BATTLE OF TURIN 1706 - FRENCH REGIMENT DAMAS

The regiment was raised on 25 July 1702 by Jean-Jacques, Chevalier de Damas, who remained its colonel until 10 July 1708. He was then succeeded by Joseph-Guillaume Boutin, Comte de Vallouze, who commanded the unit until 30 July 1715. On that date, the regiment ceased to exist as an independent formation and was incorporated into the Royal Vaisseaux Infanterie.

During the War of the Spanish Succession, the regiment was employed in several different theatres of operations. In 1704, it served in the campaign in Savoy, while in the following year it took part in the conquest of the County of Nice. In 1706, it participated in the siege of Turin and, on 7 September, fought in the disastrous battle that ended the Bourbon siege of the city.

After the defeat at Turin, the regiment was transferred in 1707 to the frontier of Navarre. In 1708, it campaigned in Aragon and took part in the sieges of Lérida and Tortosa. In 1710, it served with the Army of Dauphiné, before being transferred to the Army of Catalonia in 1711. Its final major operation of the war came in 1714, when it participated in the siege and capture of Barcelona. 

During the siege of Turin, this unit was deployed in the sector between the Dora and the Po and employed in siege operations. One particularly interesting aspect concerning the regiment is the identification of the uniform it wore.

The regiment had been raised by one of the most prominent families of the French nobility, and the drummers’ livery therefore followed the traditional colours of that family. Although the coat itself can be identified, as usual, as greyish white, determining the colour of the cuffs proved more difficult.

As often happens, useful evidence is provided partly by the family coat of arms and partly by the ordonnance flag, in both of which blue is the predominant colour. The most important clue, however, is fortunately supplied by the fact that, during the French Revolutionary Wars, the same family raised a unit known as the Légion de Damas. From its uniform, it is possible to infer that the cuffs were not black, as shown in the surviving gouaches, but dark blue, as represented in our template.

We have several surviving representations of this unit in which the blue appears extremely dark, almost black—a shade that would not be appropriate for the War of the Spanish Succession. In this particularly careful illustration, however, it is evident that the colour is in fact a very deep blue, which can easily appear black in older sketches.

Hussar Damas

 

(NB: the azure uniforms of these units came as a sort of standard of the Emigrés troops)

Drapeau d'Ordonnance

Drapeau Colonel

Regiment Damas - Drummer first version

Regiment Damas - Drummer. Correct Livery

The modification of this drummer was based on a statistical study that I carried out. Apart from the royal and provincial regiments, whose drummers all wore the royal livery, the other regiments generally used the livery of the family that owned the regiment. While examples survive for many of these units, references are lacking for others, such as the Damas Regiment.

It should be remembered that the House of Damas was both powerful and wealthy and would therefore have had no difficulty providing the drummers of the regiment bearing its name with rich and elaborate liveries. I nevertheless carried out a comparative and statistical analysis and found that the colours of the livery almost always corresponded to those of the regimental flag. The basic principle was that the noble colours, silver and gold, were generally reserved for decorative elements. An exception arose in cases such as this one, since the use of a blue livery would have been considered an unthinkable offence, blue being a royal prerogative.

The drummer’s livery for this regiment has therefore been reconstructed by taking the colours of its flag as the starting point.