Life and Death in the Metropolitan Army

The French metropolitan army was the backbone of the French army – the “white coat” counterpart to the British “redcoat.” Americans familiar with the French role during the Revolutionary War are probably most familiar with the army commanded by Comte de Rochambeau that helped win a pivotal victory at Yorktown. However, a much larger proportion of the French army served further to the south, in the West Indies [1]. There, regiments were used to garrison important islands, to serve as shipboard marines [2], and to mount attacks on British-held islands. A few regiments (e.g., Auxerrois, Armagnac, and Dillon) were repeatedly used when the French took the offense. But for even those regiments that mainly spent the war in garrison, the West Indies was an extraordinarily dangerous place. The chief danger, it seems, was disease. Epidemics – which were not uncommon – could kill hundreds of men within a few months, and no army was spared.

Recently I spent some time examining transcribed records to get a better sense of the dangers faced by metropolitan army units serving in the West Indies. The records appear in Les combattants francais de la guerre americaine, 1778-1783 (1905), and include such information as when a soldier enlisted, when and where he died, and (if he survived) when he was discharged from the service [3].

Sample of the records for the grenadiers of Régiment Foix

I then charted the results from a small sample of four infantry companies in order to track life and death in these units over time. I expected to find a significant incidence of mortality in each unit, but I didn’t know how that mortality would be patterned. Would there be a sudden spike in mortality once the unit arrived in the West Indies? Would disease instead be a constant companion, leading to a steady loss of men over time? Or would mortality from disease be relatively unpredictable?

I found, in this small sample, no evidence that regiments began to suffer appalling casualties from disease upon arrival in the West Indies. Instead, disease outbreaks seem unpredictable, beyond perhaps an association with major troop movements (such as the return of d’Estaing’s force to the West Indies from Georgia in late 1779, and the assembly of a large army on Haiti in the Spring of 1782). For each company, the analysis spans the period from May, 1778, to January, 1784. The charts shows the number of enlisted men with each company on a month-by-month basis.

Fusilier Compagnie de Manoel, Régiment Hainault

• A -- August 16, 1778: The company is in combat for the first time in an engagement between the British Isis and the French César in waters off Rhode Island. Four men are killed in action, and the company is at 94% of its original strength by the end of the month.
• B -- December, 1778: The company arrives in the West Indies aboard the fleet of Charles-Henri d'Estaing. The company is present at the December 18, 1778, battle of La Vigie, but they are only lightly engaged (1 killed in action). In the following months, enlisted men begin dying at a rate of about 1 per month.
• C -- October, 1779: The company participates in the siege of Savannah, including the bloody assault on the Spring Hill redoubt. Nine enlisted men die this month (including 5 on the day of the assault). The company is at 76% of its original strength by the end of the month.
• D -- December, 1779: This month there appears to be an outbreak of sickness while the company is on Grenada. Five men die in December, 8 in January, 4 in February. By the end of February, the company is at 61% of peak strength. The 17 men who perish during this period represent 14% of the company's original complement.
• E -- January, 1784: A number of men are struck from the company list this month. (Not clear to me is if these men were discharged or if their deaths during the war was belatedly acknowledged). This reduction brings the company down to 40% of its original strength.

Grenadier Compagnie de Pecomme, Régiment Gatinois

• A -- August, 1779: The company occasionally gains new recruits during this period. Four enroll in August, 1779, bringing the company to a peak strength of 103 enlisted men.
• B -- October, 1779: The company is spared from the horrific assault on Savannah’s Spring Hill redoubt. (The chasseur company, however, does take severe losses). One death is recorded this month.
• C -- February, 1780: The disease outbreak that took a heavy toll on Régiment Hainault appears to have affected Gatinois as well. Four enlisted men's deaths are recorded this month.
• D -- October, 1781: The company is present at the siege of Yorktown, and the grenadiers lose 4 men killed outright during the assault on Redoubt #9, and an additional 3 men at other points during the siege. Several deaths are also reported in Virginia in November -- probably from men that fell ill or that succumbed to their wounds. The losses reduce the company to 79% of its peak strength.
• E -- August, 1782: Three enlisted men die during what is perhaps another period of illness. The company falls to 73% of peak strength.
• F -- April, 1783: A number of enlisted men transfer to the French colonial Régiment du Cap (Probably it is their intention to remain in the West Indies beyond the conclusion of the war).
• G -- August, 1783: The war is effectively over, and many of the enlisted men are discharged. The discharges occur in waves, with the largest number (13) occurring in August, 1783.

Chasseur Compagnie d'Artel de Veinsberg, Régiment Touraine

• A -- July, 1781: The company reaches a peak strength of 125 enlisted men.
• B -- October, 1781: The company is present at the siege of Yorktown, but no deaths are recorded among the enlisted men.
• C -- January, 1782: Five deaths are reported this month; three occur on Martinique and are likely due to illness, the other two are combat fatalities on St. Kitts
• D -- June, 1782: The company is transferred to Cap François (Haiti). En route the company is present at the battle of The Saintes (April 9 & 12), but the vessel carrying them is not heavily engaged and only 1 death is recorded. Severe illness strikes the company at the Cap starting in June.
• E -- October, 1782: The main period of illness at Cap François ends. From May to November, the company suffered 28 deaths, reducing it to 68% of peak strength. Nearly 1/3 of the company died in a little more than 1 year, and only three or four of those deaths appear to be combat related.
• F -- January, 1783: Five more deaths are recorded at Cap François in the first part of 1783. Other reductions in strength after this time are due to men being discharged.

Compagnie de Sigoyer Grenadiers, Régiment Foix

• A -- March, 1779: The company reaches a peak strength of 98 enlisted men.
• B -- October, 1779: Seven enlisted men die during the month of October. The company participates in the siege of Savannah (including the assault on the Spring Hill redoubt), but most of the deaths appear to be due to illness, including several among ill men that were left behind on the island of Martinique.
• C -- December, 1779: Seven enlisted men die during the month of December. The deaths occur on the islands of Martinique, St. Vincent, and Grenada, and also at sea. Either the company has been divided among several posts, or the company has left sick men at each of several places it has been stationed. At the end of the month, the company is down to 81% of peak strength.
• D -- April, 1782: Two enlisted die aboard the Magnanime during naval operations
• E -- July, 1783: A handful of men are struck from the rolls or are discharged; discharges continue as the war winds down.

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

Notes:

1. For an excellent history, see René Chartrand (1992). The French army in the American War of Independence.

2. Such troops were used to board enemy vessels, repel boarders from enemy vessels, and to fire on the gunners serving enemy vessels.

3. I was of course working under the assumption that these records are accurate and complete for these companies (a difficult point to gauge).

33rd Regiment of Foot

The 33rd Regiment of Foot was one of the most distinguished regiments serving in the British army during the American Revolutionary War. An admirer, Sergeant Roger Lamb, commented that "The 33rd... set a standard of soldier like duty." Lieutenant-General Charles Cornwallis served as the regiment's colonel, but in the field the regiment was led by Lieutenant-Colonel James Webster.

The 33rd first served on a British expedition to the Carolinas, and it was present at battle of Sullivan's Island (June 28, 1776). After the unsuccessful conclusion of that expedition, the regiment was sent to New York, where it was active at the battles of Long Island (August 27, 1776) and Fort Washington (November 16, 1776). In 1777, the regiment participated in the invasion of Pennsylvania and the subsequent retreat through New Jersey. The battalion companies saw relatively little combat during this interval. The grenadier company, however, saw hard fighting at Brandywine (September 11, 1777) and Monmouth (June 28, 1778), and the light infantry company lost many of its men in various engagements by the end of 1777.

Also in 1777, a portion of the regiment served in the northern theater in John Burgoyne's army. These men helped serve the artillery pieces, and, like most of Burgoyne's men, were captured at Saratoga.

After Monmouth, the regiment spent time in and around British posts in New York City and Newport, Rhode Island. In 1780, the regiment fought in the southern theater, including at the siege of (April-May, 1780) Charleston. After Charleston surrendered, the battalion companies of the regiment helped garrison South Carolina. These men saw hard hard fighting at the battle of Camden (August 16, 1780), where the regiment charged Continental infantry and American cannon spewing grape shot and canister. By the end of the day, the regiment lost 100 men, or 1/3 of its strength. The next major battle in which the 33rd served was Guilford Courthouse (March 15, 1781). On this occasion, the British army was faced with three successive lines of American infantry. The 33rd was the first regiment to fight its way through the first two American lines (militia from North Carolina and Virginia), and it then played a pivotal role in forcing the final line (Continentals) to retreat. However, losses once again totaled 1/3 of the regiment's strength. The remainder of the 33rd accompanied Cornwallis into Virginia, and it fought its last battle at Yorktown (October, 1781).

Below are two images of 15mm miniatures I've painted to represent the 33rd Foot. Colors for the flag pole will be added at a future date.

Also Online

Reenactors: 33rdfoot.org

Painted miniatures by other bloggers:

• 28mm miniatures by Giles
• 40mm miniatures by Truls

Régiment d'Agénois

Organization

Like other French infantry regiments, Agénois consisted of two battalions (both of which served in America). Each battalion consisted of 1 grenadier company, 1 chasseur company (their equivalents in the British and American armies was light infantry), and 4 fusilier companies.

Service

One battalion of Régiment Agénois was dispatched from France to the West Indies in October, 1777. There, the battalion helped garrison the island of Guadeloupe. In 1779, a portion of the troops was placed aboard Comte d’Estaing’s fleet and participated in the siege of Savannah. There, the detachment participated in the bloody assault on the Spring Hill redoubt (October 9, 1779). Afterwards, the men from Agénois were disembarked on the isle of Grenada in the West Indies. In 1781, the battalion was reunited on Martinique, and later, sent to Virginia where it participated in the siege of Yorktown. After the British surrender, the battalion was returned to Martinique, and in January, 1782, Agénois contributed to the siege of Brimstone Hill on St. Kitts. There, on January 18, the grenadiers and chasseurs of Agénois, along with those of Touraine, were attacked at Basse-Terre by a large relief force disembarked from a British fleet. The French companies were able to contain the British landing until reinforcements arrived, and this helped bring about the eventual surrender of the British garrison on Brimstone Hill. The troops from Agénois then served aboard the French fleet that was defeated at the battle of The Saintes (April 9 and 12, 1782). Most of the fusiliers were lost: those aboard L’Hector were captured by the British navy, and those aboard Le César perished when the ship exploded.

Uniforms

At the time France entered the war, Agénois wore a uniform white coat with pink cuffs and lapels, and a green collar. A new set of uniform regulations was issued in 1779, although the older uniforms were not immediately discontinued. Under the new regulations, the regiment wore a white coat with violet cuffs. Violet also trimmed the collar, lapels, and pocket flaps, which were white. The new regulations replaced the tall bearskin caps the grenadiers traditionally wore with a three-cornered hat decorated with a red pompom.

The contemporary drawing below shows an Agénois fusilier in the 1779-regulation uniform (excepting the plume, which was a feature of the older uniform).

There is reason to doubt that Agénois strictly adhered to the new regulations. The grenadiers, for example, appear to have retained the bearskin caps. Baron de Montlezun, in his Souvenirs des Antilles (1818) compared a conical-shaped plant found in the West Indies to the caps worn by the Agénois grenadiers (among others) during the American Revolution:

“Je voudrais pouvoir détailler au botaniste la variété des plantes que je foulais aux pieds; celle qui me frappa davantage, que je ne me rappelais point d'avoir vue, et que j'ai baptisée bonnet de grenadier, est une espèce de raquette, en masse demi-ovale, ou cône arrondi au sommet, façonnée dans son contour en côtes hérissées de piquans. L'ensemble a la dimension et la forme exacte d'un bonnet de grenadier surmonté d’un panaché si minutieusement ressemblant par ses proportions, sa teinte rouge-vif, et la place qu'il occupe sur cette plante, à ceux dont se décorent nos premiers soldats d'élite, que je fus saisi d'étonnement à un point que je n'ai jamais éprouvé, et que je ne pus m'empêcher de songer tout de suite aux braves grenadiers d'Agénois et aux nôtres, qui en portaient de pareils sur leurs têtes. Quelques-unes de ces plantes ont plusieurs pompons, mais le plus souvent elles n'en ont qu'un seul d'un beau rouge et de superbe effet!”

Another discrepancy is that the supposedly violet color of the cuffs may have been closer to blue in practice. Bluish cuffs can be seen in the paintings below by Blérancourt and van Blarenberghe. Of course, this could also reflect an error on the part of the painters, or a change in the color of the paint over time. However, René Chartrand, in The French Army in the American War of Independence (1991), refers to one source at Yorktown describing a French regiment wearing “white coats turned up with blue,” which could only be the supposedly violet-clad troops from Agénois or Gâtinais.

Detail from a Blérancourt painting showing a fusilier of Régiment Forez (left) and grenadier of Régiment Agénois (center). Both regiments purportedly had violet facings. The grenadier is wearing the regulation hat with pompom.

Details from the van Blarenberghe paintings of the siege of Yorktown. The marked grouping in the left panel shows officers (from left to right) from 104e Deux-Ponts, 18e Gâtinais, and 16e Agénois. The facings of the latter two appear to be bluish. The soldiers in the right panel are from 13e Bourbonnais, 18e Gâtinais, and 16e Agénois. Again, the facings of the latter two appear bluish. Note the bearskin cap on the grenadier.

What Are the Most Discussed Battles of the American Revolution?

Although I blog principally about obscure engagements of the American Revolution, I certainly have an interest in the well-known battles. Out of curiosity, I did a web search to determine which battles are most discussed. The search was conducted as follows:

• I chose 25 different battles to search, including several fought outside the 13 colonies.
• I conducted the search using a Google web search, a Google books search, a Google scholar search, and a Google blogs search.
• I used quotation marks when the name of the battle consisted of two common nouns (e.g., "Long Island," "King's Mountain."
• I used both "siege" and "battle" in conjunction with Savannah, Charleston, and Yorktown.

I predicted that the following searches would yield the largest number of "hits":

• Battle lexington concord 1775
• Siege yorktown 1781
• Battle trenton 1776
• Battle saratoga 1777
• Battle bunker hill 1775

The results included some surprises, including that the battle yielding the most "hits" was different for each search. The top 10 for each search is listed below.

Google Web
search terms (hits)

1. Battle quebec 1775 (1,840,000)
2. Battle charleston 1780 (1,080,000)
3. Battle savannah 1779 (1,060,000)
4. Battle lexington concord 1775 (429,000)
5. Siege yorktown 1781 (406,000)
6. Battle germantown 1777 (386,000)
7. Battle princeton 1777 (251,000)
8. Battle saratoga 1777 (206,000)
9. Battle bunker hill 1775 (193,000)
10. Battle “long island” 1776 (156,000)

(This search seemed especially likely to yield false positives).

Google Books
search terms (hits)

1. Battle lexington concord 1775 (75,300)
2. Battle bunker hill 1775 (52,500)
3. Battle “long island” 1776 (43,400)
4. Battle saratoga 1777 (36,000)
5. Battle yorktown 1781 (33,400)
6. Battle trenton 1776 (32,700)
7. Battle quebec 1775 (30,200)
8. Battle princeton 1777 (29,300)
9. Battle charleston 1780 (29,100)
10. Battle monmouth 1778 (27,900)

Google Scholar
search terms (hits)

1. Battle princeton 1777 (11,300)
2. Battle quebec 1775 (11,200)
3. Battle charleston 1780 (10,800)
4. Battle “long island” 1776 (9,840)
5. Battle bunker hill 1775 (9,390)
6. Battle camden 1780 (7,390)
7. Battle lexington concord 1775 (7,130)
8. Battle trenton 1776 (7,060)
9. Battle yorktown 1781 (6,540)
10. Battle saratoga 1777 (5,930)

Google Blogs
search terms (hits)

1. Battle bunker hill 1775 (4,079)
2. Battle trenton 1776 (2,862)
3. Battle “long island” 1776 (2,866)
4. Battle quebec 1775 (2,630)
5. Battle saratoga 1777 (2,526)
6. Battle lexington concord 1775 (2,017)
7. Battle yorktown 1781 (1,942)
8. Battle princeton 1777 (1,787)
9. Battle charleston 1780 (1,484)
10. Battle brandywine 1777 (1,082)

Brigade of Guards

Coming off the workbench at the moment are the battalion companies of the British Brigade of Guards. I have primarily used the Minfigs' American Marines pack to depict British this unit. The minis come with the cut-down round hats turned up on one side, like those worn by reenactors portraying this unit (cf. Brigade of Guards' picture gallery). The only problem is that these minis come with a backpack/blanket roll configuration that is not accurate to this unit.

A Completed Battalion (click to enlarge)

The Guards saw extensive service throughout the war, beginning with the invasion of New York. The Guards participated in the battle of Long Island (August 27, 1776), and served in a reserve capacity at the subsequent battles of White Plains (October 28) and Fort Washington (November 16). In the following months, the brigade saw service in New Jersey, most notably at Short Hills (June 26, 1777). The brigade also participated in the 1777 invasion of Pennsylvania and the 1778 retreat through New Jersey. During these campaigns, the brigade was instrumental in breaking the American line at the battles of Brandywine, (September 11, 1777), and Monmouth (June 28, 1778). The last major battle in which the brigade served in the northern theater was Springfield, New Jersey (June 7, 1780). The following year, the brigade was active in the southern theater, most notably at Guilford Courthouse (March 15, 1781) and Yorktown, where it was captured (October 19, 1781).

Seeds of Defeat (More)

At beginning of June, 1780, the British were confident that they would soon complete the subjugation of South Carolina. By the end of the month, however, that goal was proving elusive. The Backcountry militia were driven into neighboring North Carolina following the battle of Hill's Ironworks, but the destruction of private property and the hanging of some rebels pushed the populace more towards becoming angry and dangerous than frightened and submissive. The British, in other words, had enough numbers and used enough force to provoke many inhabitants of the Backcountry, but they were not so numerous as to deter or suppress armed resistance. The Backcountry militia were stronger at the end of June than they were at the end of May, and the British had inadvertently started on the road to defeat.

There are multiple explanations that can be invoked to explain the failure of the British occupation of South Carolina. Some authors have praised the indomitable spirit of resistance among the South Carolina Scotch Irish, or the guerrilla-style tactics employed by the American militia (see the works by Sam Thomas and Michael Scoggins). In a previous post, I described errors in strategy and policy as root causes of the British defeat. Recently I read an article by Malcolm Gladwell that prompted me to consider overconfidence on the part of the British leadership as a critical factor.

Gladwell often shows connections between seemingly unrelated events, and in this article he identified overconfidence as the root cause of last year's financial meltdown on Wall Street, and the infamous British defeat at Gallipoli in World War I. In describing Gallipoli, he repeatedly referred to Eliot Cohen's and John Gooch's analysis of this defeat. Gladwell wrote:

"Cohen and Gooch ascribe the disaster at Gallipoli to a failure to adapt--a failure to take into account how reality did not conform to their expectations. And behind that failure to adapt was a deeply psychological problem: the British simply couldn't wrap their heads around the fact that they might have to adapt. "Let me bring my lads face to face with Turks in the open field," [Sir Ian] Hamilton wrote in his diary before the attack. "We must beat them every time because British volunteer soldiers are superior individuals to Anatolians, Syrians or Arabs and are animated with a superior ideal and an equal joy in battle."

What struck me while reading this article is the several parallels between the British invasion of Gallipoli in 1915 and South Carolina in 1780. In both cases, a second front was opened in order to bring a stalemated war to a successful conclusion. In both cases, the invaders had a low opinion of the opponent they faced, and in both occasion the invaders would be slow to adapt to unanticipated difficulties (such as the asymmetrical warfare adopted by the Americans in the South).

"'The attack was based on two assumptions,' Cohen and Gooch write, 'both of which turned out to be unwise: that the only really difficult part of the operation would be getting ashore, after which the Turks could easily be pushed off the peninsula; and that the main obstacles to a happy landing would be provided by the enemy.'"

The British planning for the invasion of South Carolina was likewise concerned primarily with getting the army safely ashore, and dealing with the threat posed by the Continentals. In fact, defeating the Continental army at Charleston proved to be a much less formidable task than subduing the rural parts of the state.

I'm not going to be do justice to the article in this post, but I'll share one tidbit that I found to be especially interesting. Regarding the origins of overconfidence, Gladwell wrote:

"As novices, we don't trust our judgment. Then we have some success, and begin to feel a little surer of ourselves. Finally, we get to the top of our game and succumb to the trap of thinking that there's nothing we can't master. As we get older and more experienced, we overestimate the accuracy of our judgments, especially when the task before us is difficult and when we're involved with something of great personal importance. The British were overconfident at Gallipoli not because Gallipoli didn't matter but, paradoxically, because it did; it was a highstakes contest, of daunting complexity, and it is often in those circumstances that overconfidence takes root."

Is this what happened in South Carolina? Arguably, the British commanders, Lieutenant-Generals Henry Clinton and Charles Cornwallis had much the same background and were in much the same situation. Cornwallis in particular seemed to take increasingly large and ill-advised risks during the Southern Campaign. He wisely refrained from invading North Carolina in June of 1780 because he felt insufficiently strong and because South Carolina had not been wholly subdued. In August, he took a big gamble at the battle of Camden (attacking a force he believed to be several times larger than his own) that paid off spectacularly well. In the spring of 1781, he invaded North Carolina with a little over 2,000 men, even though this entailed advancing into a wilderness where he could not be supplied and where few supplies could be found. That too paid off, or so he may have convinced himself because of the "victory" won at Guilford Courthouse. And so on it continued until his final courting of disaster at Yorktown.

Sources:

Sam Thomas. The 1780 Presbyterian Rebellion and the Battle of Huck's Defeat.

Michael C. Scoggins. (2005). The Day It Rained Militia: Huck's Defeat and the Revolution in the South Carolina Backcountry, May-July 1780. (link to amazon.com).

Malcolm Gladwell. Cocksure: Banks, battles, and the psychology of overconfidence. The New Yorker. July 27, 2009.

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.

71st Regiment of Foot

[Minor edits 12/28/09]

The 71st Regiment of Foot was raised in 1775 among the Highlanders of Scotland; it was the first British regiment to be raised after the start of the war. At its peak, the regiment had 2,340 men. The regiment was sent to New York in 1776 and participated in the battle of Long Island, and served in a minor capacity at White Plains and Fort Washington. The following spring (1777), the regiment was active in New Jersey and fought at Short Hills; that summer, the 71st accompanied William Howe to Pennsylvania, where it fought at Brandywine. Afterwards, the regiment was used to guard the British baggage and to help secure the Delaware River. The regiment returned to New York in December, 1777. While in New York, the 71st participated in the raid on Little Egg Harbor, New Jersey (1778), and the grenadiers of the regiment were captured at Stony Point (1779). The 71st participated in the capture of Savannah (1778), and Augusta (1779) in Georgia. In that same campaign it served with distinction at Briar Creek, Stono Ferry, and the siege of Savannah (1779). The following year (1780), the 71st participated in the siege of Charleston and was garrisoned at Cheraws, South Carolina, when the British established a system of outposts in that state.

The 71st suffered significant losses in 1779-1780 due to illness. Captain Johann Ewald of the Hessian Jaegers recorded in his diary (February 2, 1780) that "The remainder of the 71st Scottish Regiment, which had arrived from Savannah, joined us here [near Charleston]. The regiment had melted away during this war from three thousand to four hundred men, due partly to the sword and partly to the climate."

The 71st was placed in reserve at Camden (1780), and helped repel the Continentals when the British left began to gave way. Subsequently, the regiment participated in Cornwallis' abortive invasion of North Carolina, and was present at the capture of Charlotte (1780). The 1st battalion of the 71st and the light infantry of both battalions were destroyed at Cowpens. The 2nd battalion fought at Wetzell's Mill and Guilford Courthouse (1781), and was captured at Yorktown (1781).

The images below show my 1st battalion of the 71st advancing into action. The uniform is based on the Troiani painting of an infantryman of the 71st in the South. Among the miniatures is a bagpiper (wearing a enlisted man's coat with some lace added to the shoulders rather than a proper musician's uniform). Colonel Otho Williams mentioned in a letter that the bagpipes of the 71st were captured at Cowpens.

Feud with Tarleton

Immediately after Cowpens, a long-running feud began between Tarleton and the officers of the 71st. Lieutenant-Colonel John Eager Howard of the Maryland continentals recalled that the captured, "Major M'Arthur [of the 71st] very freely entered. into conversation, and said that he was an officer before Tarleton was born; that the best troops in the service were put under 'that boy' to be sacrificed." Brigadier-General William Moultrie of South Carolina heard the paroled British officers echoing these sentiments after their arrival in Charleston, where they awaited to be exchanged for American prisoners of war. He recalled, "Some of the old British officers who were made prisoners, and paroled to Charlestown, when they came down, were exceedingly angry indeed, at their defeat, and were heard to say, 'that was the consequence of trusting such a command to a boy like Tarleton.'" David Stewart's 1822 Sketches... of the Highlanders of Scotland related that, "if they [the 71st] had been properly led on and supported, they would have shown themselves at Cowpens the same as in all other actions... The troops were hurried into action, without any previous examination of the ground, or of the disposition of the enemy; and so strong was the impression on the minds of the officers of the Highland regiment that the fault did not lie with their men, that they made a representation to Lord Cornwallis, not to be employed again under the same officer. His Lordship complied with their request." The feud reached its climax with the attacks of Lieutenant Roderick's Mackenzie on Tarleton. The first of these appeared in a London newspaper while the war was still in progress. In this, Mackenzie complained to Tarleton that, "You got yourself and your party completely ambuscaded, completely surrounded, upon all sides, by Mr. Morgan's rifle men. What was the consequence? The two detachments of British were made prisoners after a great slaughter was made among them, your legion dragoons were so broke by galling fire of rifle shot that your charging was in vain, till prudence, on your side, with about twenty men who were well mounted, made your retreat good, by leaving the remains of the poor blended legion in the hands of Mr. Morgan."

Sources:

Philip R. N. Katcher (1973). Encyclopedia of British, Provincial, and German Army Units 1775-1783. Stackpole Books.

Johann Ewald (1979). Diary of the American War: A Hessian Journal. Translated by Joseph P Tustin. New Haven: Yale University Press.

John Moncure's online history of the battle, The Cowpens Staff Ride and Battlefield Tour, includes a transcription of statements by Tarleton, Cornwallis, Howard, and Mackenzie's August 9, 1782, letter in the London Morning Chronicle.

William Moultrie's 1802 Memoirs of the American Revolution.

A summary of the Otho Williams papers can be found here. The item in question is a letter from Williams to Dr. James McHenry, dated January 23, 1781.

The British Legion

[Minor edits 12/25/09; 4/13/10]

The British Legion was formed at New York in 1778 from other Provincial units. The term "legion" refers to the fact that the regiment included both an infantry and a cavalry component (specifically, "dragoons"). The Legion also apparently had a band, and, according to Colonel Otho Williams, their instruments were captured at the battle of Cowpens.

The infantry of the Legion usually fought on foot, but detachments were sometimes mounted, most notably at Waxhaws and Hanging Rock. Some of the Legion infantry were apparantly mounted at Cowpens, too, for Tarleton commented that "the cavalry and mounted infantry brought up the rear" during his approach to the battlefield.

The British Legion was one of the most active units during the later years of the war. The regiment (or detachments thereof) saw action at Indian Field in 1778, the siege of Charleston, Lenud's Ferry, Monck's Corner, and Waxhaws in the Spring of 1780, Williamson's Plantation, Rocky Mount, Hanging Rock, Camden, and Fishing Creek in the Summer of 1780, Fishdam Ford, and Blackstock's Plantation in the Fall of 1780, and Cowpens, Torrence's Tavern, Wetzell's Mill , Guilford Courthouse, and Yorktown in 1781.

The many battles in which this regiment participated took a severe toll on the rank and file. Loyalist Alexander Chesney wrote that at the time of Cowpens, the dragoon companies were "filled up from the prisoners taken at the battle of Camden."

The uniform of the dragoons is well documented as short green jackets with black cuffs and collars (see especially this famous painting and Don Troiaini's modern one). The recollections of Cornet James Simons of the American 3rd light dragoons confirmed that this uniform was worn at Cowpens, “Colo. Tarleton's Legeonary Cavalry... wore a Uniform of Green with black facings.” The infantry of the Legion probably wore green jackets as well, although the "Barron Map" of the Battle of Camden shows them in red coats with black facings.

Sources:

Philip R. N. Katcher (1973). Encyclopedia of British, Provincial, and German Army Units 1775-1783. Stackpole Books.

Johann Ewald (1979). Diary of the American War: A Hessian Journal. Translated by Joseph P Tustin. New Haven: Yale University Press.

Lawrence Babits. (1998). A Devil of a Whipping: The Battle of Cowpens (amazon.com link).

The Journal of Alexander Chesney is available here through Google Books.

A summary of the Otho Williams papers can be found here. The item in question is a letter from Williams to Dr. James McHenry, dated January 23, 1781.

Marg Baskin's Banastre Tarleton website is a fantastic resource for Banastre Tarleton and British Legion aficionados.

17th Light Dragoons

[Minor edits 12/25/09]

The 17th Light Dragoons was one of two regiments of horse that the British dispatched to North America during the American Revolution. The 17th was sent to Boston and dismounted volunteers of the regiment served at Bunker Hill (1775). The following year, the regiment accompanied William Howe to New York and led the nighttime flanking march preceding the battle of Long Island (1776). At White Plains (1776), the regiment attacked the retreating Americans in what was probably the first cavalry charge of the war. The regiment was also at Fort Washington (1776), albeit in a minor capacity. The following year, the regiment participated in operations around New York, including the Danbury raid (1777), and the capture of Forts Clinton and Montgomery (1777). In the winter of 1777-1778, the regiment was with Howe at Philadelphia, and detachments saw action at White Marsh (1777), Crooked Billet (1778), and Barren Hill (1778). As the war shifted back to New York, the regiment was present at Monmouth (1778), New Jersey, and Pound Ridge (1778), New York. At the end of 1778, the 16th Light Dragoons was returned to England and the able horses and enlisted men were drafted into the 17th. In December, 1779, a part of the regiment accompanied Henry Clinton to South Carolina and participated in the siege of Charleston (1780), Monck's Corner (1780), Lenud's Ferry (1780), and Waxhaws (1780). Another part remained in New York and participated in Knyphausen's raid into New Jersey and saw action at New Bridge (1780). The detachment in the South returned to New York after the battle of Waxhaws; another detachment, however, was sent to South Carolina in January, 1781, where it subsequently suffered heavily at Cowpens (1781). Some members of the 17th were also present at Yorktown (1781), where Banastre Tarleton credited them with rescuing him during an engagement with Lauzun's hussars and lancers.

Cornet James Simmons of the American 3rd Light Dragoons remembered that at Cowpens the 17th “wore a uniform of red and buff, with Sheep Skin, on their caps.” The official facing color of the regiment was white. Don Troiani has completed a couple of paintings depicting the 17th at the time of Cowpens (here and here).

Sources:

Thomas Balch (1857). Papers Relating Chiefly to the Maryland Line During the Revolution. Balch's book has a transcription of Simons' letter to William Washington. His book can be downloaded from this site.

Richard Cannon (1841). Historical Record of the Seventeenth Regiment of Light Dragoons-- Lancers.

Philip R. N. Katcher (1973). Encyclopedia of British, Provincial, and German Army Units 1775-1783. Stackpole Books.

The recreated 17th Light Dragoons have a very informative website, which can be found here.