"What figures do you use for Ferguson's Rifles?" Topic

Or, to be more specific, his Experimental Rifle Corps.
They saw action at Brandywine, armed with the Ferguson rifle. Allegedly, Ferguson had a shot at Washington, but since gentlemen did shoot at gentlemen… Allegedly.

However, if you were to "need" a unique unit to use as Ferguson's Experimental Rifle Corps in a Battle of Brandywine game, what figures would you use?

I had 12 PErry or Foundry loose LI in pimp hat. So, I painted them green. They can double as British Legion foot if needed, or as generic Loyalists in campaign dress green.

I THINK it could carry a bayonet, but am not sure.

I am sure the purists will scoff that "the lock looks wrong", but who could spot that on the table?

Perry American rifleman may fit the bill, and if you look at their guns they have the trigger guard.The troops using the gun were drawn from light infantry units so any light infantryman might do.
That being said the Ferguson rifle lasted but an instant really, the gun was difficult and expensive to make and it broke down quite easily.
Brandywine was the biggest battle the gun was used in and at this battle is where Ferguson was wounded, after that, his unit was disbanded and the Ferguson was replaced by the short land pattern musket.

John;
Wow. This is the second reference I've seen in an email today about the hat, when uncocked, as being a "pimp hat".

To answer, I've got Old Glory British Light Infantry in roundabout and uncocked hat.

I'm sure either Historygamer or SuperMax can answer you questions better, but I also think some of them came from British Light Infantry units as well. Mine have red and green coats. Green meanies return to their Loyalist units and the Lobsters to their LI Battalions, when not playing so.

Eric

The first reference I had heard to this hat being a "pimp hat" came when I was talking to a reenactor in Delancey's Brigade.
They had the giant white feather for it too!

John;
Sure, leave it to a Loyalist…

And I bet he had on polyester breeches and silver plate shoe buckles on as well.

There they go again, hanging out on street corners and keeping proper Rebels from tossing tea into harbors and filching the King's sausages again.

Pimping Loyalists. I'll have to remember that one.

Eric

They had a uniformed GIRL in the unit too!

WOOT!

But back to the discussion, I too used the LI from Perry for Ferguson.
Larry

You should use British infantry in (I hate to say it)pimp hat with feather, and short cut down coat (but not a roundabout) – so they are clothed the same as the centre company soldiers in a foot regiment. Coats are green instead of red.

Can we please just say "uncocked hat" or slouch hat, or even round hat?

All I can think of right now are two ladies who come out to events dressed in the female version of Royal Artillery, I think they have RA coats, and with big ostrich plumes in their hats.

Thank you John. Thank you.

And so long as the girl doesn't look or act like a, well, girl, when she's in uniform, Im not complaining. Our Surgeon she sometimes fall into the line. And she "mans-up" well. Better than some of the teenagers. Or, as I call them, Apathy Zombies.

Eric

I am sure the purists will scoff that "the lock looks wrong", but who could spot that on the table?

I think you answered your own question. That's why I don't game with "purists". I actually want to have fun with my toys.

The Foundry figures OFM refers to are as good a representation of Ferguson's Rifle Corps as you can get. However, they are actually NOT in roundabouts, but are wearing plain regimental coats converted to single-breasted tunics (you can see they have turnbacks, which roundabouts don't) along the lines of the 40th Foot in the Philadelphia campaign, as seen in the della Gatta painting of Germantown. Alan Perry realised he had been wrong describing them as Light Infantry (not least because I, among others, told him!) and that's why other packs were not made prior to his departure from Foundry. To use them as Ferguson's corps, trim off the bayonets to cut the weapon down to rifle length. The Ferguson rifle DID carry a bayonet, which was 24" long and often described as a "sword" as they looked not unlike the actual swords carried by the German riflemen; however, unless you want to glue or weld pins of appropriate length to the underside of the barrel, it's easier to ignore them.

Ferguson's Corps was not recruited from light infantrymen as such; he was assigned volunteers from among recruits training in England prior to shipment to the regiments already serving with Howe's main army in America. There is also a suggestion that he got some men from the 6th, 14th and 16th Foot who had just returned to England from the Caribbean and Florida. Whilst it was unusual to have recruits inducted straight into a specialist corps, he had 2-3 months to train these men with his own design of rifle.

The confusion around these men arises because when the Rifle Corps was broken up immediately after Brandywine (due to the heavy casualties), the men were ordered to be sent to "the Light Companies of the Regiments to which they respectively belong." This has been misconstrued as meaning that they came from the light companies in the first place; what in fact happened was that, on arrival in America, the men were all delivered to the battalion HQ of whichever regiment they had been assigned as recruits (men of the 6th, 14th and 16th were reassigned to the weakest regiments) and were listed on their strength for the purposes of subsistence, pay etc (much as lights and grenadiers remained part of their parent unit, not the converged flank battalions their companies served with in the field). However, Ferguson's men DID all subsequently become part of the light company of their parent regiment and augmented the handful of selected men in each light company who had also been issued rifles (in their case, probably the 1776 Tower pattern); these latter riflemen wore normal light infantry uniform.

Ferguson's corps was to comprise 100 rank-and-file, plus an appropriate number of sergeants and officers. The unit was initially attached to Leslie's command, and served with the 71st Foot and Ewald's jaeger company seeing action around Amboy at the end of June 1777, prior to setting sail for The Chesapeake. 130 all ranks were embarked and they went ashore with the Light Infantry and Grenadiers in August. Ferguson himself says his men were clad in green during the Philadelphia campaign (in one case being helped by civilians who mistook them for Rebels) and a group of green-clad riflemen are shown in the della Gatta painting of Paoli, where they were attached to the 2nd Light Infantry. After the break-up of the Corps, the men served as part of each Light Battalion's "point platoon", which was composed of all the rifle-armed men from each company in that battalion. Ferguson's green-coats and their special weapon probably saw action at Germantown and Monmouth, as the Ferguson rifles are not thought to have been completely withdrawn into storage until the Army returned to NYC in July 1778.

From his own letters, Ferguson appears to have used his men in small groups (typically 6, 12 or 24; occasionally 50); these parties were usually supported by musket-armed troops in the ratio of two per rifleman. There is some debate over whether they and the Queen's Rangers were badly mauled in an ambush at the start of the battle of Brandywine; only one account mentions them "losing half their number" in this incident, while other accounts dismiss it as just one of several clashes. However, there is no doubt that both units suffered heavily over the course of the entire day's fighting.

Those interested in the two great myths about Ferguson's rifle corps – that Howe couldn't wait to break it up, and that only the inertia of a hidebound high command stopped his rifle being a war-winning weapon – should read De Witt Bailey's "British Military Flintlock Rifles, 1740-1840" which refutes both ideas.

Hope that helped.

Very much so, thank you. Particularly, for me, in relation to their belonging to Light Infantry companies.

Thanks.

Eric

Will try again links did not work for pictures

I used Foundry Light Infantry for the figures based on the Philadelphia Campaign Osprey

Painting was by Old Guard

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"pimp hat"

YouTube link

"pimp hat"

Must be the Guards.

FYI: Page 30 of the Osprey "Philadelphia 1777" book in their Campaign series depicts a light infantryman of the 37th Regt. of Foot in roundabout armed with a rifle and a soldier clad in green, kneeling/firing who is reprentative of Ferguson's rifle company. The picture caption indicates that both were part of a Lt. Shaw's provisional company "formed after the battle of Brandywine". I'm not sure who Shaw is, but I'm going to go with SuperMax's description and explanation*.

The Ferguson company man's uniform looks exactly like that of the British centre company uniform, save for the fact that it is green.

* As always, take things found in Ospreys with a certain degree of skepticism unless proven otherwise.

DAF,

The Osprey text is correct – Lt Shaw was the officer commanding the converged platoon of riflemen from the various companies of the 2nd Light Infantry; this was the "point platoon" I referred to above (my terminology – they preceded the battalion on the march) to whom Ferguson's men were detached immediately after Brandywine. This group was usually supported by one or two of the light companies as bayonet men – throw in a couple of sections of 16LD and an RA 3-pdr and you'd have a nice little skirmish force for a Sharp Practice game.

The artwork is interesting and the man from Ferguson's corps does rather look like the QR uniform of the period (although they weren't linked with the QRs until after landing in The Chesapeake). Normally, I'd hesitate to disagree with Eric Schnitzer, who is a superb researcher, but it does conflict with the depiction of Ferguson's men in the Paoli painting, and it seems unlikely that their uniforms (which were made up after they arrived in America) would have been that fancy given that the Light Infantry were "downsizing" their field dress. I think Ferguson would have gone for the simpler uniform myself.

I used Essex 15mm British light infantry, painted in green coats faced white. Supposedly the 3 figures in green and white coats near the center of the painting of the night attack at Paoli are of Ferguson's.