THE BROME-WALTON FAMILY. 419 
were drawn up in two lines, supported by heavy field artillery and by 
cavalry. Their left extended towards the hill, and had behind them a 
little rivulet and the village of Dettingen. Their right was covered by 
the Maine and supported by a position battery of artillery erected 
near Maynfling, on the other side of the river. 
At 8 o’clock a battery of French cannon at Hoechflat began to play 
upon the Hanoverian cavalry, but was soon silenced by the British 
artillery, u which was well served and did great execution.” At 10 
o’clock a general cannonade began, which lasted two hours : “the 
cannonade was the most severe ever known.” While this artillery duel 
was going on, the British and Austrian cavalry led the attack upon 
the French, and being supported by infantry with battalion guns, 
gained a temporary advantage. The French horse now charged with 
great impetuosity, and broke the Allied cavalry; but both Ligonier’s 
and Bland’s dragoons gallantly checked the onslaught : the British 
infantry, however, now for the first time in war armed with the iron 
ramrod and the bayonet musquet, 1 2 could not be broken, and kept 
advancing with undaunted resolution—now firing, now pushing with 
the bayonet. 3 At 12 o’clock the whole Allied Army advanced, driving 
the French before them with dreadful slaughter and confusion into 
and across the Maine until 4 o’clock, when the pursuit ended from 
sheer fatigue; and the Allies, who had not yet breakfasted and had 
been under arms for twelve hours, and fighting since 8 a.m., were 
compelled to fall back upon their supplies. The French lost 4000 
and the Allies 1500 : the Royal Artillery loss in killed and wounded 
was 1 Officer, 1 Bombardier, 5 Gunners, 6 Matrosses. 3 Major Geo. 
Michelsen and Captain Withers Borgard (nephews of General Borgard) 
did not recover from the fatigues of this day, and died shortly after¬ 
wards—the former being replaced by Major Wm. Belford. 
Only General officers are particularised in the despatches of the 
time, and therefore we look in vain for mention of the R.A. Colonel 
(Thos. Pattison), Major (Michelsen), or Adjutant (Joseph Brome) ; 
but it is significant that henceforth the Hanoverian Artillery were sub¬ 
ordinated to the Royal English Artillery. 
The victory of Dettingen resulted in the French re-crossing the 
Rhine-followed into France by the Allies, as far as Worms; and 
Hanover and Germany were now freed from the French. The order 
1 With the former snaphance or dagger-musquet the infantry could fire only once when 
approaching the enemy, and had then to screw on the dagger (which prevented re-loading) before 
charging. The N.P. bayonet musquet was adopted by the British only in 1715 (vide Chap. I.). In 
the former campaign in Flanders, under Marlborough, of three French regiments, whose bayonets 
were made to fix after the present fashion, one advanced with fixed bayonets against the 25th 
Regiment. Lieut.-Colonel Maxwell ordered his men to screw their bayonets (daggers) into the 
muzzles to receive the charge, but, to his great surprise, when the French came within a proper 
distance, they threw in a heavy fire, which for a moment staggered our people, who could not 
conceive it possible to fire with fixed bayonets.—“ Military Antiquities ” (Grose), Yol. II., p. 341. 
It was only in 1741 that the last of the British regiments and the R.A. received the N.P. bayonet 
musquet. The first trace of the O.P. musquet is in the “ Remaine of small gunnes ” in the 
Tower of London, anno 1600, viz.:—“ Daggers with snaphawnses single, without cases,” CXLIIII 
(144). 
2 “ Annals of War ” (Cust), anno 1743. 
3 London Gazettes, 8236 and 8240 of 1743. Sir F. Cust’s account compares favourably with 
official despatches, except that, throughout, he ignores the artillery in this memorable battle. 
