The photos of James P Rowan

If you want to see some good artistic photographs of French and Indian war reenactments then check out this page of high quality images.

Volontaires-etrangers

I said I'd post a picture of this group that was around in the late 90s in the UK ...maybe it's still going. The original regiment was German-speaking and was possibly made up of former prisoners-of-war. A battalion was at Louisbourg but a detachment served in Canada though I've no idea where. More here

Battle of Newtown 230th slideshow

Great images set in a woodland setting of this weekend's reenactment. Photos by Ben Bokowski.

French Marines in North America

Image by F Back from here. Of course it's not so easy to ascertain what Compagnies franches de la Marine wore when they were at the end of the supply chain and on campaign in the wilderness. This reconstruction is one possibility. Standard equipment including the embossed belly-box (gargoussier) - a powder flask for priming as carried by all French troops at the time, backpack, camp equipment and a hatchet instead of the sword is in the waistbelt. Clothing is a Canadian style capot with breechclout and woollen leggings and a fatigue cap - people use different terminology for this - I call it a bonnet a la dragon (I dislike 'pokalem' as that's a Napoleonic pork pie hat but I digress). A knife at the knee was typical of Canadians who also carried them around their necks and at the waist. In the heat of summer Marines may have fought in shirtsleeves like their Canadian militia auxiliaries.

French Marine 1755

Here's another depiction of a ship-service Marine supposedly from 1755. The figure has a three band fusil and a collared justaucorps that looks as if it has buttons only to the waist - on the Vernet pics and elsewhere the buttons - 18 of them - go down to the hem on the coat and waistcoat.

See a reconstruction by French uniform and equipment expert Michel Petard here.

Compagnies franches de la Marine by Vernet

One of the interesting things about these port paintings for me is the depictions of French marines - they show an amazing amount of detail. How this translates to New France is unclear though as there's no evidence that a collar on the justaucorps or the giberne (shoulder strapped cartridge box) was ever worn by Marines in the Americas. However they do offer a fascinating insight with a dark blue facing colour, anchors on the turnbacks, a bonnet a la dragon on the giberne cross strap and much more. You might wonder why you usually see CfdlM recreated in a mid blue if these pictures show it a dark almost navy blue? I think the answer is Louisbourg - when they were researching the Marines they came to a conclusion that it was a light blue. I think it was like this but what do I know?

Marseilles by Vernet