"French army at trafalgar." Topic

Quick question.
Trying to find out how the French troops at trafalgar were distributed amongst the ships.

I know
2nd, 16th, 67th, 70th and 79th line regiments, 1st Swiss and 6th Depot Colonial, 4th artillery and ?? Chassuers.

But I can't find – which troops were on which ship other than 1 company of the 67th, 1 company of 16th and 1 company of 6th depot were on the Redoubtable.

Also, does anyone know what "depot colonial" troops were?

Colonial Depots were depots gathering detachments of soldiers to be sent to renforce Overseas garrisons, the first five Depots formed 4 Colonial Battalions, the 6th remaining as depôt in Marseille, later they became more disciplinary units than anything else receiving the worst soldiers

it was not the 4th (Foot or Horse) Artillery but the 4th Marine Artillery

there were Army units but for several reasons, one was the lack of Marine Infantry until 1822, having been disbanded and merged with the remaining Marine Artillery since 1795

-as regular garrisons for the ships
2e 4e Artillerie de Marine (regiments belonging to the Navy) 2e 70e, 93e de ligne, 6e Dépôt Colonial

-as passenger expeditionnary troops, 3332 men embarked in Toulon, 861 in Rochefort
16e 26e 67e de ligne, 1st Swiss, 3e Bataillon Colonial, Dépôt Légion du Midi

-units used to complete ships with not enough crews
2e 79e de ligne, 6e Dépôt Colonial, Bataillon de Chasseurs d'Orient

Remi Monaque in his Trafalgar
during the stopovers, numerous movements have changed the distribution of these troops to reinforce the personnel of the most understaffed ships

in Trafalgar there was an important proportion of men belonging to the Army, the percentage of soldiers limited to 15% by the existing standards can reach until 48% on the Berwick and Indomptable and not below 31% on Le Formidable with an average at 40%

Rigo for the 67e de ligne
41 officers 1181 men in the 3 last companies of fusiliers of the 1st battalion and the whole 2nd battalion embarked in march 1805
the companies of fusiliers on three 86-guns-ships L'Atlas, Le Scipion, Le Swiftsure
the grenadiers, last two companies of fusiliers of the 2nd battalion and 7th of the 1st battalion Le Formidable
then the grenadiers of the 2nd battalion and the 7th company of the 1st, 215 men, took place in L'Aigle

Great information. Cheers!

In my dated reading, wasn't the shot that felled Nelson put down to a Sgt of the 5e de ligne?

My understanding was the 'marines (aka infantry)' were rotated at some unspecified periods, perhaps a season?

Those figures don't really add up; 12 companies approximating 90+ each; some split across ships. 300 extra men on a ship is a helluva tight packing.
d

the 5e de ligne doesn't appear in Rémi Monaque's list…

in other source taken from the Archives Guerres maritimes sous la république et l'empire, Volume 2 trying to list all the officers who had been in Trafalgar gives the following regiments company-officers and ships

BUCENTAURE
Capt Pierre-Philibert Guillet, Lt Jean-Baptiste James 2e ligne
Capt Louis Guillaume 79e de ligne wounded*

L'INDOMPTABLE
Capt Rollin and sous-lt Gippon Grenadiers 16e de ligne, drowned
Capt Joseph Carrier, Lt Last 2e de ligne

NEPTUNE
Capt Pierre Nicolas Levaillant 2e de ligne
Lt Michel Perronet 16e de ligne, killed

REDOUTABLE
Capt Louis Guillaume 79e de ligne very seriously wounded (*same name already given above)
Lt Pierre Chauvin, sous-lt Jean Medeau 79e de ligne
Capt Louis Amoche, Lt Charles Neury 6e Dépôt Colonial
Capt Charles Chafange and Sous-lt Savignac 16e de ligne, killed

HEROS
Sous-Lt Joseph Boussu 79e de ligne
Jean-Carrière 2e de ligne, wounded

FORMIDABLE
Capt Jean Saint-Denis, Lt Jean Rossignol, sous-lt Pierre Durand and Behagnon 2e de ligne

SCIPION
Capt Nicolas Garnier, Lt François-Paulin Solemine, Sous-lt François Michaud 2e de ligne

L'INTREPIDE
Capt Pierre Poussier, Sous-Lt Jacques-François Drouet 2e de ligne

etc, etc…
DUGUAY-TROUIN 79e
MONT-BLANC 2e de ligne
L'ALGESIRAS 70e de ligne, 1er Suisse
FOUGUEUX 79e, 16e
PLUTON 2e, 16e
SCIPION 67e
SWIFTSURE 2e
ARGONAUTE 79e, 16e
BERWICK 2e de ligne
L'ACHILLE 67e, 93e (regts not precised but found thanks to the Martinien)
CORNEILLE 2e de ligne

….

pages 404 to 422
link

How much of the 1st Swiss was present at Trafalgar? I thought at least part of that regiment was serving in Naples a few months later.

It was not the 1st Swiss Regiment raised officially since july but the still-existing 1st Helvetian Half-Brigade

-366 men from the 3 companies Donatz, Techtermann and Meyer on both 74-guns Algésiras Achille and the frigate Didon
Régiments suisses au service de France, 1800-1814

-428 men according the Revue Militaire Suisse Volume 14

-470 men embarked the 25th april of which 14 officers with Captain Donats (later reduced to 180) including both Captains Techtermann and Meyer's Grenadiers companies on the Algésiras, 2 officers and 40 men detached on the Achille
the Algésiras where was Techtermann's company was captured but taken back by the French (and so also Swiss) prisoners who obliged the british crew to conduce them to Cádiz
Meyer's company was taken prisoner on the Didon the 12th november 1805 and sent to England until the peace

the remnants of the 1st Helvetian Half-Brigade will form the 3rd Battalion of the newly-raised 1st Swiss Regiment
Souvenirs de Abraham Rösselet, lieutenant-colonel en retraite du service de France