"What’s a MPC coat?" Topic

Hi everyone,

I'm painting up troops for the AWI. I'm using miniatures from Brigade Games which are wonderful miniatures.

But I got a question: I got several packs of American militia Who are described as being in MPC coats. I have no idea what this is. My google searches seem to show that's it's a blue coat with red lapels. A Massachusetts Provincial Congress coat.

But I wanted to ask the wisdom of the TMP. Anyone have any idea what an MPC coat is please?

And thanks in advance!

-Stewart

Stewart;
I may be guessing just a wee bit here, but I think this is referring to the lottery coats that were issued.

These were without lapels and were a generally brownish colour. They had a very simple construction.

There are a couple of other folks here on this forum who have blogs that go into more detail.

Hope that helps.

Eric

This information comes from Mark of the brave fusiliers website whose work sometimes shows up here:

The Massachusetts Provincial Congress resolved on 23 April 1775 that each man enlisted for a year should be given a coat as bounty. Each coat was to made of brown wool, with no lapels and working pockets. It was based on a simple working man's jacket or the period. Samples of the wool were sent out to each town and they were responsible for making a number of jackets equal to the men from that town who had enlisted. When done they were collected and sorted by shade and regimental marked buttons attached. By 28 December 1775 13,000 coats had been made. These so called "bounty coats" served as the first uniform.

Coats were a simple working man's jacket. They had cuffs and collar but no lapels. These were in a brown color. When collected it was mentioned they were to be sorted by shade. So use a variety of brown. But a single color. No facings.

The MPC coats were short and simply constructed. You will see the color described as "fawn." It is my understanding that the cuffs were of the same cloth and color. The blue coat with white cuffs was a later Mass uniform.

Thanks guys! Looking closely at the miniatures I can see that they don't have lapels. I appreciate the answers. 😀

Great information!

Jim

So they they weren't really militia then?

So they mislabled them. Still good figures for those 1776 New England regiments. Plus they are good candidates to be mixed in with other figures for 1777 regiments.

Not militia in the "minuteman" sense. I forget the term, something like the Grand Army of Massachusetts.

So three levels of American troops during the period – Continental, State, and militia. Seems pretty clear to me. :-)

(prep-cast-thread resurrect!)

Hey everyone,
thanks for the info again.

I got distracted by some other hobby projects but did start painting these miniatures so thought I would post a pic or two..

again, these are from Brigade Games are very nice miniatures.

-Stew

The knowledge base on TMP amazes me.

Those are most excellently done figures.

Thanks all! appreciate it.

Still got 12 more of these MPC wearing figures on the painting table now.

-Stew

I had never even heard of MPC coats until Brigade came out with these figures. As far as I know, nobody else makes them.
WillBGoode filled me in on them.

Uses? First, the Penobscot expedition from Cornwell's The Fort.
Secondly, anytime a "deserter description" mentions workman's clothes.
Continental uniforms were rarely uniform. Fill in.