"Tempted By The AWI...Some Questions" Topic

We've been covering the AWI with our daughters (ten years old) and as tends to happen when I cover a new historical period, I'm feeling the pull to get it on the tabletop.

I'm sure there are some good threads on this already--and I'll do some searches later, but I have one or two questions that might not have come up so much, and I'd appreciate any guidance.

1.) Good reads on the conflict? I know this one has been covered, but if any of you has a real favourite I'd love to know the title. I'd especially like general histories for the layman at this point; an overall view, some specs on the battles, a good read, etc.

2.) Good films? Our family watched a made for TV film called April Morning which we quite enjoyed. Are there some other good ones that would make suitable family fare? I saw part of The Patriot quite a few years ago and remember thinking it was pretty awful. Maybe I need to give it a second chance, though I suspect it's not appropriate for children. I'm pretty sure Johnny Tremain was made into a film in the 50s, but am not sure it has held up well.

3.) Right, now for the big questions: one of the troop types I'd most like to paint up is some Highland Grenadiers (if bearskins are good, bearskins in kilts are much, much better!). Do any of you know what battles/theatres they might have seen action in? I can always go the Imagi-nations route, but I'd still like to know where and when they were used historically.

4.) I also like Hessians (of any type), and so would ask the question above about them. Even I know about Trenton, but information on other times/places they appeared would be of great help.

From my perspective at the moment, the subject appears a little daunting, so I'd greatly appreciate answers to any or all of the above. Thank you!

1) Most of the folk on here will give you American titles – which is fair enough – so I'll confine my responses to a British perspective of the war (which was a world war for Great Britain, but much more a local affair for the United States). Piers Mackesy's "War for America" and Christopher Hibbert's "Redcoats and Rebels" will give you the detail you want on the American campaigns, but also a global overview – Mackesy's book has a couple of appendices with some boggling statistics of the British war effort – the 30,000 redcoats sent to America (that's not counting Hessians), constituted the largest army sent outside of Europe by a European country in one go before the Crimean War. The German contingent was the largest number of German troops to fight outside of Europe until the Afrika Korps in WW2.

2) Others will give you better answers on this. In my experience, the made-for-TV films/series generally do a much better job on the history and costumes than one-off cinematic affairs (and yes, The Patriot was awful).

3) You can actually have an entire battalion of Highland grenadiers in kilts, but only for the New York campaign (August/September 1776). The 42nd and two battalions of the 71st each contributed a double-sized company to the short-lived 4th Grenadier Battalion – so 300 men in all. Sickness in the 71st companies led to the disbandment of the battalion around October, and after 1776, both regiments put all of their men into overalls. Other Highland regiments arriving in America later on may have kept their kilts a little longer, but generally their grenadiers saw no action.

4) You have six German contingents, of which one – Anhalt Zerbst – saw no action. The largest, Hesse Kassel (17,000 men over the course of the war), fought mainly in the central theatre against Washington's Main Army, and a few contingents in the South against Gates and then Greene; one unit ended up in Canada. Their most famous units were the companies of jaeger (one or two of which were mounted). Next largest was the Brunswick contingent which fought in the Saratoga campaign and was largely interned from 1777. The Anspach Bayreuth troops – two battalions, a jaeger company, and some battalion guns – fought in the Philadelphia, Monmouth and Southern campaigns, before surrendering at Yorktown. Two small contingents were from Hesse Hanau (Canada and Saratoga) and Waldeck (New York and Florida). "The Hessians" by Rodney Atwood is worth reading.

As a wargamer, I would recommend the following:
- the Mollo/McGregor uniform book, despite its age, still has the fewest errors (the recent "encyclopedia by Kiley & Smith sadly has loads)
- the two-volume orders-of-battle book by the late, and much lamented, Greg Novak are priceless
- the scenario books that accompany the "British Grenadier" rules are valuable sources of how to set up all of the major battles and larger skirmishes of the war, even if you use another rule set (a fourth SB is in preparation now)
- two books on the British Army: "Fusiliers" by Mark Urban and "With Zeal and Bayonets only" by Matt Spring; the former looks at a regiment at war (on and off the battlefield), whilst the latter is a tour-de-force of British tactics – which were generally followed by the Continental Army rather than the other way around, contrary to popular myth.

Come back on here if you need more specific areas covered – folk on the 18th Century boards are usually the best mannered and helpful on the whole of TMP.

1776 by David Mccollough is a great read on the first two years of the conflict.

Sorry for the delay in responding. Thank you both very much! Supercilious, I can't thank you enough for taking the time to give such a detailed answer. And I greatly appreciate the British perspective!

There really aren't any good theatrical films about the war. Even some of the documentaries on the various TLCs or the History Channel vary in quality. The one narrated by Charles Kuralt some years ago is pretty good.

The "King's Ranger" is a good book about loyalist Colonel Thomas Browne who raised several units in the South to fight for the King.

The Hessians fought un several actions in the South. Savannah GA, the South Carolina campaign. Some fought the Spanish like the Waldeck unit. One unit out of Charleston, were given horses and conducted mounted patrols in the area.

If you have some Jacobites from 1745, they will work well for some of the numerous Scots Loyalist which fought as Loyalists in the early part of the war in North Carolina. At Moore's Landing or Bridge many of the Scots fought with traditional blades due to the lack of muskets.

In regards to movies there are several re-enactment films from Lion Heart which shows activity including Camp life (The Continental Soldier). Bert Lancaster's 'The Devil's Disciples" is old but a good movie about the Saratoga campaign.