"1812 Maryland Militia Uniforms" Topic

I'm thinking about doing the Battle of North Point for Huzzah! this year. Did all the Maryland militia at the scene have the red sash around the shako, or just the 5th? I'm guessing they all did but I can't find confirmation.

Thanks-

B.

Evidence suggests that no, they did not all wear the stovepipe with red turban. There was at least one unit that wore a blue turban. Troiani shows coats as single breasted, but they're also shown as double breasted with lapels on the chest. That, and civilian garb, of course. I'm away from my sources at the moment, but can post more later.

I've wanted to do this battle for several years,there was a write up on it in Wargames Illustrated awhile back,complete with ob's.Since I so recently got my copy of Black Powder,I think I'll give it a go,although my figures wont be the correct uniforms.

In René Chartrand's Uniforms and Equipment of the United States Forces in the War of 1812 he writes for 1814 and the British capture of Washington, "A painting by Thomas Ruckle, showing a vast number of troops assembling for the defense of Baltimore, is a very good source of information. The Maryland Volunteer infantry are dressed in dark blue with red collar and cuffs. They have white or blue pantaloons, some with a cap with a red turban and plumes, others with a blue truban and white plumes. One company appears to have added wings and white lapels piped with red and to have switched to brass buttons. The drummers wear the reversed colors as in the regular army: red coatees with blue facings. The rifle companies are in green, their frocks having red fringes, wearing a cap with green cords and white plume…. Artillery is usually depicted in 1814 wearing long-tailed coats of blue faced with red and bicorns, but some field batteries have all-blue coatees and round hats."

It also mentions the official uniforms of the Maryland Militia Act of Jan. 7, 1812 with generals, their ADCs, and 'brigade inspectors' "to wear dark blue coats with buff collar, cuffs, lapels, waistcoats, and breeches, gold buttons and bicorn hats."

"Infantry officers were to have a dark blue coat edged with red with red collar and cuffs (no lapels are mentioned), silver buttons, white waistcoat and breeches (or pantaloons) in summer, dark blue pantaloons edged with red in winter, black gaiters or half boots, and a bicorn hat with a black cockade. Infantry non-commissioned officers and privates were to have dark blue short coats with red collar and cuffs, white metal buttons, blue pantaloons, black gaiters, and shoes or half boots…. The act did not specify the colors of the turnbacks, but it is safe to assume they were to be the same as for the regular army: buff for generals, white for infantry and cavalry and red for artillery. The same could be said of rank badges."

The Troiani painting is reproduced in black & white with the written description just describing the colours. So if you have access to a colour version of it, there's nothing more to add to it.

There's a photo of the shako worn by Ensign John Reese of the 5th Maryland Infantry in 1814 that is very like the official 1812 pattern line infantry one. A stovepipe with a rectangular tin plate and the cord (hanging on both back and front and with a dangling side cord with tassel on the right) in light yellow.

per the Company of Military Historians (see Plate 462) the red turban seems to be worn by the 4th Company, United Baltimore Volunteers of the 5th Regiment and thus indicates only one company of that regiment may have worn this uniform. It appears that very small, company sized units made up each of the Maryland Militia Regiments and thus the wargamer could have a different uniform for each company within a regiment. One should not think that this uniform was representative of the entire formation.

a dangling side cord with tassel on the right

Oops. I mean the left side.

And the one company with wings and white lapels would seem to fit in with aud minis ter's observation.

Thanks y'all. There's something very moving about these city volunteers getting out there to protect their homes and (in a general sense) pulling the mission off. Now I can go that extra distance in depicting them accurately.

B.

Don't know if you've seen this but it may help:

picture

It's an 11mb version of the Troiani painting. Takes a while to load, but it has all the detail you could wish for.

Lots of the Maryland units also wore round hats with a plume, and red lapels, cuffs, and collars. Struggling trying to find the Annapolis militia uniform.

Do you have the Chartrand book, Rifleman Harris? I think it's also been recently re-released if you'd like to buy a copy. And there are a few newish Osprey MAA about American subjects and not just the reprint of the old "American War of 1812" one. (I'll check later; it's rather late here right now.)

This blog has some good info on the Maryland militia:

link

Sorry, I misremembered. The newish MAA345 is just about the regular U.S. Army and does not include the militia.

The two new Chartrand books are indispensable. I recently viewed the Ruckle paintings at the MD Historical Society Museum in Baltimore. Great 1812 exhibit. The paintings show all of the units.

I remember reading someplace, many years ago,(so take this as you may) that each of the Maryland line regiments were denoted by the color turban they wore, thus the 5th would have worn red. I believe this may have been done to identify the regiments made up of varying uniformed companies. Besides Red and Blue turbans I did come across mention of a white one.
But as I can no longer state the source take it as you may. More then likely, it was an old issue of the CMH Journal.

As to the plate on the link above – It shows the York volunteers. I friend on mine has an original water color painted by her g-g-g-g-grandmother showing the troops leaving York for Maryland. The uniform in the painting is different form that depicted on the plate. The hat had a fur comb over the top and the coat is long tailed with red turn back and red labels.