Blenheim, Battle of, Blindheim, Bavaria, Germany, 1704
Marcin, inferior as was his command, gripped the opportunity, sent cavalry
at once to Oberglauheim, and that cavalry charged. But here the greatness
of Marlborough as a personal commander suddenly appeared. He seized the
whole character of the moment in a way that Tallard on his first chance
had wholly failed to do. He put himself in person at the head of the
Danish brigade that lay in reserve, brought it across the rivulet, and
came just in time to take the charge of the French cavalry. Even as that
charge was preparing, Marlborough sent to Eugene for cavalry at the
gallop. He (Marlborough) must hold fast with his Danes against the French
horse--five minutes, ten, fifteen at the most--till help should come from
the right.
Here, again, another factor in the success of the day appeared--that
Eugene and Marlborough understood each other.
Eugene had just suffered a sharp check upon the extreme right; he was
re-forming for a new attack when he got Marlborough's message. Without the
loss of a moment in weighing his own immediate necessities, he sent Fugger
thundering off, and Fugger, with the imperial cuirassiers, came galloping
full speed upon Marlborough's right flank just as the French charge was at
its hardest pressure upon the Danish line. He took that French charge in
flank, broke its impetus, permitted the Danish infantry to hold their own,
and so compelled the French horse to fall back; within a quarter of an
hour from its inception the peril of a breach in Marlborough and Eugene's
centre was thus dissolved.
Here, then, is yet another incident in the battle, which shows not only on
which side rapidity of perception lay, but also on which side lay sympathy
between commanders, and, most important of all, the discipline and
material eminence of the dominating arm.
It was now nearly six o'clock, and the August sun was red and low in the
face of the English General. The French line still stood intact before
him.
Marlborough's first great effort against Blenheim had disastrously failed
all during the earlier afternoon; he had but just escaped a terrible
danger, and had but barely been saved, by Eugene's promptitude in
reinforcement, from seeing his line cut in two. Nevertheless, he was the
master of the little daylight that remained. His cavalry, and indeed
nearly all his troops, were now formed beyond the Nebel; he had the mass
of his forces now all gathered opposite the weakest part of the French
line. It was his business to pierce that line and to conquer.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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