"French Regiments Rio de Janeiro 1711" Topic

I know this is a long shot but maybe one of TMP's French contributors can help me.

I've been researching the French attacks on Brazil during the War of The Spanish Succession. I'm particularly interested in the more succesful second invasion in 1711 under the famous Admiral Duguay Trouin.

All the accounts I've read, including C.M. Boxer, mention troops and make a distinction between 'troops' and the overall number of the expedition which must include the ships' crews. From the number of troops quoted it would appear there were several battalions worth.

Does anyone know the identity of the regiment or regiments involved?

Thanks for this question; I didn't know much about these Rio attacks and I had a quick look.

The book "Relation de l'expedition de Rio-Janeiro"(printed 1712) can be donwloaded on the BNF Gallica website (French National Library online). It is a detailed description of the 1710 and 1711 attacks, and complete lists with the names of ALL officers and nobles who were there, and the number of soldiers… but it doesn't say from which units these soldiers come from.

Other French books of the 18th century also describe these attacks, but it seems to be always exactly the same text and lists.

Many Gardes-Marines (= Navy noble cadets) are mentioned; and also "Volunteers" (perhaps sailors ?). Many "compagnies" of soldiers but with no precision. I would consider that they are Compagnies Franches de la Marine, but it is not written.

Many thanks Patrice, I shall look at that text. I had considered the Compagnies Franches de la Marine but I hadn't realised they would be so numerous at that period in time. I suspect you are right that they formed a goodly component of the French force. Portuguese accounts have the expedition at 6,000 of whom some 3,300 were disembarked. Presumably some of these were sailors.

It issa fascinating topic and one that isn't well known, even compred to the 16th C occupation under Villegaignon or what was known France Antarctique

There were one hundred Compagnies Franches de la Marine in the 1690s, I don't know how many in 1711, and their theorical strength was 100 men / company (although there certainly was much less than that most of the time).

What confuses me in this book is that the "bataillons" have the name of their ship, and also that many of the officers have Army ranks not Navy ranks.

But perhaps it is logical: on big warships there were sometimes many soldiers of the CFDLM, from more than one company, so they could have been called "un bataillon" (even if it's not a true battallion as we would call it on land). This is only a suggestion.

I have found other texts about French landings (in Catalunya in the 1690s) which clearly mention companies of sailors fighting on land along the soldiers.

OOOh I looked again at the lists and I think (?) that I understand. This is VERY interesting!

For every ship there is a list with names and numbers of soldiers. I think these are names of CFDLM (= the name of the captain of the company) and the number of soldiers of each of these companies on this ship. Notice than some companies may be separated on different ships.

The officers listed as battaillon officers with infantry ranks are the same names than those listed as ship officers with Navy ranks. Of course the CFDLM officers were both. Some are listed as "Lieutenant de Vaisseau, Capitaine de Compagnie", or "Enseigne de Vaisseau, Lieutenant de Compagnie", this is the normal system for CFDLM and a proof that their companies were Navy infantry, not any land regiment.

If this is the correct explanation, this book gives us a detailed list of all the CFDLM which took part in this expedition, with their officers' names and number of soldiers in 1711; and also how the ships officers took command to fight on land.

It says total strenght of the bataillons was 2213. I did not yet calculate if this include all men on land or not.

Excellent, again my thanks.