Blenheim, Order of Battle, Part V, l’Armée du Rhin

The final part of the Order of Battle is the Marshall Tallard “Army of the Rhine”. This army, formed in early 1704 to support Marsin and Max Emmanuel in Bavaria. contained an noticeable proportion of recruits as well as some Vieux-Regiment and the Gendarmerie. The passage of Black Forest to reach the other French Army was well executed by Tallard. However, at the time of Blenheim, the cavalry was plagued by Glanders, an horse pulmonary disease. Accordingly Tallard’s cavalry was dangerously understrenght, with a full dragoon brigade dismounted by lack of horses.

           

           

The Marshall Tallard, captured during the battle and liberated in 1711: his performance at Blenheim was under his previous standards.

                                  

The main body was commanded by the Lt. Gen. Marquis de Montpeyroux: the left cavalry division, under the Duc d’Humieres was formed by the brigade Merode/Silly (left), represented by the two Spanish regiments Acosta and Gaetano and the brigade La Valliere (regt. Orleans and Bourgogne); the right wing cavalry, under Lt. Gen. Comte de Zurlauben: it comprises the Vertilly brigade (Gendarmerie) on the left and the brigade Broglie/Grinan (regt. Du Roi and La Baume) on the right.

                                  

This is a bust of Béat-Jacques de La Tour-Châtillon, Comte de Zurlauben, a veteran and competet Swiss officier that was killed at the battle.

                                                           

The left wing infantry, that in the battle was on the third line between Blenheim and Oberglau, was commanded by the Marquis de Saint-Pierre. It was composed mainly by fresh recruits which, however, performed heroically being cut to pieces by the Allied cavalry. From left to right: brigade Trecesson (regt. Albaret), brigade Breuil (regt. Auxerrois), brigade Belleisle (regt. Nice) and a light battery. D’Albaret was raised in 1702 and destroyed at Blenheim, his colonel killed and hence disbanded in 1704; Nice was instead a Piedmontese regiment.

                                 

The right wing infantry was the main Tallard infantry reserve which was swallowed uselessly into Blenheim by Cleràmbault: it was at the orders of Lt. Gen. Marquis de Marinvaux. In the first lime the brigade D’Enonville (regts. Royal and Boulonnais); in the second line brigade Montroux (regt. Montroux) and Monfort (regt. Blasois) plus two light and an heavy artillery batteries. The red-coated Montroux was a Italian regiment.

                                         

The Blindheim garrison under Maestre-de-Camp de Blansac: from the left (behind entrenchments) brigade Hautefeille of dismounted dragoons (regt. Rohan-Chabot), in the town the brigades de Maulevrier (regt. Navarre) and Greder (regt. Greder Allemand). Blenheim is represented by a double-based town and hence can be occupied by four brigades.

                                 

The main Blenheim reserve was commanded directly by Philippe de Paullau, Marquis de Cleràmbault, the son of a same name French Marshall. I was not able to find on the web a portrait or anything else regarding his career, as his memory was put under a cloud after the disaster. He died in the Danube trying to escape or to find an escape route for his soldiers, who knows. Indeed he was a capable subordinate that performed well enough as Tallard’s subordinate and the Marshall entrusted him correctly for the important task of defending the Blindheim strongpoint. What happened in his mind remains a mystery: maybe he had a nervous breakdown or maybe the ferocity of Allied infantry at the Schellenberg created an excessive fear of the Cutts’ attack column. However, he was the sole responsible of putting 27 battalions in the town and was an easy scapegoat for the whole disaster.

From left to right, as usual, brigade Balincourt (regt. Artois), brigade D’Argelos (regt. Santerre and regt. Languedoc), brigade Saint-Segonde (regt. Zurlauben) supported by a light and a field batteries. Zurlauben was a Wallon regiment, annihilated at Blenheim and never reformed, its Colonel Comte de Zurlauben being killed at the battle.