With monarchist emigration growing and the King and his court preparing to flee, Article 14 of the law of 15 June 1791 passed making the mass levy official.

With the outbreak of the War of the First Coalition on 6 July 1792, the first one-hundred units were raised immediately sent into the Paris region where they became known as the 'National Volunteers' or Volontaires Nationaux.

However, this name was more-or-less an information designation, as the older term of National Guard or Garde Nationale was preferred and typically used in official documents.

On 14 July 1789, the date of the Storming of the Bastille and official beginning of the French Revolution, the French Royal Army, including the Maison du Roi (King's Household) included the following: This official structure left the army with 218 infantry battalions, 14 artillery battalions, and 206 mounted cavalry squadrons.

The departments of Nord, Pas-de-Calais, Jura, Haut-Rhin, Bas-Rhin, Moselle, Meuse, Ardennes, and Aisne each provided as many men as they could possibly muster.

[citation needed] From 1791 to 1796, the 9 districts of Ain (Pont-de-Vaux, Bourg-en-Bresse, Nantua, Gex, Belley, Saint-Rambert-en-Bugey, Montluel, Trévoux, and Châtillon les Dombes) provided 13 battalions of national volunteers.