“Don’t Tread On Me!”: My AWI Rebel Army (Part 1)

As mentioned last time, I dug our my old 28mm American War of Independence collection last year and had a brief flurry of AWI games, using British Grenadier! rules.  That led to some new purchases and a few new units being painted for both sides.

We’ll be digging the collection out again in March for our postponed refight of the Battle of Brandywine 1777, which I’m really looking forward to.  It’s a scenario I’ve played a few times before, but it’s been a while since the last occasion and it’s always good fun.

Anyway, here are a few units of those dastardly rebellious chaps.  They’re in no particular order and not particularly grouped for any particular battle or theatre of the war, as they’re mostly just what I fancied painting from the selection presented in the Blandford ‘Uniforms of the American Revolution‘ book by John Mollo, which was then my only source of uniform information! 🙂

I’ve never been a good judge of character and thankfully neither has Brendan Morrissey, so in latter years I’ve been able to bend his arm for various bits of uniform information and his concise uniform guide in the Perry Miniatures plastic Continental Infantry box is utterly superb.  I’ve also relied fairly heavily on Giles Allison’s epic Tarleton’s Quarter blog.

So all research mistakes are entirely theirs… 😉

Above:  These were the very first AWI figures I ever painted; a single pack of eight Militia by Wargames Foundry, very kindly given to me by Mike Hickling, along with a pack of British infantry in the regulation 1768 uniform.  Those two packs very quickly snowballed into rather large armies!

Above:  These fellas are classic Militia, dressed in a wide variety of civilian dress and variously armed.  I’ve also added a ‘casually-dressed’ British officer figure (in the blue coat), to make the unit up to nine figures (three skirmisher stands, each of three figures).

Above:  The skirmishers needed some formed supports, so I bought more militia from Wargames Foundry, along with a few Continental command figures from Perry Miniatures.  This regiment doesn’t represent any particular unit, but has a very slight uniformed ‘theme’ of brown coats, faced red with white metal buttons running through it, though with most still in civilian dress.

Above:  My first few units were geared toward the Battle of Bunker Hill of 1775, so I’ve given this regiment the famous Bunker Hill Flag (by GMB Designs).

Above:  Sargent’s Massachusetts Regiment was raised on 23rd April 1775 as Massachusetts state troops.  On 14th June 1775 they were adopted into the Continental Army and on 1st January 1776 they were re-named as the 16th Continental Regiment.  On 1st August 1779 they were finally re-named again to become the 8th Massachusetts Continental Regiment.

Above:  Sargent’s Regiment are carrying a generic ‘Grand Union’ or ‘Continental’ Flag, which came into being on 3rd December 1775 and changed again to the ‘Stars & Stripes’ (with 13 stars) from 14th June 1777.  These are all Wargames Foundry figures.

Above:  Mollo depicted Sargent’s Regiment in 1775 as wearing this rather nice dark green uniform with black facings, white tail-turnbacks, buff smallclothes and white metal buttons.  As with all Continental regiments, these uniforms didn’t last very long and they changed uniform multiple times during the course of the war, so any painted unit is only ever a very brief snapshot of that regiment at any given time.

Above:  Like Sargent’s Regiment, Patterson’s Massachusetts Regiment was raised on 23rd April 1775 as state troops and on 1th June 1775 was adopted into the Continental Army.  On 1st January 1776 it was re-named as the 15th Continental Regiment.  However, on 1st January 1777 the regiment was amalgamated with elements of the 6th & 18th Continental Regiments to become Vose’s Regiment.  On 1st August 1779 it was re-named for the last time, becoming the 1st Massachusetts Continental Regiment.

Above:  Mollo depicted Patterson’s Regiment in 1775 as having blue uniforms with buff facings, white metal buttons and buff smallclothes.  Again, there’s a lot of variation here, with various items of civilian dress and different colours of smallclothes, but the ‘theme’ is blue & buff.

Above:  Patterson’s Regiment is again made up from Wargames Foundry figures.  The flag is of a generic ‘Liberty Tree’ pattern by GMB Designs.

Above:  Dubois’ New York Regiment was raised on 21st June 1776, being assigned to the Northern Department.  On 26th January 1777 it was re-named as the 3rd New York Continental Regiment and in May 1779 was sent to the Main Continental Army, staying there for a year before being sent back to the Northern Department.

Above:  Mollo depicted the 3rd New York Regiment as having a grey uniform with dark green facings, white metal buttons and grey smallclothes.

Above:  Again, the 3rd New York Regiment is made up of Wargames Foundry figures.  The flag is a rather fancy New York state flag by GMB Designs.

Anyway, I’ll have to sign off now, as we’re leaving on a jet-plane! 🙂  Much more to follow.  I’ve been busily painting my remaining Reichsarmee units these past few weeks, but I briefly wandered off-piste to paint these lovely new Russian Mounted Jäger figures from AB Figures, so more on these when I get back from my hols!