Most armies of the 18th century crawled. Marlborough's flew. His "March to the Danube" in 1704 remains a masterpiece of logistical planning and strategic deception.
Marlborough moved 40,000 men 250 miles across Europe in five weeks. By establishing supply depots in advance and marching in the cool of the morning, he arrived at the Danube not with exhausted troops, but with a fresh army ready to fight.
"My Lord Duke has beaten the enemy without fighting them."
On the battlefield, he was the master of combined arms. While others used cavalry, infantry, and artillery separately, Marlborough used them as a single instrument. At Blenheim, he used his infantry to pin the French wings, then unleashed a massive cavalry charge through the center—a hole his artillery had punched open moments before.