1706 Ramillies 1600 hrs ‘The struggle for Ramillies’ - Seán Ó'Br&o
1706 Ramillies 1600 hrs ‘The struggle for Ramillies’ - Seán Ó'BrógáinOccupying ihe left of the Argyll’s Scots’ Brigade, Borthwick’s regiment drives directly into the centre of Ramilies, with the intent of splitting the defenders in two and seizing the church and its grounds that had been fortified and occupied by a battalion of the French'Picardie’ regiment.Unable to make headway against the defences, Borthwick orders his Grenadier Company to assault the gatehouse with hatchets, and force an entry into the church precincts. Leading the attach. Ensign James Gardiner is badly wounded and left for dead in the lee of the church as the fighting rages around him, and whilst Borthwick himself is marshalling his remaining companies to continue the assault, they are attacked by Charles, Viscount Clare , at the head of a regiment of Irish emigres in French service.Shrouded in musket smoke, the fierce hand-to-hand combat is even more confusing due lo the fact that both Borthwick’s and Clare’s regiments wear almost identical uniforms, but as more French troops rush forward the Allied troops are forced out of the village, the Scots colonel being killled al the height of the fighiting, while his Irish counterpart was mortally wounded, being carried from the field to die three days later. Gardiner would lie propped up against the church wall, to be found by his comrades when the Bourbon troops were finally driven from the village. He rose to the rank of colonel and was killed in action at Prestonpans in September 1745. -- source link
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