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Troupes de la marine

The Troupes de la Marine (Troops of the Marine), also known as independent companies of the navy and colonial regulars, were under the authority of the French Minister of Marine, who was also responsible for the French navy, overseas trade, and French colonies.

In the early seventeenth century, Cardinal Richelieu ordered the creation of the Troops de la Marine to serve aboard French naval vessels. About eighty companies of one hundred men each were formed. The Troupes de la Marine were dispatched by Louis XIV in 1682 to replace French regulars in New France, and were used to garrison other French colonies. They were the only regular soldiers in New France from 1682 to 1755, when several army battalions were dispatched to North America. The majority of the rank and file soldiers were recruited in France, although the officers were increasingly Canadian-born. Indeed, service in the Troupes de la Marine was an important source of economic opportunity and prestige for New France's elite and there was usually a waiting list for commissions in Marine companies. Although the strength of the force varied widely over time, by the French and Indian War, there were some forty companies serving in the St. Lawrence Valley and the Pays d’en Haut, about twenty at Louisbourg, and more in Louisiana and Acadia. Large garrisons were maintained at Quebec, Montreal, and New Orleans, with smaller forces guarding posts throughout France's vast territories in North America by the eighteenth century.

The companies were considered colonial regulars and were well trained in conventional warfare and very proficient as bush fighters (what today would be called guerrillas or irregulars). Along with the Canadian militia and France's Amerindian allies, the Troupes de la Marine were essential to the defence of New France in the late Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries. With the arrival of large numbers of British regulars after 1755, the nature of warfare in North America shifted from irregular to conventional European warfare, with particular importance attached to sieges and fortifications. French army battalions were also dispatched to fight in North America after 1755.

During the Seven Years War, the Louisbourg garrison became British prisoners when the fortress fell, and after the conquest of 1760, many settled permanently in the new territory, while others were reluctantly repatriated to France.