Régiment de Saintonge - Expédition Particulière

The Saintonge Regiment was one of the four regiments sent to America in 1780 under the command of Lieutenant General, le Comte de Rochambeau. Its colonel from 1780 to 1782 was le Comte de Custine, a distinguished officer who was later killed on the guillotine during the French Revolution. Le Vicomte de Rochambeau, son of Comte de Rochambeau, became colonel of the regiment on November 11, 1782. Until the, he had been lieutenant colonel of the Bourbonnais Regiment.

The history of the Saintonge Regiment began in 1684, or earlier, as it was formed from the Navarre Regiment of 1563. It was named after that ancient French province , near the Bay of Biscay, north of Bordeaux, from which Champlain and the Sieur de Monts set sail for on their American explorations. Some of the best Huguenot families later settled in New England. In 1775, the regiment was enlarged when the Cambrésis Regiment was absorbed into the Saintonge Regiment.

The Saintonge Regiment sailed to America with Rochambeau in 1780, and did not participate in the storming of Stony Point in 1779, as some historians have stated. One of its officers, le Marquis de Fleury, did participate in the storming of Stony Point. He was the first of Wayne’s force to enter the fort, and carried the British colors with his own hand, for which he was awarded a medal by the U.S. Congress.

DeFleury entered the French army in 1768 when he was 19 years old. He served in the Corsican campaign, obtained a leave of absence with the French rank of captain of engineers in 1776, and joined the American army as a volunteer. He was at Brandywine and Germantown. As engineer in chief at Fort Mifflin, on Mud Island below Philadelphia, he remained at his post for the entire six week siege, although other defenders were several times relieved. He was severely wounded on the last day of the siege.

He was appointed lieutenant colonel by Congress in 1777, and fought at Monmouth in 1778. From 1770 to 1782. De Fleury served under Rochambeau as a major in the Saintonge Regiment. For his bravery at Yorktown, he was made a Chevalier of Saint Louis. Later, he became a field Marshal in the French Army.

At Yorktown, the Saintonge Regiment was brigaded with the Soisonnais Regiment in the center of the French line, under Major General le Viscomte de Viomenil.

Flag description: White Greek cross. Each of the four cantons is divided by diagonals into four triangles, colored blue, yellow, green, and red. Davis says that the sequence of these colors does not seem to be determined, and the flag is therefore differently colored in different books. The colored plates of Desjardins show the following arrangement (beginning in each canton with the upper triangle, then the left, then the right, and finally the lower triangle), first canton, yellow, red, blue, green; second canton, green, red, blue, yellow; third canton, red, green, yellow, blue; fourth canton, green, red, yellow, blue.

Saintonge Regiment
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Saintonge Regiment
Rég de Saintonge 1684.png
Active 1684-1792
Country Kingdom of France
Allegiance Ancien Régime
Type Infantry
Size 2 battalions
Engagements Siege of Yorktown
Commanders
Notable
commanders Adam Phillipe Jarreck, the Count de Custine
American Revolutionary War
Surrender of Lord Cornwallis.jpg
Armed Forces
United States

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France

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