"American militia in War of 1812" Topic

What would be the general color of Yankee coats and trousers in militia units in the War of 1812?

Mostly blue from what I've read. With some grays sprinkled in. Western militias were mostly in long hunting frocks.
I know the MD militias were all blue faced red.Trousers were white for the summer,white breeches and black gaiters for winter.

Bob

The State of Tennessee and counties issued hunting frocks to the volunteer companeis raised for the Alabama Campaign.
As mentioned many were blue with different colored fringes.

Mississippi militia/volunteer units wore assorted frontier dress. Regular county muster units had uniforms that did not last long on the campaugn trail.

The Georgia militia/volunteers were especially ragged.

What paint is closest on your workbench? There you go.

Some recent threads covered some of the militia uniforms (or lack thereof):

TMP link

TMP link

Rick

Militia Uniforms in the US varied widely both in style and colour. The most extreme example would be a company of Louisiana militia that dressed in the uniforms of the French Imperial Grenadiers of the Garde including bearskins. There were also hussars in Massachusetts along with white coated troopps that looked more like Spanish then American. How any of thee units actually saw combat is another question?

The following site has lots of information on all 1812 uniforms including individual "state militia" pages

link

Here's a photo of some New York State Militia. Photo was taken a last months Queenston Heights reenactment.

John;
I already told you about these cats…

Argh. We had this discussion.

Eric

That looks like a well fed militia unit.

John the OFM says:

"That looks like a well fed militia unit."

That's why I like to call this Tom Meier figure 'The Re-Enacter'!

link

What were the New York State Militia doing at Queenston Heights ? Historically they never crossed the river.

Not true. If you read Malcomson's book "A Very Brilliant Affair", there were a number of militia that crossed. The problem was they failed to cross in organized units.

Amongst many other problems. It's really a tale of how not to conduct a "wet-gap crossing" as they call it now…

Eric

Most accounts agree – the militia =, like Shakespeares horses hot to hand, wanted to fight until they had to do so, then started to stand on their rights to refuse to serve in s foreign land. So maybe a few troopers came across, but the majority did not.

KAM

I saw a picture online somewhere of the Louisiana Free Men of Color during Jackson's attack on the British camp. They were depicted in brown coats with black top hats.

The Free Men of color was a true militia unit. The Tenn units at new Orleans were volunteers. So crossing State boundries was never an issue in Alabam for Tenn and Georgia units.

Ugh! BAD reenactor pic!!

I truly wish wargamers would shy away from using pics of reenactors as reference material.

And this coming from a reenactor…

Bob C.

@ Upper Canada;
Have you ever seen the caricatures of British regulars and volunteers done by Robert and Denis Dighton? This fig, and most re-enactors; look just like them. I suspect the armies of Napoleon, Wellington, et al. did actually look like this!

@95th Regt.;
You call that bad? You should see some of the ones I've got!

There is also a difference between uniformed militia and un-uniformed militia.

Un-uniformed militia would wear whatever colour their civilian clothes happened to be in. Uniformed militias tended to wear blue or grey.

For a visual reference of a western uniformed militia (in particular the 5th Indiana, Corydon Yellow Jackets)… Again, like most re-enactors these guys are better fed than the period militias would have been, but this group is made up of mostly younger guys, who are not as sofa-physiqued as the NY militia depicted above.

link

As fine a set of targets as I've ever seen!

And some topic necromancy, just so I can share the fact that I just finished painting some Knuckleduster minis as 5th Regiment Indiana Volunteers (The Yellow Jackets).

Now to get some Indians done so they have someone to fight…. Eventually I will add some American regulars, and British regulars etc. I have bought a few different sets of rules to try doing unit/skirmish level play with these. Not sure if I will end up using "Smooth & Rifled" or "Muskets and Mohawks (2HW)" or bounce between the two sets of rules.

How did the militias fight -in line, skirmish?

Most states had dedicated light infantry/rifles/skirmishing units. Generally they fought as "line" infantry, adopting either French or British drill tactics (there was no set drill instruction- probably most relied on the old Revolutionary war drill instructions if they couldn't purchase foreign drill books).

The weakness of US units were that they very rarely trained together as large units- individual companies or platoons would train together but rarely anything larger (Scott's Brigade was the exception).

Also there was a serious lack of command training. Most junior officers were political appointees, left-over revolutionary war veterans, or just plain inexperienced. If an officer showed capability, they were often pulled to a general's (inadequate) staff, leaving the original unit bereft of solid leadership.

As the war progressed, the older officers were cashiered, the political hacks were replaced, and more experienced officers came to lead, but still the US units were hampered by lack of large unit training and officer training.

Also remember that this was the United States first "land" war. The uS was seriously inexperienced, not designed for large scale actions/campaigns, and deeply, deeply divided politically and with public opinion.

Leadership indeed!High fives all around for General Porter's New York and 5th PA.,both fought well at Lundy's Lane in 1814.New York militia not too shabby at Fort Erie afterwards.The Incorporated Militia of Upper Canada acquitted themselves rather handsomely at Lundy's Lane as well.

Mashrewba,

The militia were to conform to the drill manuals adopted by each state's respective Attorney General. The U.S. Regular forces used both Duane and Smyth manuals which helped lead to the debacle on the Niagara in the fall of 1813. Therefore, I infer that the various state militias were drilling under either (or both) systems. Rarely were militia units capable of extended skirmish tactics as it took a tremendous amount of drill and discipline. From my research militia fired mainly from a two-deep line formation and rarely (if ever) retired from the battlefield without being routed or in extreme disorder. If drilled militia were backed by Regulars then they performed well, but if not, count on them for a ragged volley or two and then breaking contact.