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."

Jean-Chretien and his Chasseurs

Jean-Chretien de Fischer entered the French army in 1737.  In 1741, he became a valet to a French officer during the Sieges of Prague.  Fischer took care of his master's horse, taking it outside the city and across the river to graze.  Many other servants and horses followed Fischer.  But one day, wild Hungarian hussars swept down on them all, to carry away the horses.  Fischer and his fellow-servants beat them off.  General Saxe heard of this and put all the servants under Fischer's command, creating an Independent Company for him.  These Chasseurs de Fischer served in Alsace, at Lauffeldt and Bergen-op-Zoom.  After the Treaty of Aix-la-Chappelle, Fischer was the only light corps commander to have his corps not disbanded.  In the Seven Years' War, Fischer's Chasseurs would go on to further glory in Hanover, Sandershausen, Krefeld, Bergen, Minden, Kloster Kamp, Lutterberg and Warburg.

Jean-Chretien de Fischer was an organizer of men.  In addition to raising the Chasseurs de Fischer, he raised a unit of light troops sent to India, and the Volontaires-Etrangers.  He died in 1762.  His story is an excellent example of Matthew 25:21:

"His lord said unto him, Well done, thou good and faithful servant: thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord."

A Ballad of the French Fleet

Last time I wrote about how God confounded the Duc d'Anville's expedition to reconquer Acadia and burn Boston.  Henry Wadsworth Longfellow wrote a poem about this fleet, which ascribes the glory of the victory to God.

A Ballad of the French Fleet

A fleet with flags arrayed

Sailed from the port of Brest

And the Admiral's ship displayed

The signal: "Steer southwest."

For this Admiral D'Anville

Had sworn by cross and crown
To ravage with fire and steel
Our helpless Boston town.

There were rumors in the street,
In the houses there was fear
Of the coming of the fleet,
And the danger hovering near.
And while from mouth to mouth
Spread the tidings of dismay,
I stood in the Old South,
Saying humbly: "Let us pray!"

"O  Lord! we would not advise;
But if in thy Providence
A tempest should arise
To drive the French Fleet hence,
And scatter it far and wide,
Or sink it in the sea,
We should be satisfied,
And thine the glory be."

This was the prayer I made,
For my soul was all on flame,
And even as I prayed
The answering tempest came;
It came with a mighty power,
Shaking the windows and walls,
And tolling the bell in the tower,
As it tolls in funerals.

The lightning suddenly
Unsheathed its flaming sword,
And I cried: "Stand still, and see
The salvation of the Lord!"
The heavens were black with cloud,

The sea was white with hail,

And ever more fierce and loud

Blew the October gale.

The fleet it overtook,

And the broad sails in the van

Like the tents of Cushan shook,

Or the curtains of Midian.

Don on the reeling decks

Crashed the o'erwhelming seas;

Ah, never were there wrecks

So pitiful as these!

Like a potter's vessel broke

The great ships of the line;
They were carried away as a smoke,

Or sank like lead in the rine.

O Lord! before thy path

They vanished and ceased to be,

When thou didst walk in wrath
With thine horses through the sea!

Duc d'Anville Expedition

The novel Guns of Thunder is set during the 1745 Siege of Louisbourg.

In 1744, the colonies of France and Great Britain were drawn into the War of the Austrian Succession.  New France repelled an attack at Canso.  In 1745, New England mounted an ambitious expedition.  4,000 colonists besieged the mighty French fortress of Louisbourg.  After 49 days, Louisbourg fell, and the British and their colonies rejoiced.

The news of the capture of Louisbourg shocked the French.  They assembled 11,000 soldiers on board a fleet of 64 ships--the largest expedition to the New World unti the American War of Independence.  The Duc d'Anville commanded the expedition to reconquer Acadia (Nova Scotia) and "consign Boston to flames."

The Duc d'Anville and the French flotilla

Alarmed, the New Englanders fasted and prayed, and God intervened.  Storms battered the French ships, while disease wiped out many soldiers.  When the expedition landed, the Duc d'Anville fell sick and died.  Finally, the remnants of the expedition returned to France.  New England had stood still and seen the salvation of the Lord.

Lauffeldt

As the War of the Austrian Succession drew to a close, the French Marshal Saxe maneuvered his army to besiege the city of Maastrect.  Caught off guard, the Pragmatic Army (so named because it supported the Pragmatic Sanction) under the Duke of Cumberland hurried into position.  Saxe attacked them on July 2, 1747 near the village of Lauffeldt.  The victory was in doubt for several hours as Saxe's left wing stormed into Lauffeldt, only for his right to be hit by Sir John Ligonier's cavalry.  Saxe consolidated his men, and Cumberland ordered his cavalry to cover the retreat.  Again Ligonier's men charged.  But this time, they were sacrificed to guard the rest of the army.  Ligonier himself was captured by the Royal-Carabiniers.

After the battle subsided, Marshal Saxe introduced Sir John to Louis XV (who had watched the battle) with the words "Sire, I present to your Majesty a man who has defeated all my plans by a single glorious action."  Even in war, Marshal Saxe showed respect for a brave enemy.

18th Century Gallery by J. O. B.

Onfray de Breville (also known as J. O. B.) was a French painter of the late 1800s-early 1900s.  The pictures are delightful, but better yet is the accuracy of the uniforms.  Uniform accuracy is very rare in art.  I hope that God will raise up some Christian historical artists (who paint accurate uniforms!)  Perhaps these paintings, or those in my other galleries will inspire a Christian artist.

The first painting is of Braddock's army on the march.  A sick George Washington rides in the wagon.

The next painting is of the Battle of the Monongahela.  Washington tries to rally the panicked soldiers with no success.

The last painting is not of the French and Indian War at all, but of the Battle of Fontenoy (1745).  It depicts the final action which secured the French victory: the charge of the elite Maison du Roi into the British column.