"Continental Army Light Infantry" Topic

In the regimental organization of 27 May 1778 the Continental infantry regiments were authorized one light infantry company and between seven and nine line companies. All of the companies had the same authorized strength of 3 officers, 3 sergeants, 3 corporals, one drummer, one fifer, and 53 privates.

The regimental organization of 1781 called for one light infantry company and 8 line companies of 3 officers, one 1st Sergeant, 4 sergeants, 4 corporals, one drummer, one fifer, and 64 privates.

From time to time, such as for Anthony Wayne's Continental Corps of Light Infantry in 1779 and Lafayette's light infantry in 1781 the light infantry companies with the main army would be organized into a provisional 'corps' organized in battalions of all the light infantry companies with the main army.

Lafayette's Continental Corps of Light Infantry, for example, was organized into three battalions under LtCols Elijah Vose, Jean-Joseph Gimat, and Francis
Barber.

Vose's battalion had the light infantry companies of the 1st to the 8th Massachusetts regiments, Gimat's had 2 Massachusetts companies, 5 Connecticut companies, and the Rhode Island company. Barber's battalion had 2 New Hampshire companies, the single light infantry company of the 2d Canadian Regiment, 2 light companies from New Jersey, and 3 line companies.

There were also provisional light infantry battalions formed when necessary in other theaters, such as Henry Dearborn's light infantry battalion formed for the Saratoga campaign.

In the southern army the Delaware survivors of the defeat at Camden in August 1780 were reformed as two light infantry companies and 'became the elite of the southern army.' They probably wore a mixture of tricornes and light infantry caps.

So until then they just had ad hoc formations of marksmen/riflemen taken from the ranks or the milita?
Didn't Washington create some continental riflemen units in 75?

noigrim, the Continental Congress raised a regiment of riflemen in 1775, and continued it in later years and organizations. Under Morgan and his successors, they usually worked with the field armies. If you look close, you can often find other Pennsylvania and Virginia regiments on the frontier designated as rifles.

[It's an important constitutional point by the way: Washington sometimes formed provisional units--say of converged light infantry companies, as described above--but the only regiments Washington raised were the "Additional" regiments of 1777, for which he had Congressional authorization. Washington was not Napoleon, for which we should all be grateful.]

Brechtel is describing the designated light infantry companies which are different. The light infantry are smoothbore armed, and while they can skirmish, you'll also see them being used as assault troops since there were no American grenadiers.

Washington was not Napoleon, for which we should all be grateful

As Flexner noted, Washington's greatest monument was the short entry in the Annals of America that on March 4, 1797, John Adams was inaugurated as the second President of the United States.

Yes, were it not for Washington's character, the history of North America might more nearly have resembled that of Latin America.

Been a lot of discussion about this as it's hard to find examples of "The Light Infantry" doing anything that unusual (as opposed to say "picked men," who may or may not have been lights).

Rifle units were indeed separate, and dwindled as the war progressed (Washington didn't like them much).

Which is interesting considering his long experiences in frontier fighting (1753-59).

Washington never wanted more than 1,000 riflemen with the army at any one time. The reasons for this is that the rifle was slow to load, could not take the bayonet (and, therefore, were near-useless in fighting musket armed British, Hessian, and Loyalist infantry) and to be useful had to be supported by their own musket and bayonet armed infantry, such as when Morgan's riflemen were brigaded with Dearborn's light infantry in the Saratoga battles.

There were two instances in the southern campaigns, namely at Guilford Courthouse when two rifle units were brigaded with Lee's Legion and Washington's cavalry and Kirkwood's infantry, respectively. These were veterans who had fought at King's Mountain and because of the provisional units they formed, they did well.

You had to know how to best employ riflemen for them to be effective. Otherwise they would get killed, overwhelmed, or routed to no good purpose.

Kevin-What information do you have indicating the Delaware continentals were wearing caps late in the war?

There is some debate whether the Delaware cap was actually worn. Those who say "yes" also seem to claim it was issued to the 1776 Delawares who were disbanded at the end of the year. While there may have been some reenlisted troops that brought their old caps back with them, they would have been several years old by the time the Delawares marched south in the spring of 1780.

The last information on the Delaware Regiment's light infantry company from the reorganized regiment in 1777-1778 when commanded by Colonel David Hall is in Military Uniforms in America Volume I edited by John Elting on page 80.

The narrative and accompanying plate indicates that the light infantry company was wearing caps and they could have survived into 1781, which is why I qualified the answer with a 'probably.'

The inspection reports referred to in the narrative states that both cocked hats and light infantry caps were worn in May 1778.

Thanks for the info Kevin.

You're welcome.

Were the rifle units issued rifles or did most of them provided their own rifle? If they were issued rifles, you would think they would have been manufactured to accept a bayonet. Similar to the later Baker Rifle. I assume the Jaegers had bayonets for their rifles in the AWI.

The jaegers did not have bayonets for their rifles in the AWI.
They carried short hunting swords.
The simple reason was that the rifles were so slow to load that they needed protection while reloading. This was provided by musket snd bayonet armed soldiers, often grenadiers.
The fact that they often (sometimes?) actually fought says more about their opponents and their reputation.

The American long rifles were individually owned and manufactured. There was no standardization and no issue rifles during the period.

For the War of 1812 and between the War of the Revolution and 1812 an excellent American issue rifle was produced at the Harper's Ferry arsenal. That was an issue weapon.