First raised 1635 by the Duke of Saxe-Weimar then became a regular French regiment 21st January 1638. Ranked 2nd in the cavalry. Became Mestre de Camp Général 3rd December 1665.
2 squadrons strong.
Stations and actions:
1733: In Italy at Gera d'Adda and at Pizzighetone
1734: Tortona, Parma and Guastalla
1735: Reggiolo and Revere; at the peace stationed at Belfort
1741: Army of Bohemia; refitted at Pontarlier
1743: Battle of Dettingen
1744: At Weissembourg, Augenheim then at the siege of Fribourg
1745: Tournai
1746: Brussels; battle of Rocoux
1747: Battle of Lauffeld
1748: Siege of Maastricht (where the commandant M. de Clermont-Tonnerre was mortally wounded in the assault), then sent to Moulins
1750: Schelestadt
1751: Lons-le-Saulnier
1753: Haguenau
1754: Camp de Plobsheim
1756: Verdun
1757: Sedan; Army of the Lower Rhine [the commandant M. de Bissy was badly wounded and captured at Rossbach]; Hastenbeck July 26th, with the cavalry of the left wing
1758: Captured at Minden in March but soon exchanged. At the battle of Krefeld on the left wing of the first line
1759: With the main army under Contades and at Minden August 1st. Heavy losses at Minden and so sent to the rear afterwards.
1760: Guarding the coast
1761: Increased to 4 squadrons
1763: 4th April Incorporated the regiment of Seyssel
And this was the uniform in 1761:
Excellent! Next French horse unit in the painting queue for me.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Jon. :-) Look forward to seeing them!
DeleteAll the best,
David.
Oh that's a very nice flag David, thanks for posting.
ReplyDeleteWillz.
Thanks, Willz. :-) I'm quite enjoying the French cavalry standards - although some (e.g. Maison du Roi) are fiendishly complex and I'll be avoiding them for some time!
DeleteAll the best,
David.
That is stunning! So colourful compared to the drab uniform, but should really pop, especially against the green saddle cloth.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Steve. :-) The uniform does have some attractive contrasts; it seems it changed quite a lot during the SYW, which Is why I did the 1761 variant!
DeleteAll the best,
David.
Hi David. Great blog! I think the Mestre de Camp dragoons fought at Fontenoy, rather than the cavalry regiment? The dragoons fought dismounted that day, alongside the infantry, and formed a support line holding the ridgeline as between Fontenoy and Antoing. They would likely have had guidons/pennants rather than standards. Gandilhon in his book on Fontenoy mentions the Mestre de Camp as wearing iron-grey [coats] (which the cavalry did wear), but the dragoons had red coats, so he might have erred. De Gudenus (1735) in his beautiful sketch/drawing of 'Mestre de Camp General Dragons' has the subject wearing red, and it was they who were at Fontenoy, not their iron-grey clad cavalry counterparts.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Doug. Having looked into it rather more, I think you are right. I'll quietly delete Fontenoy from their action list!
DeleteAll the best,
David.
That's a lovely flag. I don't suppose we could tempt you to do some of the French garde cavalry flags? I'm planning model the gendarmes of the guard but no one does the flag.
ReplyDeleteHi Simon, I think I might be persuaded to do one (or possibly two) of the simpler type of Gendarmes standards. Flanders is very similar to line cavalry standards (blue with fleurs de lys) so a doddle, relatively, and La Reine not too complex apart from a fiddly bit of heraldry. Many of the others are a total nightmare with so much complex detail for flags that will be very small when printed and used... If La Reine and Flanders interest you, let me know your thoughts, please, and I'll see what I can do.
DeleteAll the best,
David.
Hi David, that is very kind! Yes please.
ReplyDeleteSorry, your reply got stuck in spam purgatory and I missed it. I'll add the flags to my list!
DeleteAll the best,
David.
Thank you for making cavalry flags for the French. The regiment is one of those which saw action in many battles of the WAS. Very nice design - something different.
ReplyDeleteThank you, André. :-) I do like the way the French flags often cover so much of the period; more value for the effort! That's especially so with the infantry flags, of course. I plan to do mroe French cavalry standards; it's just a problem juggling the time and effort and doing more!
DeleteAll the best,
David.