The New International Encyclopædia/Dettingen

DETTINGEN, dĕt′tĭng-en (Teut., ‘the people's home,’ from OHG. diot, diota, MHG. diet, Goth. þiuda, AS. þēod, people + ingen, the patronymic suffix). A village in Bavaria (Lower Franconia), on the right bank of the Main. It is noted as the scene of a battle during the War of the Austrian Succession, June 27, 1743. George II. of England headed the armies of the Allies, and this was the last occasion in which a King of England appeared in person on the field. Cooped up in a narrow valley, 37,000 English, Hanoverian, and Hessian troops lay, surrounded by 60,000 French on the heights. Noailles's cannon swept the flank and rear of the Allies, and the only exit from the valley, the defile of Dettingen, was held by young De Grammont with 25,000 men. Had he waited for the Allies to advance through the narrow pass, victory would have been assured; but, impatiently charging upon them, he was thrown back with slaughter and confusion. The French loss amounted to 6000 men; that of the Allies to 2000. Consult Steiner, Beschreibung der Schlacht von Dettingen (Darmstadt, 1834).