onsiderable body of regular forces, assembled to
oppose his further progress. Prince Ferdinand therefore hoped that the
operations of the French general would be effectually impeded, until he
himself, being joined by the British troops, should be in a condition to
pass the Maese, transfer the seat of war into the enemy's country,
thus make a diversion from the Rhine, and perhaps oblige the prince de
Soubise to come to the assistance of the principal French army commanded
by M. de Contades. He had formed a plan which would have answered these
purposes effectually, and, in execution of it, marched to Ruremond on
the Maese, when his measures were totally disconcerted by a variety of
incidents which he could not foresee. The prince of Ysembourg was, on
the twenty-third day of July, defeated at San-garshausen by the duke
de Broglio, whom the prince de Soubise had detached against him with
a number of troops greatly superior to that which the Hessian general
commanded. The duke de Broglio, who commanded the corps that formed the
vanguard of Soubise's army, having learned at Cassel that the Hessian
troops, under the prince of Ysembourg, were retiring towards Munden,
he advanced, on the twenty-third of July, with a body of eight thousand
men, to the village of Sangarshausen, where he found them drawn up in
order of battle, and forthwith made a disposition for the attack. At
first his cavalry were repulsed by the Hessian horse, which charged
the French infantry, and were broke in their turn. The Hessians,
though greatly inferior in number to the enemy, made a very obstinate
resistance, by favour of a rock in the Fulde that covered their
right, and a wood by which their left was secured. The dispute was so
obstinate, that the enemy's left was obliged to give ground; but the
duke de Broglio, ordering a fresh corps to advance, changed the fortune
of the day. The Hessians, overpowered by numbers, gave way; part plunged
into the river, where many perished, and part threw themselves into the
wood, through which they escaped from the pursuit of the hussars, who
took above two hundred soldiers and fifty officers, including the count
de Canitz, who was second in command. They likewise found on the field
of battle seven pieces of cannon, and eight at Munden; but the carnage
was pretty considerable, and nearly equal on both sides. The number
of the killed and wounded, on the side of the French, exceeded two
thousand; the loss of the Hessians