CUTTS' ATTACK ON THE VILLAGE OF BLENHEIM
At 13:00, Cutts was ordered to attack the village of Blenheim whilst Prince Eugene was requested to assault Lutzingen on the Allied right flank.
Cutts ordered Brigadier-General Archibald Rowe's brigade to attack. The English infantry rose from the edge of the Nebel, and silently marched towards Blenheim, a distance of some 140 m.
John Ferguson's English brigade supported Rowe's left, and moved in perfect order towards the barricades between the village and the river, defended by Hautefeuille's dragoons.
As the range closed to within 27 m, the French fired a deadly volley. Rowe had ordered that there should be no firing from his men until he struck his sword upon the palisades, but as he stepped forward to give the signal, he fell mortally wounded. The survivors of the leading companies closed up the gaps in their torn ranks and rushed forward. Small parties penetrated the defences, but repeated French volleys forced the English back towards the Nebel, sustaining heavy casualties. As the attack faltered, eight squadrons of elite Gens d'Armes, commanded by the veteran Swiss officer, Beat-Jacques von Zurlauben, fell upon the English troops, cutting at the exposed flank of Rowe's own regiment. However, Wilkes' Hessian brigade, lying nearby in the marshy grass at the water's edge, stood firm and repulsed the Gens d'Armes with steady fire, enabling the English and Hessians to re-order and launch another attack.
Although the Allies were again repulsed, these persistent attacks on Blenheim eventually bore fruit, panicking Clérambault into making the worst French error of the day. Without consulting Tallard, Clérambault ordered his reserve battalions into the village, upsetting the balance of the French position and nullifying the French numerical superiority. "The men were so crowded in upon one another", wrote Mérode-Westerloo, "that they couldn't even fire – let alone receive or carry out any orders." Marlborough, spotting this error, now countermanded Cutts' intention to launch a third attack, and ordered him simply to contain the enemy within Blenheim; no more than 5,000 Allied soldiers were able to pen in twice the number of French infantry and dragoons.
(from Wikipedia)
One of the main task in this case is to understand the real array of the Cutts Column, it means the real deployment of the 4 Brigades when attacking the village of Blenheim. Actually, these 4 Brigades are drawn on maps as one after the other in this order: Rowe's Brigade, Hessen Kessel's Brigade, English Fergunson's Brigade, Hannover Brigade.
It then probable that this was the "initial" array, but not surely the attacking array, considering also that the Hessen Kessel Brigade was with few men and deplaced on 4 ranks, instead of 3 ranks as the other Brigades.
From the different descriptions of the assult of the Cutts' column it is possible to state that the main attack was carried by the Rowe's Brigade, directy against the Village of Blenheim.
It is also sure that the Hessian Brigade wat at its back because when the right side of the Rowe's Brigade was attacked, the Hessian Brigade, in the marshy land on its back, moved forward turning on the right.
It is also quite evident that the Ferguson's Brigade was on the left of Rowe's Brigade, attacking in between the village and the Danube river facing the French Dragoons.
More complicated is the position of the 4th Brigade, i.e. the Hannoverian Brigade. During the Battle it was redeployed in the center of the allied front, but I think that during the assault on the village it was substaining the Fergunson's Brigade on the left of the attacking salient. The fact that this unit was moved to another front means that it was not directly involved in any fight on the village of Blenheim, probably because on the back of the Fergunson's Brigade.
So, the array was as follows:
At 13:00, Cutts was ordered to attack the village of Blenheim whilst Prince Eugene was requested to assault Lutzingen on the Allied right flank.
Cutts ordered Brigadier-General Archibald Rowe's brigade to attack. The English infantry rose from the edge of the Nebel, and silently marched towards Blenheim, a distance of some 140 m.
John Ferguson's English brigade supported Rowe's left, and moved in perfect order towards the barricades between the village and the river, defended by Hautefeuille's dragoons.
As the range closed to within 27 m, the French fired a deadly volley. Rowe had ordered that there should be no firing from his men until he struck his sword upon the palisades, but as he stepped forward to give the signal, he fell mortally wounded. The survivors of the leading companies closed up the gaps in their torn ranks and rushed forward. Small parties penetrated the defences, but repeated French volleys forced the English back towards the Nebel, sustaining heavy casualties. As the attack faltered, eight squadrons of elite Gens d'Armes, commanded by the veteran Swiss officer, Beat-Jacques von Zurlauben, fell upon the English troops, cutting at the exposed flank of Rowe's own regiment. However, Wilkes' Hessian brigade, lying nearby in the marshy grass at the water's edge, stood firm and repulsed the Gens d'Armes with steady fire, enabling the English and Hessians to re-order and launch another attack.
Although the Allies were again repulsed, these persistent attacks on Blenheim eventually bore fruit, panicking Clérambault into making the worst French error of the day. Without consulting Tallard, Clérambault ordered his reserve battalions into the village, upsetting the balance of the French position and nullifying the French numerical superiority. "The men were so crowded in upon one another", wrote Mérode-Westerloo, "that they couldn't even fire – let alone receive or carry out any orders." Marlborough, spotting this error, now countermanded Cutts' intention to launch a third attack, and ordered him simply to contain the enemy within Blenheim; no more than 5,000 Allied soldiers were able to pen in twice the number of French infantry and dragoons.
(from Wikipedia)
One of the main task in this case is to understand the real array of the Cutts Column, it means the real deployment of the 4 Brigades when attacking the village of Blenheim. Actually, these 4 Brigades are drawn on maps as one after the other in this order: Rowe's Brigade, Hessen Kessel's Brigade, English Fergunson's Brigade, Hannover Brigade.
It then probable that this was the "initial" array, but not surely the attacking array, considering also that the Hessen Kessel Brigade was with few men and deplaced on 4 ranks, instead of 3 ranks as the other Brigades.
From the different descriptions of the assult of the Cutts' column it is possible to state that the main attack was carried by the Rowe's Brigade, directy against the Village of Blenheim.
It is also sure that the Hessian Brigade wat at its back because when the right side of the Rowe's Brigade was attacked, the Hessian Brigade, in the marshy land on its back, moved forward turning on the right.
It is also quite evident that the Ferguson's Brigade was on the left of Rowe's Brigade, attacking in between the village and the Danube river facing the French Dragoons.
More complicated is the position of the 4th Brigade, i.e. the Hannoverian Brigade. During the Battle it was redeployed in the center of the allied front, but I think that during the assault on the village it was substaining the Fergunson's Brigade on the left of the attacking salient. The fact that this unit was moved to another front means that it was not directly involved in any fight on the village of Blenheim, probably because on the back of the Fergunson's Brigade.
So, the array was as follows:
