"Mass regiment uniform question" Topic

Need some help on this guys, I'm putting together the last Continental units for Saratoga, however I can't find any uniform information on the 1st, 2nd, 4th, 5th or 13th Mass regiments.

I was thinking brown/tan coats (faced using different colors and calling them the units I choose) but would like to try to make them as accurate as possible

Massachusetts was awarded brown coats in the lottery of 1778. Prior to this both brown and blue seem about equally likely. Hunting shirts would be a possibility too.

The 4th may have been in blue coats with white facings.

Brown coats would look good and be perfectly believable and you could compromise by adding some in hunting shirts with some officers in blue coats.

This almost makes the concept of Continental "uniform " sometimes seem an oxymoron, doesn't it?

Were Hunting Shirts worn in Mass or was it a frontier type garment? I lean toward civilian garb in my New England regiments rather than Hunting Shirts. Militia may have included HS especially in the northern parts.
Other opinions?

For New England's I would not use the hunting shirt. Instead a farmers smock. This was a pullover type shirt. If you go to the old sturbridge village website there should be some pictures of men wearing them.
as for uniforms for the saratoga campaign your guess is as good as mine. The bounty coats issued in 1775 would have worn out by now. Brown coats were very popular and common. Look at the von Germann prints st the soldier and officer.

From Katcher:-

1) 1st MA – deserter in brown coat with red cuffs, so possibly a regimental coat and therefore a uniform.

2) 2nd MA – green COats faced red, but these not issued until Dec '77; prior to that, deserters all wore different clothes.

3) 4th MA – as posted above, blue coats faced white (or possibly light buff) quite early on; this appears to be confirmed by descriptions of 11 deserters in June '77, seven wearing blue with white facings, and four white with blue facings (ie musicians – these included both the drum-major and fife-major who had laced coats; two drummers also had hunting shirts, but no colour listed).

4) 5th MA – only recorded deserter had a blue coat lined red with white facings, narrow-brimmed round hat.

5) 13th MA – deserters give no real clue to uniform.

Two general points:-

a) Most of the Northern Army did not receive any major issues of clothing until after October '77 – ie they fought teh campaign in civvies. What few uniforms were issued early on in the campaign appear to have gone to NCOs (possibly the poorer officers, too). Thus a typical unit fighting Burgoyne's army probably looked like militia with uniformed command figures.

b) Blue, brown (aka "snuff" or "tobacco"), and off-white (aka "stone" or "cloth-coloured"), were far and away the most common colour for jackets, coats and overcoats (surtout) worn by deserters; these colours plus red and green were common in small clothes (ie breeches and waistcoats/vests). In most cases it is a fair bet that the deserter was still wearing what he had joined up in – in fact, non-issue of promised clothing is suspected to be a major cause of desertion (usually combined with lack of pay). Thus we cannot always assume blue or brown as a uniform.

You don't usually associate hunting shirts with New England troops. FWIW there are several internet sources (so you KNOW it MUST be true) that report them being issued to Massachusetts and New Hampshire troops.

If all else fails, certain (mostly) New England regiments of the 1777 Continental line were formed from the remnants of 1776 Continental regiments. If you cannot find the uniform for 1777, try looking up what the predecessor units wore.

The Continental Army by Robert K Wright contains small pieces on lineages for the regiments of each State. Unfortunately, this section is not included in the on-line edition so you will need a paper copy. Detecting who is who will be a bit tricky for New England units as they emerged from the numbered Continental regiments of 1776, rather than from previous "Massachusetts" Regiments.