Georg Daniel Flohr served in the Royal Deux-Ponts regiment that was raised on the French and German lands of the duke. It was one of a number of foreign regiments that fought for France. At the dawn of the Revolution the foreign regiments in the royal armies totaled twenty-two, representing about 20% of the troops according to André Corvisier.1 The presence of foreigners within the French army is an ancient phenomenon that allowed monarchs to supplement their troops by purchasing mercenaries’ services. Even though the number of military troops increased during the modern era, this practice became widespread. As Maurice de Saxe pointed out in 1748, recruiting foreigners became attractive for France for three reasons: “one German serves us like three men: he spares one of ours, he takes one away from the enemy, and he serves us as one man.”2 After the failure of direct recruiting within the Empire that was carried out by a specialized agency in Hamburg (in 1735), the French monarch, at the instigation of Maurice de Saxe, turned to establishing negotiated treaties, be it with the Prince of Nassau-Sarrebruck in 1745, or with Duke Christian IV of Deux-Ponts in 1756. This method also enabled him to engage the services of the princes of the Empire. It is therefore from a perspective that is as diplomatic as it is military that the Royal Deux-Ponts regiment was raised in 1757, reviving the old tradition of alliances between two powers.3

To do this, Duke Christian IV de Deux-Ponts received 80,000 guilders annually (later 40,000 guilders, but at that time France was taking care of the operating costs of the regiment). The epicenter of recruitment must have been the Deux-Ponts duchy (known today as Zweibrücken in Rhineland-Palatinate). However, the difficulties encountered enrolling soldiers pushed the recruiting sergeants to turn rather quickly to other German provinces along with Lorraine and Alsace.4 Posters were put up throughout this German-speaking land; the recruiting sergeants traverse the villages of Palatinate, appearing generous with eau-de-vie and promises. The recruits accepted to sign up on account of the desire to travel the world, to escape from poverty, the hope of learning to read, write, dance, and wield the sword as they were promised by the recruiting sergeants, or even to follow a friend who had signed up, like Georg Daniel Flohr, who accompanied a certain David Wittmer as well as other acquaintances from Sarnstall and Annweiler who joined the regiment.5

Once enrolled, these recruits donned the uniform of the Royal Deux-Ponts regiment composed of a pair of white pants, a royal blue frock coat, originally with red lining, later with yellow, and silver-plated buttons. The emblem, which was modified in 1770, displays a Saltire, golden fleurs-de-lis, a royal crown, and the dukes of Deux-Ponts’ coat of arms. The soldiers received a pay, as do their wives who are looked after for as long as they stay with the army.6 Initially divided into three battalions, the Royal Deux-Ponts regiment changed to four in 1760 during the Seven Years’ War. It was at that time under the command of the Baron von Closen who answered to Soubise. As soon as the fighting ended, it went back to two battalions.

The leadership of the regiment is the tricky question. a question that has to do with the multiple personal and family strategies that sought to insure Christian de Deux-Ponts’ illegitimate sons a position. After falling in love with Marianne Camasse, a Catholic, when he saw her dancing on stage at the Mannheim Opera, the Duke of Deux-Ponts, a protestant, had two sons out of wedlock: Christian and Guillaume de Forbach. Christian IV renounced Protestantism and married a commoner in 1757, the same year the agreement of the regiment’s creation was signed. In 1764 a royal decision reserved the leadership of the regiment for the eldest of the Counts of Forbach. This leadership was no easy task for the two sons of the Countess of Forbach, who dreamed of making them into great generals like Turenne or the Marshal of Saxe (he himself born out of wedlock). They received their military training at the artillery and military engineering school in Bapaume and later, starting in 1770, at the military engineering school in Mézières. Christian de Deux-Ponts entered the Royal Deux-Ponts as a sergeant in 1768, he was named second lieutenant on April 20th that same year when the regiment was garrisoned in Strasbourg. In July 1769 the Royal Deux-Ponts participated in the drills at Compiègne before the king, who appeared satisfied with the leadership of the eldest of the young Deux-Ponts. So in 1772 he was promoted to colonel of the regiment as lieutenant colonel of the Royal Deux-Ponts, garrisoned at Sélestat. In 1775 Duke Christian IV de Deux-Ponts, the owner of the regiment, died a brutal death after a hunting accident. As his two sons were illegitimate, it was his nephew, Charles Auguste, who became duke. At first the latter refused to see the regiment under the command of his cousins, but an arrangement was finally found: the new duke remained the owner of the regiment, and Christian was allowed to take control of it. On October 2, 1777 Christian partnered with his brother Guillaume, now named lieutenant-colonel of the Royal Deux-Ponts regiment.7

In 1780 the Royal Deux-Ponts was part of the expeditionary forces directed by the Count Rochambeau and was sent to America to support the insurgents against the English. The regiment that embarked in Brest on April 4, 1780 was composed of 60% Germans and 40% Alsace/Lorraine natives. Divided between five ships (the Eveillé, the Vénus, the Comtesse de Noailles, the Loire and the Ecureuil), the regiment had 69 officers (31 French, in particular from Alsace and Lorraine, 25 from the Holy Roman Empire, and 12 others from small European states), 1013 noncommissioned officers and foot soldiers (491 of them being from Alsace/Lorraine), 6 women and 3 children.8 The experiences crossing the American countryside are well known thanks to the diaries that were brought back by Count Guillaume de Deux-Ponts, Baron Ludwig von Closen, the son of the first commander of that regiment in 1757, the captain of the Royal Deux-Ponts regiment and Rochambeau’s batman, and finally Georg Daniel Flohr.

Once they had disembarked in Rhode Island, the troops undertook the whole campaign, they particularly distinguished themselves during the Siege of Yorktown. Count Guillaume of Deux-Ponts was the first to penetrate the English redoubt (see the redoubt n°9 assault notice). To thank the regiment for its bravery, the Americans gave them English cannons.9

Several studies have been done on the question of the casualties the regiment suffered.The first is contained in a work entitled Les combattants français de la guerre américaine, 1778-1783.10 Based on the inspections of the troops, it was criticized in the 1930’s by Warrington Dawson in two works: Les Français morts pour l’Indépendance Américaine de septembre 1781 à août 1782,11 and “Les 2112 Français morts aux Etats-Unis de 1777 à 1783 en combattant pour l’Indépendance américaine”.12 For this author, the evaluation based on troop inspection registers is biased due to non-enlisted men who show up to be counted at roll call in order to make the troops’ numbers seem greater. By crosschecking a large number of sources, from troop inspections to state registers, the historian tallies 2,112 French soldiers who died in America as a result of combat.13 The Royal Deux-Ponts regiment would therefore have lost 49 soldiers in the United States. Looking into the places of these deaths, he also shows that the majority of them died not in Yorktown, but in Williamsburg and Baltimore, where the main military hospitals were located.

Embarking in Boston during the winter of 1781, the Royal Deux-Ponts regiment awaited the signing of the peace treaty in the Antilles before returning to Brest in 1783. Upon his return he was garrisoned in Landau, where Georg Daniel Flohr spent the remaining nine months of his military service prior to his discharge that took place in 1784. Later the regiment moved to Phalsbourg, Belfort, Huningue, and Neuf-Brisach, the city he was in when the Revolution erupted in 1789.14 In 1791 Christian de Deux-Ponts left the army, and the Royal Deux-Ponts regiment changed its name, becoming the 99th infantry regiment. It lost its status as foreign regiment in order to be fully integrated into the French army. It thus participated in numerous revolutionary and Napoleonic victories, from Valmy to Austerlitz.