French Order of Battle for Yorktown Campaign (1781) By Dr. Jeff

French Order of Battle for Yorktown Campaign (1781)
By Dr. Jeff Glasco
French Army (at Yorktown):
Lieutenant General comte de Rochambeau (army commander)
Major General chevalier de Chastellux (Chief of Staff)
Colonel Desandrouins (Engineer)
Lauzun's Legion (595)
BG Duke de Lauzun
Colonel Count Dillon
1st Squadron/Lauzun's Legion Hussars (@120)
2nd Squadron/Lauzun's Legion Hussars (@120)
Grenadier Company (@120)
Chasseur Company (@120)
Artillery Company (@120 w/ 2 x 4-pdr OR 2 x 1-pdr) [maybe 4 x 4-pdr OR
4 x 1-pdr]
Naval Brigade: (800)
Brigadier General Duke de Choisy
1st Battalion (400)
2nd Battalion (400)
Bourbonnois Brigade
Major General Baron de Viomenil
Bourbonnois Regiment (@850)
Colonel Marquis de Leval
1st Battalion/Bourbonnois Regiment (4 companies = @340)
2nd Battalion/Bourbonnois Regiment (4 companies = @340)
Grenadier Company (@85)
Chasseur Company (@85)
Artillery (4 x 4-pdr Gribeauval)
Royal Deux-Ponts Regiment (@900)
Colonel Comte de Deux-Ponts
1st Battalion/Royal Deux Ponts Regt. (4 companies = @360)
2nd Battalion/Royal Deux Ponts Regt. (4 companies = @360)
Grenadier Company (@90)
Chasseur Company (@90)
Artillery (4 x 4-pdr Gribeauval)
Soissonnois Brigade
Major General Comte de Viomenil
Soissonnois Regiment (@1000)
Colonel comte de Saint-Maisme
1st Battalion/Soissonnois Regiment (4 companies = @400)
2nd Battalion/Soissonnois Regiment (4 companies = @400)
Grenadier Company (@100)
Chasseur Company (@100)
Artillery (4 x 4-pdr Gribeauval)
Saintonge Regiment (@1000)
Colonel comte de Custine
1st Battalion/Saintonge Regiment (4 companies = @400)
2nd Battalion/Saintonge Regiment (4 companies = @400)
Grenadier Company (@100)
Chasseur Company (@100)
Artillery (4 x 4-pdr Gribeauval)
Agenois Brigade
Major General Marquis de Saint-Simon
Agenois Regiment (@1000)
Colonel comte de Beaumont d'Autichamp
1st Battalion/Agenois Regiment (4 companies = @400)
2nd Battalion/Agenois Regiment (4 companies = @400)
Grenadier Company (@100)
Chasseur Company (@100)
Artillery (4 x 1-pounders a la Rostaing)
Gatinois Regiment (@1000)
Colonel Marquis de Rostaing
1st Battalion/Gatinois Regiment (4 companies = @400)
2nd Battalion/Gatinois Regiment (4 companies = @400)
Grenadier Company (@100)
Chasseur Company (@100)
Artillery (4 x 1-pounders a la Rostaing)
Touraine Regiment (@1200)
Colonel Vicomte de Pondeux
1st Battalion/Touraine Regiment (4 companies = @480)
2nd Battalion/Touraine Regiment (4 companies = @480)
Grenadier Company (@120)
Chasseur Company (@120)
Artillery (4 x 1-pounders a la Rostaing)
2 hussar companies/First Legion of the Volontaires Etrangers de la Marine (100)
French Artillery:
Colonel D'Aboville
Sappers & Workers (50)
2nd Battalion/Auxonne Artillery & 4 companies Metz Artillery (@500)
[Rochambeau]
2 companies Metz Artillery (104) [Saint Simon]
Field Artillery:
Auxonne Artillery (8 x 12-pdr - Gribeauval)
Auxonne Artillery (6 x 6" howitzer - Gribeauval)
Metz Artillery (8 x 4-pdr Swedish)
Siege Artillery:
Metz Artillery (2 x 8" howitzers -Valliere)
Auxonne Artillery (12 x 24-pdr - Gribeauval)
Auxonne Artillery (8 x 16-pdr - Gribeauval)
Auxonne Artillery (4 x 8" mortars)
Auxonne Artillery (8 x 12" mortars)
Auxonne Artillery (2 x 8" howitzers Gribeauval)
Notes:
1. The above French strengths are based on a French strength report for November 1781
with comparisons to strength reports from July and August, 1781.
2. As per Dr. Selig's research, the French infantry regiments who came from the
Caribbean had the older 1-pdr Rostaing cannon for their battalion guns. Also it appears
that the artillery which came from the Caribbean used the older Valliere system of guns,
while Rochambeau's artillery that came directly from France used the new Gribeauval
system (at least that is what Selig's research argues).
3. The best secondary source research can be found in the various articles by Dr. Robert
A. Selig, found at http://www.w3r-us.org/history/history_index.htm.
4. French infantry regiments had two battalions, each with four companies of fusiliers
and one grenadier and one chasseur (light infantry) company per regiment. Sometimes
the grenadier and chasseur companies were converged into flank battalions of the same
type, while in other cases the two elite companies of each regiment might be converged
into a mixed flank battalion for that regiment.
5. The Marine battalions were mostly composed of men drawn from infantry regiments
in France (about 725 enlisted and 23 officers); the other 50 or so men might have been
actual French marines.
6. There may have been additional French sailors sent ashore to man some of the siege
artillery.
7. In Saint Simon's journal he lists the following strength returns for his forces: Agenois
= 1000 men, Gatinois = 1000 men, Touraine = 1200 men, detachment of Metz Artillery =
100 men, " Volontaires de la Marine" = 100 men. He also gives a return for
Rochamebau's four infantry regiments of 4600 men and 800 for the marines and 600 for
Lauzun's Legion.
Sources:
Balch, Thomas. The French in America During the War of Independence of the United States,
1777-1783. Boston: Gregg Press, 1972.
Bourgerie, Raymond and Pierre Lesouef. Yorktown (1781) La France Offre L'independance
a L'Amerique. Paris: Economica, 1992.
Chartrand, Rene and Francis Back. The French Army in the American War of Independence.
London: Osprey, 1991.
_______. "General Rochambeau's French Army, 1780-83". http://militaryhistorians.org/meetings/2011-meeting/frencharmy17801783.pdf
Codex Eng 67: Benjamin Lincoln, Order Book; Siege of Savannah and Yorktown, 1781. John
Carter Brown Library.
Deux-Ponts, William, Count de, Samuel Abbott Green, trans. My Campaigns in America:
a Journal Kept by Count William de Deux-Ponts 1780-81. Boston: J.K. Wiggin and
Wm. Parsons Lunt, 1868.
Du Ministere Des Affairs Etrangeres. Les Combatants Francais De La Guerre Americaine
1778-1783. Washington: Imprimerie Nationale, 1905.
Gallatin, Gaspard, Journal of the Siege of York-town. Washington D.C.: U.S. Government
Printing Office, 1931.
Johnston, Henry P. The Yorktown Campaign and the Surrender of Cornwallis 1781. New
York: Harper & Brothers, 1881.
Lumpkin, Henry. From Savannah to Yorktown: The American Revolution in the South. New
York: Paragon House, 1981.
Morrissey, Brendan. Yorktown 1781: The World Turned Upside Down. London: Osprey,
1997.
Nebenzahl, Kenneth, ed. Atlas of the American Revolution. Chicago: Rand McNally & Co.,
1974.
Novak, Greg. "Rise and Fight Again": A Guide to the Armies of the American War of
Independence in the Southern Campaigns. Champaign, Il.: Rue Sas Joie Press.
Patton, Jacob. Yorktown. New York: Fords, Howard & Hulbert, 1882.
Rice, Howard C., Jr. and Anne S.K. Brown, eds. The American Campaigns of Rochambeau's
Army 1780, 1781, 1782, 1783, 2 vols. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1972.
Selig, Robert A. March to Victory; Washington, Rochambeau and the Yorktown Campaign of
1781. Center for Military History Publication 70-104-1.
http://www.history.army.mil/html/books/rochambeau/CMH_70-104-1.pdf.
----------. various posts found at http://www.w3r-us.org/history/history_index.htm.
Marquis de Saint-Simon. Journal des Campagnes de l'Amerique, despuis le 5 Juill et 1781 jus
qu' au 12 Avril 1782.
http://memoirevive.besancon.fr/ark:/48565/a011323529025v1qcCo/1/1
"Statistical Overview of Artillery at the Siege of Yorktown (1781)"
http://xenophongroup.com/mcjoynt/yrtnarty2.htm.
Ward, Christopher, The War of the Revolution, 2 vols. New York: MacMillian, 1952.