mrs Ralphson again went to the continent with the British army, and was present at the battle of La Val**. Sometime after this she lost her husband, in which period she bid adieu to the fatigues of the army, and settled in Liverpool, where she subsisted for seven of the latter years of her life, by the assistance of some benevolent characters, chiefly female, who contributes every thing to her comfort and accommodation.

She died on Monday, June 27, 1809, having arrived at the very advanced age of 110 years and 6 months, and was interred in the burying ground of the Scotch kirk, Oldhara Street, where a stone with a suitable inscription points out the resting place of the remains of this venerable person.

p.570

* Apparently in Bland's (3rd) Regt. of Dragoons.
** AKA the Battle of Lauffeldt

Dutch courage!

Two contemporary- and quite favourable- references to the morale and performance of the Dutch army at the Battle of Roucoux in letters from a Mr. R. Leveson-Gower, to the Duke of Bedford in 1746. They were written 232 years ago almost to the day.

I searched the net for information on the Leveson-Gower family of the time. Possibly- but I'm not certain- it may have been the young Richard Leveson-Gower, born 1726, died 1753. MP for Lichfield 1747-53. He seems to have been the only member of the family whose name starts with an "R", and who was of an age to have been closely involved in the events of the time. ("I say, Holmes, how do you do it?!) Leveson-Gower appears to have been resident in The Hague at that time, but whether in any official capacity or as a private citizen I've no idea.

One can detect a certain amount of optimistic "spin" here, but the praise for the Dutch seems sincere enough. And those casualty figures are just frightful- they alone speak for some no small degree of determination. The original text can be found here.

In later letters, he is less enthusiastic about the surrender by the Dutch of important border fortresses- but surrendering a fortress prematurely sounds to me more likely to be a failure of will on the part of the garrison commander rather than of his men.

******

MR. LEVESON GOWER TO THE DUKE OF BEDFORD.

Hague, October 14. 1746. N. S.

My Lord Duke,

I am extremely concerned that I am to send your Grace such bad news as that of a battle in Flanders to our great disadvantage. (Battle of Roucoux, Oct. 11th 1746)

On Tuesday 1746 last the French, as is supposed, either designing to set down before Maestricht, or to draw off the allied army from this part of the world to straiten them in their winter quarters, attacked the left of our army, composed of the troops in our pay and the Dutch, who, although they behaved with great resolution and bravery, were forced to retire behind the right wing composed of the Austrians, leaving behind them some cannon and two pair of colours.

The reason why the Austrians did not engage is, that had they gone to the assistance of the left the French would have gained their point in cutting off the communication with this country and besieging Maestricht, which they cannot do at present, as our army is now encamped under the cannon of that place. The number of the killed and wounded of our side is reckoned here from 1000 to 4000, though I send a letter from the French army to-day that said the allies left behind them but 1200. All the letters from both armies agree that the loss of the French is much more considerable, as a body of nine Hanoverian battalions defended a village against an infinite number of the enemy for four hours, which place they could not have forced but by pouring in every minute fresh supplies.

Two Bavarian regiments that arrived there but two days before are entirely ruined, as likewise two Hessian battalions, of which they say there remains but one captain and fifty private men. The Dutch behaved incomparably well, insomuch that they lost many of their officers, and some of their best regiments are almost ruined.

Of our troops I hear of but two battalions engaged, which some say are taken prisoners. Colonel Montague is said to be killed, Major Noble taken, and poor Sir Harry Nesbitt shot through the body. I have heard nothing particular of the killed and wounded of the French side. The Marquis de Fenelon, who was formerly ambassador here, is killed. I hear that Prince Waldeck, who is greatly blamed, treats this affair in his account as a thing of no great consequence.

What I here send your Grace is what I could pick up from the best hands, and what I believe you will find at present the most authentic.

I am, &c.

R. LEVESON GOWER

******

MR. LEVESON GOWER TO THE DUKE OF BEDFORD.

Hague, October 18. 1746. N. S.

My Lord Duke,

Your Grace will find that this affair in Flanders will not turn out so much to our disadvantage. The Dutch take it very much to heart, and the reputation their troops have got by their good behaviour makes them very uppish.

The French here, who one would imagine to be very insolent upon it, are quite the contrary : whether it proceeds from the effects they see his affair has upon the people here, or from the attack Mr. Lestock (Admiral Richard Lestock) has made upon the coasts of Britany, I can't say ; but the fact is true, and there is not one of them that says a word.

The loss of the Dutch by the muster since the action amounts to 1768 killed, wounded, and missing, and that of the troops in our pay to about the same number. The French have lost twice as many, so that they have no good reason to be very well pleased. They have since retired to their old camp at Tongres, and have begun to detach for Italy with twenty battalions and twenty squadrons.

If the King of Sardinia and the Austrians are in earnest, their detachments won't end there. Mr. Lestock (who every body supposes has done them great mischief, since they have stopt all letters) will I hope force them to detach too, and then I fancy our negotiations at Breda will have a good face, which is the sincere wish of,

R. LEVESON GOWER.

John Russell, 4th Duke of Bedford

Looking at Leveson-Gower's first letter and his remarks on Prince Waldeck's reported reaction to the tidy drubbing that the Pragmatic Army received at Marshal de Saxe's able hands, the Prince clearly had that modern-day politician's gift for denial in the face of contradictory reality!

I also note a reference to two Bavarian regiments that formed part of the Pragmatic Army. Clearly some research is in order, as Bavarians can usually be counted upon to provide a splash of colour in any wargaming army!

Culloden Moor

The Jacobite Rebellion- culminating in the Battle of Culloden Moor- cannot be separated from the larger struggle that was the War of the Austrian Succession. Certainly Marshal de Saxe and King Louis XV benefitted from having the bulk of the British army in Flanders being sent back to the British Isles to deal with the uprising. Arguably the defeat of the Stuart cause was obtained at the cost of failure in the low countries.

I found this link on YouTube showing clips from Peter Watkin's 1964 BBC documentary of the battle. Forty years on it is still an impressive and moving account.

You will find little in the way of Lace War "chivalry" here, though. This was civil war at its nastiest.

"An impartial representation of the conduct of the several powers of Europe" -Richard Rolt

Click on image to access the book on the Goggle Books site
(you can download the PDF file there)

While looking through the excellent Google Books site, I was very pleased to stumble across this contemporary account- printed in 1750- of the War of the Austrian Succession, penned by someone named Richard Rolt.

In 1750 the conflict had not long been over, and Rolt refers to it as "The Late General War"- obviously the name by which we call the war now was not then universally known.

Once you get used to the different spelling conventions (for example, the printers convention where an "f" stands in for "s") and to its more complex syntactical structure, it provides a fascinating account of the conflict seen through contemporary eyes just two years after the Treaty of Aix-la-Chappelle, and six years before the start of the SYW.

"Blutige Rückseiten"

Not a lot of blogging time for me recently. Work has been keeping me pretty busy at the computer, and the last thing I've been wanting to do when I got home was to spend even more time gazing at a monitor!

I have been able to get in some painting time- which should trump blogging anyway if I am to make any progress on the heaps of lead and pewter that I have stacked around the house.

But I have no intention of seeing my blog go dormant, so while I work on my French and Dutch, here is the plan for the Hanoverian infantry brigade. I will be recruiting these fine fellows from Front Rank.

click on the picture for a bigger view

Monroy's Brigade was present with the Army of the Pragmatic Sanction at the Battle of Dettingen in 1743. It consisted of the following regiments;

• Zastrow (SYW No. 1B Alt-Zastrow)
• Monroy (SYW No. 4B von Stolzenberg)
• Middacten (SYW No.5A von Grote)
• Böselager (SYW No. 7A von Wangenheim)
• Sommerfeld (SYW No. 10A von Post)

I already have two stark-naked metal battalions already lying around and taunting me with their (unfinished) presence, but I will not be working much if at all on the Hanoverians until I have at least two other brigades painted and based (I really need to get working on increasing my collection of French). Still, it's good to have a plan.

More Dutch from Eureka

On this thread on TMP, "Der Alte Fritz" asked for more pictures of the new War of the Austrian Succession Dutch range from Eureka. So for our favorite Prussian monarch here in cyberspace, here are some more.

From left to right: grenadier, grenadier drummer, officer with spontoon, mounted colonel, line drummer (rear view), and sergeant with halberd.

I don't have any cavalry or artillery yet- they'll be coming next month.

Roucoux Day!

Today marks the 232nd anniversary of the Battle of Roucoux. I shall mark it by starting work on my Dutch infantry.

By way of commemoration, here's something about the preeminent hero on the Allied side, General John, Earl Ligonier, the energetic commander of the British cavalry. He seems to have had the unenviable role of being left to pull what remained of the charred chestnuts out of the fires started by the unfortunate Duke of Cumberland.

John, Earl Ligonier

John Ligonier, second son of Monseuquet, a gentleman of a noble Huguenot family, was born in France in the year 1687. He received his education in England; and, having a strong predilection for a military life acted, when only fifteen years of age, as a volunteer, at the storming of Liege, on which occasion, he was one of the two first who mounted the breach: his companion, a volunteer, of the noble family of Wentworth, was killed by his side.

In 1703, having purchased the command of a company in Lord North’s regiment, he fought at the battles of Schellenburgh (sic) and Blenheim; in the latter of which, every captain in the regiment was slain except himself. In 1706, he obtained the rank of major of brigade, for his daring exploits at the siege of Menin. At Ramillies, Oudenarde and Wynendale, he gained additional laurels; and at Malplaquet, twenty-two shots went through his clothes without wounding him. In 1719, he assisted, as colonel and adjutant-general, at the attack made by Lord Cobham on Vigo; and, after the capture of Ponte Vedra, reduced Fort Marin, at the head of only a hundred grenadiers, although it contained twenty pieces of cannon, and a garrison of two-hundred men.

During the war which commenced in 1739, Ligonier repeatedly distinguished himself. After the battle of Dettingen, in which his regiment had severely suffered he received the honour of knighthood, under the royal standard. At Fontenoy, where he commanded the infantry, he reluctantly complied with the Duke of Cumberland’s orders to retreat, and before he left the field, sent to the enemy’s commander, Marshal Saxe, requesting that the dead might be treated with honour, and the wounded with humanity. In 1746, he was appointed to the chief command of the forces in Flanders.

At Roucoux, after sustaining an impetuous onset, he effected so masterly a retreat as to excite the admiration of his opponent. At the battle of Laffeldt in 1747, he rescued the allied army from destruction, and enabled it to withdraw in good order, by charging at the whole line of French cavalry at the head of the British Dragoons.

His horse having been killed, he fell into the enemy’s hands; but his parole was immediately accepted and Marshal Saxe observed, on introducing him to the French king, “Sir, I present to your majesty a man, who by one glorious action, has disconcerted all my projects”. The monarch, who had witnessed the action from an eminence, warmly applauded the gallantry of Lignier, who was soon after exchanged, and resumed his command.

In 1748, though still in Flanders, without having made any application to the electors he became Member of Parliament for Bath. During the same year he was appointed lieutenant-governor of the island of Guernsey; and in 1752, governor of Plymouth. In 1757, he became an Irish peer by the title of Viscount Ligonier of Enniskellen; in 1763, an English baron; and three years afterwards, an English earl.

At the time of his decease, which occurred on the 28th of April, 1770, he was a field-marshal of the royal forces, a privy counsellor, colonel of the first regiment of the foot-guards, K.C.B and F.R.S. Soon after his death, a monument was erected in Westminster abbey, recording the various actions in which he had taken part.

Lord Ligonier acquired renown throughout Europe for the intrepidity which he displayed against his own countrymen. His abilities, as general, were quite equal to his courage. In the midst of difficulties he was never without resources; and his talents were always most conspicuous when exerted to avoid an impending disaster, or to alleviate the consequences of a defeat.

In private life, as in his public career, he frequently carried his point by some peculiar expedient. A military visitor from whose troublesome presence it was exceedingly difficult, by any of the usual hints, to obtain relief, Ligonier, on one occasion, dismissed in a moment, by beginning, with his fingers, to beat a retreat on the wainscot.

The Georgian Era
(Author unrecorded)
London, 1833
p. 45