The Royal Deux-Ponts Regiment was not, strictly speaking, French. The regiment was raised in 1757 in Zweibrücken — a small German duchy in the Palatinate whose name "Zweibrücken" translates to "two bridges," which became "Deux-Ponts" in French — and its rank and file were German speakers recruited from the Rhineland and surrounding territories. The regiment served under French colors and French command but kept its German character through its entire history: orders were translated, drill manuals were issued in both languages, and the regimental song was sung in German. When the regiment came to America with Rochambeau in 1780, the French Expeditionary Force was, on the records, French; in practice the Royal Deux-Ponts was one of several units bringing soldiers from across central Europe to fight on the American side at Yorktown. The figure depicted here, a private of the regiment in 1781, would most likely have spoken German as his first language, with enough French to take an order.

This figure shows a Royal Deux-Ponts private in the standing firing position — musket shouldered, bayonet fixed, weapon level and aimed forward. He wears the regiment's distinctive 1779 ordonnance uniform: dark blue coat with yellow facings, cuffs, and lapels, white cross-belts and waistcoat, white breeches tucked into black knee gaiters, the bicorne hat with green plume and red-and-white cockade that distinguished the unit. The brown leather knapsack on his back carried his personal kit; the curved saber at his left hip — slung on a green cord — was the infantry sidearm of the period. He pairs with the French Royal Deux-Ponts Officer (Captain von Closen) (his commanding officer), General Rochambeau 1783 (the expeditionary force commander), and Alexander Hamilton 1783 (whose American column took Redoubt #10 while the Royal Deux-Ponts took Redoubt #9 on the same night).

1/30 scale (60mm), matte-painted, single figure boxed. Catalog number 16175. As with the rest of the W. Britain modern range, the painting is photographic-quality detail intended to read well in dioramas and display cases.