Fontenoy Gallery by Jacques Onfray de Breville

Today is the anniversary of the 1745 Battle of Fontenoy, fought between the French Army and the Pragmatic Allies (comprising Great Britain, the Netherlands, Hanover, and the Holy Roman Empire).  At the battle of Fontenoy, Marshal Saxe directed the French army to victory.

 In the picture at left, Marshal Saxe rides in his wicker chariot because he was too ill to ride a horse.  The man at right is an uhlan of the Volontaires de Saxe.
 




Saxe's plan called for redoubts to strengthen the French position against the Allied attacks.  It also incorporated the elite Arquebusiers de Grassin to patrol the woods and harass the enemy columns as they attacked Saxe's redoubts.  They are doing this in the picture, warily looking out for trouble.  They performed their job admirably, delaying the advance of a column of British infantry.

But the Allies had penetrated Saxe's lines in a massive column that refused to be broken.  Saxe ordered the reserve Irish Brigade (made up of Irish exiles in French service) and Louis XV's bodyguard, known as the Maison du Roi, to give one final attack.  These elite troops hit the Allied column and gained the victory for France.  The Maison du Roi is charging in this picture.  Fontenoy is also remarkable because Louis XV and his son the Dauphin were encamped there during the battle.

All these pictures were created by the French artist Comte Jacques Onfray de Breville.  He signed his work with his initials "JOB."

1780-1781 Southern Theater of American Revolution by F. C. Yohn

The Southern theatre of the American Revolution proved decisive, as General Cornwallis surrendered at Yorktown.  But both before and after Yorktown, many other critical battles were fought.  This gallery of paintings by the noted artist F. C. Yohn captures some of them.

To the left is a painting of the Battle of Camden.  Camden was a decisive British victory, as Lord Cornwallis destroyed an entire American army--the only one in the South--as well as the reputation of the American General Gates.

With Gates out of the way, Cornwallis sent the talented Major Patrick Ferguson on a sweep against the wild frontiersmen of North Carolina/Kentucky.  But at King's Mountain, the frontiersmen ambushed and killed him and most of his small army.

King's Mountain was matched by another British disaster at Cowpens, which led Cornwallis to chase General Greene (Gates's replacement) through North Carolina.  Finally the two armies fought it out at Guilford Courthouse, where Cornwallis defeated General Greene, though not decisively.

With Cornwallis now in Virginia, command devolved to Lord Rawdon.  Rawdon and General Greene fought it out at Hobkirk's Hill.  Another British victory, yet still not decisive.

Another British commander was appointed: Colonel Alexander Stuart.  Greene launched an ambush on Stuart's troops at Eutaw Springs, driving them back.  The battle looked like a decisive American victory, until the American attack bogged down and was then hurled back by a counter-attack.  The British repulsed the Americans, but as General Greene put it "We fight, get beat, rise, and fight again."

Greene's perseverance paid off, because Eutaw Springs was the last major battle of the Southern theater.  Late in 1782, the British army evacuated Charleston, their last post in South Carolina.