Cerino-Badone, Swiss Regiments - Libreria Militare Ares

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and in winter 1742 the first campaign in Savoy had raised doubts about the capacity of the mercenary troops. The Regiment Keller sent the 2 nd Battalion to serve as a garrison force in Sardinia 30 , but kept the 1 st Battalion on the mainland, which participated in operations in Savoy, and it was severely decimated by desertions. Before the end of the year, the whole battalion had no more than 70 men under its flags 31 . This unit, not yet fully reconstituted, in 1744 was sent to the entrenched camp of Villefranche, and deployed to defend the trenches at the Collet de Villefranche. During the fighting of 21 April, the 1 st Keller was surrounded and forced to surrender, along with the 2 nd Fucilieri, 1 Aosta, 2 nd La Regina and 1 st Sicilia. The Swiss battalion had fought for three hours entrenched into the Thaon’s Farm, until the exhaustion of ammunition. The Colonel surrendered only after receiving assurances that he and his men would not have been passed for arms 32 . Regaining the lost positions, alongside the 2 nd Battalion of Regiment Saluzzo and the single battalion of Regiment Tarantasia, was the task of the 1 st Bourgsdorff and of the 3 rd Guibert, which regained the control of the Collet and the previously lost Mont Gros 33 . The Swiss and Germans regiments gave at the battles of Pierrelongue (19 July 1744) and Madonna dell'Olmo (27 September 1744) a significant test of strength and fighting spirit. It was not surprising that the 19 July 1747 the defence of Gran Serin Redoubt, the keystone of the entrenched camp of Assiette in Susa Valley, was assigned to the 2nd and 3rd Battalion of Regiment Kalbermatten, and to the 3rd Battalion of Regiment Roi. The assault of the column of Lieutenant-General De Villemur was rejected, and rightly Damiano Giuseppe Maria del Carretto, earl of Priocca, in his report of the battle could write that “the three Swiss battalions fought on the Serin with their usual courage” 34 . But it was an hard-won military glory. The Regiment Diesbach-Roguin-Roi had a nominal force of 2.100 men. The losses were very severe, but the regimental staff did its best to keep the battalions at their usual strength, maintaining an average of 2.057 soldiers, just 43 below the theoretical force. Lieutenant Paul and Ippolito Schreiber, at the battle of San Michele Mondovi, the 19 April 1796. Virgilio Ilari, Piero Crociani, Ciro Paoletti, La Guerra delle Alpi, Roma 2000, pp. 161-163, 295-296. 30 Here the Regiment became famous especially thank to the music performed by the Ensign François-Joseph-Léonti Meyer de Schavensée (Luzern, 10 august 1710 – 1790). Later he was transferred on the continent, just in time to be captured at Villefranche in April 1744. Alexandre Choron, François Fayolle, Dictionnaire historique des Musiciens, Vol. II, Paris 1811, pp. 277- 278. 31 “A battalion of Keller, Swiss, like others similar units it should be of seven hundred men, had no more than seventy”. Gaspare Galleani D’Agliano, Memorie storiche sulla Guerra del Piemonte (1741-1747), Torino 1840, p. 45. 32 Moris, Opérations militaires dans les Alpes, p. 32. The Thaon’s Farm (“Cascina Thaon”), still existing today, was since then renamed “Fort Thaon”. It was said that the conquest of the farm won a Te Deum in Madrid’s churches. Louis Durante, Histoire de Nice, depuis da fondation jusqu’a l’année 1792, Vol. III, Turin 1824, pp. 92-95. 33 Useful sources about the Battle of Villefranche are: BRTO; Miscellanea 46, Relation de ce qui s’est passe à la defence des Retrenchemens de la Comté de Nice; Miscellanea 130, Relation de l’attaque des retranchements de Villefranche en 1744. 34 ASTO, Corte, Museo Storico, Rélation de l’affaire de l’Assiette faite par Mr le Compte de Priouque, 19 Juillet 1747. 18
Strength of Regiment Diesbach-Roguin-Roi 1742-1747 1742 1743 1744 1745 1746 1747 Annual average 2.250 2.110 2.013 2.003 1.883 2.085 2.057 The losses suffered by the regiment between 1742 and 1747 were impressive. At the end of 1747 3.896 men had been removed from the rolls. Also excluding from the list 500 dismissed soldiers (24%) exempted from service since their non-suitability for military life, old age or never recovered wounds and all the 121 men who were expelled for their unseemly behaviour (5,8%), the losses still remained 3.154, the 153,3%. Losses of Regt. Diesbach-Roguin-Roi 1742-1747 Year 1742 1743 1744 1745 1746 1747 Total Percentage Killed 131 93 334 303 288 112 1.261 61,3% Wounded - - 251 22 - 25 298 14,4% Prisoners - 1 13 159 3 33 209 10,2% Deserters 219 96 72 376 397 317 1.477 71,8% Missing - - 2 28 - - 30 1,4% Other causes 6 6 2 50 40 17 121 5,8% Discharged 34 120 47 133 128 38 500 24,3% Total 390 316 721 1.071 856 542 3.896 - Percentage 17,3% 14,9% 35,8% 53,4% 45,4% 26% 189,4% - At the end of 1745 the losses were 2.164, of whom 861 killed, 271 wounded, 173 prisoners and 763 deserters, the 105,2%. The year 1745 was particularly difficult, since the combined armies of French and Spain inflicted a series of stunning defeats to Charles Emmanuel III. The Regiment Roi during that campaign lost the 53,4% of its men. To recover the losses, very intense operations of recruitment were necessary. During the campaigns of 1744, 1745 and 1746 eventually 2.648 men were lost for various reasons. Nevertheless it was possible to recover in the same period 2.962 replacements. Overall, between 1742 and 1747, 4.101 volunteers were enlisted. Recruits of Regt. Diesbach-Roguin-Roi 1742-1747 1742 1743 1744 1745 1746 1747 Annual average 323 377 403 958 1.601 439 683 The new soldiers were raised, trained and sent as soon as possible to the front. Of these 604 were lost, mostly for desertion. In 1746 teams of recruiters selected men so unreliable that on 266 replacements 168 (63%) deserted before the end of the campaign. Recruits’ losses inside Regt. Diesbach-Roguin-Roi 1742-1747 Year 1742 1743 1744 1745 1746 1747 Total Killed 7 12 11 21 24 3 78 Wounded - - 7 - - - 7 Prisoners - - 1 - - 1 2 Deserters 12 13 8 102 168 57 360 19
Page 3 and 4: An Army inside the Army The Swiss r
Page 5 and 6: After the campaign in Savoy in 1742
Page 7 and 8: Swiss infantry of the Sabaudian Arm
Page 9 and 10: colonel to his cousin Gabriel Augus
Page 11 and 12: who had to kick a party of six or s
Page 13 and 14: Holland 2 0,1% 9 0,5% Great Britain
Page 15 and 16: Succession, the Reglement remained
Page 17: - Low effectiveness in attack. The
Page 21 and 22: enemy behind solid trenches on fiel
Page 23 and 24: Appendix. List of Regiments and Bio
Page 25 and 26: in 1718, L 1719, LC in 1722 and C i
Page 27 and 28: him the command of a regiment in Au
Page 29 and 30: was officer in the regiments of mig
Page 31 and 32: Governor of the fortress, Marquis I
Page 33: obtaining the patent BG the 15 Janu

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