"AWI Southern theatre starter pack (Loyalist)" Topic

For your worthy attention, my nomination for AWI Personality of the Month goes to Lieutenant-Colonel Thomas "Burnfoot" Brown, lastly of the King's Carolina Rangers (and previously the East Florida Rangers).

Brown,an Englishman, was denied the 'liberty' of his own political conscious by his Georgian host and was battered and tarred to within an inch of his life. His response was to launch merry-hell in and around Georgia on the rebels.

An interesting and controversial figure, Brown and his Rangers played a significant part in the southern theatre, including the seige of Savannah. He survived the war.

From a wargamers point of view, and armed with Two Fat Lardies' Sharpe Practice, and the supplement This Land Divided (set in Georgia . . . the campaign fought between loyalist, rebel and Indian forces during February and March 1779), this is a good introduction.

(An additional supplement is With Fire and Sword, covering the activities in South Carolina between June and August 1780, in the south after the fall of Charleston)

link

Uniform link: page 16
PDF link

Lieutenant-Colonel Thomas Brown link:
link

Loyalist link:
link

and an amazing AWI Southern theatre link:
lib.jrshelby.com/scar.htm

Thomas Brown appears as a prominent character in "The Hornet's Nest", a novel written by former United States President (and Georgia resident) Jimmy Carter.

If you are able to supply further information on Brown or his Rangers then I will be obliged. Many thanks, and goodbye from me.

As aye,

D'Ewell

Good stuff, thanks for sharing!

I read "The Hornet's Nest". Hard to read but very interesting. Thanks for posting.

@ Rusty, now you know (if you didn't already) Where the Charlotte Hornets got their name. Of course they moved on to New Orleans and are moving on again… sigh…. I do wish they were back in the Carolinas. I just love the whole historical connection…

D-Ewell, you must be stopped sir! I mean seriously, useful and complete posts like this are just… so useful! Thank you very much and rather timely as we are looking at AWI ourselves. Have to admit that the Southern theater is an area I need much more study about (with the exception of late war and Yorktown that is). Thank you very much!

Chris

Great link thanks! Coincidentally, I just purchased both 'Sharpe Practice' AWI supplements a few days ago.

The "Swamp Fox" campaign system for southern AWI from The Perfect Captain is also timely. You can use and mini rules to resolve combats.

With all due respect to Steve's Painting Shed, his Loyalist officer must surely be Lt-Col Thomas Brown.

link

Briar Creek (1)
(AWI section right hand side, 3/4 way down)

Thanks for the plug!

The officer in the picture normally appears as Major Hanger of the British Legion, but he makes a fine stand-in for Brown too. Shame not to get so fine a sculpt onto the table :-)

Figure is a Perry continental officer, painted by me. The horse came out particularly well.

Briar Creek turned out to be a more interesting game than first expected!

Regards
Steve (of the Paintingshed blog)

Cheers Steve, I follow your work with great interest. More of everything.

As aye,

D'Ewell

From my collection, 28mm AWI Perry Miniatures painted by Charles Montague, Orcs Nest

Can I recommend Edward J. Cashin's The King's Ranger: Thomas Brown and the American Revolution on the Southern Frontier (Fordham University Press, 1999).

The King's Ranger explores not only military history but also such aspects of the American past as colonial migration, upheaval in the backcountry, Indian diplomacy, the British evacuation of the southernmost colonies, and the formation of new settlements in the Caribbean. Using Browne's career as the thread to weave together these disparate themes, Edward Cashin provides a lucid, panoramic view of the Revolutionary period in the south.

link

I can do no more than to strongly recommend this book, this military figure, and this theatre of the AWI.

I would also strongly recommend these books:-

Interesting, thanks!

FYI,
Thomas Brown was hit in the head with a rifle, which fractured his skull, tied to a tree and had burning pieces of wood stuck under his feet. His hair was scalped from his head in three or four places and he lost two toes due to the burning suffered when he was tarred and feathered. He was then paraded through Augusta in a cart where ridicule was heaped upon him by Whig supporters.

The definitive book on Brown is Edward J. Cashin, The King's Ranger: Thomas Brown and the American Revolution on the Southern Frontier. Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1989.

When I read the topic I was expecting a 28mm personality figure of Lieutenant-Colonel Thomas Brown. Wow, a new personality figure every month as part of a starter pack! Disappointed once again.

Since we revived this topic I'd like to nominate David Fanning. Living in South Carolina at the start of the war he fought off and on throughout the war. He was captured numerous times, and frequently managed to escape. The high point of his career came in the fall of 1781 when he lead a Loyalist force into the North Carolina capital of Hillsborough, captured the American governor of North Carolina and then escaped with his prisoner to the British held port of Wilmington. A North Carolina amnesty act for former Loyalists specifically excluded him. After the war he settled in Canada. His memoirs entitled The Narrative of Colonel David Fanning were published several decades after his death.

@Rallynow – yeah, a bit of a dodgy title there, but I was younger then! And English is not my first language.

@Bill N – good suggestion.

I'll have a longer look at him. As a miniature figure, I read that due to a scalp complaint he was bald. I'm think that the Wargames Foundry mounted figure representing British General might do, after filing away his rank insignia.

(With all due respect to Lead Adventure Forum / Monty for the latters superb command base)

link to The American Revolution in North Carolina The Loyalist Leaders in North Carolina's – Colonel David Fanning

EDIT: It was not until Fanning …befriended a family in Orange County – the John O'Deniells – that the lady of the house treated and cured him. From then on, he either wore a silk scarf or a wig under his tri-corner hat.

There you go, an AWI officer in a head scarf!

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(The American Revolution – Simon Girty (1741 – February 18, 1818) was an American colonial of Scots-Irish ancestry)