1736
 

• B, Vol. 64, fols. 53v., 494, 6 juillet 1736; C11B, Vol. 17, fols. 296-315, 24 octobre 1736; ibid., Vol. 18, fols. 11-15, 7 novembre 1736; ibid., fols. 325-28, 14 novembre 1736.
  

In 1736 Joseph Legand dit Picard was tried by a Conseil de Guerre at Louisbourg and acquitted. 

Legand was recruited for the colony in Paris by Louis Loppinot La Fresilière in 1732, when he was only 15 or 16 years old. In Ile Royale he became a member of D'Ailleboust's Company and, because of his poor health, was a member of the guard. Repeated bouts of scurvy kept him confined to hospital so often that his captain sought to have him discharged from the service. Legand, however, pleaded with D'Ailleboust, declaring that if he were discharged he would have no way to earn a living. D'Ailleboust relented and permitted him to spend several months in hospital seeking a cure. By the spring of 1734 there was no improvement in his condition so D'Ailleboust authorized a congé limité for him to go to France for medical attention.

Legand left Louisbourg with three other sick soldiers in the charge of Sergeant Vallee. The official at Rochefort to whom Vallee took the four men was unsympathetic to their plight, believing that sick soldiers were more of a drain on the king than they were worth. Instead of authorizing their admission to hospital, he simply let them go. With no official discharge and no funds, the four were on their own, penniless. 

As he proceeded towards Paris from Rochefort, Legand sold pieces of his uniform in order to get money to live. In Paris he went to the Hôpital St. Germain where he spent two nights. When forced to leave there, he set off to find a captain with whom he might enlist, since he believed himself free of his obligations to the Ile Royale garison. Brought by a soldier of the Gardes Françoise to Comte de Choiseul, Legand joined the infantry, receiving 30 livres for enlisting. 

During the next several months Legand travelled with his unit and, though sick most of the time, did his duty. Finally, he was forced to ask his captain to allow him to enter a hospital. While there, he received a letter from an acquaintance telling him he was listed as a deserter from Ile Royale. Legand was eventually arrested and returned to Louisbourg for trial. 

Witnesses verified that he had not wanted to go to France in the first place and did not want to separate from his company. Though in his conclusion the major found Legand guilty of desertion and asked for him to be executed, the members of the Conseil de Guerre declared him innocent and ordered him returned to his company, which was then in garrison at the Royal Battery. [Source: Margaret Fortier, Fortress Security and Military Justice at Louisbourg, 1720-45, Unpublished Report H E 14 (Fortress of Louisbourg, 1980), pp. 73-74]