page_title: Régiment de Forez
section_title: Third Formation (1776)
hierarchical_section_title: Régiment de Forez / Third Formation (1776)
caption_attribution_description: English: Soldat of the Régiment de Forez in 1778 just after formation, still with the old Bourbonnais uniform.
context_page_description: The Régiment de Brie was a line infantry regiment of the French Royal Army which was originally formed in 1636, disbanded the next year, reformed in 1684, disbanded in 1775, and later reformed in 1776. The regiment's successor, the 14th Infantry Regiment is active as of 2020 as a logistical support regiment of the Logistics Command.
context_section_description: When King Louis XVI reviewed the French Royal Army after the end of the disastrous Seven Years' War, he insisted all regiments be equipped and organised the same way. As a result, all infantry regiments of more than two battalions, with some notable exceptions, were divided. The 1st and 3rd battalions disbanded and reformed the old regiment while the 2nd and 4th battalions formed a new provincial regiment and granted a number of precedence just below the former.
  One of the new regiments to be (re)formed was the Régiment de Forez, created through the amalgamation of the old 1st and 3rd battalions of the Régiment de Bourbonnais.  Therefore, in 1776 the regimental headquarters, and the 1st and 2nd battalions's depots were formed with their headquarters in Montbrison.  The regiment had in-fact been disbanded the previous year after that year's reductions, but were reformed just a year later.  The province of Forez roughly equates to the modern departments of Loire and parts of Haute-Loire and Puy-de-Dôme.
  When the new regiment was formed, it adopted the old uniform of the Bourbonnais until the 1776 uniform ordnance was published on 21 May  Under this new ordnance, the regiment gained its first standard uniform which consisted of the following; white coat, black collar, crimson facings and lapels, crimson trimmed epaulettes and pockets, and a silver trimmed black tricorne with a bourbon white bowtie.
  The regiment's 3rd militia/garrison battalion was the Battalion of Périgueux Bataillon de Périgueux , which was formed following the 1776 ordnance, and commanded 4 fusilier companies, a grenadier company, and the two depots of the 1st and 2nd battalions.  In theory the 'militia battalions' were attached to the regiment of the affiliated province, but in-fact acted independently, and only joined these regiments if mobilised.  In 1778, the grenadier company of the provincial battalion was separated and joined the Régiment des Grenadiers Royaux de la Guyenne.  If mobilised, the garrison battalion would become the 3rd battalion officially and form part of its respective provinces' garrison along with providing drafts to the front-line battalions.  The battalion was only mobilised once after the declaration of war against the Kingdom of Great Britain during the American Revolutionary War.  During this time, the battalion served as part of the garrison in Forez and provided drafts to the regiment to replace the detachments serving in the navy.
  The officers of the (3rd) militia battalions served on average some five years or more in the regular battalions, and therefore were able to provide many of the troops in these battalions a lot of experience driven training.  This is one of the reasons why when these battalions were disbanded in 1789, the first of the National Volunteers were mostly the old provincial troops, which had years of military training and were thus of a much higher calibre as apposed to the later volunteers.
caption: Soldat of the Régiment de Forez just after formation, uniformed with the old Bourbonnais uniform.
exif: {}