About Us

La Compagnie de Langis is named after Jean-Baptiste Levrault de Langis Montegron, commonly called Langis or Langy. Langis was an ensign in the French marines and achieved success as a partisan officer who led ranger companies of French-Canadian milice (militia) during the French and Indian War (1754-1763). Langis was skilled at implementing “petite guerre”, which in French means “little war” and in modern terminology would be known as guerrilla warfare. His companies were integrated with Native American allies, and Langis and his men were known as effective scouts and skirmishers. 

The companies Langis commanded were ad-hoc, meaning they were assembled as needed for particular scouting missions or campaigns. While Langis led milice, there were also French regulars who volunteered to serve under him. Langis never held a rank higher than an ensign, but at times he would command officers who held higher ranks than he did. Montcalm's aide-de-camp, Captain Louis Antoine de Bougainville, wrote in his journal on July 4th, 1758, "This evening there departed, under orders of Sieur de Langy, a detachment of about, 150 men, 104 of them volunteers from our battalions, 25 Canadians, and a score of Indians. A fact worth noting and one which does us honor is that in this detachment, a captain and seven lieutenants of our regulars march under the orders of an ensign; M. de Langy has only this rank."

Langis was often praised by his commanding officers. The Marquis Louis-Joseph de Montcalm was the overall commander of the French forces in North America from 1756 until his death at the Plains of Abraham in 1759. In a letter to his second in command, Colonel Chevalier de Levis, on August 17th, 1756, Montcalm summarized his French partisan officers when he wrote, "Remember that Mercier is an ignorant and foolish man, St. Luc is a braggert and pratting, Montigny admirable but a pillager. Ligneris, Villiers, and Lery good. Marin brave but foolish, Langy, excellent. All the rest aren't worth mentioning."

If you’d like to learn more about Langis and the role he played in the French and Indian War, please visit our ‘Unit History’ page.

Today, our unit portrays one of these ad-hoc companies. We also represent the Natives allied with Langis as well as French Canadian and Native women and families.

We strive for a high level of historical accuracy. We aren’t overly strict about it, but we don’t accept obvious inaccuracies, either. We realize nobody is perfect, and we are continuously making an effort to improve our portrayal. Our clothing and equipment are based on research, and the food we eat is often what would have been in season.

Our members tend to have a desire for education and learning. Many of us enjoy interacting with the public, answering their questions, and generally educating them about our unit, the French and Indian War, reenacting, or anything else they ask about. If we don’t know an answer, then we’ll say so and try our best to direct them to someone who does or suggest a resource they might be able to use.

In addition to educating the public, we also provide opportunities to learn from and teach each other. For battle reenactments, we teach French commands, how to maneuver on the field or in the woods, and how to safely load and fire a musket. In camp, skills can be learned such as shelter building, knot tying, lashing, fire starting, splitting wood, cooking over coals, or cleaning a musket. For those interested in making their own clothing and equipment, we offer a chance to learn stitches for sewing projects, techniques for working with leather, woodworking skills, and so on. Finally, we provide an opportunity for learning about the history of the 18th century, the French and Indian War, and our unit through various sources we share with each other, such as books to read, documentaries to watch, and podcasts to listen to. We also share primary sources like diaries, journals, letters, newspaper accounts, and paintings that can be referenced in order to allow for a better understanding of who we are portraying and provide us with documentation to help improve our portrayal, including what clothing they wore, what equipment they used, and what food they ate.

During the battle reenactments, we work closely with the natives and are often fighting alongside them just as Langis did. Langis was known for “petite guerre”, and this often translates into how we portray ourselves. We are behind cover whenever possible and we move quickly, fire in groups of two so one of us is always loaded, and are often reloading on the run. While we sometimes stand in a line and fire volleys, we certainly prefer not to!