Walcourt, 1689 - Part 4: French Order of Battle

From The Baby wore Red published by League of Augsburg.

In my last post, I laid out all the units I could identify from the Tillroy list as the basis for an Allied order of battle for the Battle of Walcourt, fought on August 25th, 1689. Here, I will list all of the units in the French order of battle, which relies almost entirely on Ian Weir's Army of Flanders Commentary, who comments on the composition of the French army at Walcourt:

There were either 24 battalions and 75 squadrons (Lynn) or 28 battalions and 80 squadrons, plus 7 regiments of dragoons (Childs). Childs estimates 30,700 men, and Lynn 24,000. The difference may be accounted for by the fact that Humières had just received a reinforcement of 6,000 men. page 42.

The size of French battalions varied greatly (Chartrand, Volume 2: Infantry, pg. 101-102), however the average size seems to be about 1,000 men, larger than the 7-800 of the Allied armies. French squadrons seem to have been made up of two companies of 54 men each, meaning a squadron typically had ~100 men (Chartrand, Volume 3: Cavalry, pg. 119). The following list accounts for 24 battalions, 60 squadrons, and one battalion of artillery, and if you follow the assumptions above then you will arrive at John Childs' total of 30,700 men (24,000 infantry, 6,000 cavalry, and 700 serving or defending the guns). I have not read John Childs' works myself, so I cannot say how he arrived at his numbers, but all works which I have consulted are cited below. 

French Order of Battle

Horse¹

Unit	Uniform	Strength
Mestre de Camp Général	Grey/red	4 squadrons
La Reine	ditto	3 squadrons
Orleans	-	ditto
Quinson	-	-
Saint-Aignan	-	-
Royal Cravattes	Blue/red	4 squadrons
Lumbres	Grey/blue	3 squadrons
Soubise	Grey/red	ditto
Bezons	ditto	-
Condé	-	-
Locmaria	-	-
Arnolfini	-	-
Magnac	-	-
Aubeterre	-	-

Dragoons¹

Unit	Uniform	Strength
Du Roi	Blue/red	4 squadrons
Dauphin	Blue/blue	ditto
Grammont	Red/green	-
Caylus (Quélus)	red? 2	-

Infantry³

Unit	Uniform	Strength
French Guards	Blue/red	4 battalions
Swiss Guards	Red/blue	4 battalions
Champagne	Grey/grey4	3 battalions
Greder (German)	Blue/yellow	2 battalions
Guiche	Grey/yellow	2 battalions
Le Roi	Grey/blue	3 battalions
Royal La Marine	Grey/blue	2 battalions
Soissonais	Grey/blue	1 battalion
Royal Savoie5		3 battalions
Aosta (Savoy)	Grey/red	1 battalion
Nizza (Savoy)	Blue/red	1 battalion
Della Marina (Savoy)	Grey/green	1 battalion
Fusiliers (Artillery)	Grey/blue	1 battalion6

Notes

1. Cavalry uniform colors taken from "Line Cavalry and Dragoon Uniforms 1692" page 246-249 in Chartrand Volume 3, Cavalry of Louis XIV.
2. I was not able to find a uniform for this regiment in Chartrand's list, but they likely wore red coats with facings of another color.
3. Infantry uniform colors taken from "Uniforms," pages 229-30 in Chartrand Volume 2, Infantry of Louis XIV, unless otherwise noted.
4. French coats were mostly light grey, sometimes listed as white.
5. Three battalions of Savoyard troops were brigaded together as a single regiment, Royal Savoie, and this is how they appear in Weir's list, page 42. However, I discovered the names of the three battalions on page 81 of Paoletti's book, and the uniform colors on page 207. However, after 1689 they may have been issued other coats. All indications are that these troops resented having to fight in France, having been strong-armed into French service, and would be subject to significant desertion, especially after Savoy joined the Allies in 1690.
6. There were two battalions of French artillery posted with the Army of Flanders in 1689 (Hall & Roumegoux, pg. 5). Weir speculates that at least one battalion was with Humières at Walcourt, and that this battalion would have been counted as part of the infantry (pg. 42). However, beyond that I cannot identify the specific names of these units. They were called Fusiliers because a large contingent of flintlock-armed soldiers which were assigned to guard the guns. It seems that these troops were sometimes sent into action with the rest of the line infantry, since an order was issued in 1693 forbidding generals from doing this (Hall and Roumegoux, pg. 6).

Works Cited

Allen, Mark. Armies and Enemies of Louis XIV. Volume 1: Western Europe 1688-1714 - France, Great Britain, Holland. Warwick: Helion & Company, 2018. (Useful reference for uniforms and flags, which can also be found in back issues of Wargames Illustrated)

Chartrand, René. The Armies and Wars of the Sun King 1643-1715, Volume 2: The Infantry of Louis XIV. Warwick: Helion & Company, 2020. 

Chartrand, René. The Armies and Wars of the Sun King 1643-1715, Volume 3: The Cavalry of Louis XIV. Warwick: Helion & Company, 2020. 

Hall, Robert. Roumegoux, Yves. "French Artillery and Bombardiers under Louis XIV, 1688-1714. 2002. Accessed through Scribd.

Paoletti, Ciro. William III's Italian Ally, Piedmont and the War of the League of Augsberg 1683-1697. Warwick: Helion & Company, 2019.

Weir, Ian. Army of Flanders: the War of the Grand Alliance in les Pays-Bas, 1689-1697 - Commentary. Red Sash Games, 2018. https://redsashgames.com/resources.html.

Weir, Ian. "Nine Years' War French OOB Spreadsheets." Red Sash Games. https://redsashgames.com/resources.html. (Useful quick reference)

Soli Deo Gloria!