Our Forefathers in the Carignan-Saliéres Regiment

If you are a descendant of a Mylott, a Glode, a Wills, a Beauvais, a Bissonnette, a Yetto, a St Hilaire or a Rivet on this site, you have an ancestor, at least one and probably more, who was in the Carignan-Salieres regiment.  In the mid 1660s, the Carignan-Salieres, veterans of the war with the Ottoman Empire, recruited new young men in France to be sent to the colony in Québec to protect the economic interests of the crown from the Iroquois nation.  The Iroquois, assisted and encouraged by the Dutch and later English interests in New England and New Amsterdam, picked off settlers in the French Colony - sometimes there were massacres of entire settlements in Montréal, called Ville Marie at that time.   The Champlain - Richelieu water corridor made raids into Quebec from New England a straight shot. The reverse was also true, French interests and allies used the same corridor to raid New York and New England.

Twelve hundred troops began arriving in June 1665 and were immediately put into service building Fort Sorel and Fort Ste Anne on Isle la Motte in Lake Champlain, now a part of Vermont. They also constructed Fort St Jean, Fort Ste Therese, and Fort St Louis (later Fort Chambly), all on the Richelieu River.

In January of 1666, the middle of winter, 300 under equipped troops were sent on a fool's mission into enemy territory by the Québec governor.  Traveling over a hundred miles, starving and hypothermic, they arrived in the Dutch settlement of Schenectady where the kind farmers fed and sheltered them.  They returned to Quebec having learned a brutal lesson that many upstate New Yorkers know too well.  Don't go into the north country without the proper equipment in the middle of January!

Scapulurs worn around one's neck.
Made by nuns for divine protection of the soldiers.
Displayed at the museum at Fort Chambly

Then in the fall of 1666, there was another expedition to Iroquois country.  Traveling form Québec, French soldiers reached their destination in the Mohawk Valley, west of Schenectady in two to three weeks.  This time, they were successful destroying several Mohawk villages.  Their efforts earned a peace between the Iroquois and French settlers after more than two decades of guerilla war by Iroquois.

After the peace was made in 1667, the regiments were disbanded and returned to France. However,  over 400 men choose to remain in Quebec, marry and start families there. We are the descendants of many of these soldiers.

 Below is a link to a gorgeously written document of the individual names of soldiers in the Carignan-Salieres Regiments.

A Listing of Soldiers in the Carignan-Salieres Regiment

The Bissonnette (Wills), Beauvais (Wills), Millot (Mylott), Glode-Poissant and Rivet-LaCasse families all have forefathers who served in the Carignan-Salieres Regiment. Although this list is a work in progress, it is a beginning to identify all Carignan-Salieres forefathers of the families on this site.  You may note in the list below, some individuals are in more than one family; they are ancestors in two families and some like Louis Robert and Nicolas Sylvestre, are ancestors in three families.  Here is the list thus far:

In the Glode-Poissant  family there are at least sixteen:

Louis Badillac dit Laplante

Jean Besset dit Brisetout

Jean Bricault dit Lamarche

Jean Brochu dit La Fontaine

Michel Brouillet dit Laviolette

Etienne Charles dit Lajeunesse

Pierre Couc dit LaFleur

Jean Delpé dit Pariseau

Julien Dumont dit LaFleur

Jean Gazaille dit St Germain

André Jarret dit de Beuregard

Jean Lavallée dit Petit Jean 

Pierre Menard dit Lapierre

Issac Paquet dit Lavallée

Louis Robert dit LaPommeraye

Jacques Têtu dit Larivière

In the Bissonnette family there are ten:

Bernard De Niger dit Sanssoucy

René Dumas dit Rencontre 

Antoine Dupré dit Rochefort

Antoine Emery dit Coderre

Aubin Lambert dit Champagne

Louis Robert dit LaPommeraye

Jean Robin dit Lapointe

Antoine Rousseau dit LaBonté

Jacques Suprenant dit Sanssoucy

Nicholas Sylvestre dit Champagne

In the Beauvais family there are eight:

Francois Biville dit Le Picard

Antoine Emery dit Coderre

Pierre Favreau dit Deslauriers

Nicolas Bonin dit St Martin

Julien Lord dit Montagne

Pierre Mésnard dit Xaintogne

Jacques Paviot dit LaPensée

Pierre Morin dit Champagne

In the Millot family there are three:

Francois Chagnon dit LaRose

Louis Robert dit LaPommeraye

Nicholas Sylvestre dit Champagne

In the Rivet and LaCasse families there are ten:

Antoine Casse dit Lacasse
Francois Chagnon dit LaRose
Bernard Delpêche dit Bellair
Antoine Emery dit Coderre
Pierre Favreau dit Deslauriers
Julien Lord dit Montagne
Piere Mageau dit Maisonseule
Pierre Mésnard dit Xaintonge
Eustache Prévost dit Lafleur
Nicolas Sylvestre dit Champagne