Jean Thurel, or Jean Theurel, is one of those very unusual people whose life extended over three centuries. He was born in Orain, Departement de la Côte-d’Or, Bourgogne, France on September 6, 1698 during the reign of Louis XIV. He died at Tours, Indre-et-Loire, France on March 10, 1807 during the reign of Napoleon I. For almost his entire life he was a soldier.
He enlisted in the Régiment de Touraine, today’s 33rd infantry regiment, on September 17, 1716, eleven days after his eighteenth birthday and served there as a fusilier until January 29, 1792—a span of seventy-five years, under Louis XV and Louis XVI.[1] He served in the Charlot Company, Régiment de Touraine and fought in four wars: the War of the Polish Succession, the War of the Austrian Succession, the Seven Years’ War and the American War of Indepenence. Thurel was wounded for the first time in his first campaign, at the Siege of Kehl in 1733. Later, he was shot in the chest with a musket ball during the War of the Polish Succession.
At the battle of Minden in 1759, during the Seven Years War, he received seven sword slashes, including six to his head. He bore the scars for the rest of his life. He lost three brothers killed at the battle of Fontenoy in 1745. One of his sons, a corporal and a veteran in the same company, died on April 12, 1782 during the French campaigns of the American Revolution; he died off the coast of Dominica, West Indies during the naval battle of Dominica (also known as the Battle of the Saintes).
Service in America
Jean Thurel had just turned eighty-three when his regiment came to America in September 1781. He was one of a 2,000-man expeditionary force consisting of the Gatinois, Tourraine and Agenois regiments under the command of the Marquis de Saint Simon Montbleru. These troops landed at Jamestown, Virginia, and marched to Williamsburg to join forces with Lafayette. They served primarily at Yorktown digging and manning the trenches.
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