Thursday 29 October 2020

Minden French Flags Project - Regiment Dauphin

 As I have not posted for over two weeks here is one more interim offering; another of the stray Minden French flags, which is one of my favourites. I do have a number of Prussian flags waiting in the queue but having to find time to write accompanying regimental histories to go with the flags does inevitably slow me down! Once again I also offer my translation of Susane's Francophile history of the regiment in the Seven Years War.

 


Dauphin was first raised in 1667 by Louis XIV as his son the Dauphin's own regiment. At the beginning of the Seven Years War it had two battalions.

Thus is my translation of the text from Susane volume 4:

In 1756, it was part of the La Hougue camp, and was in Toul in March 1757 when it received orders to join the army of the Marshal d'Estrées, then encamped under Wesel. It entered the landgraviate of Hesse and, after a short stay in Cassel, it rejoined this army, which had just invaded Hanover after the victory of Hastenbeck. It took part in all the actions of that expedition, and on the 25th of December found itself involved in the forcing of the line of the river Aller. At the beginning of 1758 it was in the rearguard of Marshal de Broglie's army during his retreat towards the Rhine. It spent this year in Hanau and had its winter quarters in Friedberg. In 1759 it was at the siege of Munster, and fought vigorously at the Battle of Bergen, where it remained from ten in the morning until night under formidable artillery fire. That day it had more then 200 men put out of action, and among the dead were the captains Chaponnay, de Gray, Montullé and Connezac, and three lieutenants. Dauphin again suffered greatly from artillery fire at the Battle of Minden, August 1st: there 150 men were killed or wounded. Captain de Panis and Lieutenant de Longeville were among the killed.

In 1760 it found itself at the affair of Corbach but took no part in it, having arrived too late to enter the line of battle. At the end of July, it helped to force Prince Ferdinand out of his position of Sachsenhausen; it also fought at Warburg, and after taking part in all the movements that marked the end of that punishing campaign, it wintered at Fulde. In the spring of 1761, the regiment took up its post at Hiersfeld. Sergeant Sans-Souci, in charge of fifteen men guarding a fodder depot, defended himself for a long time against a numerous body of enemy light troops; he managed to retreat but during the action he unfortunately suffered a mortal wound. The battles of Villingshausen were the only important events of this campaign. The regiments of the King and the Dauphin took the honours. Hurried together to help the Deux-Ponts brigade, which had seized the village of Villingshausen but was struggling to maintain the position, they fought fiercely throughout the day against the whole corps of Lord Granby and did not give in until they saw they were alone on the battlefield. On this day, almost all the grenadiers and chasseurs of Dauphin were killed, wounded or taken prisoner. The captain La Clos perished there. The regiment left the army in the month of October and was sent to Dunkirk to recover from its losses. It reappeared in 1762 in Germany and was part of the reserve under the orders of the Prince of Condé. It found itself at the bombardment of Ham, and its companies of grenadiers and chasseurs were part of an expedition to Osnabrück, which was the last operation of the war in this theatre. Dauphin returned to Dunkirk; and it was there that it incorporated, on February 15, 1763, the former regiment of Guyenne, a battalion of which had performed so well in the war in Canada.

And here is the uniform plus flags from the 1757 MS:




23 comments:

  1. Another brilliant set of flags, David!

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  2. Thanks, Jonathan. They are rather beautiful, aren't they? I find the French flags immensely satisfying. :-)

    I hope you plan to raise a unit of this regiment... ;-)

    All the best,

    David.

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  3. Thank you for another excellent set of flags, keep up the wonderful work.
    It is always a joy to visit your blog.

    Stay safe and happy gaming,
    Willz Harley.

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  4. Very beautiful! I have one regiment of Irish sporting your flags and another two in work. Your flags are one reason that I am beginning a French army in 18mm.

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  5. Brilliant as Jonathan has said, but the first flag I find too colourful and almost psychadelic! I wonder how long it took to make one of these as there's an awful lot of work involved in the first flag?

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  6. Glorious - you'd have to paint the regiment just so you could use the flag!

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  7. Thank you, Willz. Glad you like the flags and the blog! Enthusiastic responses keep me going with this. :-)

    Wargaming is a great distraction from our current unpleasant reality, isn't it?

    All the best,

    David.

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  8. Thanks, Ray. :-)

    All the best,

    David.

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  9. Thanks, Jonathan. Any chance you might be able to let me see some pidtures of your French Irish troops soon, please? I'd love to see them in action.

    I'm glad my flags have helped push you twards having a French 18th century army! :-)

    All the best,

    David.

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  10. They're certainly rather "busy" flags, it's true, Steve J.. ;-) But I think they'll look pretty good in use.

    When you say you wonder how long it took to make one of these, do you mean the original actual flag or my version of it? I suspect the original was a great deal of work, mine not quite as much!

    All the best,

    David.

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  11. Blogger Steve-the-Wargamer said...

    Glorious - you'd have to paint the regiment just so you could use the flag!

    Exactly so! ;-) Thanks, Steve.

    All the best,

    David.

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  12. Hi David, here is the link to the first French Irish regiment, Lally:
    https://palousewargamingjournal.blogspot.com/2020/10/irish-regiment-lally.html

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  13. Thanks, Jonathan. They look very good, as do your troops. I think I agree with the comment that making the flags "flutter" or "crinkle" a bit would perhaps improve the look!

    I should have spotted these pictures on your blog as I have it bookmarked but I have been a bit distracted lately so sorry about that.

    All the best,

    David.

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  14. That is one of my favorite flags although I never painted the unit. Do you plan to make Royal Vaisseaux too or did you made the flag and I missed it on your excellent blog?

    Impressive work!

    Cheers

    André

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  15. Thanks, André. Glad you like it. :-)

    Royal Vaisseaux is not one I've done yet; I've tended to do flags associated with battles as it gives a useful unity to the theme - and that regiment seems to have spent the SYW mostly guarding coasts! I can add that flag to my To Do list, though, if you'd like it. When do you need it?

    Cheers,

    David.

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  16. Yesterday. :-D

    No hurry. I still have to Change flags which is not easy on those plastic 1/72 figures.

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  17. Thanks very much for an excellent blog. The flags are splendid and I'm sure many of us will be gratefully using them.

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  18. OK, André. I've added it to my list and will do it soon-ish, if not 3 months ago.
    ;-)

    Cheers,

    David.

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  19. Thanks, Uiduach! I'm glad you like it and thanks too for letting me know. If you do use any of my flags, please send pictures!

    Cheers,

    David.

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  20. P.S. Uiduach - I just investigated your blog and tried to comment on your interesting Outremer project. Not sure if my comment got through, though. Hope you are continuing with your projects as I see you have not posted on your blog since 2018.

    Cheers,

    David.

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  21. Hi David, I'll certainly do that. Yes, my projects continue. I'm puzzled by the 2018 comment perhaps it was an old blog?. My current blog is

    https://youdonotknowthenorth.blogspot.com

    I pretty much update it every week.

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  22. "Hi David, I'll certainly do that. Yes, my projects continue. I'm puzzled by the 2018 comment perhaps it was an old blog?. My current blog is

    https://youdonotknowthenorth.blogspot.com

    I pretty much update it every week."

    Thanks! Yes, it must have been an old blog. I tried the 2 mentioned on your contact details and https://youdonotknowthenorth.blogspot.com did not seem to work but the other (clearly the abandoned one) did. I have tried https://youdonotknowthenorth.blogspot.com again and it was very, very slow responding but eventually I got into it. I'll visit again and make a comment or two! Nice material. I'm tempted by the Crusades myself but am waiting for Peter Dennis to do it for his Paperboys series!

    Cheers,

    David.

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Saturday 6th June 2020 I've decided to allow comments from Anonymous Users but I'll still be moderating posts, as I'm sure the spam will probably flood in now! We'll see...