"War of 1812 American Infantry overview" Topic

hi all

I'm just writing an essay on the structure and role of the American infantry during the war of 1812 and wondered if the following bullet points adequately described the company structure of the different types of regiments and their role on the battlefield.

From what I've seen there seemed to be a change in the training given and the role different companies had during the period so it's been difficult to get a firm grasp on the structure of regiments.

Once I have the correct base fact around each type of regiment then I can flesh it out a bit for the finished essay

Regular infantry

1812 – early 1813
Each battalion made up of 10 companies which were generally all center or battalion companies.
trained in standard infantry drill and acted as regular infantry on the battlefield

Mid 1813 onwards
Each battalion made up of 10 companies, of 8 center and 2 flank companies
The flank companies were generally light and/or grenadier companies, but it's unclear what role they performed on the battlefield, i.e. light companies may not have had a specific skirmishing role

Rifle regiments
Each battalion made up of 10 companies which were all center or battalion companies
Trained in light company drill and did a skirmish/scouting role

Light infantry regiments
Possibly only 1 of these were raised during the war
made up of 10 companies which were all light companies
Trained in light company drill and did a skirmish/scouting role

Militia regiments
Each battalion made up of 10 companies which were generally all center or battalion companies
Some militia regiments had flank companies but it's unclear if the role on the battlefield changed
Some had light infantry training and able to do a skirmish/scouting role, otherwise just did standard infantry role on the battlefield

If I've made any glaring mistakes or generalizations in my brief descriptions I really would appreciate someone letting me know or point me in the direction of some articles that I can read up on this subject

Many thanks

Mike

Mike,

I think you may be over-generalizing and simplifying too much. I would point you back to the link I provided on your April thread:

TMP link

Have you checked out The War of 1812 in Person: Fifteen Accounts by United States Army Regulars, Volunteers and Militiamen, edited by John Fredriksen (2010)? Fredriksen documents several instances of the use of flank companies of line infantry and artillery regiments acting in a specific skirmishing role with rifle companies. I culled and summarized a few of them here:

TMP link

I think it is a reasonable conclusion from some of the activities the participants describe that they are what we characterize today as skirmishing. I also think it is a trap to believe the only examples that occured were the ones documented in Fredriksen's book. There is a general wish that more diaries had been written!

Conversely, American infantry did not skirmish on every occassion which it might have been to their advantage. Chateauuay comes to mind. You correctly note that

light companies may not have had a specific skirmishing role

all the time.

Also, militia and state volunteer units (which were distinct from the militia) varied considerably in the number of companies as documented in various sources. It is wrong to assume a uniform 10 companies per unit. You may want to consult some of the state-specific sources like:

link

or

link

or

link

There are also pdf copies of Kentucky militia histories and rosters I have downloaded from the last link. It looks like they have added more as we approach the bicentenniel, so I recommend browsing there.

My general conclusion is that there is a lot of detailed information out there that has not made it into the standard histories that is of interest to wargamers. As more of the state records become available on the web, it is a matter of patient digging for it. But an exception and kudos must be noted for John Fredriksen (and Donald Graves on the Canadian side)for republishing so much of it in their works.

Rick

Sounds good to me, information on the subject is rare.
The impression I get is that it may have varied from regiment to regiment, depending on the colonel.
What was the light infantry unit?
Most of the skirmishing seemed to be done by militia.

hi Tony

Thanks again for the links and the information, I can see this little piece of research is going to take a bit longer then I first thought.

I think you are right and I have gone for an over simplistic view when dealing with the possible roles that flank companies had in regular and militia regiments, so I need to revisit that and give more details on them.

I'll also go through all the links and try to pick out some examples of real units and include them to show that regimental makeup it was not standardised as the British army during the same period

Thanks for reminding me about the The War of 1812 in Person: book I've just purchased it for my kindle so I've some good bedtime reading now

This is really good information you are sharing here, can I be the second (Glengarry 4 beat me to the first) person to thank you for sharing it with us all

Cheers

Mike

It really is a bit of a tangle. There were some US Regular regiments organized on the two batallion organization even into the 1813 campaign. If I recall, one US regiment had one bat. in Hampton's army, another in Wilkinson army moving down the St. Lawrence.

A lot of regiments had companies split up in different areas even through til 1813.

I'll try to look up the info…

Florida Tory is right. A lot of over-generalization.

The 1813 Regular Infantry untis in the Southdid not field elite Grenadier or Light infnatry flank companies. Nor were all 10 companies fielded together on campaign. Company detachments were used to garrison vital forts such as the captured ones at Mobile.

Rifle Companies were not fielded as a 10 company regiment. they were stationed in 2 to 4 company detachments.

Biggestest generalization is in the Militia. Both companies per Regt/bn and strength varied greatly. Some companies operated with as low as 30 men. Mounted companies in particular numbered between 30 and 60 men with new regiments starting from Tenn with over 120 men. A lot of attrition.

Hi chaps

I think I should explain a bit more of what I'm attempting to do here, basically I want to write a short article that describes at a fairly high level view the structure of the American army during the war of 1812. It will be aimed at newcomers to the period and I don't want to get bogged down in too much detail, for obvious reasons.

My notes above where a first draft of the salient points that I would then flesh out in the finished article, however it's clear that I have made too many assumptions so later today I'll rewrite my notes and post them here.

Hopefully if I get the notes right then the essay/article will write itself ;-)

Thanks to all for the comments so far

Cheers

Mike

The State of Tenn kept very good records of the forces used during the War of 1812. Tenn and jackson had several distict armies. In 1812 they launched an expedition that along the Miss turned back. So they had an army of 1812, Army of Early 1813 up to Talladega, An Army of late 1813 was beat badly in two engegments and and Army of 1814 which fought at Horseshoe bend. A later Army fought against the Spanish /British in Florida. then of course there was the combined force that fought at new orleans. Each of the Tenn armies had a different OB and company strengths.

Mississippi had three armies between 1812-14 which was reorganized annually plus the New Orleans force.
Georgia had one army in 1813 which was later replaced by a force from South Carolina. the same Ga General commanded both.
There was various size companies conducting all sorts of supply 'fort garrisons and patroling the long supply lines for hostile war parties.

All three forces used ad hoc , short term battalions to conduct exploratory probes into enemy territory.

Some excerts on the American units in the Creek War in Alabama from my book "Alabama In Flames: the Creek War 1812-14".

Therefore Claiborne's advance guard including his own ‘Claiborne's Regiment of Mississippi Militia' ended up being the main assault force advancing into Creek territory from the west. However by the time the force engaged the enemy in Alabama the regulars had reached the command. During the advance on Holy Ground, the principle units and their commanders consisted of Third Regular US Infantry Regiment under Colonel Russell, Major Cassel's Battalion of Cavalry, Major Smoot's Battalion of Militia, the Colonel Carson's Twelve Month Mississippi Territory Volunteers, and Pushmataha's Choctaw Battalion with one hundred and fifty warriors. Claiborne's entire army amounted to nearly one thousand men.

Colonel Claiborne's Regiment of Mississippi Militia was raised to serve from Sept. 6, 1812 until February 13, 1813. It was a converged unit with nine companies drawn from more established regiments of the territory. The companies averaged about 100 to 110 men giving regiment's total number of men as about 900.

The 1st Regiment Mississippi Infantry United States Volunteers was created in January, 1813 by re-enlisting members of the 1st Detachment of Mississippi Militia. It was initially under the command of Colonel Mead and later Colonel Joseph Carson. There were eighteen companies mostly operating independently assigned to the regiment for administrative purposes

The Mississippi Militia was reorganized in September 1813…In 1814 a further reorganization of Mississippi units occurred. Existing formations were reorganized into eighteen regiments.

It was estimated that Jackson had left over 1,000 men in garrison at the various supply forts along the invasion route or conducting transport operations for the supplies. The size of the units deployed as garrison troops would vary from a small 15 man detachment to a 60-90 man company.

First Regiment West Tennessee Militia had ten companies with an estimated 417 men…The Second Regiment West Tennessee Militia was divided into eight companies…
Second Regiment of Tennessee Volunteer Infantry had 400 men in nine companies…First Tennessee Volunteer Mounted Gunmen or Cavalry consisted of thirteen companies… First Regiment of Volunteer Mounted Infantry of eight companies."

Companies strengths varied from when a unit left Tenn and how many made it to the battlefield. Mounted units could range from 30 to 60 men with 90 being rare and one case had a company down to 15 men. Trimble's East Tennessee Mounted Gunman contained three officers, three sergeants, three corporals and 35 mounted troopers which would give them three detachments of fifteen men.

One example of organization is Halls Regiment of Tennessee Militia in the 1812 Campaign. It had companies averaging between fifty and seventy soldiers. Each company was assigned a fife and drummer. There were two rifle companies (Bledsoe and Kennedy) which had buglers replacing the other musicians.

@RudyNelson

thanks for the excerts it really makes interesting reading

I've also reworded my original bullet points listed at the top of the thread and come up with this which should give me a base line to finish my article/essay

as I said earlier I'll flesh out the relevent points and add extra information and examples that I'll get from the articles everyone has posted, but it's starting to take shape now

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

One thing that is clear when doing any research on the American infantry regiments is that the companies were not as tied into a particular role in the way that British forces were. It was very common for regiments to be split up into smaller units and for companies to be designated as light companies in a "needs must" way and then used to provide a scouting or skirmishing role in a larger force. Indeed units from other regiments would also be used in these ad-hoc forces, so it's very difficult to be exact when describing American infantry at a high level

Regular infantry
On paper many of the regular Infantry regiments were made up of a single battalion with up to 10 companies, however real strength was usually a lot lower, during the early part of the war these were generally battalion (or centre) companies but as the war progressed some regiments introduced flank companies that would act as light infantry. Although on the whole most companies were drilled and acted as regular infantry on the battlefield
The flank companies were generally designated as light and/or grenadier companies, but it's unclear what role they performed on the battlefield, i.e. light companies may not have had a specific skirmishing role.

Rifle regiments
Each battalion made up of 10 companies or less without specific flank companies
Trained in light company drill and carrying out a skirmish/scouting role, they were usually split into company or smaller units and attached to larger forces

Light infantry regiments
Possibly only 1 of these was raised during the war
Made up of 10 companies or less without specific flank companies
Trained in light company drill they carried out a skirmish/scouting role and were used in a similar way to Rifle Regiments

Militia regiments (including state volunteer units)
Regiments of various sizes having anything from several companies to full battalion size
Some militia regiments had flank companies but it's unclear if the role on the battlefield changed
Some had light infantry training and able to do a skirmish/scouting role, otherwise just did standard infantry role on the battlefield

Looks good. You might want to note that volunteer companies often had longer enlistments than volunteer companies. Also both Vols and militia had concentrated recruitment by county. Also a lot of volunteer and militia companies had a regular or ex-regular officer assigned to them. This is why at the American defeat at Fort Mims the commander of the forces there is wearing a regular officer's uniform.

The light infantry battalion would be the 26th Foot? I've read somewhere on one of these TMP postings that when the 26th was re-raised it was re-armed with rifles. Not to be pedantic, but if true wouldn't that make the 26th a rifle regiment?

@RudyNelson good point about the relistment times I'll add that

also I've had a look around for your book "Alabama In Flames: the Creek War 1812-14" and cant see it for sale anywhere, could you point me in the general direction of somewhere I could get it in the UK?

@GlenGarry I guess so but it's complex enough a subject without adding that bit I've made a note that they may have been issued with rifles and will leave it taht for now

thanks to everyone who helped me with this

It is still at the printers. I just received the artwork from the artist the other day. Sadly it costs a lot of money to print a book. Artist + graphic design + printer, etc. Ugh!

So the artist delay has put my books on the American Revolution (German Auxillaries and Spain in the American Revolution on the back burner.

look forward to seeing it in print Rudy, hope it sells well