Tuesday 20 February 2024

Flags of French Royal Corse Infantry 1739-1762

Back to the WAS and SYW this time and a relatively simple flag set but with an unusual motto.

First raised 1739. Only the colonel and lieutenant colonel were French; all the other officers were Corsican. 12 companies strong and soon embarked for France.




At the beginning of the War of the Austrian Succession the regiment guarded the Flanders frontier. In 1744 the regiment was embarked in the fleet designed to invade Scotland but, a storm having damaged the fleet, the enterprise was cancelled and the regiment sent to join the army of de Saxe. It served in the sieges of Menin, Ypres and Furnes. In 1745 it was at Fontenoy and then at the sieges of Tournai, Oudenarde, Termonde and Ath. In 1746 it was at the battle of Rocoux. In garrison at Antwerp for five months in 1747, it then served at the taking of Lierre. It missed the battle of Lauffeld as it was garrisoning the town of Tirlemont. It was then at the siege and capture of Bergen op Zoom and the next year 1748 at the siege of Maastricht. In 1749 it returned to France to garrison Bouchain.

One battalion strong in 1756 and ranked 103rd.

Susane Volume 7 claims the regiment was at the battles of Hastenbeck and Krefeld but Kronoskaf has it manning the coast of Provence from 1756 to 1757 and then as garrison on the Isle de Ré in Aunis.

In December 1762 the regiment amalgamated with Royal Italien Infantry.

And this was the uniform in 1756: