Charles Bonin (Jolicoeur—“happy man”)
This is an article written by Bill Hunt, pictured below.
Charles Bonin was born in the vicinity of Paris, France. His date of birth is unknown, but, he apparently received a good education in his youth. Little is known of his life prior to sailing to New France (Canada.)
On 12 June 1751, Bonin set sail for Canada from the Isle of Rhee, near the port of La Rochelle on the frigate Chariot Royal. On board were approximately 300 recruits destined to be enrolled into the Compagnes Franches de la Marine, of the Colonial Infantry.
It was not intended for Bonin to enlist at the time of his departure. However, upon arrival, Bonin was not able to find employment in Quebec. He worked for a time as a store clerk and bookkeeper, but the economy was bad, and wages were low. Upon meeting a recruiting sergeant in a tavern, Bonin was enrolled as a private soldier in the Compagnes Franches de la Marine.
Upon receiving his uniform, accouterments, musket, and training, Bonin began a period of travel to various postings throughout New France. There he began a detailed account of his meetings with the tribes of American Indians, allied to the French.
Beginning in 1751, until his return to France in 1761, Bonin recorded valuable information, describing his life as a French soldier on the frontier. In 1753, as the French began building forts in the Ohio country, Bonin visited many of the remote forts manned by troops of the Compganes Franches de la Marine, including Ponchartrain (Detriot), Michilimakinac, Presque Isle, and Fort Le Boeuf and Machault.
It is interesting to note that Bonin was present the year that Major George Washington arrived (December 1753.) Unfortunately, Bonin doesn’t mention the arrival of Washington and Christopher Gist, when they delivered to the French Commander, Captain Jacques Legardaur de Saint-Pierre, the demand for the French to vacate the Ohio Valley.
Bonin next accompanied Claude-Pierce Pecaudy de Contrecoeur with the 500 troops of the Compagnes Frances de la Marine from Fort Machault (Venango), to the Forks of the Ohio, where Virginians under Captain William Trent, were constructing a small log stockade fort, in early 1754. The French arrived on 16 April, and quickly surrounded the Virginians. Trent was permitted to surrender and return unharmed to Virginia, with his men. With the tools left behind by the Virginians, the French dismantled the stockade, and built a larger stockade on the site. They named it Fort Du Quesne upon its completion.
Fortunately, Bonin did not accompany Jumonville on his ill-fated mission to the newly built Fort Necessity, in May of 1754. As fate would have it, Bonin again missed encountering George Washington.
Bonin’s first armed encounter with the English occurred in July 1754. He was among 600 French Marines under command of Captain Louis Coulon de Villiers, a French Marine officer, a half-brother to the slain Ensign Jumonville. Villiers was also accompanied by Canadian Militia, and approximately 100 allied Indians.
Bonin was present during the fighting of 3 July, and the surrender of Washington and the fort, on the following day. One year later, Bonin was still garrisoned at Fort Du Quesne. On 9 July, 1755, Bonin was among the French troops under the command of Captain Daniel Hyacinthe Lienard de Beaujeu, when the French and British troops, collided in an open meadow, approximately eight miles from Fort Du Quesne, on the banks of the Monongehela River, at the mouth of Turtle Creek. Bonin was not wounded during the battle.
During his three years at Fort Du Quesne, Bonin described in minute detail, the flora and fauna of the area, the customs, dress, and modes of hunting and warfare of the various Indian peoples he met.
Bonin was witness to the defeat of a British force commanded by Major James Grant, with a force of 850 men, on 10 September 1758. Major Grant was heavily defeated by a force of French and Indians led by Francois-Marie le Marchant de Lignery, of the French Marines.
On 21 September 1758, Bonin was transferred to Montreal with a small detachment of Marines. Bonin was posted at a small fort at Point Levis, north of Montreal. It was here that Bonin received news of the French defeat of Montcalm, at Quebec, on 13 September 1759. Bonin remained at Fort Levis until the surrender of French forces. Bonin, with other French POW’s, was transported to New York, for embarcation back to France. On 31 December 1761 Bonin departed New York, and arrived at the port of Harve, France on 15 February 1762. There he was discharged from the military after 10 years of service in North America. As a note of interest, the majority of French Marines sent to North America chose to remain in Canada, as settlers, upon military discharge.
.
Authored by Bill Hunt, uploaded 1 March 2023, updated to wix website 3/4/2023
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
