"Orders of battle at Bushy Run?" Topic

Hi friends,

Does anyone have any information about the British and Indian orders of battle at Bushy Run, 1763? I've gone through some material I once got from the Point State Park Museum in Pittsburgh. I gained some sketchy information from that, but it's far from complete.

I also did a little online searching, but wasn't able to turn up anything substantial. My google-fu must be weak, regarding this subject.

In case you're interested, I have a small gaming project in mind. I want to know how the actual number of combatants would translate into wargame units (I am aware that the number of Indians present is debatable.)

Thanks in advance for your help!

Jeff

I have a friend at work who volunteers at the battlefield. I will ask him what information they have on unit strengths. Pictors Studio has worked there too. If you contact him through TMP he should have the best available information. If I recall there were about 360 Highlanders most from the 42nd. One company from the 77th. There were 20 local rangers as guides and scouts and about 50 teamsters and 300-400 pack animals. I bek\lieve there were about 500 natives.

The number of Indians is just straight up unknown. The Natives claim that there were about a hundred, Bouquet estimated that he was outnumbered.

I'd guess a realistic number would be about 200 but that mostly speculation combined with measurements from the park and an estimation on how many troops it would take to surround the British the way they did.

Boquet's forces numbered about 450, 272 Highlanders from the 42nd and 77th and the rest made up of 60th Royal Americans.

Those are the numbers from the start of the campaign. Boquet dropped off a number of men on the way who were too sick with malaria or yellow fever to fight and picked up about 20 rangers at Ft. Bedford. The men dropped off would have either been mostly or all highlanders.

So at the battle about 250 highlanders, 180 60th and 20 ish rangers in addition to teamsters Doug mentioned, who all ran away, and 350 pack horses.

Thank you, DougKL and Pictors Studio! You've given more to go on than I had before.

Jeff

Think there is some information in the Osprey book on highlanders in North America including a birds eye view of the battle.

Thanks for the tip, RogerC.

Believe it or not, I visited a friend's house yesterday for gaming. He happens to be one of the guys who is interested in our fledgling FIW project, including Pontiac's War. My friend is interested in all things Scottish and so he owns the Osprey book you mentioned. I took a good long look at it yesterday while visiting.

Steve Brumwell of "Redcoats" and "White Devil" fame wrote his PhD on Bushy Run.He used it as the basis of some articles on the battle that were published in the noughties. Try googling it and ordering from your local library.