{{Infobox military unit | unit_name = Régiment de Dillon | image = Rég de Dillon 1739.png | image_size = 200px | caption = Regimental flag of the regiment until 1791. | dates = 1688–1793 | country = {{flag|Kingdom of France}}<br>{{flagicon|France|1792|}} [[Constitutional Cabinet of Louis XVI|Kingdom of France (1791–2)]]<br>{{flag|First French Republic}} | allegiance = [[King of France]]<br>[[French First Republic|French Nation]] | branch = {{flagicon|Kingdom of France}} [[La Marine Royale]]<br>{{flagicon|France|1792}} [[French Royal Army]]<br>{{flagicon|France}} [[French Army]] | type = [[Line Infantry]] | size = 2 [[Battalion]]s | command_structure = | current_commander = | garrison = | ceremonial_chief = | colonel_of_the_regiment = | nickname = Dillon's Regiment | patron = | motto = In hoc signo vinces (In this sign you will conquer) | colors = red, black facing | march = | mascot = | battles = *[[Nine Years War]] *[[War of the Spanish Succession]] *[[War of the Austrian Succession]] *[[Anglo-French War (1778–1783)|Anglo-French War/American Revolution]] **[[Naval battles of the American Revolutionary War|Naval Campaigns of the American Revolutionary Wars]] | notable_commanders = <br/>[[Theobald Dillon, 7th Viscount Dillon]] <br> '''Dillon Colonels of the Regiment in France'''<br>'''(1)''' 1690-1728: [[Arthur Dillon (1670–1733)|Arthur Dillon, ’’Comte de Dillon’’]] <br>'''(2)''' 1728-1741: Charles, 10th Viscount <br>'''(3)''' 1741-1743: [[Henry Dillon, 11th Viscount Dillon]], <br>'''(4)''' 1743-1745: James, killed at the [[Battle of Fontenoy]] <br>'''(5)''' 1745-1747: Edward, killed at the [[Battle of Lauffeld]] <br> ''hiatus'' 1747-1767<br>'''(6)''' 1767-1792: [[Arthur Dillon (1750–1794)]] }}
'''Dillon's Regiment''' ([[French language|French:]] ''Régiment de Dillon'') was first raised in [[Ireland]] in 1688 by [[Theobald Dillon, 7th Viscount Dillon|Theobald, 7th Viscount Dillon]], for the [[Jacobitism|Jacobite]] side in the [[Williamite War]]. He was then killed at the [[Battle of Aughrim]] in 1691.
==Williamite War== Dillon's Regiment was first raised as part of the Irish Army in 1688 by [[Theobald Dillon, 7th Viscount Dillon|Theobald, 7th Viscount Dillon]] who was killed at the [[Battle of Aughrim]]. During the [[Williamite War in Ireland|Williamite War]] the regiment went to France in April 1690 as part of [[Justin McCarthy, Viscount Mountcashel|Lord Mountcashel]]'s [[Irish Brigade (France)|Irish Brigade]], in exchange for some French regiments amounting to 6,000 troops.<ref>McGarry, Stephen. ''Irish Brigades Abroad'' p. 8</ref> After the [[Treaty of Limerick]] in 1691, the regiment remained in the service of the kings of France under its present name.<ref>[http://www.drapeaux.org/France/Ancien_Regime/90_Dillon.htm Flag of the régiment de Dillon Regimental flag]</ref> It was next commanded in France by Theobald's younger son, [[Arthur Dillon (1670-1733)|Colonel Arthur Dillon]], until 1733.<ref>Burke's Peerage (2003) p.1148, on the Dillon family.</ref>
==Jacobite rising of 1745== [[File:Dillon inf 1734.png|thumb|left|150px|Uniform of the Dillon Regiment in 1734-1757]] {{Unreferenced section|date=May 2025}} In November 1745, soldiers of Dillon's Regiment with other regiments of the Irish Brigade landed in [[Montrose, Angus|Montrose]], Scotland, in support of Prince [[Charles Edward Stuart]] and the [[Jacobite rising of 1745|Jacobite uprising]]. Edward Dillon, 4th son of [[Arthur Dillon, Count Dillon|Count Arthur Dillon]], had taken over as commander of the regiment after his brother James was killed at the [[Battle of Fontenoy]].
The regiment was present during several battles of the uprising, including the [[Jacobitism|Jacobite]] victories at [[Battle of Falkirk Muir|Falkirk]] and [[Siege of Inverness (1746)|Inverness]]. Major Nicholas Glasgow of Dillon's Regiment commanded the Jacobite forces when the [[House of Hanover|Hanoverians]] were defeated at the battle of [[Skirmish of Keith|Keith]].
He was captured at [[Battle of Culloden|Culloden]] with most of the Irish Brigade who weren't captured at sea. Colonel Walter Stapleton, overall Commander of the Irish Brigade, was mortally wounded at Culloden while the brigade was making a brave stand, saving many lives. After the uprising, [[Charles Radclyffe]] 5th [[Earl of Derwentwater]], a Captain in Dillon's Regiment, was executed on December 8th, 1746 at [[Tower Hill]], London.
==American War of Independence== [[File:John Adams reviews Jones' Irish Marines, 13 May 1779 by Charles H. Waterhouse.jpg|left|thumb|[[John Paul Jones]]' [[marines]] came from the Regiment of Walsh of the Irish Brigade of France.]] In 1767 [[Arthur Dillon (1750–1794)|Arthur Dillon]] the great grandson of Theobald Dillon, 7th Viscount Dillon took command of the regiment. During the [[American Revolutionary War]], the regiment participated in the [[Capture of Grenada]], the [[Siege of Savannah]], the [[Invasion of Tobago]], and the [[Capture of Sint Eustatius]]. Detachments of the regiment were assigned to the French Fleet under Admiral [[François Joseph Paul de Grasse]] during the [[Battle of the Chesapeake]]. After the victory at Yorktown, the fleet sailed south and Dillon's Regiment participated in the [[Siege of Brimstone Hill]]. Brigadier General Arthur Dillon was made Military Governor of [[Saint Kitts]] after the victory at Brimstone Hill.
==Shadow formations== '''(Henry) Dillon's Regiment''': Émigré elements of the French regiment passed into [[William Pitt the Younger|William Pitt]]'s British [[Catholic Irish Brigade (1794–1798)|Catholic Irish Brigade]] in 1794. These elements comprised the greater part of the officers who had emigrated from France, and new recruits raised on the Dillon lands in Ireland. Henry Dillon, a brother of Arthur Dillon was given command of the regiment. However, on campaign in Jamaica and Haiti, it had such losses, mainly due to the unhealthy climate, that it was disbanded in 1798. The flags and ensigns were returned to [[Charles Dillon, 12th Viscount Dillon|Charles, Lord Dillon]], head of the Dillon family in Ireland.<ref>La Marquise de La Tour du Pin, ''Recollections of the Revolution and the Empire''. London: Jonathan Cape, (1921) pp.420-422, on the Dillon Regiment.</ref>
'''(Edward) Dillon's Regiment''': (Edward) Dillon's Regiment of Foot was raised in northern Italy in 1795, by Col. Edward Dillon, formerly of the Irish Brigade in France, to fight for the British in the Mediterranean.<ref>René Chartrand, Patrice Courcelle ''Émigré & foreign troops in British service (1), 1793-1802 (Men at Arms Series)''. Osprey Publishing, (1999), pp12-13.</ref>
==See also== * [[Arthur Dillon (1750-1794)]] * [[Flight of the Wild Geese]] * [http://fsuarchon.fcla.edu/index.php?p=collections/findingaid&id=3514 French Revolution Collection on Camille Desmoulins, Lucile Duplessis, and Arthur Dillon] at Florida State University Libraries
==References== {{Reflist}}
==Further reading== * McGarry, Stephen. ''Irish Brigades Abroad''. (2013)
[[Category:1688 establishments in Ireland]] [[Category:Irish regiments in French service|Dillon]] [[Category:Military units and formations of France in the American Revolutionary War]] [[Category:Military units and formations established in 1688]] [[Category:Military units and formations disestablished in 1791]] [[Category:Infantry regiments of the ancien régime]]