Colonial Regiments and Corps during the American War of Independence

Ten French colonial regiments in the Antilles, Indian Ocean and India (1778-1783)

Antilles

1. Guadeloupe Regiment

Colonels:

  1. Louis Le Gardeur de Repentigny, 6 November 1775
  2. Louis Marie de Martelly, 10 June 1780

Operations:

  • 1779: Siege of Savannah

2. Martinique Regiment

Colonels:

  1. Christophe Cortasse de Sablonet, 18 August 1772
  2. Alexandre Jean Jacques Bernard, Count de Seguins, 24 October 1779, killed by a British cannonball on the Vengeur on 17 April 1780 during the Guichen-Rodney naval battle
  3. Louis Le Gardeur de Repentigny, 20 June 1780

Operations:

  • 1778: Capture of Dominica
  • 1779: Capture of Saint Vincent
  • 1779: Capture of Grenada
  • 1779: Siege of Savannah
  • 1780: Guichen-Rodney naval battle, Dominica Channel

3. Cap-Français Regiment

Colonels:

  1. François de Reynaud de Villevert, 18 August 1772
  2. Louis Auguste, Count de Sabran, 5 January 1780

Operations:

  • 1779: Siege of Savannah
  • 1782: Naval battle between HMS Santa Margarita and the Intrépide off the American coast (28 July)

4. Port-au-Prince Regiment

Colonel:

  • Joseph de Gripière de Moncroc chevalier de Laval, 18 August 1772 to 25 July 1788

Operations:

  • 1779: Siege of Savannah

5. Saint-Domingue Grenadier Volunteers Corps and Chasseurs-Volontaires of Free People of Colour of Saint-Domingue

Colonel:

  • Laurent François Lenoir de Rouvray, 12 March 1779

Operations:

  • 1779: Siege of Savannah

See the detailed article: The Chasseurs Volontaires de Saint-Domingue

6. Bouillé Volunteers Corps

Commanding Captain:

  • Jean Hippolyte Duboulet, 19 June 1781

7. First Legion of Foreign Marine Volunteers

Commanding Captain:

  • François de Baussancourt

Operations:

  • 1779: Capture of Saint Vincent
  • 1779: Capture of Grenada

Indian Ocean

8. Île de France Regiment

Colonels:

  1. Joseph Bigeard de Saint Maurice, 9 October 1777
  2. Poncin Duchemin de Chenneville, 1st January 1781
  3. David Charpentier de Cossigny, 17 February 1782

Operations:

  • 1782–1783: The regiment played a considerable part in the war in India and participated in most of the battles fought by the Bailli de Suffren.

India

9. Pondicherry Regiment

Colonels:

  1. Siméon Louis Claude Rousselet Desauvergnes, 25 October 1776
  2. Louis Alexandre, Baron Dalbignac, 22 August 1780
  3. Thomas Count de Conway, 3 March 1781

Operations:

  • 1778: Defence of Mahé and Pondicherry
  • 1782: Capture of Cuddalore and siege of Trincomalee
  • 1783: Defence of Cuddalore

10. Third Legion of Foreign Marine Volunteers

Colonels:

  1. Pierre Duchemin, 4 March 1779
  2. Antoine Jean Viscount d’Agoult, 1782

Operations:

  • 1782: Battle of Porto Novo
  • 1782–1783: Battle of Cuddalore
  • 1783: Battle of Negapatam

See also: The Human Cost for detailed casualties from these battles, and the biography of Count de Grasse whose naval operations involved many of these regiments.

Comte Thierry de Seguins-Cohorn, Historian of the Society in France of the SAR