Uniforms of the St. Kitts Campaign

I'm about halfway through a series of posts on the St. Kitts campaign of 1782 (the most recent post was Part 5). Upcoming posts will focus on a naval engagement on January 26, a land battle on January 28, and the final days of the siege of Brimstone Hill.

As an aside to this series, I discuss in this post the uniforms worn by British and French army regulars during the campaign.

The description that follows touches on only some aspects of the clothing worn by these troops. For a much more complete account, see Philip R. N. Katcher (1973). Encyclopedia of British, Provincial, and German Army Units 1775-1783, and René Chartrand (1991). The French army in the American War of Independence.

British Army

British regulars wore red coats. Individual regiments were distinguished by the color of the coat "facings" (i.e., collar, cuffs, and lapes), by the lace pattern worn around the buttonholes (white with different combinations of colored stripes), and by the metallic color used for officers’ buttons, hat trim, etc. (A copy of the uniform regulations can be found here).

• 1st (or Royal) Regiment of Foot: Blue facings. Lace pattern was one blue "worm". Officers’ metal was silver.
• 13th Regiment of Foot: Yellow ochre facings. Lace was worn in pairs; pattern was one yellow stripe. Officers’ metal was silver.
• 15th Regiment of Foot: Yellow ochre facings. Lace pattern was one mixed yellow and black stripe and one red stripe. Officers’ metal was silver.
• 28th Regiment of Foot: Bright yellow facings. Lace pattern was one yellow and two black stripes. Officers’ metal was silver.
• 69th Regiment of Foot: Dull dark green facings. Lace pattern was one red stripe between two green stripes. Officers’ metal was gold.

Perhaps the feature of British army uniforms that is least well understood is the caps and hats worn by the light infantry companies, which were not standardized, and which changed over time. At right is a private of the "picket company" of the 13th Foot, wearing an early version of a light infantryman's cap. The uniform predates the Revolutionary War (by which time picket companies had been replaced by light infantry companies).

British Light Infantry Officer. This officer, thought to have been with the 15th Foot, is wearing a round hat cocked up on the left side and adorned with a feather. This style of hat would have been worn by the light infantry companies of the 15th and 28th regiments during the Philadelphia campaign of 1777, and possibly retained by these regiments after they were sent to the West Indies in 1778. The light infantry company of the 15th Regiment helped garrison Brimstone Hill fortress.

British Light Infantry on Maneuvers. This section of a painting by Philippe Jacques de Loutherbourg shows what may be the light infantry company of the 69th Foot participating in war game exercises in England, circa 1778. The dark green facings and the style of leather cap match known uniform details for this unit.

French Army

Most regiments of the French regular army wore white coats. Individual regiments were distinguished by the combination of facing color on cuffs and lapels, the orientation of the side pocket flaps, and the color of the buttons.

• Régiment d'Armagnac (6e): Light blue lapels, vertical pocket flaps, white buttons.
• Régiment de Champagne (7e): Light blue cuffs, vertical pocket flaps, white buttons.
• Régiment d'Auxerrois (12e): Black lapels, vertical pocket flaps, white buttons.
• Régiment d'Agénois (16e): Violet cuffs, horizontal pocket flaps, yellow buttons.
• Régiment de Touraine (34e): Pink cuffs, vertical pocket flaps, white buttons.
• Régiment d'Hainault (51e): Crimson cuffs, vertical pocket flaps, white buttons.
• Régiment Royal Comtois (76e): Blue cuffs, vertical pocket flaps, white buttons.
• Régiment de Dillon (90e): Red coats, yellow cuffs and lapels, horizontal pocket flaps, yellow buttons set in herringbone fashion. At right is a 1779 illustration of a chasseur of this regiment.

Several units of French colonial troops also participated in the St. Kitts campaign. Régiment de la Martinique wore blue coats without lapels and with buff cuffs and collars. Régiment de la Guadeloupe were dressed similarly, but had crimson cuffs and collars. The Volontaires de Bouillé wore a distinctive "blue short coat" with "red cuffs," and a "helmet" (per Chartrand, 1992). Hussars of the 1st Legion of the Volontaires étrangers de la Marine were also present. These wore a uniform similar to that of the well-known Lauzun's Legion.

Regulation uniforms for grenadiers of regiments Hainault (left) and Touraine (right). Note the facing color is used to line the collar and lapels. The red epaulets and hat tuft identify these men as grenadiers.

Both British and French army units may have modified their clothing in various ways. One well-known example of this in the French case is that some (and possibly many) grenadier companies wore bearskin caps rather than the proscribed cocked hats.

Grenadiers of Régiment de Soissonnois in 1781.

A series of images by Nicolas Ponce suggests that chasseur companies also deviated from the regulated headgear. In these images, the chasseurs are shown wearing a round hat that is cocked in the back and adorned with a feather. This style seems practical; unfortunately, I have not come across any evidence to date that corroborates the accuracy of this depiction.

Chasseurs of Régiment de Dillon at the capture of St. Eustatius in 1781.

St. Kitts (2): The Invasion

This is the second in a series of posts, which will appear from time to time, on the St. Kitts campaign of 1782. The St. Kitts campaign took place in what is known as the West Indies theater of the Revolutionary War. For Part 1, click here.

De Grasse Approaches

A French fleet left Port Royal, Martinique, on January 5, 1782, to attack the British isles of St. Kitts and Nevis. The fleet consisted of 25 ships of the line, the 50-gun Experiment, and a number of frigates and transports. Its commander was Lieutenant-General François-Joseph-Paul de Grasse. Because of calms and fog, the ships became strung out over a considerable distance while en route. Most of the fleet reached St. Kitts on the 11th, but some ships did not arrive until the 13th. [1]

The difficulty of the journey was of little importance. The British West Indies fleet (Rear Admiral Samuel Hood commanding) was at distant Barbados.

The French fleet was spotted from St. Kitts and Nevis long before it reached shore. On the afternoon of January 9th (when the French were still 2 days away), Governor Thomas Shirley received word from Nevis “that a large fleet, consisting of about forty sail, twenty-four of which were large ships and the rest sloops and schooners had appeared in sight of that Island.” Shirley was in Basseterre, the principal town on St. Kitts. There he had a cannon fired as an alarm. A detachment of Royal Artillery, and part of the militia, were ordered to defend the coastal batteries. [2]

The British had little in the way of naval resources on hand. One large vessel, the 64-gun Russell, was in port for repairs, but this ship hurriedly departed on the 10th.

As the French fleet slowly drew closer, the British commanders on St. Kitts – Governor Shirley and Brigadier-General Thomas Fraser– had time to rethink the wisdom of defending the entire coast. At last, the two commanders decided to abandon Basseterre and concentrate their forces on and about Brimstone Hill.

On the morning of January 11th, the St. Kitts brigade of militia assembled in Basseterre. Governor Shirley then marched this force along the coastal road towards Brimstone Hill.

At about the same time, a number of merchant vessels in Basseterre got underway and headed north and west, away from the French fleet.

The French Landing

As the French fleet completed the last leg of the journey, it divided into two parts. The main force headed directly for Basseterre, while a secondary force circled around the island and headed for the town of Sandy Point, near Brimstone Hill.

The secondary force consisted of:

• 1000 men from regiments Dillon and Royal Comtois aboard transports
• 500 grenadiers and chasseurs aboard two ships of the line, the Experiment, and several frigates. [3]

St. Kitts: January 11, 1782 (click to enlarge).

The French secondary force reached Sandy Point without difficulty, but no landing was made. The approaches to Sandy Point were defended by two coastal batteries, and the British were in force on nearby Brimstone Hill. Instead, the French attacked the merchant vessels which were streaming along the shore. The merchant vessels hurriedly took shelter under the guns of Brimstone Hill. According to Shirley, some of the merchant vessels were saved from capture “by a well-directed fire from our line of batteries” and “the merchantmen got shelter under the guns of Brimstone Hill and [nearby] Fort Charles.” Nevertheless, the French captured at least 27 vessels. [4]

The French secondary force also spotted the St. Kitts and militia on their march and opened fire. Shirley wrote that the militiamen were “very much annoyed” by the French ships, but the fire did not prevent them from reaching Brimstone Hill.

The main French force, under de Grasse, approached Basseterre and saw that the battery defending the town appeared to have been abandoned. A 60-man company of colonial troops (the Volontaires de Bouillé) approached the fort in two boats, supported by two frigates. When the company found that the battery was undefended, they hoisted the French flag. At about the same time, a delegation of citizens from Basseterre approached the French fleet in a small boat and informed the French that the British had retired to Brimstone Hill and that those who remained behind would offer no resistance.

Meanwhile, the secondary force joined the main fleet at Basseterre, and at about 6pm, the French infantry began to disembark. The French commander, the Marquis de Bouillé, had his troops assemble in four divisions on the shore. They were organized as follows:

• Colonel de Dillon’s division: Regiments Dillon and Royal Comtois, two companies of grenadiers from Regiment Martinique, and a detachment of Volontaires Étrangers de la Marine (perhaps 1,500 effectives in total).
• Maréchal de Saint-Simon’s division: Regiments Agénois and Touraine (about 2,000 effectives).
• Brigadier de Damas’ division: Regiments Auxerrois and Champagne (about 1,200 effectives).
• Brigadier du Chilleau’s division: Regiments Armagnac (2 battalions), Viennois, and Guadeloupe (perhaps 2,100 effectives). [5]

The disembarkation and assembly proceeded smoothly, and at 9pm Dillon’s division began marching towards Brimstone Hill. The rest of the troops followed 30 minutes later. De Bouillé intended to surround the British fortress under cover of darkness.

Left to right: Grenadiers of Armagnac, Auxerrois, and Viennois. These illustrations show what was essentially the uniform worn by these regiments on St. Kitts; one difference is that the French grenadiers generally wore a tall bearskin cap rather than the cocked hat shown here.

Notes:

1. An invaluable source on French naval operations is John Gilmary Shea's (1864) The Operations of the French Fleet Under the Count de Grasse in 1781-2 as Described in Two Contemporary Journals.

2. Extracts of Shirley’s journal, including that quoted here, appears in Algernon Aspinall's (1915) West Indian Tales of Old.

3. From Attaque et prise de Saint-Christophe dit le «Gibraltar» des Antilles (janvier-février 1782), in Revue Historique des Armées, Vol. 1, 1974. This article includes extracts from «Mémoires Secrets» de Bouillé. A detailed description of de Bouillé’s operations also appears in the Journal Politique of April, 1782 (seconde quinzaine).

4. R. de Kerallain (1928). Bougainville à l’Armée du Cte de Grasse. Journal de la Société des Américanistes de Paris, 20, 1-70.

5. French sources generally claim that they fielded an army of 6,000 men; British sources attribute to the French 8,000 men. I suspect the latter number is more accurate. One French account claims they had “6000 hommes effectifs & de 800 volontaires de la Martinique,” which I take to mean 6,000 effectives of the Metropolitan Army and 800 colonial troops that had been stationed on Martinique. Colonial troops known to have participated in this campaign included Regiment de la Guadeloupe, two companies of grenadiers from Regiment de la Martinique, and the company-sized Volontaires de Bouillé. If one counts soldiers of all ranks, the French army would have totaled well above 7,000 men. De Bouillé only partially identified the size of each of these divisions; I relied on a certain amount of extrapolation to determine the approximate size of Dillon’s and du Chilleau’s divisions. De Bouillé’s exact language in describing the composition of his forces (and how he intended to place them around Brimstone Hill) is as follows:

“La division du Marquis de Saint-Simon, composée de deux mille hommes, des régiments de Touraine et d'Agénois, dut prendre la droite, et se placer entre la vieille rade et Brimstone-Hill, le plus près possible, cependant hors de la portée du canon de la place. Celle du Vicomte de Damas, composée de douze cents hommes, des bataillons d'Auxerrois et de Champagne, à la gauche de la première, pour garder les debouches des montagnes. Celle du Comte Arthur Dillon, compose de 1.200 hommes, des bataillons de Dillon, de Royal comtois, et de deux companies de grenadiers de la Martinique, et les volontaires étrangers de la marine, fut à la gauche de celle de M. de Damas, pour le même objet et pour communiqué avec elle. Celle du Marquis du Chilleau, compose de deux bataillons d’Armagnac, d’un de Viennois, d’un de la Guadeloupe dut être à la gauche de celle de M. de Dillon, et occupier Sandy-point.”