is that neither side gave quarter, and that the combat was not only fierce but savage. The loss of the French was about twelve thousand men, and the trophies taken from them, against which they could show trophies of their own, were five hundred prisoners, fifty standards and colours and sixteen guns. The loss of the Allies was not less than twenty thousand men killed and wounded, due chiefly to the mad onset of the Prince of Orange. The Dutch infantry out of thirty battalions lost eight thousand men, or more than half of their number; the British out of twenty battalions lost nineteen hundred men,[1] the heaviest sufferers being the Coldstream Guards, Buffs, Orrery's and Temple's.[2]
The more closely the battle is studied, the more the conviction grows that no action of Marlborough's was fought less in accordance with his own plans. We have seen that he would have preferred to fight it on either of the two preceding days, and that he yielded
- ↑ A nominal list in the Postboy of 1st October gives 36 officers killed and 46 wounded. An earlier list of 17th September gives 40 officers and 511 men killed, 66 officers and 1020 men wounded; but this is admittedly imperfect.
- ↑ Order of Battle. Campaign of 1709.
Right. Sybourg's { Scots Greys, 3 squadrons.
Brigade. { 5th Royal Irish Dragoons,
{ 2 squadrons.
Right Kelburn's { 1st Dragoon Guards, 2 squadrons.
Wing Brigade. { 5th " " 2 "
only. { 7th " " 2 "
{ 6th " " 1 "
{ 3rd " " 2 "
Orrery's { 26th Cameronians.
Brigade. { Two foreign battalions.
{ Prendergast's Foot.
Two { Twenty-seven squadrons of
Foreign { foreign dragoons.
Brigadiers.
{ 1 Batt. 1st Guards.
{ 1 " Coldstream Guards.
{ 1 " Royal Scots.
{ 37th Foot.
{ 10th Foot.
{ 2nd Batt. Royal Scots.
{ 23rd Royal Welsh.
{ Orrery's Foot.
{ 3rd Buffs.
{ Temple's Foot
{ Evans's Foot.
{ 16th Foot.
{ 8th Foot.
{ 24th Foot.
{ 21st Royal Scots Fusiliers.
{ 18th Royal Irish.
Left.
1st
Line.No British troops in the second line; but the 15th and 19th Foot were also present at the action of Malplaquet.
