Victory or Death a Wargamers Guide to the American Revolution, 1774-1782 by David C. Bonk.

With the previous twelve months taken up with exploring the delights of the American War of Independence I thought I would share my thoughts on some recent additions to the reading and research resources that are helping to develop the new collection of figures; starting with 'Victory or Death, a Wargamers Guide to the American Revolution, 1774-1782' by David C. Bonk (DB), who is a long-time wargamer, military history author and student of the American Revolution.

I have to admit, I wasn't sure how useful this book was going to be when I purchased it, given that I'm a fairly 'long-time wargamer', and 'student of the American War of Independence (AWI)' myself, with a collection of books, rules and other paraphernalia, that no doubt most of us who've been doing this daft hobby for a while are likely to have.

Some of my Napoleonic 'Wargamer Guides' that, despite their vintage, and my own knowledge, are still useful references today.

That said, compared to another passion of mine, the Napoleonic era, the AWI/American Revolution is not as blessed with that many wargaming guides, such as those which have been very helpful and guiding in my early years in the Napoleonic corner of the hobby, and have proved useful resources in my latter years as well.

In my experience a wargaming guide is quite a tricky publication to pull off, because the audience you are aiming at is likely to have quite a range of knowledge and experience in the hobby theme you are pitching at, with often very differing needs from such a book, with a level of detail or lack thereof, appealing to one whilst potentially putting off the other, and over the years I have come across offerings that missed that mark and caused me to either not buy them or rehome them soon after purchase.

So I guess I can frame my comments both from my memory of being a novice once, as we all were whatever our experience, and probably now more leaning more towards the 'been there, seen that' grognard element.

The Contents in Victory or Death.

Ok, so with that disclaimer and preamble done, what did I think of this guide and the description of it by Helion, which describes this tome, as follows;

'This wargamer’s guide provides a comprehensive overview of the American War of Independence (or American Revolution), 1775–1782. The guide includes a series of maps showing the location of major battles by year with accompanying summaries of those battles and of the major campaigns of the war, and additionally it includes details of many lesser-known engagements. The book also provides information on, and organisations of not only American Continentals, French regular units and British regular units but also on American militia, the British Army’s German Auxiliaries, and the British provincial and loyalist units, and will thus enable wargamers to focus their efforts on specific campaigns or battles.

Orders of battle for selected campaigns and specific battles are provided. Uniform guides, including uniform colours and facings for each of the participants are included along with descriptions of the armies’ colours. The guide provides information on rules for the period and an overview of various miniatures available in a range of scales. Several tabletop wargaming scenarios, accompanied by maps, orders of battle and painting guides are also included in the book; additionally, information for several historical campaign scenarios are given, showing how campaigns can be used to add a new dimension to wargaming and to generate tabletop battles.'

The Helion summary is a good one and was what I based my decision to buy a copy of the book, but I thought I would try and give a bit more of an impression, chapter by chapter, now having read it.

Part 1. Why the American Revolution, lays out DB's interest in the theme and its growing attractiveness to wargamers, that has led to a similarly growing range of miniatures and terrain now available to bring the period to the table; and explains that the guide is designed to help provide an overview and framework for gamers to build their armies around the types of battles they might like to fight, including campaigns to create generated scenarios or to refighting historical scenarios, some of which are detailed in the guide.

Chapter 3 focussing specifically on the West Indies.

Parts 2 & 3. These chapters outline the history of the war, by year, outlining the key military strategic events, accompanied by a colour map to illustrate when those activities were happening, and I liked particularly the inclusion of Chapter 3 focussing specifically on the West Indies as British focus was forced to shift to this very important theatre with the entry of France 1778, Spain 1780 and later the Netherlands.

Although the events in the West Indies are summarised, similar activities in India during the First Anglo-Maratha War, and France's alliance with Hyder Ali, the Sultan and de facto ruler of the Kingdom of Mysore in southern India, are not included, but it would be particularly 'picky' by me for wanting a couple of pages covering that aspect, however it should be remembered that the last battle of the American War of Independence wasn’t fought at Yorktown or anywhere in the emergent United States, but rather on the other side of the globe, as British and French naval forces met at Cuddalore on the Bay of Bengal off the coast of modern-day India; the battle raging all day on June 20th, 1783, and only ending when a British ship appeared on the horizon flying a white flag, and bringing news that King George had agreed to a provisional peace treaty with the American Patriots in Paris fully six months earlier.

If you are really new to the AWI then the background information in parts 2 & 3 is a great source of information for getting to grips with what happened in a chronological order to underpin any ideas you might have about building a collection of figures to fight actions for a particular part of the war, and these chapters will certainly provide a basis for further reading with DB providing a bibliography of useful sources in his final section.

For me, I have found this summary useful when I was constructing ideas around a potential future campaign structure, with the yearly summaries of troop dispositions and garrisons listed on the maps a very handy aide-memoire for setting up my army and garrison start points for a particular year in my planned game.

A recent addition to my collection of Continental Regiments has been the 11th Virginia Regiment of Continental Infantry, with DB's quick reference guide to Washington's lottery of regimental coat colours for 1778, being particularly helpful in their completion.

Part 4. The Armies of the American Revolution is perhaps the heart of this guide and the section I have found myself referencing the most alongside my other books and internet references on the subject whilst constructing my own collection of figures.

The information it contains is by no means unique if you already have a decent collection of books on the subject, but what I have found most convenient is that it brings much of that information together in one place, amid the 110 odd pages that cover off pretty much all you might want to look up when building your armies.

Pages 124 and 125 in the section covering British uniforms with the table detailing the key colour options for portraying the particular British infantry regiments present at any time.

I say 110 pages because DB goes into a good level of detail covering off, Organisation and Training, Regiments of Infantry, Cavalry and Artillery, their structure, uniforms, and tactical doctrine for the American (Militia, Continental and Legions), British Crown, British-German Allies, French, Spanish and Native American or Indian forces.

The ready-reference charts covering uniform details are particularly handy, and I have the book close to hand at my painting desk just in case I need to check a particular facing or lace colour, and although not exhaustive, particularly with the Americans, who to be fair had regiments changing uniform in as many years of the war, or with no particular reference at all as to what they might have had on at any particular time, with even DB making it quite clear right from page one, that this section was intended to provide an overview, and in my opinion does a very good job of that.

Pages 130 and 131 in the section covering Loyalist uniforms, giving a good overview, but serving as a start point for a reference, and pointing to further research if wanting to say portray Johnson's Royal Green's or King's Royal Regiment of New York, who likely first appeared in the traditional Loyalist Green uniforms, but switched to a more British regular red later in the war for the large raids along the Mohawk Valley.

As well as the uniform reference, this section also includes information around items carried such as the flags and drums.

You might note from the reference pictures that the book has copious numbers of pictures of tabletop figures in action, but with the majority sadly in black and white and just a few in colour on the back cover, which is a shame, as I love seeing how others produce their units and the colour options they choose, but I guess Helion decided to do this to keep the costs of printing within budget.

Part 5 has about fifteen pages covering off the various types of weapon most likely to be encountered in the AWI together with a summary of their effectiveness or lack off and summarising, Muskets, Brown Bess, 1776 Pattern Rifle, Ferguson Rifle, Fusils and Carbines, Committee of Safety Muskets, Pennsylvania Rifles, German Musket, Jaeger Rifles, Amusettes, French (Charleville Model) Muskets, Halberds, Spontoon, and artillery with a detailed look at the American artillery in 1777, Burgoyne's Artillery Train, and Rochambeau's Artillery in 1780. This section is completed with a useful guide to the types of Fortifications and Fieldworks the various factions were capable of building and did build during the war.

My old copy of B P Hughes' classic 'Open Fire', a great reference source on the capabilities of smooth bore artillery.

As an inveterate rules adapter I find this is the kind of information I tend to turn to when checking out rules to see if they capture what a particular weapon or defensive structure was capable of offering to the user and it takes me back to my copy of Open Fire by B.P. Hughes which was referenced by the old WRG Napoleonic rules when they were working out chances to hit and likely casualties at various ranges for artillery.

The AWI was fought on the great oceans, lakes and rivers from mainland America, the wider Atlantic, British home waters, Caribbean and off the Indian sub-continent, providing plenty of scope for age of sail naval wargaming.

For those of us inclined to dip our toes in water occasionally, Part 6 provides a three page overview of the types of vessels used by the Americans, British, French and Spanish, including the types of small ship that might be encountered on the Great Lakes and large rivers, which whets the appetite for those who might choose to delve deeper to model those actions on the tabletop.

Part 7 is a nice inclusion looking as it does at the Strategic Overview and Choices not taken, with DB succinctly capturing the propositions this chapter in the book offers for the more imaginative wargamers among us;

'This section addresses the strategic options considered and plans adopted by British and American leaders during the war. While the American Revolution provides wargamers with many unique and challenging historical scenarios, an examination of other options not taken opens another realm of possibilities. This section includes both a description of the historical options and actions available to each side and notes possible 'what if' scenarios that could be used to generate interesting campaigns or battles.'

Each year from 1775 to 1782 has a section devoted to it that neatly captures the key events for that year and combines them with the conversations and plans being discussed by the opposing factions that could have been implemented instead of those that were, together with the potential forces that could have been deployed to facilitate those alternate plans. 

As an example, when considering Howe's Philadelphia campaign in 1777, DB rightly points out that the decision to move by sea from New York to Head of Elk took 32 days, four times the estimated time and at least twice that if the march had been done overland; but with Howe opting for the sea route to avoid the necessary detachments from his main army being left in his wake to guard his lengthy supply line through New Jersey.

However if Howe had committed to such a march he may well have been able to force Washington into the decisive encounter he was looking to create. If the march had been commenced in late spring he might have been able to defeat Washington and capture Philadelphia by June, and still have had enough time to send troops north to support Burgoyne 

Once Howe landed at the Head of Elk, he could have moved against the Continental supply bases of Reading, Lancaster and York. One of the 'what-ifs' considered in 'Part 7, The Strategic Overview and Choices not taken.'

Similarly having landed at Head of Elk in Delaware, Howe had several options to the one he chose that led to the fight above Chads Ford on the Brandywine river, and DB highlights the option for Howe to do what Washington feared he might have done, which was to advance west towards the Continental supply bases of Reading, Lancaster and York, the loss of which would have had catastrophic consequences for the rebel army and actually caused Washington to manoeuvre his army to allow him to counter just such an advance.

Part 8. Wargaming the American Revolution covers off what you will need to bring a collection to the table, covering miniatures from scales ranging from 6mm to 60mm, metal, plastic and printed resin, with a list of key manufacturers to get one started, together with flag suppliers, rules, different types of terrain, and buildings with a few suppliers listed likewise.

Carnage&GloryII Computer Moderated Wargame Rules

Personally, it was nice to see DB highlighting Carnage & Glory computer moderated rules and we share a common enthusiasm for the great games these rules can produce.

Part 9. Wargaming Scenarios offers a selection of historical scenarios that DB has written initially for use with Carnage & Glory, but here for the book has organised them more generically to allow them to be easily used with other rule sets as well.

Once my collection is where I want it, I am looking forward to bringing his ideas to the table, with the following scenarios offered covering Chatterton Hill, 28th October 1776, Birmingham Hill,  Battle of Brandywine 11th September 1777, Battle of Camden, 16th August 1780, Battle of Eutaw Springs, 8th September 1781 and Battle of Green Springs, 6th July 1781.

Each scenario is illustrated with a nice coloured map that makes the set up very clear.

Each scenario has the historical background, some nicely detailed orders of battle with numbers of men in each unit and a key that references the placement of those units on the table, illustrated with some nice coloured maps that makes the set up very clear. Additionally there are scenario notes giving start times, specific terrain types, the objectives for each side, and the historical outcome to be able to compare with the result of your game.

An extensive library of books enables me to do my hobby, and I am always interested in the Bibliography section of any good book, as that enables me to do further research and learning. DB knows this period and brings a wargamers eye to the types of books that will help get a collection ready for the tabletop.

Finally the Bibliography section lists twenty publications that anyone interested in wargaming the American War of Independence is likely to want to have on their bookshelf, providing as they do excellent background reading to the period, uniform and organisational information, all essential to being able to produce the units needed to grace your table as well as a broad understanding of how these armies manoeuvred and fought.

So in summary, I think Victory or Death is a very useful guide for the experienced or new wargamer looking to get into the American War of Independence/Revolution part of the hobby, and would congratulate David Bonk and Helion for producing a handy resource for this theme and it is definitely a good book to have on the shelf.

JJ

Low Profile Sabot Bases for Wargames - Practicality and Aesthetics.

This post was prompted by several requests wanting to know more about the sabot bases I am using for my current AWI project, 'The World Turned Upside Down', and so I thought it might be useful to take a look at my journey through the wonderful world of sabot bases and movement trays, that has inevitably influenced my thinking.

That said this is obviously a very subjective post about how I go about doing the hobby, very aware that all such choices are personal to the individual and that given all the compromises we wargamers take for granted to enable us to recreate the battles and actions on our tabletops, and are happy to make will differ from one to another, so if you like these ideas great, if not, that's fine to.

'For my own gaming, as illustrated here on the blog, I am very much into big-battle over skirmish'.
One of the Talavera games, using Carnage & Glory II, underway with loads of narrative and drama with every turn of play. The basing is designed to compliment the terrain, whilst facilitating the different formations likely to be needed representing in the game, such as guns and limbers, and infantry columns able to deploy into line. We had hundreds of 18mm figures on the table, representing battalions, batteries and squadrons of cavalry and not a sabot or movement tray in sight, as these groupings were easily repositioned on the table.

For my own gaming, as illustrated here on the blog, I am very much into big-battle over skirmish gaming, and I like my games to have as much simulation and narrative as I can squeeze out of them, seeing my hobby very much about historical story telling, using the figures to act out the play on an appropriate stage.

Thus when it comes to my choice in rules, as I have mentioned in previous posts, I am looking at the parameters of 'simulation - game' versus 'fun - not fun' to play with that 'Goldilocks' formula erring towards simulation and fun to play, with for me Carnage & Glory rules right at the top of that Goldilocks list.

For me, aesthetics are an important part of my hobby, and I am aiming for
'full emersion into the game and its story'.
Here for my Age of Sail games, the clear acrylic bases worked perfectly on a nice sea cloth, with a minimum of markers to facilitate play, whilst keeping the focus of the eye on the models. The pill shape base likewise, for me, seemed to work much better on the eye than the rectangular option.

Similarly when it comes to the aesthetics of the games I like to play, I want my tabletop to be very much like a stage set populated with the actors, be that figures or models, with as little distraction to the eye as possible, and thus allowing that full emersion into the game and its story.

Thus my key goals are, nicely turned out figures and models, nicely turned out terrain, and basing to compliment the figures and terrain, that enables figures or models to be moved about as required, but with as little distraction to the eye as possible, and better still, very complimentary to the models and the type of game, skirmish or big-battle being played.

The Dark Age collection in action using Dux Bellorum, where figure removal was a requirement, and that saw me turning to the sabot tray offerings from Warbases. In view is one of my filler bases next to the missing manhole cover indicating a couple of casualties nearest to camera, and that I'd run out of manhole covers. These bases work well for the shield wall battles DB produces, and allow easy positioning, with figures in various alignment seemingly capturing the irregular look of these battles.

With a move into the larger scale of gaming, a few years ago, with the commencement of my Dark Ages collection and then my Romano-Dacian collection of 28mm figures, I needed to think more carefully about movement trays and sabot bases to better enable the rules I was using for those collections, where a large skirmish type of game needed to be enabled as well as facilitating the big-battle look.

My Viking and Saxon warbands on traditional 2mm on 2mm sabots from Warbases, arranged for use with my favourite Dark Age rules, Dux Bellorum.

For my Viking and Saxon armies I was using Dux Bellorum, a very clever set of rules from Dan Mersey which nicely illustrate the degrading of the opposing shield walls by figure removal, alongside a clever command and control mechanism, and I turned to Warbases for a traditional 2mm mdf base and sabot topping to mount my figures as well as a few three figure skirmish base offerings to complete my forces.

To minimise the effect of the sabot bases on the eye, I textured them in the same arrangement as my figure bases, and even produced some mdf fillers (manhole cover) to be dropped into place when a figure casualty was suffered to avoid the empty circular space you might otherwise notice in the close up picture of the opposing shield walls. In general, I prefer rules that don't require figure removal, but it's not always possible, especially when you find a great set of rules that works well that way.

Two large 36-figure Dacian warbands together with their fierce warrior markers out front. The figures are plastic and weapons need protecting from 'heavy-hands' and so 2mm movement trays, again from Warbases, seemed the way to go, instead of the loose arrangement with my metal 18mm Napoleonics.

For the Romano-Dacian collection where big-battle was very much front and centre using Augustus to Aurelian rules by Phil Hendry, my Roman cohorts and particularly my 36-figure Dacian warbands needed movement trays to enable the players to be able to easily move several large groups in short order and thus movement trays, again from Warbases were very much 'De rigueur'.

Four Roman Legionary cohorts of 18 figures similarly in trays for ease of moving, using Augustus to Aurelian rules.

As with the sabot bases, I was keen to soften the effect of movement trays on the eye and added terrain effects to them as well, to compliment the unit bases. In this case figure removal was not an issue and so I opted for the six figure basing seen.

Command sabots, were the first offering I came across from Supreme Littleness Designs (SLD), these using the more traditional 2mm mdf top with a 2mm bottom, that matches the movement trays

It was during the building of my Romano-Dacians that I first came across the rather unique offerings from Michael Scott at Supreme Littleness Designs (SLD).

Wavy-Edge Sabot Bases – SLD Shop

These SLD command sabots are really handy for marking up commanders, whether it is a skirmish game or, as here, for a big-battle set of rules.

I really like these command sabots, these being a more traditional 2mm over 2mm arrangement, and the similar low-profile, wavy-edge ones will come in very useful for my C&G games where marking up specific commanders is an important game aid to make it much easier to identify a specific commander and hence the units they directly influence.

I have to say, that if I could get away without using sabots or movement trays I would, but the fact is that when it comes to figure casualty type rulesets, using multiple bases to be able to illustrate formations or have the flexibility to arrange figures for skirmish or big-battle set ups, these arrangements make those aspects possible and convenient, but for me they must be as aesthetically pleasing as I can get them.

Which leads me neatly on to my current project, The World Turned Upside Down, in time for the commemoration of the 250th anniversary of the American Declaration of Independence.

The World Turned Upside Down project with a range of variously sized units built up to the beginning of May this year, showing off the low profile sabot bases from SLD for my big battle plan.

This project proper is just over a year into its progress, although it does pick up from previous work to focus on units involved in the Mohawk River frontier war commenced four years previously before things got very naval and busy firing carronades here on JJ's.

The first part of the AWI collection focussed on units for the Mohawk River frontier war, here illustrating SLD sabots for a more skirmish level of game being envisioned. Note the low profile command sabots all designed to match the other units.

When I first started to contemplate recommencing work on my AWI collection I was keen to build a collection of figures that would compliment both a big-battle set of rules, as well as a large skirmish arrangement, the theme covering a wide selection of battles and small actions that I was interested in recreating, and thus requiring a flexibility in figure basing that could accommodate both in as an aesthetically pleasing way as possible.

Some of my thinking included being able to have the figures easily rebased into a more irregular look if required for say a smaller action fought in very broken or wooded terrain, where the big battalion look of Colours front and centre would look very odd, to facilitating a completely different look to recreate part of a larger historical action such as Brandywine or Monmouth where a big-battle unit arrangement would be very much the order of the day.

Units of  New York State, Tryon County Militia ready to oppose Sir John Johnson's King's Royal Regiment of New York, Butler's Rangers and Mohawk Indians, here displayed on the larger six figure irregular low profile bases from SLD. No colour parties are required at this skirmish level, so just a drummer and officer will suffice.

With that thinking came ideas on the sizes of big-battle units, ranging from 12 to 24 figures to represent units as small as 240 men to those closing in on 500 men, with battalion/regimental groups of infantry carrying Colours and in units of three to six stands of four figures each.

The big-battle, approximately 1:20, unit is simply a footprint in size to cover the very different strengths in between, 12 figs (240 men), 16 figs (320 men), 20 figs (400 men) and 24 figs (480 men). For some of the more unusual and really large units, I can break them down into two groups or wings using my basic strengths, so for example, my 42nd Black Watch Highlanders illustrated below, regularly turned out with some 600 men, and I will eventually add a further eight figures to my current unit, to produce two 16 figure battalion groups.

The six base unit of 42nd Highlanders represents a large unit of 24 figures seen here on the regular four figure SLD sabots.

The other aspect of the basing for my AWI units was to capture a more loser-formation look characteristic of the extended order two deep lines used by both sides infantry formations, and I was thus eager to avoid the more usual straight edged sabots that for me was too unnatural, what with nature abhorring straight lines, a softer-edge seemed much more appropriate.

The 33rd Foot deployed in line at the Battle of Camden - Adam Hook (Osprey, British Tactics of the American Revolution).
This illustration depicts a typical British infantry battalion deployed in the open order two deep line, showing the eight 'hatmen' companies, less the grenadier and light companies detached to the amalgamated grenadier and light battalions, with their Colour party in the centre, and with the officer commanding, mounted, to its rear. These 'Loose File and American Scramble' formations, to my eye are better represented by the wavy edge sabots.

Interestingly Michael shared with me in an email his own design concepts for these sabots that mirrored perfectly my own thinking;

'The brief I gave myself was a natural outline (with enough variants to disguise repetition) with a profile that would not look visibly higher than any figure bases standing alongside.'

SLD produce sabots for all unit types, artillery, infantry and cavalry

If I could marry these aspects in with a sabot that had a profile similar to the figure base itself then that for me was the way to go.

Suitably covered with matching groundwork and foliage, these bases really easy on the eye.

To test my thinking about how I wanted my units to look on the gaming table, I put together a test game with my pal Jack at the Devon Wargames Group last June and the resulting look of the game we produced confirmed my thinking, and the collection has moved on at full speed ahead.

The Battle of Telegraph Hill fought at the DWG last June, gave me a chance to see how my units produced back then would look on the table, amid the gun smoke.
Devon Wargames Group: Battle of Telegraph Hill October 1776 - Rise & Fight Again

So if the aesthetics of your collection and the look of the games you want to produce is important to you and you are planning to use sabots for that collection, then not surprisingly I'm going to highly recommend taking a closer look at these wavy-edge sabot bases from SLD, and there is a link above under the company icon.

A range of options are available to base units, with the regular four slot option I tend to use the most of, together with sheets of magnetic discs to help keep the figures in place during handling.

Above is a picture of the types of bases I've used so far, with principally the cavalry option to include once I get around to adding some light dragoons to both factions. The other things you will need will be some suitably sized magnetic discs for either UK 2 penny/25mm or 1penny/20mm size which mine are, with these sheets of 88 magnetic discs readily available from Amazon, if you want to have the figures more securely placed in the sabots.

Here are some examples of the artillery (centre) and cavalry sabots (top and to the sides), plus the cavalry pill bases pre-cut to take a rare earth magnet, with my idea to apply a piece on steel paper in each sabot slot to secure my figures to the sabot base.

With the cavalry mounted on a pill base I plan to use the pre drilled bases suitable for taking a rare-earth magnet, and applying some steel paper in the sabot slot to achieve a firm grip, mounting my light cavalry on bases of two figures each representing a typical troop sized unit.

Each pack of sabots includes a 2mm upper and a light card lower to fit to the corresponding top as indicated by the letters A, B, C or D for the regular four slot offering. The fact that they come separate is really useful when it comes to adding texture to the uppers which I do before fixing them, allowing me to clear away any overhangs by running a cocktail stick around the inside circumference.

A close-up of a mounted command and irregular four man sabot. Here the lighter discreet card lower to the 2mm mdf upper is well illustrated.

Alongside the regular style bases, I have illustrated the 'irregular' look seen above with a group of four Iroquois Indians, which look great clustered together as a warband, and next to them is one of my command sabots with in this case an ID number applied.

The artillery sabots come available with four or five, crew slots, and I also have a good supply of two slot skirmish bases for my units such as the Hessian jaegers that have the option to break down into skirmish order, fully or partially.

The picture below shows how well the sabots height profile matches a figure base alongside it making their use so less jarring on the eye if requiring to have individual figures alongside a sabot base, and the magnetic discs are about 1mm thick, so leaving plenty of depth for the figure base to sit neatly on top.

So there we are, my thoughts on bases and game aesthetics. As the saying goes, 'you pays your money and you take your choice'.

As always, more anon.

JJ

The World Turned Upside Down - 11th Virginia Continental Regiment.

 

Having once again dissolved at the end of the Trenton and Princeton winter campaign of 1776-77, due to one year enlistments, the American army had to be once more built up in the late winter and early spring of 1777, with a strong request from Washington to Congress to design and create a better army.

Congress responded by changing the enlistment period to a term of three years or the duration of the war, thus ensuring that the army would not disband at the end of the year as had its predecessors. In addition Congress reformed the overall size of the army, setting a new establishment of 110 regiments of infantry, 3 regiments of artillery and 4 regiments of light dragoons, retaining the 'November' style regimental structure of 1775 that established each regiment, on paper, having eight companies of 90 men, all ranks and a headquarters group and staff of 13, thus a regiment of some 733 men.

Of the 110 infantry regiments, 88 would be raised, organised and maintained by the States, hence State Regiments, 16 'Additional' Regiments to be organised and raised outside the state quota, by officers who were responsible only to Washington and the Continental Congress, and 6 'Specialised' Battalions or Regiments which were organised on a territorial or other specialised basis which didn't fit into the other two categories, examples of which included the German Battalion and the 2nd Canadian Regiments, both showcased here on JJ's, and the Maryland and Virginia Rifle Regiment, the latter unit very pertinent to the story of the establishment of the 11th Virginia Continental Regiment. 

JJ's Wargames: The World Turned Upside Down - The German Battalion (8th Maryland) Continental Regiment.

JJ's Wargames: The World Turned Upside Down - 2nd Canadian Continental Regiment, 'Congress's Own' (Part Two)

As mentioned, the Maryland and Virginia Rifle Regiment was specialised in that it brought together the assorted non Pennsylvania rifle companies that had served with Washington since 1775 outside Boston, but with most of these companies having been lost at Fort Washington in 1776, the unit was in fact by early 1777 organised on paper only, and Virginians who had evaded capture helped form Daniel Morgan's 11th Virginia Regiment during the winter of 1777, many of whom then later joined Morgan's Provisional Rifle Corps that summer.

The formation of the 11th Virginia Continental Regiment is inextricably linked with Daniel Morgan's meteoric career with the Continental Army, whilst he is also famously linked with his command of the Corps of Light Infantry or Corps of Rangers, which became known as Morgan's Corps of Riflemen.

Daniel Morgan, circa 1794 - Charles Willson Peale.

Colonel of the 11th Virginia Continental Regiment, 

seen here as a Brigadier General.

In June 1775, the Continental Congress authorized an invasion of Canada, and Colonel Benedict Arnold convinced General Washington to start an eastern offensive in support of Montgomery's invasion, for which Washington agreed to dispatch three companies from his forces at Boston, provided they agreed. Every company at Boston volunteered, and a lottery was used to choose who should go. Morgan's company was one of them, with Arnold selecting the then Captain Morgan to lead the three companies as a battalion.

The Arnold Expedition started with about 1,050 men, but by the time they reached Quebec on November 9th, that number had been reduced to 675, and when Montgomery's men arrived, they launched a joint assault, with the Battle of Quebec beginning in a blizzard on the morning of December 31st, as the Patriots attacked in two pincers, commanded by Montgomery and Arnold.

Benedict Arnold is escorted away after suffering a leg wound in the attack on Quebec, December 31st 1775 - Adam Hook (Osprey)

Arnold attacked against the lower city from the north, but he suffered a leg wound early in the battle. Morgan took command of the force, and he successfully overcame the first rampart and entered the city. Montgomery's force initiated their attack as the blizzard became severe, and Montgomery and many of his troops, except for Aaron Burr, were killed or wounded in the first British volley. With Montgomery down, his attack faltered. 

The Battle of Quebec, December 31st 1775.

British General Carleton consequently was able to lead hundreds of the Quebec militia in the encirclement of the second attack, and was also able to move his cannons and men to the first barricade, behind Morgan's force. Divided and subject to fire from all sides, Morgan's troops gradually surrendered, with Morgan handing his sword to a French-Canadian priest, refusing to give it to Carleton in formal surrender. Morgan thus became one of the 372 men captured, and he remained a prisoner of war until he was exchanged in January 1777.

When he re-joined Washington early in 1777, Morgan was surprised to learn he had been promoted to colonel for his bravery at Quebec, and was ordered to raise and command a new infantry regiment, the 11th Virginia Regiment of the Continental Line.

The 11th Virginia Regiment, one of the fifteen regiments Congress allotted to Virginia's State quota, was authorised by the Second Continental Congress on the 16th September 1776, and it was organised on the 3rd February 1777, consisting of four companies from the Virginia counties of Loudoun, Frederick, Prince William, and Amelia; surviving members of Captain Daniel Morgan's Independent Rifle Company from Fauquier County; and the five companies from the state's portion of the Maryland and Virginia Rifle Regiment, most of whom had, as mentioned, been captured at the fall of Fort Washington in 1776.

The principle counties of Virginia involved in the recruitment of the 11th Virginia Continental Regiment in 1777.

On the 15th April 1777 Captain George Price's company (organized on 18th January 1777 in the Virginia State Troops with volunteers from Frederick and Augusta Counties) was transferred to the regiment. 

On the 11th May 1777 the 11th Virginia Regiment, under the command of Colonel Daniel Morgan was assigned to the 3rd Virginia Brigade of the Main Army under Brigadier General William Woodford. 

Brigadier General William Woodford,
commanding 3rd Virginia Brigade in May 1777

However Colonel Morgan’s command of the 11th Virginia was to be short-lived, when on June 13th, 1777, Washington gave Morgan command of the Provisional Rifle Corps, a light infantry force of 500 riflemen chosen from Pennsylvania, Maryland and Virginia regiments of the Continental Army, that saw him simultaneously in command of the 11th Virginia Regiment, his permanent unit, and this provisional unit.

Washington wrote the following letter to Morgan on August 16th, 1777: 

"Sir: After you receive this, you will march, as soon as possible, with the corps under your command, to Peekskill, taking with you all the baggage belonging to it. When you arrive there, you will take directions from General Putnam, who, I expect, will have vessels provided to carry you to Albany. The approach of the enemy in that quarter has made a further reinforcement necessary, and I know of no corps so likely to check their progress, in proportion to its number, as that under your command. I have great dependence on you, your officers and men, and I am persuaded you will do honour to yourselves, and essential service to your country..... I am, sir, your most obedient servant George Washington."

Many of the men in his new command were from his own 11th Regiment, including his friend Captain Gabriel Long, and Long's best snipers, including Corporals John Gassaway, Duncan MacDonald and Private Peter Carland.

Thus Morgan's story with the regiment separates until his return to the Main Army later in 1777 after the defeat Burgoyne at Saratoga on October 17th.

The Surrender of General Burgoyne painting by John Trumbull (1822). 

This rather stylised portrayal depicts the surrender of the British General John Burgoyne at Saratoga, with General Horatio Gates in the centre refusing to take General John Burgoyne's proffered sword. Colonel Morgan is depicted in the white hunting shirt and breeches.

The 11th Virginia Regiment, under Lt. Colonel John Cropper, saw action at the Battle of Brandywine on September 11th 1777, as part of Woodford's 3rd Virginia Brigade, part of Major-General Adam Steven's Division, part of Washington's force detailed to resist the approach of Howe's flanking attack that developed four hours into the battle; and with the 11th Virginia together with the rest of Woodford's brigade, positioned around the Birmingham Meeting House opposing the advance of the British Light Infantry and Hessian Jägers.

Division: Major General Adam Stephen (2,000)

3rd Virginia Brigade: Brigadier General William Woodford

• 3rd Virginia Regiment (150)
• 7th Virginia Regiment (472)
• 11th Virginia Regiment (377)
• 15th Virginia Regiment (200)

4th Virginia Brigade: Brigadier General Charles Scott

• 4th Virginia Regiment (314)
• 8th Virginia Regiment (157)
• 12th Virginia Regiment (117)
• Grayson's Additional Continental Regiment (100)
• Patton's Additional Continental Regiment (124)

Following the defeat at Brandywine, and the British occupation of Philadelphia, Washington's reorganised army attacked at Germantown on the 4th October 1777.

As covered in my post looking at the 15th Virginia Regiment, Stephen's men fought in the fog with troops led by General Anthony Wayne, and he was later accused of being drunk during the battle, and after being convicted in a court martial, he was stripped of his command and cashiered out of the army, making him the only Continental Army general court-martialled and immediately dismissed from the service during the war.

By the Battle of Germantown, Woodford's brigade had, according to Greg Novak, been reduced to 800 men allotted to its four regiments and likely with the difficulties the Virginia regiments were having in maintaining strength, the regiment was reorganized to a more standard eight companies on the 1st November 1777. 

With Washington's army going into winter quarters in December 1777, the 11th Virginia Regiment entered Valley Forge with 326 men assigned, but only 81 fit for duty, and left Valley Forge with 254 assigned and 152 fit for duty.

It is with the army's entry into Valley Forge that 'the great mystery of Washington's Army for the 1778 campaign', as Novak describes it, concerning Colonel Dan Morgan begins, with Morgan and his Corps of Riflemen now having returned to the Main Army, but unlike the 11th Virginia Regiment not appearing among the units encamped at Valley Forge, leading apparently to some historians determining that the two units were and are one and the same.

Morgan is recorded as being stationed outside the encampment, and there are a number of reminders in Washington's General Orders that the men of Morgan's Corps are not to be ignored when clothing and pay is issued to the parent formations. Indeed Morgan was in communication with Washington about the need to recruit additional riflemen for his Corps, and they were still very active in the 'no-mans-land' between Valley Forge and Philadelphia, as is recorded in the diary of Captain Johann Ewald of the Hesse Kassel Jaeger Corps, who mentions skirmishing with Morgan, referring to him as 'the foxy Morgan'.

During the Monmouth campaign of 1778 Washington's General Orders of June 22nd mentions that each of the Continental Infantry Brigades, save those of McIntosh's North Carolina brigade who were ordered to provide two companies of Light Infantry instead, were ordered to send a detachment of an officer and the best twenty-five marksmen to serve in Morgan's command, during which Morgan's men would be harassing the flanks of the British forces.

It would only be at the end of 1778 when the British were back in New York, that Morgan received in October the order to take command of Woodford's brigade as the senior colonel, and by the end of 1778 with the build up of a standing force of Light Infantry, Morgan's Corps appears to have been disbanded.

On the 18th June 1778, Clinton’s British army, with artillery, supplies and the loyalist populace of the city, left Philadelphia and began the laborious march cross country to the North-East, and hearing that the British were on the move, General Washington marched his army east from Valley Forge, seeking to intercept the slow-moving British column, which he did so at Monmouth Courthouse.

Monmouth Maps from the Book "Fatal Sunday"
Monmouth Maps from the Book Fatal Sunday - Friends of Monmouth Battlefield

Charles Lee’s initial attack on the British rear was poorly coordinated, leading to a retreat that Washington personally rallied, later seeing Greene’s division on the right and Stirling’s on the left hold firm against repeated British assaults.

Monmouth Maps from the Book "Fatal Sunday"
Monmouth Maps from the Book Fatal Sunday - Friends of Monmouth Battlefield

When the main body reached Tennent's Meeting House, some two miles east of Englishtown, Washington ordered Major General Nathanael Greene to take Woodford's brigade to cover the right flank, with Greene guided to Combs Hill by Lieutenant Colonel David Rhea of the 2nd New Jersey Militia, and the 11th Virginia joined the rest of the brigade supporting the guns of du Plessis.

Woodford's brigade including the 11th Virginia occupied Comb's Hill, enfilading the line of the British attack with Du Plessis' guns.
Monmouth Maps from the Book "Fatal Sunday"
Monmouth Maps from the Book Fatal Sunday - Friends of Monmouth Battlefield

The battle lasted under extreme heat, with both sides suffering roughly equal casualties, and by evening, the British withdrew under cover of darkness to continue their march to Sandy Hook, New Jersey

The Virginia Continental Line contracted in 1778 and 1779 as recruiting got harder and enlistments expired, following Virginia implementing a draft in 1777 which they grew increasingly dependent on through to the end of the war.

On 22nd July 1778 the 11th Virginia was reassigned to the 2nd Virginia Brigade, and it was reorganized to nine companies and redesignated as the 7th Virginia Regiment on the 12th May 1779. 

On the 4th December 1779 it was relieved from the 2nd Virginia Brigade and assigned to the Southern Department.

The numbered regiments were preserved on paper to track officer seniority, but late war field operations were conducted by various “detachments," “battalions," and ad hoc “regiments."

The former 11th Virginia Regiment, as part of the 1st and 2nd Detachments, was captured on the 12th May 1780 at the Siege of Charleston and subsequently disbanded on 1 January 1781.

As in many cases when looking to depict specific Continental Regiments, often many choices have to be made, sometimes with specific information to reference, but more often than not, a bit of educated guesswork. I have seen the 11th portrayed by others in all hunting shirts, referencing their connection to Colonel Dan Morgan, but I am of the opinion that the regiment was distinctly separate and wanted a more obvious line regiment look to it to better reflect the more numerous musket armed men in its ranks, particularly after many of the riflemen would have been detached for special duties.

That said Virginia was a state that mixed in rifle companies with its musket companies, and given the inclusion of Morgan's men in the regiment at their inception, I decided to include a couple of rifle-armed- hunting shirt figures, along with the often referenced XI Virginia Regimental Colour, or perhaps a Rifle Company Colour, so beautifully reproduced by GMB, and carried alongside a potential Divisional Colour with the usual thirteen bars in the cantonment.

I have again decided to reference the October 1778 lottery held by General Washington from which he determined which colour coat, blue or brown, would be distributed to state regiments. This lottery saw blue coats assigned to North Carolina, Maryland, New Jersey and New York, whilst brown coats were to be provided to Virginia, Delaware, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts and New Hampshire.

This idea of Washington's did not come to fruition, but my 11th Virginia Regiment are depicted as if Washington had had his way with, in their case, a buff shade of brown coat faced in red, together with red turnbacks, and turned up hats, this with the officers in the grey waistcoat and breeches ordered to complete the look of the 1778 regiment. The drummer's red livery is purely speculative and assumes a captured British coat, less the lace, has been rapidly furnished for use.

The look of my 11th Virginia Continental Regiment, which sees them furnished as a twenty figure unit, better suited to represent their mustering 377 men at Brandywine, is finished off with the low-profile sabots form Supreme Littleness Designs.

Work on my American army continues with the focus on the Virginians, as the next Continental Regiment to be showcased will be my interpretation of the 4th Virginia Continental Regiment.

As always, more anon.

JJ