"American Uniforms, 1777 Philadelphia Campaign" Topic

Let's say you wanted to make a generic American force for the 1777 Campaign around Philadelphia comprising 10 infantry regiments.

How many would you depict in hunting shirts? How many in uniform coat? How many in civilian clothing?

Thanks.

Interesting topic! I'm a Philly guy myself and grew up on part of the Germantown Battlefield. It depends on whether the regiments are Continental Line or PA Militia. Overall,I would make a semi-educated guess and say I would go with: Uniforms- 60%, Civilian Clothing-30%, hunting shirts- 10%. Assuming your hunting shirts guys are riflemen…remember the numbers of Pennsylvania Long Rifles are always wildly exaggerated in RevWar wargames. Either way what a great period and place to wargame. So many little actions that most people never heard of. Boatner's Encyclopedia and Ward's War of the Revolution have all kinds of cool scenarios. Good Luck! BTW Don't forget the Mohawks. There were a small number used by the British as scouts in that area. Right up the street from where I grew up there was a documented skirmish between Cavalry and Mohawk warriors. Very cool.

Jim Purky designed his Fife and Drum AWI miniature range with the Philadelphia Campaign in mind. Check out his paper on the American Army at this url.

PDF link

I think the answer would vary depending on where the troops came from. I do not recall seeing many 1777 New England deserter descriptions having troops wearing hunting shirts. For Pennsylvania and Maryland you see troops with hunting shirts and regimentals from the same units, indicating both were worn. For Virginia many units that wore hunting shirts in 1776 seem to have switched to regimentals in 1777, but deserter descriptions for some units only mention hunting shirts. For North Carolina I have nothing other than some second hand sources. A large number of deserter descriptions in Lefferts mention non-official uniforms or civilian clothing.

I think there is too large a variety of troops to answer you question easily. My troops generally have a mixture of blue faced red, brown faced red, and some huniting frocks mixed in – riflemen are separate, as are lights (though I doubt the lights in this campaign varied much from the hat companies).

Jason- Mohawks? Really? Never read that anywhere. Can you share more on that? I'm puzzled how they got there considering the rest of the Crown forces arrived via the fleet?

There was also a party of 47 Oneida present, the only members of the Iroquois confederacy to fight on the American side, who appeared at Valley Forge in May 1778. To be more be precise, they had had come down to honour an oath of personal loyalty to Lafayette. The Oneida had always favoured the French rather than the British and Lafayete had been sent to recruit them to support the American cause.

They acted as scouts for Lafayette when he departed Valley Forge on his reconnaissance in force to investigate rumours that the British were about to abandon Philadelphia. They provided good service in the skirmish at Barren Hill on 19-20th May, where Lafayette narrowly avoided being cut off by a much large force, the Oneida scouts screening the American withdrawal across the Schuylkill. Within the month they had returned north to defend their families and homes against their Iroquois cousins.

There was also that Indian with Al Pacino too. :-)

I second Jim's paper on the Philly Campaign. Lots of good information.

Absolutely Rallynow and David, I agree. Check out Jim's articles on the Fife and Drum website.

Thanks 42flanker, I got it backwards. I wrote a newspaper article 30 years ago on the "skirmish". Apparently it was more like comic opera. The Oneida were lying in ambush when a British cavalry patrol came up the Manatawny Road(Ridge Ave). The Oneida jumped out and scared the heck out of the cavalry who had never seen a native war party before while the Oneida were frightened because they had never gone up against cavalry before. Both sides retreated. This event occured near the junction of present day Henry Ave and Ridge Ave in the Andorra section of Philadelphia, not far from Barren Hill. There are many historical markers in the area as well as many gravestones marked SOLDIER of '76 for unknown dead.

Ewald gives a pretty good account of fighting Indians, including a drawing of one of them. I believe they were the Stockbridge Indians, IIRC.

Yes, Jason, that whole operation had a touch of 'Grand Old Duke of York' about it on both sides.

A contingent of Stockbridge 'Mohicans' served in the New England-New York campaigns 1775-77. Nimham's Indian company was formed as a scouting unit in late 1778, drawing on individuals serving in various New England regiments; the purpose being to attach Indian scouts to the Light Infantry corps.

Unhappily for Nimham's Indian company, they were virtually wiped out on their first operation when ambushed on 31st August 1778 by a large loyalist force under Simcoe in the White Plains area north of New York.

There is a connection with the Philadelphia campaign in that Capt Allen McLane who commanded the Oneida scouts at Barren Hill in May 1778 was ordered to take charge of Nimham's scouts and direct them in their annoying of the enemy.

This is an interesting article on the subject: link

Concerring Continental light infantry, realize that during this period, they were ad hoc formations made up of a given number of picked men from each brigade. They were formed for a specific period of time, after which they returned to their original formations. Thus they were dressed and equipped as their original formations.
The establishment of permanent Light Infantry, with associated dress and equipment, in the Continental Army did not occur until 1779.