"Pennsylvania First Battalion of Associators " Topic

I just purchased a set of the Perry American Continentals, and in the wonderful painting guide, I came across a paint guide for the Pennsylvania Associators. I was very excited, and confused when I saw this, let me explain.

About a year ago when digging through my genealogy I found a relative that was listed as deceased in 1776. Having a healthy bit of curiosity I started searching around and found him on the following list

link

Now, if anyone here is like me, when you find a Ancestor in a historical unit, you have to have that unit to put on the table.

My Ancestor is listed in the roll call for Captain Ardnt's Company, [First Company] after I found more paperwork for him online in national records he is listed under "Capt John Arndt's Company of Col. Baxter's Batt'n of Northampton County in the State of Pennsylvania of the Flying Camp".

Does anyone have a clue about if Baxters Battalion of the Northampton Flying Camp was part of the Pennsylvania Associators or just normal militia? I have heard that this unit took a lot of losses at The Battle of Long island then was almost wiped out at the capture of fort Washington.

Any insight about this is greatly appreciated,
-Tom

There was no Pennsylvania militia until very late on the war. The pacifist Quakers dominated the legislature.
So your unit could very well be Associators.

Do a TMP search on "Associators" and you will find a wealth of information.

I personally used Old Glory marines because of the hat. King's Mountain produce Continental infantry bodies with Associator heads.

Winston:

Are you confusing the F&I period with AWI? I am pretty sure there was PA militia from 1776 on. I know the PA militia was active in the Trenton/Princeton campaigns, and I also know for sure they fielded in 1777 during Brandywine.

But were they Associators or militia?
Only wargamers make this distinction.

I got this bit of info from the book mentioned in this post:
TMP link

And if you want more information on the Associators, this book is a gold mine:
link

Good information if you do a TMP search on the Associators, om flags, etc.

I kept getting the dreaded lockfiles last night. Let's see if I can bring this back to life today.

I will probably pick up that book as soon as I have a paycheck I'm not spending on Miniatures.

so, general synopsis for myself, Associators were the Pennsylvania militia in 1776. They were dressed in a combination of civilian coats and their special regimental coats.

Does that book cover what battalions were from what county?

thanks for all the help so far,
-Tom

Major Tom,

About a week ago, I listed the book that John the OFM mentions above (The Pennsylvania Associators, 1747-1777, by J Seymour) for sale on T.M.P. ten days ago. It is still available. Get back to me if you are interested in buying it.
Tom Semian
Avalon, Pa. 15202

Major, Kings Mountain sells Associator heads to go along with the Continental bodies.
Search TMP and there will be pictures of a painted unit that I posted here.

Found it.

TMP link

The Perry plastic box has heads which look appropriate for the Associators.

Associators were men of substance and more likely to be uniformed than not.
The book goes into detail on the artillery, infantry and cavalry.
I don't think it goes into where specifically each battalion came from.

I suggest a TMP search for "Associator". Lots of threads.

Also I suggest David Hackett Fischer's "Washington's Crossing" for tons of useful gaming information on the Trenton and Princeton campaigns. The Associators were of course heavily involved.

tsverenna asks me to pass this along:

One is on an article I wrote concerning the Northampton Associators: link

And the other is more relevant to the boards; my take on the paint scheme for them in 18mm:
link

Major Tom, one of my ancestors appears to also have been in the Northampton County militia. I don't remember which company or battalion right off, but it would be interesting to see if it was the same one (I know, chances are slim).

The link posted above "The Spartans of Long Island" has been the best bit of information I have been supplied with. I know that he was part of the Flying Camp, The Associatior was something unsure of. Reading amongst the posts (all of them have been extraordinarily helpful)the Associatiors were people who were well off here in the colonies. My ancestor was the son of a yeoman that immigrated from Bavaria, so I doubt that they were part of the gentry.

On the Flying Camp note the most interesting part of the article shared by Editor Bill/Tsverenna is that in the Northampton Militia, Captian John Arndt's company; the one my ancestor was listed on the roll call for was the designated rifle company! Exciting to think an ancestor was in a rifle unit at a time when the rifle was so new to the battlefield.

Back to Miniatures though, It sounds like my represented unit should be standard militia figures, with one company represented with rifles (most likely in hunting frocks)and the rest musket armed, mixed with Northampton Associators figures.

I guess ill be picking up a few more Wargames Factory Militia box sets along with making a couple more orders from Fife and Drum.

Thanks everybody, this has been better information than I have been able to dig up on the Northampton militia in the last 6 months.
-Tom

MajorTom, Sorry, I had to wait three days to post.

The most important thing to remember is that the Associators weren't 'militia' in the sense of the word. They were volunteers. They were often called militia, but Pennsylvania didn't have a militia law on the books until March of 1777--and after that date nearly all militia throughout the end of the war were conscripted. You can read about the whole militia system here: link

As someone else here alluded, the Associators were better equipped than standard militia. That is because the officers they elected were of means and often the officer supplied the units and waited to be reimbursed for the goods later, usually by the state.

Northampton County Associators likely only had hunting shirts/frocks, however. Unlike the Philadelphia's Associators who had been around for decades by the start of the war, Northampton's Associators had only formed in December of 1774 and weren't really organized with elected officers until 1775. A few more factoids:

(1) While Ardnt's Company was labeled as the Rifle Company, it is a good possibility that Arndt's Company had a mix of weapons (some were rifles, others would be firelocks/smoothbores of some kind).
(2) The Associators mainly organized into the Flying Camp (as my article makes mention of above).
(3) The Associators were dissolved in 1777 after the Militia Law passed.

Let me know if you have any other questions about them. Here is my interpretation of the Flying Camp in 28mm: link

tsverenna, I have started work on my 1 to 1 representation of Captain Arndt's company of the Northampton flying camp, but I had a couple more questions I was hoping you could help me with.

I know you said the Flying Camp was made of mainly Associators, I looked at your representation and saw you were using continentals in hunting frocks. I was wondering if it would be appropriate to mix in some figures that are in civilian clothing (at a very low ratio) along with figures that are in different colored frocks?

I am planning with my current assumptions to assemble the force using some figures in hunting frocks I already had, along with some Fife and Drum militia & Continentals in hunting frock. I was also planing to mix in some riflemen in hunting frocks from the Perry range to represent the mixed weapons in the designated rifle company.

was hoping to just get your opinion on my planned representation, thanks for your time,
-Tom

Associator companies were uniformed well, usually in Hunting Frocks. I suggest looking into desertion reports. For example, every desertion reports of the Lancaster County Flying Camp battalions show them wearing green hunting frocks. There is even a series of four or five of these guys deserting and they are all wearing the same hunting frocks. Northampton County reports show them as wearing dark colored or white hunting frocks (depending on company).

The reason is that these men weren't militia--they were volunteers. They had the means to equip themselves well and they did. Think of them as the precursors to the United States Volunteer infantry of the Civil War where officers were usually of means and equipped their own companies at the start of the war.

If you want a mixed or ragged band of troops, I suggest a later war Pennsylvania militia interpretation as after 1777, Pennsylvania dissolved the Associators and created a militia draft (every free white male between 18-53 were enrolled). So you will get a more civilian/minuteman look for the Philadelphia Campaigns and the frontier fighting in the later half of the war.

But for Associators they were nearly as well equipped (or better equipped) than the Continental troops depending upon the county from which they came. I hope that helps.

I should note that the Flying Camp were Continentals; once the Associators joined a Flying Camp battalion, they went under Continental pay. So the use of Continentals in hunting frocks is absolutely appropriate. =)

So, Continentals in frock it is then!

If I may ask, where have you found your information? I had been looking for information on the Northampton flying camp for some time now, and your links have been the most helpful in my months of information searching.

thanks for all the help so far.

Primary sources is the place to go. If you read my Spartans article, check the footnotes. ;-)