Sunday 28 November 2021

Rossbach French Flags Project - Flags of French German Regiment La Marck

First raised 1680. Ranked 66th in the Seven Years War. 2 battalions.


 This pattern of flags was carried from 1697-1791.

Text from Susane Volume 7 translated by me:

In 1756 La Marck was part of the auxiliary corps promised by Louis XV to the Empress [Maria Theresa] but France having had to take part on its own account in the Seven Years War, the regiment was called to the army of Marshal d'Estrées and was present at the battle of Hastenbeck. The volunteers, commanded by Captain de Nézot, found themselves attacking the rearguard of the enemy at Bielefeld and suffered greatly from the fire of the enemy artillery. The regiment then followed Marshal de Richelieu who came to replace the Marshal d'Estrées in Hanover. After the Convention of Closterseven the regiment was at the camp of Halberstadt which it left on the 7th October, to go to reinforce the army of the Prince de Soubise. It was crushed on the 5th November at Rossbach [the next part of the sentence does not seem to make much sense so I have omitted it]. Captains Mantz l'ainé and Limar, and lieutenants Hiem, Brancion, Druhot, Suty and Beurdhal lost their lives; captains d'Ayrolles, Trichard, Desbarreaux, Lescalier, Housseau, Grandchamp, d'Eblingheim, Mantz cadet, Desfossé-Solis, Dufort and Lyautey were wounded, as were the three aide-majors Carlier, Maës and Scheid, and seven lieutenants amongst whom were Monsieurs Montel and Baklau.

The remnants of the regiment retreated to the Rhine and when Prince Ferdinand had crossed the river at the beginning of 1758, they were ordered to throw themselves into Dusseldorf. La Marck found itself that year at the battle of Krefeld and the combat of Meer, where it took from the enemy a cannon which replaced the one it had lost at Rossbach.

La Marck does not seem to have been actively employed in 1759. On the 18th January 1760 it incorporated the 2nd battalion of the regiment of Lowendhal, which raised its strength to three battalions. On the 10th of July it was distinguished at the battle of Corbach and, at the end of the same month, it made a vigorous contribution to the attack on Cassel and on the camp of Sachsenhausen, which Prince Ferdinand was obliged to abandon. The same year Captain de Nézot, who had continued to distinguish himself at the head of a company of volunteer chasseurs, played a brilliant part in the taking of Minden and received the cross of Saint-Louis at the age of 23 years. During the winter La Marck took part in the attack on the lower town of Statsberg and in 1761 the battle of Wilhemstadt and all those actions which took place around Cassel. A regulation of 21st December 1762 reduced the regiment to two battalions.

After the end of hostilities, La Marck was sent into garrison at Thionville.

 And this was the uniform in  1756:

 



10 comments:

  1. Normally I find the French flags a bit too outre for my tastes, but these are right up my street. Cracking work as always David:)

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  2. Great work. It's nice seeing a French unit in blue and not in white!

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  3. Nice! Another interesting regimental history.

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  4. Another gorgeous flag and uniform…well done.

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  5. Thanks, Steve. :-) I do very much like the French German regiment flags; I've been meaning to do these for ages. More to come soon as there were three more French German regiments at Rossbach. It's so difficult juggling the different types of flag I do! More Austrian WAS flags next...

    All the best,

    David.

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  6. Thanks, Ray. :-) Yes, the French German regiments do look smart in their blue, don't they?

    All the best,

    David.

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  7. Thanks, Jon. :-) It does seem well worthwhile putting in the effort to add the text...

    All the best,

    David.

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  8. Thanks, Peter. :-) As I said earlier, I've been wishing to do the French German regimental flags for a long time; I hope it's not too long before I can do all the French German regiments at Rossbach. Much depends on the complexity of the flags and these do tend to be much more complex than the purely French units' flags.

    All the best,

    David.

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  9. More SYW flag and uniform goodness, thanks David.



    Willz.

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  10. Thank you, Willz. :-) More on the way soon...

    All the best,

    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...