French Army at Yorktown

Of all the French forces that fought in the American War for Independence, General Rochambeau's French expeditionary corps are probably the most famous in the United States, contributing greatly to the surrender of Lord Cornwallis at Yorktown. Rochambeau had over 6,000 troops with him from these infantry regiments (listed in order of precedence):

• Bourbonnois




• Royal-Deux-Ponts (German)




• Soissonois




• Saintonge




• Agenois




• Gatinois




• Touraine




• Metz Artillery Regiment

Rochambeau also had the exotic 2nd Legion of Volontaires-Etrangers de la Marine, better known as Lauzun's Legion. The Duc de Lauzen had 600 men, of whom half were hussars armed with lances, and the other half were infantry.

So why did the French fare so poorly in the Seven Years War, yet were able to pound the British twenty years later? Lord willing, I hope to answer this question next time I write.

Soldiers (above) from Gatinois Regiment, picture from www.wbritain.com. Note the red plumes on the hats: these point out that the wearers are grenadiers, the elite of the regiment.

Poem--The Loyalist of the Vendee

In the deadly chaos of the French Revolution, one dauntless group stood for God, King, Church, and Country: the Catholic and Royal Army. Drawn mostly from the regions of Vendee and Poitou, the Vendeans fought the revolutionaries for eighteen months until they were finally crushed. The Honorable George Sydney Smith wrote an excellent poem (especially the dauntless resolution present in XII.) about the youngest and best of the Vendean generals, Henri de la Rochejacquelein.

The Loyalist of the Vendee

I.

Now, as there is a God in Heaven, and Jesu is his son,

And to Our Lady grace is given, and to the Holy One;

Now, as in sooth, the Church is truth; and if it be her will,

That false shall fail, and right prevail, and good outlast the ill

II.

Then by this Heart, and by this Cross, and by our own Vendee;

By every feeling man can feel, or prayer that man can pray,

By hope in Him, round whom we kneel, I charge you all to swear

One last oath with Rochejacquelein, to dare as he will dare.

III.

And if my words vaunt overmuch, and if I seem to say

That I shall be the boldest, or the foremost in the fray,

Full many a name of older fame, there are around, I know,

Talmont, Foret, Lescure, D'Elbee, and brave Cathelineau.

IV.

And many a gallant dalesman, and many a mountaineer,

To whom their Church, and King, and France, and Gentlemen are dear;

Not strong like theirs my strength shall be, my zeal shall be more

For they have only heard of that Paris I have seen.

V.

Where Fraud, and Crime, and Marat reign, and the Triple Colours wave

O'er the Churches of Our Lady, and the Blessed Genevieve;

Where Agnus, Pix, and Crucifix, are made the wanton's spoil

And the bells which called to vespers, now call to blood and broil.

VI.

The Priest, those gentle Priests and good, your fathers loved to hear,

Sole type below, 'midst work and woe, of the God whom we revere.

There's not a street, trod under feet, they have not dyed with gore;

There's not a stone that does not own one martyrdom, or more.

VII.

The King, I saw the Accursed Cap on his anointed head;

And scoff, and scorn, and gibe, and jest, and mocking words were said;

But he took the nearest hand, and he laid it on his breast,

And he bade it count the pulses, and bade it thence learn rest.

VIII.

The Queen, her proud lip curled with scorn, through all those fierce alarms,

Till Santerre came beside her with the Dauphin in his arms;

Then, her mien grew still and stately, though she shook in every limb;

Her fear was for her infant, her calmness was for him.

IX.

And then and there I swore Santerre should rue that bitter wrong;

And then and there I swore Santerre should learn my name ere long;

And that, this year, should Paris hear, of the loyal hearts and true,

In the Vendee, and the Bourbonnais, and the woodlands of Poitou.

X.

Now, swore I right, or swore I wrong, it is for you to show,

For here is the white standard, and yonder is the foe:

And by your aid, that oath I made, oh, keep it as your own,

May yet restore, (like Joan's of yore,) the Lilies and the Throne.

XI.

Your pardon, Sirs, the rebel stirs, his vanguard is at hand,

Let others will, let me fulfill, what orders you command;

What if my years are but nineteen, oh, think what I have seen

O, think of that insulted King, and of that Hero Queen.

XII.

Then follow me, where'er it be, I make within the foe,

And if I flinch, or fail one inch, there straightway strike me low;

And if I fall, swear one and all, ye will avenge my loss.

Now, Charge! for de la Rochejacquelein, for the Heart, and for the Cross!

Madame de Montcalm

Who can find a virtuous woman? for her price is far above rubies--Proverbs 31:10

"She was as tender a wife as she was a devoted mother"--Abbe H. R. Casgrain

Louise-Angelique, Madame de Montcalm was born in 1709 or possibly early in 1710. I do not yet know the exact date of her birth; however, she was born after her father died, and he died on July 10, 1709. On October 3, 1734, she married a young soldier named Louis-Joseph, Marquis de Montcalm. Montcalm dearly loved his wife and six children, and his wife reciprocated this love. In 1756, as the Seven Years' War broke out, the Minister of War sent Montcalm to Canada to command French troops there. Madame de Montcalm did not wish to see him so far away, but she let him go--and never saw him again. Even through the rigors of campaign, and the battles with Governor Vaudreuil, he never forgot his wife and six children who were waiting in France for him. "Adieu, my heart, I believe I love you more than ever!" is the affectionate closing to one of his last letters home. Montcalm died shortly after the Battle of the Plains of Abraham. One of his last acts was to write a letter for every member of his family.

She died on March 12, 1788, thirty-nine years after her beloved husband.

I have not yet found any portrait, engraving, illustration, or any other picture of Madame de Montcalm, so I drew one.

Apparently Montcalm liked green coats, so in my drawing, he wears one, while Madame de Montcalm has a green dress. His two sons (one as colonel of the Regiment de Montcalm) are represented, as well as his four daughters. The one in green is Mirete, who died while Montcalm was fighting in Canada. Under magnification, one might notice a bird on the left. That is a tribute to Montcalm's verse, written when some said the number of his children was too many for such a small fortune: "Small birds He (God) gives the pasture, And His goodness extends to all nature."

An excellent tribute to the faith of Montcalm and his wife.

The Battle of Preston Pans

Today is the anniversary of the Battle of Preston Pans, the greatest of all Jacobite victories in the Jacobite Rising of 1745.

When "Bonnie Prince Charlie" landed in Scotland to reclaim the throne for his father, James III (whose supporters were known as Jacobites), the Highland clans quickly formed an army for him. George II sent General Sir John Cope to stop this "Young Pretender". After almost fighting a battle in the Correyaireck Pass, Cope retreated to the Lowlands. Charlie and his army followed, and captured Edinburgh. General Cope was too late to save Edinburgh, but he set up his army on Preston Pans.

Charlie was ready for a battle, so his Jacobites moved to Preston Pans too. That evening, the armies kept rearranging for battle. In the morning, a thick fog covered the battlefield. The Highlanders charged through the fog and, missing the infantry in the middle, routed the dragoons on the flanks of the enemy. With their flanks open, the British infantry was rolled up by the wild, sword-swinging Highlanders in less than fifteen minutes. The first major conflict of the Jacobite Rising of 1745 was a huge victory for the Jacobites. General Cope actually brought the news of his own defeat, unlike his valiant subordinate Colonel Gardiner, who died in battle while leading seventeen soldiers who remained on the battlefield. The battle is celebrated in the song, Hey Johnny Cope, Are Ye Waulkin' Yet?

Following this battle, Charles and his army had much of Scotland to themselves. They enlarged the Jacobite army, until they daringly marched into England.

Charles XII's View on War

Charles XII of Sweden was one of the greatest soldiers of his age. God had uniquely prepared him to fight Poland and Russia, who were intent on stealing Swedish territory, in the Great Northern War (1700-1721). For nine years, the brilliant King of Sweden crushed his enemies until his defeat at Poltava. Even then, he still continued the war until he was killed in 1718 while besieging a fortress. This accomplished soldier said of war: "I have resolved never to start an unjust war but never to end a legitimate one except by defeating my enemies."

Johnstone's Escape

Today is the anniversary of the Battle of the Plains of Abraham. As I have already written on it, I will not study the entire battle, but only focus on one man's escape during the rout of the French. The Chevalier de Johnstone was aide-de-camp to General Montcalm during the campaign. A year after, when he was taken prisoner by the British:


"An Englishman asked me one day the name of the general officer, mounted upon the black horse, who had passed their army at the moment after the defeat of our army, the 13th of September the year preceding. He added that they aimed at his horse in order to dismount him, and make him prisoner; but that it turned out that his horse was invulnerable, to escape the thousand musket shots which assailed him on all sides. I answered him that it was myself; that chance had conducted me there without any desire or ambition to attain that salutation, worthy in effect of a general officer, but that their soldiers had not followed their orders, for the discharge they had aimed at me fell in the brushwood. I felt the sound of the balls which passed me at the height of the horizon, like a handful of pease which they had thrown in my face; and I showed him my dress, in which a ball had carried away a piece of cloth from the shoulder."


God miraculously preserved Chevalier Johnstone from harm.


A general officer, who could be Chevalier Johnstone, exhorts the French troops just before they march to that fateful battle on the Plains of Abraham.

Malplaquet

Today, 302 years ago, the Battle of Malplaquet in the War of the Spanish Succession was fought.

The War of the Spanish Succession was fought from 1702-1713 to determine who would be King of Spain. There were two claimants to the throne: the Austrian Charles III and the Frenchman Philip V. Austria, England, the Netherlands, and Prussia supported Charles III and France and Bavaria supported Philip V. There were three theatres of war: the Netherlands/Belgium, Spain, and the Rhine River.

England sent the Duke of Marlborough to head the Allied war effort in the Netherlands with Prince Eugene of Savoy as his second-in-command. Marlborough had beaten the Franco/Bavarians at Blenheim, at Ramillies, and at Oudenarde. Prince Eugene had worked with him except at Ramillies, where he defeated the French at Turin instead.

The war had not gone well for the French. Cities had surrendered, three French armies had been destroyed, and commanders had been killed or captured. A few bright spots shone through, like Berwick's victory at Almanza and Tesse's repulse of Eugene at Toulon. But Marlborough had never been defeated in battle.

Louis XIV assigned the campaign of 1709 to his best French general, Marshal Villars, with Marshal Boufflers as his second-in-command. Villars had entrenched near Malplaquet with a new French army and was prepared for battle. He had perhaps 80,000 soldiers and few veterans.

By contrast, Marlborough and Eugene had united and had 100,000 soldiers ready to take the French lines. Most of them were veterans. The Allies had 110 cannons, against 80 French cannons.

Early in the morning, the battle began with a heavy artillery duel. The Dutch assaulted the right wing of the entrenchments but were forced back by a heavy counterattack. Marlborough sent Eugene into the left with a heavy column of troops. They advanced, but were met with heavy cannon and musket fire. Nevertheless, the Allied forces stormed through. Eugene was wounded in the head, but not mortally.

With the left secure, the allies poured cavalry through the center. Boufflers led the French cavalry, including the Maison du Roi (King's Guards--Gardes du Corps, Gendarmes, Chevaux-Legers) in six counter-attacks on the Allied cavalry.
Villars was wounded in the knee and was moved from the field. Boufflers withdrew the French army neatly away, while the Allies did not attempt a pursuit. The French had lost 9,206 men and the Allies, 20,316.

So who won? Marlborough forced the French from their entrenchments and proceeded to capture the city of Mons, but Villars had inflicted heavy casualties on the Allies. Marlborough was fired in 1711, and the command given to the Duke of Ormonde.

Malplaquet bears similarities to Bunker Hill. Both saw an entrenched army forced from their fortifications while inflicting heavy casualties on their opponents. And yet the heavy casualties made the British more eager for peace.

Note: Casualty figures are taken from John Cornelius O'Callaghan's excellent study History of Irish Brigades in the Service of France