| Side | Unit Name | Base No's | Unit Type | Artillery Type | Comments/Notes |
| American and French |
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| American | Green Mountain Boys - 1st Battalion | 1 & 2 | Line Infantry CO | N/A |
I had enough figures for two battalions of these guys - plate no. 18 in the Mollo book looked close enough... The unit came from New Hampshire, and were involved in the taking of Fort Ticonderoga and later the invasion of Quebec, and battles at Hubbardton and Bennington in 1777. There seem to have been two battalions, one commanded by Seth Warner and the other by Ira Allen. Mollo at least believed there were enough of them to comprise one battalion of 500, so two battalions is probably a bit on the high side... the flag is almost certainly not correct (see the Wikipedia article for the correct one), but will do until I get round to re-flagging them. I use them as line infantry, better than militia but not classed as Continentals - totally evocative and they clearly caught my eye when I was first organising the regiments as they are base numbers 1, 2, 3 & 4. |
| American | Green Mountain Boys - 2nd Battalion | 3 & 4 | Line Infantry CO | N/A | See previous entry.. |
| American | Massachusetts Militia - 1st Battalion | 5 & 6 | Militia CO | N/A |
First of three separate battalions of plain vanilla American Militia of the type most would recognise - plates 4, 5 & 6 in the Mollo book... |
| American | 1st Rifle Regiment | 7 & 8 | Militia CO | N/A |
Plate no 40 in Mollo - I treat them as Militia if I use them in my games but in reality they were the 1st regiment formed by Washington in the new Continental Army - apparently created from Hand's Pennsylvania Rifle Regiment these guys have rifles as opposed to muskets. |
| American | New York Regiment | 9 & 10 | Line Infantry CO | N/A |
Fictional I think - I have no idea who these guys were painted to represent - I think I chose them based on plate 52 which shows an American infantryman in a uniform with dark blue breeches - according to the base numbers he is from the Minifigs Seven Years War range, and is a "French Fusilier (Campaign Dress)". Subsequent info from Ray Rousell would indicate that these are Companies Franches de la Marine from the F&IW - they were probably supposed to represent a unit of the Compagnie Franche de La Marine. Now I'll admit that at that point in time I had no idea who the Compagnie Franche de la Marine even were - but I know a whole lot more now...  .
In summary, they were a body of troops sent to the French overseas territory of 'New France' ("The possessions of France in North America from the 16th century until the Treaty of Paris in 1763...... At its greatest extent it included much of south-east Canada, the Great Lakes region, and the Mississippi Valley. British and French rivalry for control of the territory led to the four conflicts known as the French and Indian Wars (1689-1763)". From the Free Dictionary)
The first three Compagnies Franches de la Marine were sent to America (or rather New France) in 1683. The force was expanded, and by 1757 had 40 companies of 65 men each, scattered across the various settlements in New France. Originally the units were fully recruited from France, but over time they were eventually manned by recruits from New France itself.
"Marine" comes from the fact that although these troops were infantry first and foremost, because they were based overseas they came under the control of the Navy Department - and that made them Marines.. Franche (according to fellow blogger Mekelnborg), plural franches, means 'free,' he believes we would call it 'independent', so these would be independent companies of marines in English..
A closer look at these figures shows that the coat is not a uniform coat as such - there are no lapels, or turn backs - it represents the fact that the summer campaign dress of these units would have been just the long sleeved waistcoat (normally worn under the coat) along with gaiters or leggings... typically these leggings would have been American Indian style buckskin, but black was known...
Most of these units would also have worn a soft cap rather than the tricorn - but it's not beyond the realms of reason to assume some units would have done..
History advises us that the Compagnies disappeared after the fall of New France (1760 after Wolfe took Quebec).
 So what of my little regiment?? The Wiki article makes mention that some compagnies were joined together into battalions to serve alongside regular troops in defence of Montreal and Quebec - what could be more natural then, than one such regiment fleeing south with their families after the defeat at Quebec, and seeking to live in America rather than be subject to their victors in their own land?
Going one step further who cannot blame them, if they then take up arms against their old persecutors upon the start of the War of Independence? I suspect a new flag is in order for this little regiment though, to remind them of their illustrious history... never let the real history get in the way of a good story even if it completely unlikely!
Further reading:
This is very good - http://www.kronoskaf.com/syw/index.php?title=Colonial_Compagnies_Franches_de_la_Marine
Wiki article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compagnies_Franches_de_la_Marine
Uniform and history: http://www.militaryheritage.com/c_franch.htm |
| American | 9th Pennsylvania Regiment | 11 & 12 | Line Infantry CO | N/A |
Based on plate no 71 - though Mollo shows them with the light infantry cap as opposed to tricorne, but as Mollo stated there was only one mention of the cap in the regimental returns I thought it would be safe to give them tricorne's. According to Mollo this regiment served all the way through the war until it was disbanded in 1781 on the orders of Washington - but Wikipedia says that "On 22 July 1778 the regiment was re-assigned to the 2d Pennsylvania Brigade. It was consolidated with the 5th Pennsylvania Regiment on 17 January 1781 and re-designated as the 5th Pennsylvania Regiment and concurrently furloughed at Trenton, New Jersey.The regiment would see action during the Battle of Brandywine, Battle of Germantown, Battle of Monmouth and the Battle of Springfield". |
| American | Massachusetts Militia - 2nd Battalion | 13 & 14 | Militia CO | N/A |
See previous entry.. |
| American | 3rd Battalion Philadelphia Associators | 15 & 16 | Militia CO | N/A |
See entry for bases #19 and #20.. |
| American | Massachusetts Militia - 3rd Battalion | 17 & 18 | Militia CO | N/A | Third of three separate battalions of plain vanilla Militia of the type most would recognise - plates 4, 5 & 6 in the Mollo book...
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| American | 1st Battalion Philadelphia Associators | 19 & 20 | Militia CO | N/A |
John had painted loads of these guys, which were a total mystery to me as I'd never seen that style of headgear before. I thought they looked closest to the figures depicted in plates 93 & 94, which were from the 1st Battalion "Philadelphia Associators" at Valley Forge. Mollo indicates there were four battalions, who were eventually amalgamated into the 3rd Philadelphia Brigade under Cadwalader in 1777. They eventually consisted of five battalions, earning honours in the battles of Trenton, Princeton, Brandywine and Germantown. The hats are not right, but the uniform colours are correct as Mollo indicates they were uniformed in brown with different coloured facings for each regiment.
NB. Ross Mac subsequantly came up with the informtion that these are actually SYW/F&IW British Light Infantry ( Gage's or 80th Reg't. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/80th_Regiment_of_Light-Armed_Foot) - so, wrong war, and wrong side, but they've been serving the American's so long now they'll remain as honorary Philadelphians..  |
| American | 2nd Battalion Philadelphia Associators | 21 & 22 | Militia CO | N/A | See previous entry. |
| American | Maryland State Marines | 23 & 24 | Line Infantry CO | N/A |
Another guess - clearly these look nothing like plate no. 150 in Mollo! I'm guessing that when I divided the units these guys were moved to the American side in order to make up numbers. They are clearly marines, or rather sailors, John's tastes were eclectic! Either way, in my American army they form a battalion, and a weak (one base) battalion of state marines - these guys formed sterling service in the action in the Plattville Valley [clicky]. |
| American | Maryland State Marines | 25 | Line Infantry CO | N/A | See previous entry - single base |
| American | Rhode Island Artillery | 26 | Artillery | Medium |
I have three artillery pieces for the American’s - these are Rhode Island. an imaginary unit (as are the other two as well), this usally plays as a medium piece..
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| American | New York Artillery | 27 | Artillery | Light |
First of two light guns this time representing the New York, the lights came from the same (long forgotten) plastic source that the British guns came from (Revell?).
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| American | Connecticut Artillery | 28 | Artillery | Light |
See previous entry..
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| American | Massachusetts Militia - 4th Battalion | 29 & 30 | Light Infantry OO | N/A |
Longer term readers of this blog will recognise this regiment as the one that won their battle honours at the Battle of Carnine [clicky] and which were subsequently subject to an on-line poll to decide which colours they were to have. Nice to know that they will forever be associated with that long-ago battle no matter how badly they subsequently perform!
Either way, by the time I got to these guys I was beginning to get to the bottom of the box of figures that John had provided – so I based these as Light troops for skirmishing – and even then we were clearly a little heavy on fife players...! The clothing style was the same as the first three battalions so these guys became the 4th Battalion. |
| French | Bourbonnais Regiment (1st. Batt.) | 31 & 32 | Line Infantry CO | N/A |
These are the first figures I painted for the project – by this time I had decided to focus on Yorktown as the OOB to base the project round, and given the preponderance of Militia and non-Continental units the French were an obvious choice as a “stiffening” unit in the American forces.
French regiments were absolutely huge so to get round the scaling issue in the McNally rules, I just made them two units strong this allowed me to field one unit with the white colonels colour, and the other with the regimental colour. Plate no 201 in the Mollo book, plus the relevant Osprey gave me the uniform details.. |
| American | Militia | 33 & 34 | Militia CO | N/A |
These guys came to me in a supplementary parcel I think (I kept getting these odd little parcels of figures from John as he discovered various stashes of figures he had “put safely away” – quite exciting...)
There is further evidence here that what John had actually been collecting for (I think) was a Seven Years War North America set up, but by this time I didn’t care – they fitted very nicely into the War of Independence thank you very much.... I suspect these were meant to be couriers de bois – they all had red stocking caps – all I did was colour some of the caps differently, and based them up as militia from the northern states – where clearly it is winter... 
Either way, plate 10 in the Mollo book supports my contention. |
| American | Militia | 35 & 36 | Militia CO | N/A | See previous entry.. |
| American | 4th Dragoons | 37 & 38 | Cavalry | N/A |
I was also well aware that the Americans were light on cavalry - the American War of Independence was not a "cavalry war", but up until now they had none at all. John had passed me a fair few figures to represent the British 16th and 17th Light Dragoons - far more than I needed - so the quick and dirty approach to remedy this was to take four of these figures and do a paint conversion to an American Dragoon unit - the Mollo plates 176 (and 177) are two of the best in the book in my eyes, so I went with the 4th Regiment as they were present at Yorktown. |
| American | 1st New York | 39 & 40 | Line Infantry CO | N/A |
Additional stiffening was to be provided by the arrival of the first Continental foot regiments... these guys represent the 1st New York Regiment (Brigadier General James Clinton's Brigade of Major General Benjamin Lincoln's Division at Yorktown).
"The 1st New York Regiment was authorized on 25 May 1775 and organized at New York City from 28 June to 4 August, for service with the Continental Army under the command of Colonel Alexander McDougall. The enlistments of the first establishment ended on 31 December 1775. The second establishment of the regiment (ie. this one) was authorized on 19 January 1776. The regiment was involved in the Invasion of Canada, the Battle of Valcour Island, the Battle of Saratoga, the Battle of Monmouth, the Sullivan Expedition, and the Battle of Yorktown.
The regiment was furloughed 2 June 1783 at Newburgh, New York and disbanded 15 November 1783."
I think it EXTREMELY unlikely that the regiment presented this smart an appearance by this stage of their service - constant campaigning, the heat of the southern states, shortage of supply etc etc would have resulted in them looking considerably different but I took my reference from the Mollo plate 168, and I love the parade ground look for a Continental regiment as it helps to convey the regularity and discipline of the regiment - please don't tell me they "look wrong" as I will ignore you... |
| American | 2nd New York | 41 & 42 | Line Infantry CO | N/A |
The sister regiment to the 1st New York, same brigade at Yorktown, and same comments apply with regard to appearance..
"The 2nd New York Regiment was authorized on May 25, 1775, and formed at Albany from June 28 to August 4 for service with the Continental Army under the command of Colonel Goose Van Schaick (good name!). The enlistments of the first establishment ended on December 31, 1775.The second establishment of the regiment (ie., the one these figures represent) was authorized on January 19, 1776.
The regiment would see action in the Invasion of Canada, Battle of Valcour Island, Battle of Saratoga, Battle of Monmouth, the Sullivan Expedition and the Battle of Yorktown. The regiment would be furloughed, June 2, 1783, at Newburgh, New York and disbanded November 15, 1783." |
| French | Lauzun's Legion Hussars | 43 & 44 | Cavalry | N/A |
Some more cavalry for the American side - I have a couple of units of British cavalry so this unit was intended to "even things up", as they are classed as European regulars.
From the Osprey book "American War of Independence Commanders" (Elite 93): "‘Duc de Lauzun.’
The flamboyant young duke was a scion (wouldn't you just love to be called a scion? ) of France's wealthy, high-nobility. He was colonel by the age of 20 and saw his first action in 1768 campaigning with light troops in the hills of Corsica. He was also a handsome, quick-witted and noted courtier, and, in 1778 he was made colonel-in-chief of the Volontaires étrangers de la Marine (Foreign Volunteers of the Navy). This brigade-like new unit was to have up to eight legions of mostly German soldiers, comprising infantry, hussars and artillery, and intended for service overseas. The Volontaires étrangers de la Marine raised only three legions, the 1st going to the West Indies, and the 3rd to Mauritius and later India. Lauzun was more interested in managing a corps at home and, in 1780, the 2nd Legion that had remained as a depot in France was transformed into Lauzun's Legion (see Men-at-Arms 244: The French Army in the American War of Independence 1778-83)
Eager for action, Lauzun commanded the troops sent with Adm. de Vaudreuil's fleet to capture Senegal from the British: it fell on January 30, 1779. His new corps, the Volontaires étrangers de Lauzun (known to Americans as Lauzun's Legion) and comprising 300 hussars and 300 infantry, sailed for North America with Rochambeau's army in June 1780. Once on Rhode Island, there was little action and it was not until a night skirmish on July 17/18, 1781 that a detachment saw action against some British light dragoons. The French army was now marching south past New York and Philadelphia and the hussars of Lauzun's Legion proved to be valuable scouts as it neared and then invested Yorktown."
This regiment represents another failed attempt on my part to find a decent yellow! |
| French | Bourbonnais Regiment (2nd. Batt.) | 45 & 46 | Line Infantry CO | N/A |
See previous entry for 1st Battalion.
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| French | Saintonge Regiment | 47 & 48 | Line Infantry CO | N/A |
Another French regiment - this time Saintonge. Just one unit of this regiment so far - like Bourbonnais I will add another at some time.
The regiment served in Brigade Soissonois, along with the regiment of the same name, and also the Touraine Regiment.
"The Saintonge Regiment, also known as the 85e Regiment of the Line, was raised in the year 1684 in the province of Saintonge, France. From 1763 to 1768 the regiment served in the West Indies and French Guiana. In 1780 the regiment was sent with Jean-Baptiste Donatien de Vimeur, comte de Rochambeau to help the United States during the American Revolutionary War. The regiment took part in the Siege of Yorktown in 1781. In 1782 the regiment returned to the West Indies and then back to France in 1783. Following the French Revolution the regiment became the 82e Regiment of Infantry."
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| American | Militia | 49 to 52 | Light Infantry OO | N/A | More figures that I bought last year from one of my fellow "Old School Wargamers"..
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| American | Rhode Island Regiment | 53 & 54 | Rangers OO | N/A |
These guys have been painted to "represent" the Rhode Island Regiment - bought as part of a group of used figures from one of my fellow Old Schooler's (thanks Jim!), and originally painted as, I think, light infantry from one of the New York regiments. Happily I didn't have to strip them, I just re-undercoated in black, and painted as if they were new. |
