"AWI Hunting shirts?" Topic

Did certain units exclusively wear the hunting shirts in the Southern Campaign or would be a scattering of them throughout all the units?

Yes. I do both.

Mixture of hunting shirt, militia…

There is evidence indicating in the spring of 1781, after Guilford Courthouse and possibly after Hobkirk's Hill the Continentals under Greene were issued hunting shirts. Before that the Maryland and Delaware Continentals were probably mostly wearing regimentals. Virginia Continentals would be another story.

It's basically "what's available". 🤷
IF the State has money, and feels like spending it on uniforms rather than general graft, they MIGHT just pay for uniforms.
The Continental Congress? 🙄😄

The basic "clothing" I issue for newly painted regiments is a mixture of Continental cut uniform, if I have information, civilian clothing and hunting shirt.

If you want to outfit an entire regiment with hunting shirt, you would not be wrong. Nor would you be wrong to outfit a Continental regiment with civilian clothes, ditto.

Here's an interesting site about what was really worn.
EDIT: (I forgot the link…)

link

I had never heard of "bounty coats", until Brigade Games came out with Massachusetts Bounty Coat figures.
Think about this. As an inducement to impoverished young men, they would be issued a single simple "bounty coat" to enlist. And it worked.
Google Bounty Coat.
The Massachusetts regiments on my back burner will mix these Bounty Coat figures with the Eureka Marblehead sailor figures. Madness!

My earliest Continental regiments had one pose. All coats were the same color and cut.
When I realized what a scruffy lot they really were, well maybe I went too far. But I'm happy.

Oh! Don't forget that quite a few British regimental coats were captured at sea by Privateers. Keep them red, or cut off the facings, and dump then in a vat of blue, and get a truly disgusting vile shade of brown. Then sew the facings back on.

Hunting shirts were popular. Some states would dye matching fringes for an entire unit. This trend continued through the War of 1812 and a few years later.

The Virginia quartermaster store kept some records of colors of cloth issued and the various plates especially the Company of Military Historians base their illustrations on such evidence. We do not know NOTHING but the gaps in what we know are so huge you can pretty much do as you please

Washington was a big advocate of Hunting shirts for his troops.

It's basically "what's available".

THIS. In the winter of 1778 Virginia was able to outfit its Continentals and State troops drawing on imported items as well as the state's own production. Then as Virginia was putting together three new regiments for service in the south in 1779 a British raiding force hit the Chesapeake destroying much of Virginia's supplies. This delayed the departure of the Virginia troops, and when the first regiment did head south they did so wearing what the soldiers themselves could provide. If Babits is correct Continental stores were available to outfit the Maryland and Delaware troops in the fall of 1780, but there was the problem in transporting those resources to the troops. In 1781 Greene tried to deal with the problem by encouraging local production in the Salisbury NC area.