Flags of French Volontaires Étrangers de Clermont-Prince 1758-1766

The complicated history of the creation of this unit of horse and foot can be found on Kronoskaf.

First raised in 1758, the unit was supposed to consist of 1000 infantry and 800 cavalry but in reality rarely rose near that total. Having become the Legion de Condé in 1766, the unit was disbanded in 1776.

During the Seven Years War, in 1759 the Volontaires were attached to Broglie's Corps in Germany and had a fairly checquered career. In 1760 they were part of a corps of Broglie's army which drove the Légion Britannique from woods on the left of Broglie's Corps on 2nd August. They then suffered a fairly dramatic reverse on 5th September that year when, posted with the Volontaires de Dauphiné at Zierenberg, they were attacked overnight by an allied force and the colonel M. de Comeiras, his entire staff and 161 privates were all captured.

In 1761 on 21st March they were at the Engagement of Grünberg then, on the 25th along with other French units, drove the allies out of the village of Mengsberg, before pursuing the allied rearguard. On June 22nd they were part of an assemblage of French units that stormed Lünen, taking 300 prisoners. On July 16th the unit was at the battle of Vellinghausen. In September,along with the Volontaires de Soubise, they burned several magazines in the County of Dinklage and a large magazine at Osnabrück.

In 1762 the unit was initially part of a detachment posted near Wesel then was attached to the Army of the Lower Rhine under the Prince de Condé. On June 21st a successful attack was made on the allied Scheither Corps at Schermbeck, who were driven back and lost 50 men captured.

The Volontaires were amongst the units chosen to stay in Germany until the final evacuation by French troops.

The uniform, like the flag, was in the livery of the House of Bourbon-Condé, chamois with red. The infantry uniform was something like this (taken from the NYPL: https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/510d47e4-3ec7-a3d9-e040-e00a18064a99 ):