Battle of Kloster Kampen - Prelude

Prelude

During the autumn of 1760 Duke Ferdinand of Brunswick, the commander of the allied army saw the French were threatening Hanover. To create a diversion he dispatched 20,000 men command by the Erbprinz of Brunswick to draw the French army away and to the west. The French commander prepared to defend the town of Wesel on the east bank of the Rhine burning the bridge over the Rhine at the mouth of the Lippe while Marquis de Castries hurried with extra reinforcements to relieve the garrison.

The Prince of Brunswick set up a formal siege of Wesel building two pontoon bridges over the river. He resolved to meet de Castries' army round the Kloster Kampen area west of the river. Major General George Augustus Eliott commanded the approach vanguard, 2 squadrons of Prussian Hussars, the Royal Dragoons, the Inniskilling Dragoons along with the 87th and 88th Highlanders. The main attacking force comprised 2 battalions of grenadiers, the 20th Foot, the 23rd Royal Welch Fusiliers, the 25th Foot, 2 battalions of Hanoverians and 2 battalions of Hessians.

Behind the main body of the army was a force of cavalry, the 10th Dragoons and 10 squadrons of Hanoverian and Hessian cavalry. A reserve force of the 11th, 33rd and 51st Foot with 5 Hessian battalions lay some miles behind the main body of the army.