"What Color for AWI Crossbelts ?" Topic

I think many of us grew up thinking that both sides had white leather cross belts. Now, this appears to be true, to some extent. Troiani, however, paints many (most?) of his figures with black cross belts. For both Continental and British armies.
What was the extent of use for black leather belts? Since
I've not encountered any explanations from Troiani, can anyone give me an idea as to the frequency of black belting versus white in the AWI?

For the British army, almost every regiment had white cross belts.
Regiments with buff facings had buff cross belts.
Light infantry companies and Highland regiments had black.

Continentals had whatever was supplied to them.

Like all questions on the period, there is no simple answer.

For Brits, the general rule is that most belts (cartridge pouch and bayonet belt) were whitened leather for hat companies and grenadiers. Light infantry generally wore black leather. Highlanders generally wore black leather. Regiments with buff wore buff colored leather (along with their small clothes) though there are exceptions to this, perhaps done more from expediency (shortage of supplies) than form.

American kit is must more complicated. Much of their gear might be cloth straps as opposed to leather. But if it was leather it would likely be white.

The other "straps" you often see on figures represent the haversack (light grey/brown linen) and the canteen strap, which could range from hemp rope to cloth.

Perhaps worth noting that it's not unheard of for pipeclay to be neglected in the field, and even black leather requires some maintenance. (I'm redying boots this evening.) As a wargamer, I like my troops inspection-ready, but I suspect if you could get photographs of the AWI, you'd get a certain number of "are those white or buff?" and even a few "you're sure those aren't natural leather?" belts.

Not all British Light Infantry wore black belts. Officially they were to be black "tan" leather, however some regiments went and whitened their black belts making them look "exceedingly ill". Rebel belts can be white buff, black, or linen webbing. I know of a couple of cartridge boxes that had russet leather(natural, uncoloured) pouches with white buff straps.

Thanks all!

And in some cases entire units had black leather, such as the 24th during the Saratoga campaign.

Like I said, there is no simple answer, only a generalized one, or you have to get into specific units (which might vary from year to year).