October 21, 1776 (Part 2)

From October 8th to November 1st, I am blogging about the White Plains “campaign” of 1776. Click here for an overview of this project, a listing of the sources used, and other general information.

Synopsis for October 21st (Part 2): Alexander McDougall considered the makings of an effective leader; John Haslet attacked Loyalists at Mamaroneck.

Previous entry: October 21st (Part 1); next: October 22nd.

While William Heath’s and Joseph Spencer’s divisions marched to White Plains, Major-General Charles Lee’s division defended the crossings of the Bronx River. They had a quiet day, and Brigadier-General Alexander McDougall found time to write about what he saw as the main weakness in the American army: the lack of good officers to command the men.

“All the discerning officers of the army see the necessity of having good officers in it. Without that, you never can have a regular or brave army. The contrast between those troops who are well [officered] and those who are ill officered, now in service, is so great, that it is impossible to have an adequate idea of it but by experience.”

The cause for poor leadership, in McDougall’s view, was that too many older citizens had been given important posts in the army for no reason other than their standing in society. He complained:

“Old men without experience, are utterly unfit for the army. They want [i.e., lack] ambition, which is the life and soul of a soldier; nor are they fit for it if they have seen service, unless they are men of genius, capable of improving by service; otherwise they are a burthen to it. They are useless old boys, who pride themselves in having been in service, without profiting by it.”

In McDougall’s view, the army needed officers who were active and intelligent gentlemen: “men who have a sense of honour, and whose class in life is respectable. These are necessary qualifications, among others, to make the officer. Where these meet in men of genius, those they command will be soldiers; but without it, they will only be men.”

Lieutenant-General William Howe took one relatively aggressive action on this date, and sent a detachment of men eastward along the coastal road to occupy the town of Mamaroneck.

George Washington was soon apprised of this move, and he ordered Major Zabdiel Rogers of Connecticut, who commanded the militia there, “to make the best stand you can, with the troops under your command”. He also promised to support him by sending “a party to attack them in flank”.

However, before the attack party could be organized, Washington was informed that “our people shamefully abandoned [Mamaroneck] at their approach, not for want of numbers, but [for] want of a good officer to lead on the men.”

Washington learned that there was still an opportunity to make an attack. The British placed in a vulnerable near Mamaroneck a corps of Loyalists known as the Queen’s Rangers. He organized a force to attack and destroy this unit. The attacking force was entrusted to Colonel John Haslet of the Delaware Regiment, and consisted of men drawn from William Alexander’s brigade and the militia at White Plains [see footnote].

Charles Blaskowitz made this representation of British army units near Mamaroneck. The Boston Post Road (modern day US Highway 1) can be seen crossing from lower left to the right edge of the map. The Queen’s Rangers are represented by triangles at several points along this road. The road extending to the north (top) went to White Plains. New Rochelle is misidentified at the bottom of the map; the town was a considerable distance to the west.

The attack party set out in the afternoon, and was near Mamaroneck at dusk. However, after night descended things did not go as planned. According to Lieutenant-Colonel Gunning Bedford (Delaware Regiment), “instead of meeting with this main body [of the Loyalists] our guides brought us (it was eleven o’clock at night) on their picket-guard, consisting of seventy men” (In other words, one of the isolated triangles on the Blaskowitz map).

Major John Green (1st Virginia Regiment) led the troops which stumbled on this detachment. Bedford claimed that Green “made the first attack, with one hundred and fifty men” and that he “had the chief merit”. Colonel George Weedon (3rd Virginia Regiment) later heard that Green succeeded in surrounding the Loyalist detachment. However, the captain commanding the Loyalists cleverly confused the issue by shouting at the Virginians, “Surrender, you Tory dogs! Surrender!” Approximately 20 of the Loyalists were killed, and more than 30 captured. Amid the confusion, the Loyalist captain and some of his men fled to safety.

The Americans then groped forwards towards the main Loyalist camp, and there was another spat of combat. The British claimed that they gave the Americans a check. However, Sergeant James McMichael (Pennsylvania State Rifle Regiment) heard that “we fired on each other” “unfortunately taking the Delaware Blues for the enemy… six of our riflemen and nine of the Blues were killed.”

Haslet said that “three or four were left dead, and about fifteen [were] wounded”. Having been unable to take the main Loyalist camp by surprise, he returned to White Plains.

Footnote: Alexander’s brigade on this date included the Delaware Regiment, three battalions of Pennsylvania State troops, and the 1st and 3rd Virginia Regiments. It is likely that troops from all of these units were present. For example, Sergeant James McMichael of the Pennsylvania State Rifle Regiment noted in his journal that the force included “a party of 100 men, properly officered, from our riflemen”. Evidence that militia participated in this expedition is found in the journal of New Hampshire militiaman Peter Kimball. He recorded: “there was a detachment of about 600 men sent to engage the enemy at Mamaroneck[,] 8 [went] out of our company”. Other militia companies likely made a similar contribution.

Guilford Courthouse in Miniature (13)

This is Part 13 in a series of posts depicting the battle of Guilford Courthouse in miniature. Previous posts: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7, Part 8, Part 9, Part 10, Part 11, Part 12.

At the battle of Guilford Courthouse, British units reached the Americans’ third and final defensive line at different times and attacked in a piecemeal fashion. First Lieutenant-Colonel James Webster led an attack against the American right that was bloodily repulsed (Part 9). Then, the 2nd Battalion of Guards attacked the American left and defeated the troops opposed to them (Part 10). The Guards’ success, however, was short-lived; they were soon mauled made by counterattacking American infantry and cavalry (the 1st Maryland Regiment and Lieutenant-Colonel William Washington’s dragoons; Part 12).

Although these attacks were unsuccessful, the threat they posed was sufficiently great that the American commander, Major-General Nathanael Greene, ordered his army to retreat (Part 11).

The setbacks also did not deter the British from continuing their attacks. The 71st Regiment reached the Guilford Courthouse building more or less opposed, where they threatened the flank and rear of the 1st Maryland Regiment. Webster’s group advanced again and attacked the 2nd Virginia Regiment. Finally, the 23rd Regiment of Foot and the remnants of the Guards began to advance once more.

The American forces still on the field could not hope to repel all of these threats.

Lieutenant-Colonel John Eager Howard was with the 1st Maryland Regiment, and recalled:

I found myself in the cleared ground, and saw the seventy-first regiment near the courthouse, and other columns of the enemy appearing in different directions. Washington's horse having gone off, I found it necessary to retire, which I did leisurely; but many of the guards who were lying on the ground, and who we supposed were wounded, got up and fired at us as we retired. [1]

Then, Webster’s men advanced again and attacked the 2nd Virginia Regiment.

Lewis Griffin of the 2nd Virginia saw his brigade commander get wounded in this clash:

General [Isaac] Huger was wounded in the right hand in my view. I saw him with his Sword in his hand raised above his head encouraging his men when a shot penetrated his hand and his Sword fell in his lap, which he caught up with his left, drew from his pocket a handkerchief, tied up his hand, and moved on, not long after this occurrence we were ordered to retreat. [2]

----------------------------------------------------

At top, the 33rd Regiment of Foot advances against the 2nd Virginia Regiment (click to enlarge). At lower left, the 1st Maryland Regiment holds the open ground; at lower right, the 71st Foot has reached the courthouse building (not shown).

Another view of the above. At bottom and lower left: The 23rd Foot and remnants of the Guards assemble on the edge of the open ground near three-pounders of the Royal Artillery. The 2nd Virginia Regiment is represented by the troops around the red and white flag; the 1st Maryland by the troops around the blue flag.

Another view of the above. In the foreground, the last of the North Carolina militia retreat along the Reedy Fork Road. In the background, the 23rd Foot prepares to advance.

----------------------------------------------------

Finally, the 23rd Regiment of Foot and the remnants of the Guards advanced once more.

According to Lieutenant-General Charles Cornwallis, “the two 6-pounders [of Singleton’s battery] once more fell into our hands; two ammunition-wagons and two other 6-pounders [Finley’s battery], being all the artillery they had in the field, were likewise taken… The 23rd and 71st regiments, with part of the cavalry, were ordered to pursue”. [3]

----------------------------------------------------

At right, the 1st Maryland Regiment retreats along the Reedy Fork Road, while the British Guards, the 23rd, 33rd, and 71st Regiments seize the American artillery.

----------------------------------------------------

The exhausted 23rd and 71st regiments did not advance very far, but the British cavalry thundered down the road after the retreating Continentals. They soon received a check from some troops of the 1st Virginia Regiment, who were acting as rearguard. According to Henry Ingle:

on our retreat we went about 3 quarters of a mile… got into a thicket we had not been there but a little while until we spied the British Light Horse coming through the lane full speed when they got within about 40 yards we stepped out in an open place and fired upon them and there was a dreadful slaughter again of Light horse men &c. [4]

Greene wrote, in concluding his report:

General Huger was the last that was engaged, and gave the enemy a check. We retreated in good order to the Reedy Fork river; and crossed at the ford, about three miles from the field of action, and then halted, and drew up the troops, until we collected most of the stragglers. We lost our artillery, and two ammunition wagons, the greater part of the horses being killed before the retreat began, and it being impossible to move the pieces but along the great road. After collecting our stragglers, we retired… ten miles distant from Guilford. [3]

But the battle was not quite over yet. South of the American third line, a separate battle continued between American riflemen and light infantry and Hessian infantry and British guardsmen.

Notes:

1. Howard is quoted in James Herring and James Barton Longacre (1835). The national portrait gallery of distinguished Americans, Vol. 2.

2. Pension application of Lewis Griffin, transcribed by Will Graves.

3. Cornwallis' and Greene's accounts of the battle (among others) can be found in this compendium.

4. Pension application of Henry Ingle, transcribed by Will Graves.

Guilford Courthouse in Miniature (9)

This is the eighth in a series of posts depicting the battle of Guilford Courthouse in miniature. Previous posts: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7, Part 8.

At the beginning of the battle, Lieutenant-Colonel James Webster commanded the left half of the British line (the 23rd and 33rd regiments, aided by part of the British Guards and a company of jaegers). With these men, he overcome part of the North Carolinians defending the rail fence (Part 4), and got into a nasty fight with William Washington’s flank corps in the woods (Part 5). During these actions, Webster gravitated to wherever the action was hottest. He boldly led the 23rd Foot through the open fields in front of the North Carolinians on the first line, and then joined the 33rd Foot after its flank was threatened by Washington. [1]

Webster’s men fought with skill and courage, and eventually they pushed through the woods to the Americans’ third and final line. Probably their advance was facilitated by the early and almost total collapse of the second line troops nearest them (i.e., Randolph’s and Holcombe’s regiments of Lawson’s brigade, see Part 6).

In any case, Webster reached the third line before the rest of the British army. Many of the Continentals on the third line were placed on a wooded hillside and hidden from view; Webster, however, could see that part of the line which abutted an old field to his front. He ordered an attack.

According to Lieutenant-Colonel Henry Lee:

Webster… sought with zeal the continental line; and presently approached its right wing. Here was posted the first regiment of Maryland… The enemy rushed into close fire; but so firmly was he received by this body of veterans, supported by Hawe's regiment of Virginia [i.e., the 2nd Virginia] and Kirkwood's company of Delawares… that with equal rapidity he was compelled to recoil from the shock. [2]

A soldier with the 2nd Virginia vividly recalled that the Continentals were positioned “along behind a fence near a creek”, and that “when the British marched up towards us we fired upon them and there was a dreadful slaughter indeed… he could have walked for one hundred yards upon dead men and not have touched the ground.” [3]

According to Lee, Webster fell back across “a ravine in his rear,” “occupied an advantageous height,” and waited “for the approach of the rest of the line.”

Then, the men in Washington’s flank corps tried to exploit this reverse. Sergeant-Major William Seymour of the Delaware regiment wrote, “Washington’s Light Infantry… pursued them up a very steep hill, almost inaccessible”. The British “lay concealed in ambush,” and when the Americans approached they “[rose] up, and [poured] in a very heavy fire” by which the Americans “suffered very much” and “were obliged to retreat”. [4]

Webster's men (at center) approach the 3rd line (here and below, click to enlarge). The blue-coated Continentals are, from left-to-right, the 1st Maryland Regiment, the 2nd Virginia Regiment, and the 1st Virginia Regiment (cf. the third line at Guilford Courthouse). Some of the Virginia militia can be seen retreating from the second third line or rallying behind the Continentals.

The 33rd Foot is staggered by a volley.

“Washington’s light infantry” pursue Webster's men.

Notes:

William Seymour served in Captain Robert Kirkwood’s company of the 1st Delaware Regiment and kept a journal during the southern campaign of the Revolutionary War. At Cowpens, Kirkwood’s company participated in a sudden American counterattack that broke apart the British and turned the battle into a major American victory. Something similar appears to have been attempted on this occasion. The British had fought their way through the militia, only to be bloodily repulsed by the Continentals. The Americans then made a bold counterattack. However, the counterattack at Cowpens is famous, while this counterattack at Guilford Courthouse has been almost wholly forgotten (presumably because the former succeeded while the latter did not). At Cowpens, the American counterattack was made by all of the Continentals and across a short expanse of fairly level ground. At Guilford Courthouse, only “Washington’s Light Infantry” are credited with the counterattack, and the movement was made across a wider and more difficult expanse of ground.

Washington’s Continental light infantry included Kirkwood's Delaware light infantry company, and Captain Phillip Huffman's Virginia light infantry company [cf. Babits & Howard (2009) Long, obstinate, and bloody: The battle of Guilford Courthouse]. Possibly some or all of Colonel Charles Lynch’s Virginia riflemen, who also served in Washington’s flank corps, participated in this counterattack.

1. See the accounts by Charles Cornwallis, Charles Stedman, and Roger Lamb in this compendium of sources.

2. Henry Lee (1812). Memoirs of the War in the Southern Department of the United States.

3. Pension application of Henry Ingle.

4. William Seymour (1896). A journal of the southern expedition: 1780-1783. Papers of the Historical Society of Delaware, 15, 3-42.

The Third Line at Guilford Courthouse

Earlier this month I began writing about the March 15, 1781, battle of Guilford Courthouse, North Carolina. Most of the posts I have planned will involve the recreation of the battle with military miniatures, but a few are concerned with areas of research.

In this post I discuss the American "third line" at Guilford Courthouse -- the part of the battlefield where the American Continentals were deployed and where the Americans hoped to stop the British attack.

Visitors to Guilford Courthouse National Military Park (website) are probably aware that there has been a certain amount of controversy concerning where the third line was stationed. Some years ago, the National Park Service concluded that the area in which several monuments had been placed was not in fact the correct location. The "old" and "new" third line sites are roughly indicated below.

The map at left is from the one that I prepared for this project; the fields were drawn in such a way as to be consistent with the new interpretation.

Participant accounts strongly support the new interpretation. Here is Lieutenant-Colonel Henry Lee’s description of third line area:

“Guilford court house, erected near the great state road, is situated on the brow of a declivity, which descends gradually with an undulating slope for about a half mile. It terminates in a small vale, intersected by a rivulet” [1]

The courthouse is near the junction of the two roads on the map. The "rivulet" presumably what is today called Hunting Creek, the stream that crosses the width of the map. His description goes on to place the open ground on which much of the third line fighting took place as between the courthouse and the rivulet, on either side of the road.

The new third line position is on a hill that is much higher and broader than the old third line position. It more clearly can accommodate the two brigades of Continentals that fought at Guilford Courthouse.

----------------------------------------------------

At the beginning of the battle, the third line consisted of two Virginia regiments that averaged about 385 men each (both officers and enlisted men), two Maryland regiments that averaged about 340 men each, and a two-gun battery commanded by Captain Ebenezer Finley. The Virginia regiments formed a brigade on the right of the line, the Maryland regiments formed a brigade on the left of the line, and Finley’s battery was located roughly between them [2].

Maps of the third line at Guilford Courthouse usually present the American deployment in a simplified manner: either a simple straight line or four closely aligned rectangles (one for each Maryland and Virginia regiment). However, the source material allows for a more precise understanding of how each regiment was positioned. Some key passages are quoted below. [3]

• Major-General Nathanael Greene: the Continentals presented “a double front, as the hill drew to a point where they were posted, and on the right and left were two old fields.”
• Lieutenant-Colonel Banastre Tarleton: “The flanks [of the two Continental brigades] did not dress up to the center, but were drawn back, so that each brigade presented a different front…”
• Lieutenant-Colonel John Eager Howard: "the first [Maryland] regiment... was formed in a hollow, in the wood, and to the right [west] of the cleared ground about the Court house." "...my station [was] on the left of the first regiment, and next the cleared ground..."
• Lieutenant-Colonel John Eager Howard: "The second [Maryland] regiment was at some distance to the left of the first, in the cleared ground, with its left flank thrown back, so as to form a line almost at right angles with the first regiment."

The exact spacing of the troops on the third line is not known, but a “close order” formation seems likely. As three of the four regiments were in a wooded area, it does not seem likely that the troops were packed closely together (which anyway does not seem to have been the norm by the late war; see this website for a lengthy discussion). A reasonable guess, I think, is that 12 inches separated each man. If correct, than the Virginia regiments had a front of around 480 feet each, and the Maryland regiments had a front of around 425 feet each. [4]

Taking all these points together, I believe the regiments were deployed on or near the spots indicated on the map below. The blue lines represent, from left to right, the 1st Virginia, and 2nd Virginia, the 1st Maryland, and the 2nd Maryland. The two blue “t”s represent the two cannon in Finley’s battery. The orange lines represent watercourses or ravines. Note that the left and right flanks may have been anchored on ravines. The historical New Garden Road roughly corresponds with the road marked in red-and-white that runs from the top of the map to the bottom. Notably, there may have been a gap at this point in the American line – perhaps to accommodate the retreat of the first and second American lines. [5]

Here is what the regiments look like on the battlefield map I created.

----------------------------------------------------

Notes:

1. Henry Lee. (1812). Memoirs of the war in the Southern Department of the United States

2. I discussed the American order of battle here. To the best of my knowledge, the source material does not directly indicate where Finley’s battery was located, although there are certain clues. Based on these, Lawrence E. Babits & Joshua B. Howard (2009) in Long, obstinate, and bloody: The battle of Guilford Courthouse concluded that "Finley's two six-pounders were situated on the terrace's southwest corner" where they covered the most probable British routes of attack (p. 144). I believe this interpretation is probably correct, but there are minor differences in our maps.

3. A useful compendium of sources for the battle of Guilford Courthouse can be found here. Howard’s account is quoted in Babits & Howard, ibid. and in James Herring and James Barton Longacre’s (1835) The national portrait gallery of distinguished Americans, Vol. 2

4. Here is the very crude math: 18 inches (presumed width of a typical 18th Century soldier) + 12 inches (as described above, the assumed spacing between soldiers) * 385 (estimated men in 1st Virginia) / 2 (usual number of ranks) = 5775 inches, or 481.25 feet.

5. Worth noting is that the interpretation presented here is similar to that described by Babits & Howard, ibid. The only real difference in interpretation, as best I can tell, concerns how much of the 2nd Maryland should be placed south of the New Garden Road (they suggest most, I suggest all). As is so often the case, the source material lends itself to more than one interpretation. To imagine what the line would look like according to their account, one should mentally move the 2nd Maryland regiment north until the right flank of the regiment crosses the New Garden Road.

The Americans at Guilford Courthouse

In this post I briefly describe the American army that fought at the battle of Guilford Courthouse and I show a 15mm-version of this army that I put together.

The American army at Guilford Courthouse consisted of a variety of units including infantry, artillery, and cavalry, Continentals and militia, old soldiers and new recruits. The order of battle, described below, is based primarily on two sources. The first is an obscure (but enormously valuable) troop return that was completed 2 days before the battle. The second is a recent history that provides a wealth of information on the individual units. [1]

American Order of Battle

Commander: Major-General Nathanael Greene

Virginia Continental Brigade (Brigadier-General Isaac Huger commanding).

• 1st Virginia Regiment (Lieutenant-Colonel John Green)
• 2nd Virginia Regiment (Lieutenant-Colonel Samuel Hawes)
• Separate light infantry companies [2]
• Total: 778 rank and file present and fit for duty [3]

Maryland Continental Brigade (Colonel Otho Williams commanding).

• 1st Maryland Regiment (Colonel John Gunby) [4]
• 2nd Maryland Regiment (Lieutenant-Colonel Benjamin Ford) [4]
• 1st Delaware Regiment (2 Companies) [5]
• Total: 630 rank and file present and fit for duty [3]

Virginia Militia Brigade (Brigadier-General Edward Stevens commanding).

• Militia from Augusta, Halifax, Lunenburg, Pittsylvania, Prince Edward, and Rockbridge counties
• Total: 508 rank and file present and fit for duty

Virginia Militia Brigade (Brigadier-General Robert Lawson commanding).

• Militia from Amelia, Brunswick, Charlotte, Cumberland, Mecklenburg, and Powhatan counties
• Total: 615 rank and file present and fit for duty

North Carolina Militia Brigade (Brigadier-General John Butler commanding).

• Militia from Caswell, Chatham, Granville, Guilford, Mecklenburg, Orange, Randolph, Rockingham, and Rowan counties
• Total: 324 rank and file present and fit for duty

North Carolina Militia Brigade (Brigadier-General Thomas Eaton commanding).

• Militia from Edgecombe, Franklin, Halifax, Martin, Nash, Northampton, and Warren counties
• Total: 730 rank and file present and fit for duty

Rifle Regiments

• Units from western Virginia and North Carolina (one corps was led by Colonel William Campbell, another by Colonel Charles Lynch)
• Total: around 400 rank and file present and fit for duty

Light Dragoons and Partisan Corps

• William Washington’s Light Dragoons: 102 rank and file present and fit for duty
• Lee’s Legion: 82 infantry and 86 cavalry rank and file present and fit for duty
• Several small units of state or militia light dragoons [6]

Miscellaneous Units

• Continental Artillery (two 2-gun sections) [7]
• North Carolina Continentals [8]

----------------------------------------------------

The American Army (click to enlarge).

Close Up

Here is the finished American army. One 15mm figure represents 20 actual combatants. The figures have been arranged into three lines, as they were during the historical battle, but this image is not meant to convey the details of their historical deployment (this will be covered in an upcoming post).

The first American line consisted of the two brigades of North Carolina militia [9, 10] and flank corps commanded by Lieutenant-Colonel William Washington (at left) and Lieutenant-Colonel Henry Lee (at right). The flank corps were comprised of light dragoons, light infantry, and riflemen.

The second line consisted of the two brigades of Virginia militia [10].

The third line consisted of the two brigades of Continentals. The Virginians are on the left, and the Marylanders are on the right [10, 11].

2nd Virginia Regiment

American Dragoons. These include some newly-painted Lee's Legion dragoons and a couple of older militia dragoons.

----------------------------------------------------

Notes:

1. An electronic copy of the troop return is available in the George Washington Papers hosted by the Library of Congress. See here.

The recent history is: Lawrence E. Babits & Joshua B. Howard (2009). Long, obstinate, and bloody: The battle of Guilford Courthouse. UNC Press.

In general, I will be talking about the formations within the American army very loosely. The exact composition of these units falls outside the scope of the research that I’ve conducted, and the reader is advised to see Babits & Howard, ibid. for much more detail on this subject.

2. Two companies commanded by Captain Phillip Huffman and Captain Andrew Wallace.

3. Readers may note that my interpretation of the American order of battle differs slightly from that of Babits & Howard, ibid. For example, I count the Virginia and Delaware light infantry companies towards the troop totals for the Virginia and Maryland brigades, respectively, whereas Babits & Howard did not. To be clear, I agree with Babits' & Howard's interpretation of the role these light infantry companies played during the battle.

4. Lieutenant-Colonel John Eager Howard later summarized the situation of the Maryland line at this time. He wrote:

“The Maryland line consisted of 7 regiments about half full when we marched into [South] Carolina. After the actions of the 16th and 18th of August 1780 [i.e., Camden and Fishing Creek] what men we had left were formed into two regiments and the supernumerary officers sent home.--The Maryland troops with me at the Cowpens were picked out of the two regiments….

“There was a new regiment (Regiment Extraordinary) sent out from Maryland which had been raised by the state, and it was thought that the officers had been more favored than the officers of the old regiments. It joined us a few days before the action and there were such jealousies among the officers that Genl Greene sent all the new officers home, and made a new arrangement of the two regiments. This was at the time my light infantry [i.e., the troops at Cowpens] joined their regiments. The most of the new men were thrown into the second regiment which was very deficient of officers.”

5. The two companies were commanded by Captains Robert Kirkwood and Peter Jacquett. Kirkwood’s company, which greatly distinguished itself at Cowpens, was assigned to William Washington’s flank corps. Jacquett’s company is thought to have served with the 1st Maryland Regiment, but this hospital return, transcribed by Will Graves, seemingly shows that it was with the 2nd Maryland.

6. These units were attached to serve with either Lieutenant-Colonel William Washington, or Lieutenant-Colonel Henry Lee. Possibly their strength is partially accounted for in the listed troop totals for those units (I say partially, because some cavalrymen were added to those units after the March 13th return). In any case, the strength of these small units is difficult to assess. Some examples of pension applicants claiming service with these units: George Gresham (W2933), a Georgian horseman who fought under Lee, Philemon Holcombe (S4399), a Virginian horseman who fought under Washington, James Hilton (S30484), a North Carolinian horseman who fought under Lee.

7. The gun sections were commanded by Captain Anthony Singleton and Captain Ebenezer Finley. The artillery is notably absent on the March 13 troop return. Were these men treated as part of the infantry brigades? In my calculations I assumed they were not.

8. Babits and Howard, ibid., make a good case that some North Carolina Continentals served at the battle. They proposed that these men were assigned to protect and assist the American artillery.

9. Histories of the battle represent Eaton’s and Butler’s North Carolina brigades as equal in size, but the troop return shows that the former dwarfed the latter. I’m presuming that the imbalance was not as great during the actual battle (e.g., perhaps the men detached to guard the baggage were chiefly drawn from Eaton’s brigade).

10. The troop totals indicated in the pictures above do not exactly match the strength listed above. This is because 1) I added counted noncommissioned officers, musicians, and most commissioned officers when calculating how many figures I needed, 2) I took into consideration that some militia joined the battle after March 13, and 3) I took into consideration that Greene detached a large force of men (mostly, if not exclusively, North Carolina militiaman to judge from pension applications) to guard his baggage train before the battle. I don’t believe the number of men that joined after the date of this return or that were assigned to the baggage train is known; my additions and deductions are speculative.

11. The colors shown carried by the Virginia and Maryland regiments are ahistorical; I wrote about these in a previous post.

Battle Flags for the Continentals

This month I am working chiefly on a battle of Guilford Courthouse-themed project. The last couple of days I prepared some flags for the British and American regiments that fought at that battle.

Flags were not always carried by military units into battle. Some units (probably militia units in particular) did not have them, and other units that did have flags chose not to carry them. There is reason to believe that flags were carried by at least some of the units at this battle. For example, a North Carolina militiaman recalled that the British troops carried "gay banners floating in the breeze" [1].

A few of my miniatures come with attached metal flags. More come with a metal flag pole, but no flag. In these cases one must buy or make a miniature flag for the figure, and then attach it to the pole with glue. I decided to try making paper flags.

I started with two simple cases: the British 23rd and 33rd Regiments of Foot. The flags for these regiments are well documented and electronic copies can be found online. I first downloaded and prepared two sides for each flag using MS Paint. Then I resized the flags to fit 15mm miniatures, and printed them off on a home printer. Finally, I cut out the flags, glued the two sides together and attached them to a flag pole. You can see the results below for the 33rd Regiment.

The result is not perfect (e.g., the edges require a bit of touch up), but certainly pretty good.

I therefore decided to generate some flags for the 1st Maryland and 1st and 2nd Virginia Regiments [2]. Although the historic appearance of these flags is not known, it's possible to draw inferences based on other regimental flags from this period. For example, it appears that stars and stripes were probably common elements on flags (although interestingly they probably did not often occur together); other recurring elements seem to have included patriotic words and phrases, a personification of liberty or America, liberty trees, rattlesnakes, and wreaths and banners. Inspiration can also be found in the flags created by reenactor units and known facts about the regiments (e.g., the 2nd Virginia was known as the "hell-fired blues" [3]).

Using MS Paint I began by making variants on a few simple patterns, but I soon got carried away and generated a slew of flags with these various elements.

Here is one of the full-sized flags (note the paper is intended to be folded in half to give the flag two sides):

And here is the complete set (if you click to enlarge you will see them at actual size for 15mm miniatures) [4].

So now I have to make a decision -- which of these flags looks most authentic? Which should I use with my Maryland and Virginia regiments? I'm having trouble deciding, and your suggestions are appreciated.

Notes:

1. See Lawrence E. Babits & Joshua B. Howard (2009). Long, obstinate, and bloody: The battle of Guilford Courthouse. UNC Press. (p. 78).

2. In the source material, the Virginia regiments are generally referred to as John Green's and Samuel Hawes' regiments. Babits and Howard, ibid., refer to them respectively as the 1st and 2nd Virginia Regiments, and I am following suit.

3. See pension application of Lewis Griffin, transcribed by Will Graves.

4. A group of 1st Maryland reenactors carry a flag like the one at upper right in the set. The red and green flags at lower left are "Gostelowe" flags, and a flag resembling the green Gostelowe flag (it depicts a beaver gnawing on a tree trunk) was captured by the British at the battle of Waxhaws.

Touring the Revolution with Google Earth

I never ceased to be amazed at how many Revolution-related resources are on the Internet. As I don't live near the battlefields of the Revolution, I've enjoyed using Google Earth to "tour" sites not readily accessible to me. Below I describe a couple of basic features of this software, illustrated with screenshots (in all cases you can click to enlarge).

First, finding sites of historical interest is generally quite easy. Use the Search feature to find the place that you're looking for. Below I searched for "Fort Stanwix" and the program instantly transported me to the reconstructed Fort Stanwix in Rome, New York. I then zoomed in somewhat to obtain the view below.

I turn off most of the options in the Layers menu, but one that I keep on are the links to Panoramio pictures in the Geographic Web menu. These are user-submitted images that provide a ground-level view of the area. More often than not, the images are frankly beautiful as in the picture below of the Old North Bridge at Concord. On the right side of the image you can see the controls for zooming, panning, and rotating the image.

Unfortunately, many battlefields of the Revolution have not been well preserved. Two of the better exceptions among northern battles are Freeman's Farm/Bemis Heights and Monmouth. At present, there are only a handful of Panoramio pictures for these battlefields, but that is sure to change over time. A great user-submitted image of Monmouth appears below.

Some of the best places to see -- both in person and online -- are the sites of 18th-Century forts. Below is one of several images of handsome Fort Chambly in Canada, the site of an obscure, but historically important, action early in the war.

Yorktown, Virginia, is particularly worth visiting with Google Earth, as the extant fortifications are easily visible from the air, and the many visitors to the battlefield have generated some fantastic images, such as that of the recreated 1st Virginia Regiment, taken near the site of Redoubt #9.

One other feature worth exploring is the "Street View" option (in the Layers menu). By entering Street View, you can have a 360-degree view of a particular spot on a roadway. Barring the slight fuzziness of the images, this is almost as good as being there. Generally, only major roads have been imaged this way, which limits the usefulness of this feature, but for some battlefields this is useful. The screenshot below shows a Street View image taken on Flat Rock Road, revealing a portion of the Hanging Rock battlefield. Each camera icon is the location of another available view. Although not clear from this image, one can travel for miles along this road using Street View.

Yorktown is the rare locale where the normal aerial view, the links to Panoramio pictures, and the Street View option all can be used to study the battlefield. Below is an aerial view of the "Hornwork," a key position in the British defenses that was heavily pounded by the French and American artillery. The cars in the foreground provide a good sense of the enormity of this work.

Below is a Street Level view of the Hornwork, taken from the road visible in the image above.