The history of the campagne in the Spanish Netherlands, Anno Dom. 1694 with the journal of the siege of Huy / by Edward D'Auvergne ...

You must observe that at first coming to the Camp of Mount St. André, all the Dragoons incamped upon the Left, where the Left is the Post of Honour: 'Tis for this Reason that the English Dragoons in this List fall after the Dutch. Our Artil∣lery consisted of Sixty pieces of Cannon and six Mortars, and four Companies of Gunners and Matrosses, and one of Miners, each of one hundred men. The Artillery was commanded by Colonel Goor, Lieutenant-Colonel Brown, and Major Slondt; and the four Companies of Gunners and Matrosses which carry Fire-Armes, were commanded by the Captains, Watson, Cock, Vanderstam and Lesley. The Dutch Artillery consisted of the same strength both in respect of Cannon and Men.

It appears by this List of our Line of Battle at Mount St. André, that our Army consisted in the Right and Left Wing, of 176 Squadrons of Horse, which at 150 Horse each Squa∣dron at our first coming into the Field, makes 26400 Horse; the Reserve consisted of 54 Squadrons of Dragoons, 100 each Squadron, which is our complement, which makes 5400

Dragoons; by which the total of our Horse and Dragoons amounted to 31800 Men, all very well Mounted and Armed; but of the Dragoons especially I may say, That such a Body, either for Number or the good Order they were in, has hardly ever been in the Field. Our Infantry consisted of 63 Batta∣lions in the body of Foot, 20 interlined in the Right Wing of Horse, and 12 in the Left, which in all makes 95 Battalions, which at 600 each Battalion at first coming into the Field, a∣mounts to 51000 Foot and 31800 Horse, which makes the total summe of our Army at Mount St. André to be 88800 Men, and about 7000 which Count Thian had incamped un∣der his command near Ghendt, of which we have given an account before, which being added to the former summe, amounts to 95800 Men. This is all we had now in the Field. 'Tis true that we had a great many Forces in Liege, of which I shall give an account to the Reader hereafter. But that Town being then our Frontier, it required an Army for a Garison; and the condition of affairs in regard of that City did then require our special care for its safety; so that what Forces we had in Liege at that time were useless as to the act∣ing offensively; whilst the Enemy were between us and the Meuse, with as good an Army in the Field as ours, except what it had suffered by deserters; for by our computation of the French Forces above, it appears that they had here and in Flanders 91320 Men, which was but 4480 Men less than we had in the Field in both these places, which in such a number is no great odds: I put it therefore to the Judgment of Im∣partial Men, whether the French were not in a better condi∣tion to act defensively against us this year, than we to have acted defensively against them in the former Campaigns.

We dispos'd our Field-Pieces this March to mount to St. André upon the head of the Several Brigades of Foot, each Brigade had Five Field-Pieces, with Stores and Gunners pro∣portionably. The Day following, Count Alefeldt was De∣tach'd with his Brigade to the Village of Ramelies, which the Elector of Bavaria left to take his Quarter at Taviers upon the Mahaigne, and this Post was committed to the Charge of Major General Ellenberg. We made a Retrenchment about

Ramelies, and placed a great many pieces of Canon upon the height of this Village which commanded the Plain that leads to Huy. The same day we rectified our Camp, which had been mark'd in haste the day before to make the Line more regular, and filled up the Interval that had been left by Alefeldt's Bri∣gade. The French being advised of our March towards the Mehaigne, left this day their Camp between Tongres and Fies, and marched near to Huy, after they had passed the Jaar upon several Bridges; they imcamped with their Right between the Villages of Vignamont and Walef towards the Jaar, and their Left at Fenmale upon the Mehaigne. The Dauphin took his Quar∣ter at Vignamont, within Two English Miles of Huy; and the French, which before made a shew of having some design upon Liege or Maestricht, now did not think themselves secure enough in the Camp of Vignamont, though strong by Situation between the Meuse, the Jaar, and Mehaigne, but immediately upon their coming to this Camp they fortified it where it was open, between the Jaar and the Mehaigne, with a very good Re∣trenchment, which they made as strong as art and leasure could do it. The Right of our own Camp, upon the Mehaigne, was within Two Leagues and a half of Namur, and within Four English Miles of the Meuse: for which reason the French kept their Communications with Namur, from whence they had their Provisions by Land on the other side of the River, which before they had by Water; and the Marquiss d' Harcourt, which before lay incamped between the Paijs de Liege and that of Luxemburg, was ordered to come and Post himself on the other side of the Meuse near Huy, to cover the French Convoys, which otherwise would have been much exposed to the Excur∣sion of the Garrison of Liege, which has an equal advantage on both sides of the River: And because the French were now every much streightned in their Camp, that they had already forraged all about Liege and Maestricht, and that there remained but little Ground on this side of the River which they could forrage se∣curely on; the Dauphin, to provide for the subsistance of his Army as long as he could, ordered all the heavy Baggage of the Army to march by Huy to the other side of the Meuse. This was the great Advantage of our Camp at Mount St. André,

That the French, which before ravaged all the Countrey be∣tween Liege and Maestricht, were now forced to Retrench them∣selves under the Walls of their own Garrison of Huy; and that it put all the Countrey on this side of the Sambre under our Command, so far, that the French, though Masters both of Namur and Charleroy, yet could not hinder us from incamping in the Plains of Fleury, and were themselves forced to pass and re-pass the Sambre, which is a great way about, to follow us in∣to Flanders. And though our Advantages were so great by this Camp, yet we could not take it up sooner, because the French might then have subsisted about Liege and Huy longer than we could have done upon the Mehaigne; which would have exposed Liege too much to the French Power, upon our March to the Scheld.

The 16th. Stuarts Brigade was detached out of the Line to incamp at the Cense, or Farm of Franquenies, near the Abbey of Bonef upon the Mehaigne, where they intrenched themselves, and the Guard of this Post was committed to the charge of Count Nassau, Lieutenant General. This Village, with that of Ramelies on the other side, Commanded the Plain before our Right Wing, (where we incamped along the Mehaigne in the Campagne of 1692. where the King had his Quarter at Ra∣melies, and our Right by Perwys, and the Left at Brancon upon the Mehaigne: The French were then besieging the Castle of Namur,) the rest of our Camp was covered in the Front by the Lesser, and in the Rear by the Greater Geet: The River in the Front was a great way from the Line, above half of a League, but a little Brook covered it nearer that went from the Village of Offus and fell into the Lesser Geet at Jauche. This was the Strength and Situation of our Camp at Mount St. André, the Posts that covered, and the Advantages we got by it.

Upon our coming to this Camp, and the French to Vignamont, the King ordered the Forces that were incamped within the Lines of Liege, to march out, and form a Camp by the Citadel, consisting of Dutch, Brandenbourg, and Liege Forces, Com∣manded by Prince Circlaes of Tilly, and the Major-General Heyden, and Cohorne. This was a very convenient Camp to molest the Enemy in their Forrage towards Liege; and the

French to be even with us, Commanded a small Body of Horfe and Dragoons, Commanded by Colonel Vaillat, to incamp un∣der the Walls of Namur to molest our Forragers between the Mehaigne and the Meuse, who often went very near Namur: The French sent besides this Detachment, a Man of a Company Commanded by the Officers, that had best knowledge of the Countrey, to go out in Parties; in which they had pretty good success, particularly between the Mehaigne and the Meuse, where we lost several Horses, and they took generally some Prisoners. But if these were inconvenient to us from Namur, our Camp near Liege was equally inconvenient to the Enemy on that side from whom they took a great many Horses and Pri∣soners; but few Deserters came to us from this Camp, though they deserted before in Multitudes, because they were so closely intrenched between Rivers that it was difficult for them, who had a mind, to get away.

The 17th. the King rid out very early, with a strong De∣tachment of 4000 Horse, along the Mehaigne, towards the Enemies Camp, and returned very late that Evening: The day following we had a general Forrage on the other side the Mehaign. Several of the Enemies Squadrons appeared in sight of our Forragers; for which reason we fired three Pieces of Cannon from our Camp, the Signal to call them in. The French did forrage the same day on their side, and these Squadrons were of the Detachment to Cover the Forragers, who were no less surprised to see some of our Squadrons posted near them for the same reason; however there was no Action on either Side, though such Accidents falling out have sometimes brought two Armies to an ingagement, as it happened in 1689 at Walcourt, between Prince Waldeck and the Mareschal de Humieres. Our Foragers nevertheless made a shift not to come into the Camp empty, but we lost some Horses that tarried too long after the Signal given to come off, at which time the Detachment that cover'd the Foragers were commanded back to the Camp. Colonel Mathews lost 8 Horses out of his Regiment, and 3 of his Men were wounded.

The 22th all the Dragoons removed from the Left to the Rear of the Right by Hottemont: What remained of the

English and Dutch Artillery after the Field-pieces had been di∣stributed into the several Brigades of Foot, and that we had planted some others at the Village of Ramelies, came to be posted here the day before from the ground between Mount St. André and Bonmale, where it had incamped at our first coming here. And the 24th the Duke of St. Albans and Co∣lonel Lutterel came to the Camp from England; the first to serve as a Voluntier, and the second to go to Venice and com∣mand the Irish Forces in the Service of that Republick, with a Commission of Major-General. This day we had another general Forage towards Wavre, where the Lord Colchester, now Earl of Rivers, lost some Horses out of his Troop of Guards. The Parties not only from Namur, but from Mons and Charleroy, were very frequent, and came often to the very Rear of our Camp; so that upon a Forage, 'twas very hard to prevent the losing several of our Horses, either by negligent Men who did not take care to keep within the out∣guards; or others, who for choice of Forage would venture beyond them.

The 26th we surrounded a party of the Enemies in a Wood, just by the Rear of our Left, where they had been decoy'd by a Boor, who gave notice of it to my Lord of Athlone. This was a voluntary Party of dismounted Troopers that had a great mind to ride some of our Horses, and to mount them∣selves at our own cost; they got a Partisan with them, who when they came near to our Camp inquir'd whereabouts our Horses grazed; the Boor told them, that they were every day just by the Wood, and that if they would lie there in ambuscade that night they would not fail of Horses the next morning: They took his advice, and the Boor came immedi∣ately to advertise my Lord of Athlone of it, who commanded a Detachment of Dragoons and of the two Brigades of Foot interlined in the Left to surround the Wood, and to give no quarter; so that they kill'd 20 of them up and down, and the Partisan among the rest; but at last they gave quarter to 17. Much about the same time one of our Parties, composed of Soldiers of Hukelom and Carles Regiments, brought in the Lieutenant-Colonel of the Dauphins Regiment, and several

other Prisoners, which they took between Huy and Namur. And though 'tis none of my business to speak of the actions of Parties and Partisans, which have no more to do in the main business of an Army, than Privateers have in that of a Fleet, the one being upon Land what the others are at Sea, yet I can∣not omit to speak of a considerable adventure of one of our Parties, which ventured to pass the Meuse though not 30 Men, and got about 50 Troopers in a defile, where they took all their Horses, and made every one of them Prisoners, and re∣pass'd the Meuse with their Booty, which they brought safe∣ly off.

The 21th Count Thian had a quiet Camp in the Neighbour∣hood of Ghendt, where he seemed posted only to make head against the Marquis De la Valette near Courtray, yet he would not remain idle there, but about this time he made a Detach∣ment of 300 Spanish Horse out of his Camp, under the com∣mand of the Lieutenant-Colonel of the Prince of Chinays Re∣giment, who in their way by Aeth took a Reinforcement of 700 Foot out of that Garison, and the next day they were joyn'd with about 3 or 400 more of the same Garison: These Forces attack'd the French Line about St. Ghilain, and forced several of their Redoubts upon the Haine, where they made 50 Prisoners; they pass'd the River after this, and plundered the Town of St. Ghilain, where there was a small Garison which abandon'd it upon their approach, and retreated to Mons; they detach'd several Parties in the Countrey round about for Hostages, and made a very great booty of Horses and Cattle which they brought to Aeth.

The 27th the three Battalions of Guards in the Second Line, had Orders to incamp upon the Kings Quarter, a great deal of baggage of the Kings Horse, and several, both Mules and Horses were on the other side of the little River which went under the Kings Quarter; and the King had information of the designs of some of the French Partisans to come and endeavour to steal away what lay on the other side of this River, where it was expos'd to such attempts; and besides the Kings Quar∣ter was removed from the Line of the Army, for which reason these three Battalions of Guards, and the Duke of Holsteins

Dragoons incamped here by the Kings Quarter, the Guards on the other, and the Dragoons on this side of the Geet.

The 28th we had another general Forage, under a good escort of 20 Squadrons of Horse commanded by Count Tilly, Major-General, and a good Detachment of Foot commanded by Brigadier Collier. Some Horses were lost of Brigadier Mathews his Dragoons, and two of his Men were kill'd by the French Parties that lay in ambuscade for a like occasion.

The 31th the King took a review of the 20 Brandenburgh Squadrons of Horse that (as we said above) had joyn'd the Elector of Bavaria at his Camp of Neer Isthe, being com∣manded by Lieutenant-General D' Witz and Major-General Sonsfeldt••; the Elector of Bavaria was present, and the King was very well pleased with the order they were in. The grand Musquetiers made a very fine shew, being all French Gentlemen Refugies, very well Cloath'd with Scarlet Coats and Silver Lace, and as well Mounted; they behaved them∣selves very well the beginning of this War at the Siege of Bonne, and have been no less serviceable this Campaign in that of Huy.