Carignan Regiment
The Carignan-Salières Regiment in Canada
Pierre Toupin dit Lapierre, our ancestor, was a soldier in the LaBrisandière (aka LaBrisardière) company of the Orléans Regiment, part of the French infantry, which was sent in 1664 with three companies from three different regiments to the Antilles under the command of Lieutenant-General Alexandre de Prouville, the 62 year old Marquis de Tracy, the second highest general in the French army, to quell a Dutch rebellion in the French colonies. The other three companies were: the Berthier company from the Allier Regiment; the LaDurantaye company from the Chambelle Regiment; and the Monteuil company from the Poitou Regiment.
Voyage from the Antilles
In early 1665, after a successful mission, these four companies voyaged with Tracy to the town of Quebec in two ships, the 800-ton Brèse and the slightly smaller Terron. They arrived on May 30, 1665. There they joined the 20 companies of the Carignan-Salières Regiment, which arrived during that spring and summer.
See a full list of the companies and known soldiers at the following links at the website of La Société des Filles du roi et soldats du Carignan: https://fillesduroi.org/cpage.php?pt=13 and https://fillesduroi.org/cpage.php?pt=19.
Each company had a captain, a lieutenant, an ensign and fifty enlisted men (including two sergeants, three corporals, five anspessades, two drummers, a fife player and a surgeon). These enlisted infantrymen were volunteers, clothed and fed by their captains from monies provided by King Louis XIV. They were armed with the most advanced weapon of the day: the flintlock.
This was first regiment of French regular troops to set foot in the colony. Jean-Baptiste Colbert, then Minister of Finance to the King, had informed Monseigneur Laval in March 1664 that this regiment soon would be making its way to New France for the purpose of ending the relentless Iroquois (specifically Mohawk) attacks on the French settlers.
Difficult Voyages
The Carignan-Salières Regiment set out from LaRochelle, France in six ships. The 200-ton Dutch ship, the Joyeux Simon, departed with four companies aboard on April 19, 1665 and arrived first in Quebec (City) on June 19, 1665. As noted, the Marquis de Tracy and his men arrived next on June 30, 1665. Two royal ships (part of a relatively small French merchant fleet), the Paix and the Aigle d’Or, set sail May 13, 1665, with the Marquis de Salières and the next eight companies of the Carignan-Salières Regiment on board, and only reached Quebec in the third week of August, clearly after a difficult voyage across the Atlantic.
The Saint-Sebastien and the Justice (also royal ships) departed May 24, 1665 with the remaining eight companies; on board were the new Governor, Daniel de Remy de Courcelle, and the new Intendant of Canada, Jean Talon. After 112 miserable days at sea, these ships finally arrived in Quebec on September 12th. Twenty had died (probably in the lower decks of the Saint-Sebastien) during the voyage, while 130 were too weak to get ashore on their own upon arrival (of which some 35 may have died).
In all, some 1200 to 1300 men were dispatched to Canada to fight the Iroquois. The regiment had a big impact on the sparsely populated colony upon its arrival is easily imagined: in 1663, the total French population in Canada was only 3035 people, of which 1928 were adults. By 1666, the Carignan-Salières Regiment, including Tracy’s four companies, swelled the male population to two-thirds of the total.
Deployment of the Regiment
Deployment of the troops took place very soon after their respective, and much applauded, landings in Quebec. The troops commenced building a series of fortifications along the Richelieu River valley southwards towards Lake Champlain and Mohawk territory. The immediacy of their departures may have served to relieve crowded conditions created in Quebec by their arrival.
On July 23, 1665, Captain Jacques de Chambly led four companies to Trois-Rivières, including those of Captain de la Tour and de Froment. Thence, they travelled on to the Richelieu valley with local Canadian and indigenous men in order to build the first stockade, Fort Saint-Louis. Further departures included Captain Pierre de Saurel on August 25th, and Colonel de Salières on September 2nd. Salières reached Fort Saint-Louis on September 28th with seven companies, then proceeded south to build Fort Sainte-Thérèse in a valiant effort made practically without tools.
Disastrous Campaign
In November 1665, representatives of four of the five Iroquois nations met with Tracy in Quebec in an attempt to negotiate a settlement. The failure of the Mohawk to attend led Tracy to order Governor Courcelle to launch his attack. Unfortunately, the new governor did so in January 1666 despite the deep snows and bitterly cold weather, without equipping his French soldiers with snowshoes or sufficient clothing and supplies. The result was an unmitigated disaster, according to author Jack Verney in “The Good Regiment,” born out of inexperience and Courcelle’s personality flaws, in which some 400 died out of the 500-600 men who participated, and of which two-thirds were French soldiers. Almost all of the casualties were caused by hypothermia or starvation.
Only one brief engagement took place with a handful of Mohawk warriors during this expedition. Otherwise, the Iroquois were not encountered by the troops. The incident arose near Schenectady, with the French mistakenly deep in British territory.
Mohawk warriors renewed attacks on farms of French settlers during the summer of 1666. Tracy then dispatched Captain de Saurel, who later returned to Quebec with a captive Mohawk diplomat and companions, joining other Iroquois hostages in the capital. Meanwhile, Quebec received news of France’s declaration of war on England and corresponding instructions from the King. Author Jack Verney theorizes that the subsequent march of the Regiment against the Mohawk originally may have been planned as a mere prelude to an attack on the English colony to the south, by royal directive.
Tracy in Command
In mid-September 1666, Tracy himself took command of a force of 600 French troops (drawn from the 24 companies), joined by some 600 Canadian volunteers and 100 indigenous allies. Courcelle set off first from the staging area at Fort Sainte-Anne on the Richelieu River at the end of September. He was followed by the main group, led by Tracy, with a rearguard under the command of Captains de Chambly and Berthier. Author Verney shows us that the regiment then made a remarkable march over some 1100 km, at an average speed of 20 km per day through very rough terrain and in terrible weather.
There was an early skirmish between a Mohawk scouting party and some of the Algonquin accompanying the troops. This event may have forewarned the Mohawk nation, as the troops found four abandoned villages in mid-October, when, without battle, the Intendant’s representative, Captain Dubois of La Colonelle company, took possession of the Mohawk villages, including their plentiful contents and crops. A mere eight fatalities occurred in the French campaign, all drownings on Lake Champlain on the return trip. However, the Mohawk army was unscathed and in theory continued to pose a threat to the Regiment, which did not venture further south to encounter the English.
By July 1667 all of the Iroquois nations, including the Mohawk, had concluded treaties with the French. Peace and stability followed for the colony, and notes author Verney, in particular for the fur trade. The King instructed his governor to establish militia units as a first line of defense, with officers of the Carignan-Salières Regiment responsible for training. The colonial government then instituted a royal plan to encourage settlement of both officers and soldiers in Canada.
Settling in New France
By 1667, a few soldiers from the Regiment began marrying young Canadian women in the colony. By 1668, some 446 men of the Regiment retired from the army and settled in New France, including 30 officers, 12 non-commissioned officers and 404 infantrymen, while another 100 remained in the colony in the army. Author Verney estimates that between 320 and 350 men were repatriated to France by the end of 1668.
At that time, many of the soldiers remaining in the colony apparently engaged in the lifestyle of the fur trade as “coureurs de bois” and were absent from the settlements. In 1670, in an apparent effort to accomplish the royal settlement plan, the Intendant ordered that any men still unmarried fifteen days after the arrival of the next ships bringing women from France would be barred from all hunting and trading activities.
As noted on the website of La Société des Filles du roi et soldats du Carignan, many soldiers did marry and settle in the colony, including marriages to the Filles du roi (https://fillesduroi.org/cpage.php?pt=15). Also, it appears that the mood in the colony changed dramatically by 1668, and there was an influx of settlers as a result of the feeling of security with the end of the Mohawk raids.
This sentiment was aided by Colbert, as the new Minister of Marine, who sent six companies of Troupes de la Marine from France during the late summer of 1669 to join the remaining four companies of the Carignan-Salières Regiment. These troops formed a reconstituted unit under the authority of his Ministry of Marine, and ended the Carignan-Salières Regiment’s stay in the colony. Also these troops added to the actual security of the colony.
Achievements
Among the achievements of this deployment of the Regiment in New France was the remarkable maintenance of a supply line for the Regiment across the Atlantic over a distance of 5000 km from 1665 to 1668, despite the substantial drain on the royal treasury.
As well, the subsequent years of peace in the colony permitted Montréal to become a business center, hastened by the participation of former officers and soldiers in the fur trade. They provided an opportunity for immigration and marriage between immigrants that doubled the population from 1665 to 1668 to well over 6000.
The population continued to grow, until it reached 10,000 by the time of the next series of Iroquois attacks in 1683 (and up to 60,000 by the Conquest). Significantly, the militia established following the Regiment’s disengagement improved the defenses of the colony by the time of the next onslaught of the Mohawk. The peace further allowed Canada to consolidate its presence along the St-Lawrence River, while former forts along the Richelieu River matured into villages and towns.
Researched & Written by David Toupin, great-grandson of Felix Toupin.
Resources
Jack Verney, “The Good Regiment: The Carignan-Salières Regiment in Canada 1665-1668” (McGill-Queens University Press, 1991)
Website of la Société des Filles du roi et soldats du Carignan, https://fillesduroi.org/index.php