PAPERSOLDIERS JOURNAL: SIEGE OF TURIN 1706. FRENCH REGIMENT GASSION

This regiment represents another attempt to reconstruct the uniform of a unit for which precise sources are lacking, except for its ordonnance flag, which already provides a considerable amount of useful information.

Drapeau d'Ordonnance

The regiment was raised on 12 January 1702 by Jean, Marquis de Gassion, who remained its colonel until 16 February 1709, when command passed to the Comte de Beaujeu. The latter retained ownership of the regiment until its disbandment in 1714.

At the beginning of the War of the Spanish Succession, the regiment was employed in garrison duties in several fortified places in Roussillon. In 1704, it was transferred to the Cévennes, where it joined the royal troops engaged in suppressing the Camisard rebellion.

The following year, the regiment was sent to the Italian front and took part in the Siege of Nice. In 1706, it served before Turin and participated in the long siege of the Savoyard capital. On 7 September, it was also involved in the disastrous Battle of Turin. During the subsequent French retreat, the regiment reportedly distinguished itself while withdrawing towards Pinerolo.

In 1708, the regiment was transferred to the Army of Flanders. On 11 July, it fought at the Battle of Oudenarde and, later that same year, took part in the Combat of Leffinge.

This was therefore one of the first regiments raised in 1702, as early as January. In many respects, it represented a form of tribute offered by the noble families of France to the King’s cause. In this particular case, that contribution came from the Gassion family, which had maintained a long and distinguished military tradition over the previous sixty years.

It is precisely thanks to this tradition that it has been possible to reconstruct the colour of the regiment’s linings, which were most probably greyish white, by starting from a genuine and historically grounded point of reference. This reconstruction also rests on the broader consideration that tradition played an essential role in both military and aristocratic circles, with customs, colours and symbols often being passed down from one generation to the next.

In fact, the proprietor of the regiment was Jean III Marquis de Gassion, who was appointed a Knight of the Order of the Holy Spirit on 2 June 1743. He served as a musketeer and brigadier in the King’s armies, later becoming Governor of Dax, colonel of the Navarre Regiment, and commander of the regiment bearing his own name.
Gassion was the son of Pierre de Gassion, a procureur at the Parliament of Pau, who died in 1707, and the great-nephew of Marshal Jean de Gassion (1609–1647). His mother, Madeleine de Colbert (1655–1755), was a distant cousin of Jean-Baptiste Colbert, Louis XIV’s famous finance minister. In 1714, Gassion also purchased the estate of Alluyes from François Gilbert Colbert, Marquis de Saint-Pouange and Chabanais.
It is precisely this descent from Marshal Jean II de Gassion that provides a useful uniformological connection. Indeed, a portrait of the Marshal still survives, showing a yellow uniform—the family livery—with red facings.