"British Light Infantry caps" Topic

Quick question: the Perry Miniatures AW179 comes with three types of cap. Could someone please advise the order that these were worn? I.e. chain cap, chain cap with peak and butterfly caps.

Thanks

Pretty sure it varied from unit to unit.

The 'chain cap' or ['prepared under the direction of'] 'Keppel' design was the original model recommended for wear by the light companies when these were being re-formed in infantry battalions in 1771-72.

I am not aware of 'chain caps with peaks as such, others may know more. However, other designs were adopted instead, some with peaks- notably that of the 5th Regiment (Lord Percy's) in leather with neo-classical brass comb, red horsehair crest and decorated frontlet, a style found else e.g worn by militia illustrated by de Loutherbourg in 1778(See below).

The so-called 'butterfly' or 'cap hat' makes an appearance in de Loutherbourg's 'Warley camp' canvases of 1778, and detailed in his preparatory sketches (Don Troiani uses these examples to illustrate 'cap hats' reported worn by 3rd 'The Buffs' in the Carolinas a little later, IIRC, circa 1780). Cap hats of a different profile have been proposed by researchers studying the Foot Guards brigade, similar to those made up for the Light company of the 37th in 1778, which were of felt with a horsehair crest.

I don't believe there's a whole lot of evidence as to how much, or how long into the war, these caps were worn in the field in America.
That might also affect the answer to your question-depending what you're planning.

What both said. The hat missing that was used during 1776- to who knows, is the round hat, or uncocked hat, as show by the artwork for the Philadelphia campaign.

The leather caps were expensive, and likely put into storage after the 1775 battles around Boston. I suspect that like the grenadier caps, they were owned by the colonel, and not the soldier.

So, if you are doing the 1775 battles, then likely any of the three are fine, depending on the regiment. If you are doing 1776 and beyond, it may depend, but likely the leather caps would not have been worn.

Thanks very much for the replies. I'm quite the novice as far as AWI goes. Very helpful

Yes, LI caps were regimental property. I'd say you can't go wrong with the Keppel, though, if you want your LI in regulation headgear. Officer portraits would tend to support this. The evidence is patchy but the Loutherbourg sketches indicate they were still commonly in use by both regulars and militia back in Britain in 1778. I stand to be corrected but I believe the only regiment we can definitely say wore the 'hat cap' with turned up 'leaves' fore and aft was the 69th as shown at Warley by de Loutherbourg though there are also generic images to be seen in prints.

I ran into the same thing a while back.
Foundry had two different LI caps for their LI.
I bought a ton of each to game the retreat from Concord.
I found out from Supercilious Maximus, an exile from here, that MOST had the standard cap, the Keppel cap with chains. The 5th had the "other" cap, and maybe one more in the Boston garrison.
Sadly, he also told us that the Lexington Concord affair was a "work party", so they were unlikely to wear the expensive regimental property LI caps. Note that the men owned their tricorne hats, paid for out of "stoppages" of their pay. They didn't own the LI caps.
Well, I had already bought a huge amount of Foundry LI figures, and wasn't about to let mere historical accuracy get in the way.

By the way, I did some skirmishes in Concord with epturner, but still haven't done the grand battle. Yet. I did buy the appropriate bridge and house from Thingsfromthebasement.
By the way, the Grenadiers probably kept their bearskins in storage for that work party too.

The sad thing is that if you want historical accuracy for your figures and CONVERGED BATTALIONS, they hardly ever wore the LI or Grenadier caps in the early war, less later on. Slouch hats, Baby! (Not that I follow that.)

John:

I wonder what the source of SM's thoughts on the LI caps was from, or perhaps just speculation? I don't know. I have never heard that about the caps for either flank company being put aside for that. I'd look at the Dolittle artwork for some guidance.

We do know, from an eyewitness, that the British Grenadiers were wearing their caps at Brandywine, as it is recorded they put them on before going into battle. I believe it is commonly held that they were put in storage sometime in 1778.

I also believe that what the Brits wore sometime after Clinton assuemd command is less clear, especially for units just arriving to the fray starting in 1779.

A major part of his conclusion about Battle Road are the Doolittle "cartoons" that show no caps.

But I have always thought that in most armies the more you have to prohibit something, the more likely it is to be going on.
Particularly if "as the Colonel shall decide" is still prevalent.
All this with a grain of salt.
As I said, I paid a lot for those figures, and I'm using them.

Hg. My recollection is that the notion of flank company headgear not being worn on the Lexington-Concorde outing turns on the the absence of such uniform caps from lists of equipment lost compiled after the return to Boston. The assumption, therefore, is that since a portion of headgear would have been lost during the retreat, whether cast aside or lost by casualties when they fell, this suggests that the soldiers marched wearing other headgear.
YMMV

John;
I suppose that's one of the big events we need to look at when I return from my Guv'mint vacation next year.

I'm also thinking we need to do a big Bunker Hill/Breed's Hill game, too.

But that's a conversation for another day.

Just the thought of CONVERGED battalions makes me faint right now.

Eric

"CONVERGED battalions…"

Indeed. Very messy.

Interesting, 42nd. Thanks for sharing.

Thanks for the the thoughtful and informative responses

Well, Eric, I have the North Bridge and the Smith house. All looking lovely, if I do say so myself. I'll have Minutemen with the problematic Bedford flag, and LI and Grenadiers wearing problematic caps.
This will include the goose green facings 5th, and the 64th (?) whose officers got sent home for being naughty. According to SuperMax anyway.

Bottom line here is that if you want to have your figures be perfectly appropriate for 1775, they won't work for 1781. And vice versa. "Uniforms" were in a constant state of flux, for both sides. Well, I can't afford to have the 23rd in one uniform and hat for 1775, another for 1776 and yet another for 1781.
They're your figures. I made my best effort to paint mine as accurate as I could. But if I need Loyalist light infantry in 1780 for a game, I'll use 1775 4th Regiment, wearing a cap they probably never wore in a "proper" battle.
So. In 1775, most would wear the Keppel helmet, with chains. The 5th would wear the peaked one with plate. I don't know about the other cap.