Irish Soldiers and Desertion in the Ranks of the Eighteenth-Century French Army

Colm James Ó Conaill

The article will begin with a general overview of the Irish regiments in French service during the eighteenth century. The study will focus on those Irish soldiers and their followers who went to after the defeat of the Catholic forces of James II and the assumption of power by William of Orange. The second part of the study will analyse the phenomenon of military desertion from the ranks of the Irish regiments in French service. The primary sources used, troop registers from the Archives de Guerre (Service Historique de l’Armée de Terre) at Vincennes, provide detailed information on the service record of the soldiers, including their first and last names, the rank of NCOs, and their place of birth. The records also give detailed physical descriptions of the soldiers which often include their height, physical appearance and their hair and eye colour. Crucially, the records also tell us when and why soldiers left the army. The importance of the contrôles de troupe, established after a royal decree of 2 July 1716, cannot be overstated as they leave us a comprehensive record for thousands of Irish migrants as well as for French soldiers in the ranks.1

1. For the establishment of the contrôles de troupe, see André Corvisier, trans. Abigail T. Siddall, Armies and Societies in Europe, 1494-1789 (Bloomington and London, Indiana University Press, 1979), pp. 64-5. See also Colm James Ó Conaill, ‘The Irish Regiments in France. An Overview of the Presence of Irish soldiers in French Service, 1716-1791’, in Eamon Maher and Grace Neville (eds.), France-: Anatomy of a Relationship (Frankfurt-am-Main, Peter Lang, 2004), pp. 329-42. For an example of the historical uses of the source, see Eoghan Ó hAnnracháin, ‘An Analysis of the Fitzjames Cavalry Regiment, 1737’, The Irish Sword, 19:78, Winter 1995. IJFrS 5 (2005) 104 O CONAILL

The eighteenth-century records differ from earlier sources as they contain the exact number of soldiers at a given time in the regiments. Therefore it is more accurate than earlier estimates of troop strength or the reports of officers who might artificially inflate their troop strength for financial gain. The soldiers referred to in this article are all drawn from the post-1716 records, although some claim to have enrolled as early as 1691.2 Even with such a comprehensive and detailed study, one must be cautious when approaching the material. In the 1747 contrôle for the Rothe regiment there are 1,972 different entries. This figure only indicates that up to 1,972 soldiers joined the regiment between 1742 and 1756 (the dates of the earliest and latest recruitment according to the troop register dated 1747). The size of the regiment at any given time during this period was significantly smaller as some soldiers transferred from one company to another and others left the regiment and rejoined. For example, there are two references for the seventeen-year old Guillaume Rogan in the 1747 inspection. He first joined the Colonelle company on 20 August 1749 and then transferred to Dorrington’s company in August 1750. When we calculate the troop strength for a given date, we get a more

2. For the problems involved in calculating army size, see John A. Lynn, ‘Recalculating French Army Growth during the Grand Siècle, 1610-1715’, French Historical Studies, vol. 18, no. 4, Autumn 1994. See p. 884 for the importance of recognising the difference between the size of field armies (normally one force gathered under one commander) and the entire army (including reserves, militia, garrisons, and coastal defences). Peacetime forces were also much smaller than warring armies. There is also important information about the different sources on pages 885 to 886 and a table of French army growth between the years 1445 and 1750 (p. 902). By only using the post-1716 contrôles de troupe, the troop analysis compares like with like and should be accurate (or at least as accurate as the source material). The records include soldiers who joined as far back as 1691. The cut-off point for the study is 1791, the year when foreign regiments were abolished. On 21 July 1791, the Assemblée Nationale decreed that all foreign regiments, with the exception of the Swiss, should be placed on the same footing as French troops. See John Cornelius O’ Callaghan, A History of the Irish Brigades in the Service of France (1870; Shannon, Irish University Press, 1968), p. 633. IRISH SOLDIERS AND DESERTION 105 accurate idea of the strength of the Rothe regiment. Major Bagot counted 427 soldiers in the regiment on 3 August 1747.3 The phenomenon of Irish migration to Europe and France in particular was not uncommon before the 1690s.4 Nevertheless, the number of Irish military migrants who left for France in the last decade of the seventeenth century and early in the eighteenth century was enormous, and this is especially striking when we consider that the majority of military migrants to France were young healthy men. The presence of foreign troops in the French army dated from the wars of religion. André Corvisier, the authority on French military archives, estimates that foreigners accounted for around 12% of all French troops in peacetime and 20% of troops during warfare. Germans, Italians and Walloons all served in the French army but the most prized soldiers were Swiss. They received higher pay and served under different conditions to ordinary soldiers. For example, the Swiss wore red coats; they did not fight against opposing Swiss regiments from the same canton and did not serve outside continental Europe (outre mer). While the Irish regiments did not enjoy the same privileges as the Swiss, they too earned more than their French counterparts and wore the redcoat of the British army.5 Organized recruitment of Irish regiments to the French army dates from 1635 when seven regiments were recruited to fight in France. Harman Murtagh states that the Walls of Coolnamuck, Co. Waterford, played a crucial role in this recruitment. While numbers declined in the 1640s, eight regiments fought in French service after the Catholic defeat in Ireland. Wall’s own regiment passed to the

3. Rothe Hommes de Troupe Inspection 1747. 1 YC 786, Service Historique de l’Armée de Terre (henceforth SHAT), Vincennes. 4. See Harman Murtagh, ‘Irish Soldiers Abroad (1600-1800)’, in Thomas Bartlett and Keith Jeffery (eds.), A Military History of Ireland (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1996). The presence of Irish soldiers in other European states in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries is beyond the scope of this article. 5. André Corvisier (ed.), Dictionnaire d’Art et d’Histoire Militaire (, Presses Universitaires de France, 1988), p. 295. 106 O CONAILL exiled James Stuart, Duke of York, and disbanded in 1664 (then called the Royal Irlandais).6 The most significant military migration to France occurred with the advent of the Williamite wars in the early 1690s, the defeat of James II’s army in Ireland, and the (1691). The first mass military migration of troops that would later form the Régiments Irlandais or Irish regiments took place in 1690. In exchange for a contingent of French soldiers sent to Ireland, around 5,000 Irish soldiers sailed from Kinsale to Brest in France under the command of Justin MacCarthy, Viscount Mountcashel. This group formed a foreign brigade within the French army, receiving the higher rate of pay. Soldiers in French military service enlisted for a minimum of six years according to a law of 1682. This term of service was increased to eight years in 1762, but the reality was rather different. Terms of service lasted from a few weeks to decades.7 The wages of ordinary soldiers were fixed at six sous per day until 1762, when they were raised to eight sous. Foreign troops were paid one sou more per day. André Corvisier estimates these wages were equal to that of a tradesman or a peasant, but soldiers had the advantage of receiving pay on Sundays and holidays.8 Further migration of Irish troops took place after the defeat of the Jacobite forces, supported by Louis XIV in his European campaign against William of Orange. Under the Treaty of Limerick (1691), the Williamite commander, General Ginkel (1644-1703) allowed for the transport to France of all Irish forces who wished to leave. About 12,000 sailed for France and this group formed a separate army in France under the command of James II and then his son, James III. This army, unlike Mountcashel’s brigade, was not part

6. Harman Murtagh, op. cit., p. 297. See also John Mc Gurk, ‘Wild Geese. The Irish in European Armies (Sixteenth to Eighteenth Centuries)’, in Patrick O’ Sullivan (ed.), Patterns of Migration (Leicester, London, New York, Leicester University Press, 1992), vol. 1, p. 43. 7. André Corvisier, Armies and Societies in Europe, 1494-1789, op.cit., pp. 173-4. 8. Ibid., pp. 68-9. IRISH SOLDIERS AND DESERTION 107 of the French army although the French crown paid the troops.9 In the 1690s the Irish soldiers were divided into two distinct groups: the three regiments of Mountcashel’s Brigade under direct French control (Clare, Dillon and Lee), and James II’s army which was composed of ten regiments of foot, two regiments of horse and two horse troops. According to John Cornelius O’ Callaghan, the total strength of the combined Irish force was 18,365.10 With the return of peace after the Treaty of Ryswick (1697) the French army was reformed. Louis XIV recognized William of Orange as king of England as part of the treaty and agreed to withdraw his support for the Stuart claimant. From 1698, the Irish and Jacobite regiments were reorganized into an Irish force in the service of France and as a result of peacetime reforms the Irish were reduced to eight regiments with around 5,600 infantry soldiers. The cavalry forces were reduced to one regiment of two squadrons, commanded by Dominic Sheldon.11 The image of Irish soldiers at this time was not always positive. When the soldiers arrived in France, they were often destitute, without clothing, and sick after the sea voyage. Between the Treaty of Ryswick and the beginning of the War of Spanish Succession (1701-1713), gangs of Irish highwaymen plied their trade on the road between Paris and St. Germain-en-Laye, seat of the Jacobite court. However, Irish troops came to be respected and trusted for their courage and their strength.12 Earlier secondary material on the Irish Regiments in France suffers from a lack of precise information on the strength of Irish soldiers in the ranks, the proportion of Irish, English and Scottish to foreign troops, the geographical origins of the Irish soldiers, their length of service, levels of desertions and other reasons for leaving.

9. See Edward Corp, ‘The Irish at the Jacobite Court of Saint-Germain-en-Laye’, in Thomas O’ Connor (ed.), The Irish in Europe, 1580-1815 (, Four Courts Press, 2001), pp. 145-6. 10. John Cornelius O’ Callaghan, op. cit, p. 142. 11. Ibid., p. 142. 12. See David Bracken, ‘Piracy and Poverty: Aspects of the Irish Jacobite Experience in France, 1691-1720’, in T. O’ Connor (ed.), op. cit., pp .129-31. 108 O CONAILL

These works, while not without merit, tend to offer general and often romanticized histories of the Irish soldiers’ experience, emphasising their heroic qualities and bravery in battle. They include stories of famous battles in which the Irish regiments took part, Fontenoy (1745) being the most famous. This body of material includes the aforementioned monumental work on the Irish Regiments by J. C. O’ Callaghan, first published in 1870 and reissued in 1968, and the work of Mathew O’ Connor, published in 1855. Throughout the 1930s, ’40s, ’50s and ’60s, Richard Hayes published on the Irish experience in France. More recently, Maurice Hennessy and Mark G. Mc Laughlin have written about the Irish Regiments in France and Spain.13 The Irish Sword has also acted as a forum for new research on the Irish Regiments. Gráinne Henry and Eoghan Ó hAnnracháin have published on the Irish in Spanish Flanders and on the Irish in France.14

13. Mathew O’ Connor, The Irish Brigades or Memoirs of the Most Eminent Irish Military Commanders (Dublin, Duffy, 1855); Richard J. Hayes (ed.), Manuscript Sources of the History of Irish Civilisation, 11 volumes (Boston, G.K. Hall, 1965); Richard F. Hayes, Biographical Dictionary of Irishmen in France (Dublin, Gill and Son, 1949); Richard F. Hayes, Irish Swordsmen of France (Dublin, Gill and Son, 1934); Richard F. Hayes, Christopher Preston, Colonel J. Weygand, Les Irlandais en Aquitaine (Bordeaux, Imprimeries Delmas, 1971); Richard F. Hayes, Old Irish Links with France. Some Echoes of Exiled Ireland (Dublin, Gill and Son, 1940); Richard F. Hayes, Ireland and Irishmen in the (London, Ernest Benn, 1932); Mark G. Mc Laughlin. The Wild Geese. The Irish Brigades of France and Spain (London, Osprey, 1980); Maurice N. Hennessy, The Wild Geese. The Irish Soldier in Exile (London, Sidgwick and Jackson, 1973). 14. Gráinne Henry, The Irish Military Community in Spanish Flanders, 1586-1621 (Dublin, Irish Academic Press, 1992). Ó hAnnracháin has published extensively on the Irish regiments in French service and has also contributed to the establishment of a database of soldiers admitted to the Hôtel des Invalides. See http://www.geneactes.org/hoteldesinvalides/ See also Eoghan Ó hAnnracháin, ‘Casualties in the Ranks of the Clare Regiment at Fontenoy’, Journal of the Cork Historical and Archaeological Society, vol. 99, 1994; ‘An Analysis of the Fitzjames Cavalry Regiment, 1737’, The Irish Sword, 19:78, Winter 1995; ‘The Irish Brigade at Lafelt 1747: Pyrrhic Victory and Aftermath’, Journal of the Cork Historical and Archaeological Society, vol. 102, 1997; ‘Irish Veterans at IRISH SOLDIERS AND DESERTION 109

The work of Professor Louis Cullen, exploring Irish connections with the development of the brandy trade in eighteenth-century France, along with articles by Éamon Ó Ciosáin and Mary Ann Lyons, have provided valuable insights into the experience of Irish migration to France.15 The two volumes from the Irish in Europe project have also made contributions to the scholarship on Ireland and Europe.16 The analysis offered here on the phenomenon of desertion will qualify some of the more romantic images of the glorious and brave Irish soldiers offered in the works of O’ Callaghan, O’ Connor and Richard Hayes. Not every soldier landing at Brest was a shirtless savage, but neither were the Irish brave and loyal beyond question. They suffered from many of the weaknesses and desires of their French, Walloon, Dutch and German counterparts. Military historians agree that the problem of desertion, while increasingly brought under control in the eighteenth century, was often caused by the desperate conditions soldiers suffered while they were in service. During the Thirty Years War, the Habsburg and Spanish armies found it difficult to keep soldiers in the ranks due to the very poor conditions under which they served. Irregular payment was a constant concern for European armies in the seventeenth century and this was a particular problem for armies serving abroad. The French army simply refused to cross the

the Hôtel Royal des Invalides (1692-1769)’, The Irish Sword, 21:83, Summer 1998; ‘Irish Veterans in the Invalides: The Tipperary Contingent’, Tipperary Historical Journal, 1998; ‘Tipperary Men in the Lee and Bulkeley Regiments’, Tipperary Historical Journal, 1999; ‘Corkmen in the Hôtel Royal des Invalides’, Journal of the Cork Historical and Archaeological Society, vol. 105, 2000. 15. L. M. Cullen, The Irish Brandy Houses of Eighteenth-Century France (Dublin, Lilliput Press, 2000); Mary Ann Lyons, ‘The Emergence of an Irish Community in Saint-Malo, 1550-1710’, in Thomas O’ Connor (ed.), op. cit.; Éamon Ó Ciosáin, ‘Voloumous deamboulare: The Wandering Irish in French Literature, 1600-1789’, in Anthony Coulson (ed.), Exiles and Migrants: Crossing Thresholds in European Culture and Society (Brighton, Sussex Academic Press, 1997); Éamon Ó Ciosáin, ‘A Hundred Years of Irish Migration to France, 1590- 1688’, in Thomas O’ Connor, op. cit. 16. Thomas O’ Connor (ed.), op. cit.; Thomas O’ Connor and Mary Ann Lyons (eds.), Irish Migrants in Europe after the Battle of Kinsale, 1602-1820 (Dublin, Four Courts Press, 2003). 110 O CONAILL

Rhine in 1638 until they received an advance on their wages. At the siege of Bergen-op-Zoom in 1622, the besieging Spanish Army of Flanders lost 36% of its 20,600 men in three months. Of the missing men, 2,500 were so desperate that they fled to the city they were besieging and begged for asylum. When in Bergen, they complained about how their officers beat them and how they served without pay.17 Conditions had improved by the eighteenth century but the problem of desertion persisted.18 Soldiers had very few avenues out of the regiments, and while terms of service were usually between six and eight years, soldiers often served for much longer or shorter periods. Hugo Macalester, an Irishman in the Colonelle company of the Rothe regiment, enrolled in 1691 and retired to the Hôtel des Invalides in July 1735 after serving in the ranks for forty-four years. Patrick Conner from Mullingar, County Westmeath, enrolled in September 1704 and was discharged holding the rank of sergeant thirty years later. Patrice Garmely, also an Irishman, served from 1691 to 1731 and died in the ranks of the Rothe regiment. Most soldiers did not serve for such long periods and many left after very short periods in the French army. Laurent Caside, a thirty-one year old son of an Irishman, enrolled on 20 July 1732 and was discharged one month later. No reason was given for his discharge. Richard Parkes, an Englishman, lasted a little longer. He joined the Rothe regiment on 16 July 1732 when he was twenty-three years old and was discharged three months later. Brian Crowley joined the same regiment in August 1732 when he was nineteen years old and died in service in October 1732.19 If a soldier wished to terminate his contract, he could only do this if gravely injured or if he died. He could also seek a discharge, but in theory, discharges were only granted at the start of winter

17. Geoffrey Parker, The Army of Flanders and the Spanish Road 1567-1659 (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1972) pp. 210-14. 18. Jeremy Black, Eighteenth-Century Europe 1700 (London, Macmillan, 1990) p. 314; Jeremy Black, European Warfare (London, Routledge, 1994) pp. 224- 30. 19. Rothe Hommes de Troupe inspection 1729. 1 Yc 785 SHAT, Vincennes. IRISH SOLDIERS AND DESERTION 111 quarters and on condition that the company was not left under strength.20 Apart from death and discharge, soldiers left the army by deserting. During the War of Spanish Succession (1701-1713), one in four French soldiers deserted. According to André Corvisier, deserters were normally young and healthy men and some desertions were fictitious as soldiers sometimes enlisted more than once in order to accumulate advance payments made from enlistment bonuses.21 Official penalties for desertion were harsh and deserters who were caught could face the death penalty or be sent to the galleys. Corvisier states that troop control had become so effective in France that only 2% of all troops deserted by the end of the eighteenth century.22 We should test Corvisier’s findings against the records of the Irish regiments. Were Irish soldiers (and the English, Scots and their descendants) more loyal to their Catholic king and army than other soldiers, and did their exile give them added incentive to remain within the military family that gave them a home? To examine this question I will consider the six troop inspections for the Rothe/Walsh regiment. The troop inspections were taken intermittently to ascertain the state of the regiments at a given date (1729, 1737, 1747, 1756, 1763 and 1786 in the case of the Rothe/Walsh regiment). As previously stated, the troop inspections tell us how many troops joined and left the regiment over a number of years. The 1729 inspection gives details of soldiers who deserted between 1729 and 1738; the 1737 inspection accounts for soldiers who deserted between 1736 and 1750; 1747 tells how many deserted between 1747 and 1754; 1756

20. André Corvisier, Armies and Societies in Europe 1494-1789, op. cit., p. 173. 21. Ibid., p. 71. From an analysis of the deserters from the Rothe regiments (for the period 1729 to 1786), we see that 228 deserters were between twenty-one and thirty years of age. One was fifteen, sixty-nine were between sixteen and twenty years old. Fifty-seven deserters were between thirty-one and forty years old. Eight were between forty-one and fifty and one was fifty-two. The age of 116 deserters is not available from the troop inspections. See Rothe Hommes de Troupe inspections, 1729, 1737, 1747, 1756, 1763 and Walsh 1786. 1 Yc 785, 1 Yc 784, 1 Yc 786, 1 Yc 787, 1 Yc 1065, SHAT, Vincennes. 22. Ibid., p. 71 112 O CONAILL details desertions between 1750 and 1763; 1763 shows desertions for the period 1763 to 1769.23 The Walsh inspection of 1786 contained no deserters. The number of deserters examined in this study is limited to soldiers from Ireland, England, and their descendants. Men of other origins served in the Irish regiments but these soldiers are not included. We are told little more about the soldiers who deserted than we are about those who remained faithful to the regiments. This may be because there was little information on the soldiers who had successfully escaped from the army and the few details we have only tell us about the fate of those who were caught. All of the following examples are taken from the Rothe regiment. Jacques Smith of the Lestrange company joined the regiment in May 1737 and deserted in July of the same year. He was from Dublin in Ireland, was 21 years of age, five foot two inches tall. He had chestnut hair and blue eyes. Like many other Irishmen, his face was described as ‘red’. Smith was caught and executed for his act of desertion.24 James Finilly of the Fitzmaurice company, for whom there are no physical details or details of enrolment, deserted in May 1750 and was sent to the galleys. James Gray of the same company, equally lacking in personal details, deserted in July 1759 and was fortunate enough to be pardoned. John Egerton of the Roscomond Macarty joined the regiment in February 1756 and was from London, England. He was twenty-nine years old when he joined and was five foot five inches tall. His hair and eyes were brown and his face was marked from smallpox. Egerton deserted in March of 1760 and there is no further information on him.25

23. There was only one deserter from 1750 in the 1756 inspection. The rest deserted between 1756 and 1763. See Rothe Hommes de Troupe inspection. 1 Yc 786 SHAT, Vincennes. 24. Rothe hommes de troupe inspection 1737. 1 Yc 784, SHAT, Vincennes. The French pied du roi is equal to 12.789 inches in modern measurement. See John A. Lynn, Giant of the Grand Siècle. The French Army, 1610-1715 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997) p. 323. 25. Rothe hommes de troupe inspection 1756. 1 Yc 786, SHAT, Vincennes. IRISH SOLDIERS AND DESERTION 113

Egerton’s record is more typical if we examine the 175 deserters contained in the 1747 troop inspection. One of the deserters was sent to the galleys and five were executed. Another, Charles Cristien, deserted from hospital in 1748. This gives a total of 169 soldiers (including Cristien) who either deserted without capture or were not punished for their act. Whichever the case, such figures must have made desertion attractive for a disillusioned soldier. Rothe/Walsh Regiment

Year of Total Soldiers Deserters Deserters % of inspection IES26 who left executed soldiers the who regiment deserted27 1729 993 550 101 0 10

1737 497 81 30 2 6

1747 700 330 175 5 (+ 1 to 25 the galleys) 1756 126 27 16 0 13

1763 228 150 97 0 43

1786 61 4 0 0 0

When we look at the figures in the above table, we see that the rate of desertion falls as the century progresses until we come to the

26. The term IES denotes Irish, English, Scottish troops and their descendants. 27. This is a percentage of the total number of IES soldiers in the regiment for the inspection. 114 O CONAILL

1747 inspection (which includes soldiers who deserted between 1747 and 1754). The desertion rate was 25% of IES troops for this period. The rate of desertion for IES falls to 12.7% for the 1756 inspection before rising to 42.54% in the 1763 inspection. There were no IES deserters in the 1783 inspection. The two periods of peak desertion occur in the 1747 and 1763 inspections. As stated, these inspections account for IES deserters for the periods 1747 to 1754 and 1763 to 1769. One explanation for the timing of the high points of desertion is that soldiers chose to run from the horrors of war if they could. If a soldier could escape unpunished as easily as the analysis of deserters in the 1747 Rothe inspection suggests, one could hardly blame the soldiers for leaving the ranks. This should not necessarily be viewed as a shameful reaction. The soldiers of the Irish regiments were reputed to have fought most bravely during the War of Austrian Succession (1740-1748), especially at the Battles of Fontenoy (1745) and Laffeldt (1747).28 In these battles the Irish forces suffered very high casualties, and high rates of desertion may have been as a result of disillusionment due to war-weariness. It must also be stated that the absolute and proportionate amount of Irish, English and Scottish soldiers diminished throughout the course of the eighteenth century, which may in some way explain the absence of deserters in the 1786 Walsh troop inspection (there were only 61 Irish, English and Scots out of a total troop strength of 1,085).29 This was a pattern common to all the Irish regiments as the percentage of Irish troops in the Irish Regiments fell from 71% in 1729 to 30% by the late 1740s. This fell again to 11% by 1763 and to 5% by the late 1770s.30 Such a fall-off in numbers might suggest that

28. See E. Ó hAnnracháin, ‘Casualties in the Ranks of the Clare Regiment at Fontenoy’, op. cit.; ‘The Irish Brigade at Lafelt 1747: Pyrrhic Victory and Aftermath’, op. cit. 29. Walsh Hommes de Troupe, 1786. 1 Yc 1065, SHAT, Vincennes. 30. Colm James Ó Conaill, ‘The Irish Soldiers in France. An Overview of the Presence of Irish Soldiers in French Service, 1716-1791’, in Eamon Maher and Grace Neville (eds.), France-Ireland: Anatomy of a Relationship, op. cit., p. 335. IES soldiers made up 91% of the Irish Regiments in 1729, 46% in the late 1740s, 25% in 1763 and 10% by the late 1770s. IRISH SOLDIERS AND DESERTION 115 the cultural coherence of the regiments also came under threat in the second half of the eighteenth century. These assumptions with reference to desertion are supported by analysis of another Irish regiment, that of Lee/Bulkeley. The inspections up to and including 1745 attest to a relatively low level of desertion. Later inspections taken during the War of Austrian Succession and the Seven Years War reveal an astonishing level of desertion. 57% of IES soldiers deserted according to the 1749 troop inspection (this accounts for desertions between 1749 and 1756). The figure falls to 48% as a rate of desertion among Irish, English, Scots and their descendants for the 1757 inspection (desertions between 1757 and 1762) and rises again to 64% for the 1761 inspection (desertions between 1762 and 1763). The evidence from both inspections suggests that soldiers did not desert at the beginning of a war (1740 or 1756, for example). Instead, rates of desertion peaked in the final years of war and in the direct aftermath of conflict when soldiers may have lost friends in battle, when they might be tired of fighting and when their prospects in the army had dwindled due to the onset of peace.

Lee/Bulkeley Regiment

Year Total Soldiers Deserters Deserters % of IES IES who left executed soldiers the who regiment deserted 1722 943 282 66 0 7

1729 1109 334 69 2 6

1737 820 385 44 2 5 116 O CONAILL

1745 335 34 20 1 6

1749 388 240 220 1 57

1757 178 86 85 1 48

1761 202 129 129 0 64

1763 112 61 37 0 33

We might conclude by stating that conditions were always difficult for the ordinary soldier — but this was not the decisive when it came to desertion. Soldiers deserted in large numbers towards and at the end of campaigns. Perhaps this was due to war weariness, or the loss of comrades. Perhaps the French army had no need for them at the end of the war and let them melt away. Although punishment for those caught was severe, if the figures from the Rothe inspections of 1747 are correct, very few deserters were punished. It seems that Irish, English and Scottish soldiers were no more loyal than their French, German, Italian and Netherlander comrades.

Trinity College Dublin