The World Turned Upside Down - 7th Virginia Continental Regiment.

 

As the largest, and wealthiest of the new American states, Virginia was called on in 1776 by the Continental Congress for six regiments of infantry; the state however had already decided to raise nine regiments, eight of which were to have ten companies, and the ninth only seven at first, later raising their establishment to ten.

For the 1st to 7th Regiments, the ratio was set at three rifle companies to seven musket companies, with the 8th and 9th all muskets

The 7th Virginia Regiment was authorised on January 11th, 1776,  for service with the Continental Army, at Gloucester, Virginia, and was organized under Colonel William Daingerfield between February 7th - May 8th, 1776 at Gloucester Court House to consist of 10 companies from Halifax, Albemarle, Botetourt, Gloucester, King William, Essex, Middlesex, Cumberland, King and Queen, Orange and Fincastle Counties.

The 7th Virginia Regiment (1776-1778) - Revolutionary Virginia

Even before the news of the Battles of Lexington and Concord reached Virginia, the British Colonial Governor, Lord Dunmore had already clashed with the local patriots in the Gunpowder Incident at Williamsburg on 20th–21st April 1775, later fleeing the city on June 8th, 1775, staying on British warships, which roamed through the Chesapeake Bay.

Governor of the Province of Virginia, John Murray, 4th Earl of Dunmore - Joshua Reynolds

On November 7th, 1775, Dunmore declared martial law and issued an emancipation proclamation granting freedom to enslaved men who joined the British side. British troops occupied Norfolk, Virginia's largest city, where Dunmore recruited loyalists to fight the rebellious colonists, organising them into the Queen's Own Loyal Virginia Regiment, and with the former slaves into an Ethiopian Regiment commanded by white officers.

Colonial Virginia, illustrating the movements of Governor, Lord Dunmore in 1775-76 from Williamsburg to Norfolk and his eventual expulsion from the state following his defeat at Gwynn's Island 

On arrival in Norfolk, Dunmore ordered the fortification of the bridge across the southern branch of the Elizabeth River, about nine miles south of Norfolk in the village of Great Bridge, the bridge forming a natural defensive point since it was on the only road leading south from Norfolk toward North Carolina, and was bordered on both sides by the Great Dismal Swamp, with access to the bridge on both sides via narrow causeways. 

A period map of Eastern Virginia illustrating the position of the rebel held Great Bridge and the British stockade, Fort Murray, near Norfolk at which Dunmore's forces were defeated and forcing him to evacuate Norfolk.

Dunmore sent 25 men of the 14th Foot to the bridge, where they erected a small stockade fort they called Fort Murray on the Norfolk side of the bridge, also removing the bridge planking to make crossing it more difficult, whilst the fort was armed with two cannons and several smaller swivel guns. The men of the 14th were augmented by small companies from the Ethiopian and Queen's Own regiments, bringing the garrison size to between 40 and 80 men.

On the morning of December 9th, 1775, Dunmore ordered an attack across the narrow causeway, with British forces advancing six men abreast, firing by platoons, against the Patriots holding entrenched positions who waiting until the attackers were within fifty yards unleashed a devastating volley, that saw key British officers, including Captain Charles Fordice and Lieutenant John Batut, killed or wounded, and the attack collapsing under heavy fire, later drawing comparisons to events near Boston as Virginia's Bunker Hill.

A sketch by Lord Rawdon of the 1775 Battle of Great Bridge, Virginia. Title: A view of the Great Bridge near Norfolk in Virginia where the action happened between a detachment of the 14th Regt: & a body of the rebels. 

A. A stockade fort thrown up by the regulars before the action.
B. Entrenchments of the rebels.
C. A narrow causeway by which the regulars were forced to advance to the attack.
D. The church occupied by the rebels.

After the Battle of Great Bridge, the British realised that they lacked enough soldiers to keep using Norfolk as a base of operations, and rather spitefully shelled the city setting fires to many buildings on January 1st, 1776 when they evacuated it, abandoning their first land base in Virginia. Virginia rebels would later burn the rest of Norfolk in January, to retaliate against Scottish merchants in the town who had supported King George III and to prevent British forces from using the place as a future base.

After the destruction of Norfolk, the fleet stayed in the Elizabeth River, with Dunmore's presence requiring Virginia to keep militia in the region rather than send reinforcements to George Washington's army near Boston and New York, but a smallpox outbreak aboard the British ships and later during occupation of Gwynn's Island decimated Dunmore's force.

Captain Thomas Posey led a rifle company of the 7th Virginia Regiment
at the Battle of Gwynn's Island.

The 7th Regiment played a prominent role in driving Lord Dunmore and his loyalist forces off Gwynn's Island and out of Virginia. Captain Thomas Posey commanded a rifle company in the 7th regiment and chronicled the engagement in his journal.

British Forces on Gwynn's Island consisted of the 14th Foot (150 men), Royal Marines (100 men), Queen's Own Loyal Virginians (150 men) and Lord Dunmore's Ethiopians (200 men) plus the support of two sloops and two cutters.

Map of action at Gwynn's Island, Chesapeake Bay 1776 - Thomas Jefferson

The American force under Brigadier General Andrew Lewis consisted of detachments from the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 7th Virginia Regiments (200 men), Virginia Militia (1,000 men) and two Virginia Artillery companies manning fifteen guns of various calibres.

Brigadier General William Woodford

Following Gwynn's Island, the 7th Virginia encamped in York and Williamsburg during the autumn and winter of 1776, before marching to join Washington's army in New Jersey, assigned on May 11th, 1777 to Brigadier General William Woodford's 3rd Virginia Brigade.

For 1777 Washington had plans to organise his army on a consistent basis, intending that each division would be made up of three brigades, and that each brigade would have three full strength regiments, however a shortage of general officers and full strength regiments prevented a full implementation of this plan; never the less at the start of 1777 his main army, less those brigades from Massachusetts, Connecticut and New Hampshire in the Hudson Highlands or with the Northern Army and a North Carolina Brigade en route from home, had the following structure:

Greene's Division - 1st & 2nd Virginia Brigades

Stephen's Division - 3rd & 4th Virginia Brigades

Sullivan's Division - 1st & 2nd Maryland Brigades

Lincoln's Division - 1st & 2nd Pennsylvania Brigades

Stirling's Division - 3rd Pennsylvania & New Jersey Brigades

The first shipments of French aid had arrived, and along with General Henry Knox's practice of now assigning a company of artillery to every brigade, with 3, 4 or 6-pounder guns, the 'Corps of Light Infantry', better known as Morgan's Riflemen was formed in late May early June.

In June Captain Posey and a detachment of 7th Virginia riflemen joined Colonel Daniel Morgan’s Select Rifle Corps for detachment to the Northern Department and would later take part in the battles of Freeman's Farm and Bemis Heights during the Saratoga Campaign of that year.

In late August 1777, after a distressing 34-day journey from Sandy Hook on the coast of New Jersey, a Royal Navy fleet of more than 260 ships carrying some 17,000 British troops under the command of British General Sir William Howe landed at the head of the Elk River, on the northern end of the Chesapeake Bay then known as Head of Elk, approximately 40–50 miles southwest of Philadelphia.

After a skirmish at Cooch's Bridge south of Newark, the British troops moved north and Washington abandoned a defensive encampment along the Red Clay Creek near Newport, Delaware, to deploy against the British at Chadds Ford. This site was important as it was the most direct passage across the Brandywine River on the road from Baltimore to Philadelphia. On September 9th, Washington positioned detachments to guard other fords above and below Chadds Ford, hoping to force the battle there.

The 7th Virginia Regiment as part of Woodford's 1,200 strong brigade, under Major-General Adam Stephen, mustered 472 men all ranks, and on September 11th 1777 the regiment would participate in the Battle of Brandywine, 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 7th 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
3rd Virginia Brigade: Brigadier General William Woodford (1,200 men)*
3rd Virginia Regiment (150) all ranks
7th Virginia Regiment (472)
11th Virginia Regiment (377)
15th Virginia Regiment (200)

4th Virginia Brigade: Brigadier General Charles Scott (800)
4th Virginia Regiment (314)
8th Virginia Regiment (157)
12th Virginia Regiment ((117)
Grayson's Additional Continental Regiment (100)

Patton's Additional Continental Regiment (124)

*Numbers of men quoted from G. Novak.

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

I covered the confused actions of the Virginians under Major-General Adam Stephen in my post looking at the 15th Virginia Continental Regiment.

JJ's Wargames: The World Turned Upside Down - 15th Virginia Continental 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.

Washington’s men had fought with skill in the Philadelphia Campaign of 1777, often on the offensive while campaigning against superior numbers of professional British soldiers, and although they lost two key battles, as well as Philadelphia, to the British, Washington’s soldiers emerged from these experiences with a renewed confidence in their fighting abilities, needing a little more training to reach their full potential.

Baron Steuben drilling American troops at Valley Forge in 1778 - Edwin Austin Abbey

The encampment at Valley Forge in the winter of 1777 provided the opportunity for the training required under the tutelage of Baron Friedrich Wilhelm von Steuben, with the 7th Virginia Regiment now under the command of Colonel Alexander Mcclanachan, and Lt. Colonel Holt Richardson entering Valley Forge with 427 men assigned to the regiment, but with only 46 fit for duty.

During the encampment at Valley Forge, an estimated 1,700 to 2,000 soldiers died from disease, possibly exacerbated by malnutrition and cold, wet weather, and with the most common killers being influenza, typhus, typhoid, and dysentery.

On November 1st, 1777 the regiment was reorganised to consist of 8 companies.

On May 6th, 1778, the army joyously celebrated France’s alliance with and formal recognition of the United States as a sovereign power; and the expected arrival of the French greatly altered British war plans, triggering their evacuation of Philadelphia in June.

Washington rapidly set his troops in motion to bring on a general engagement with the enemy, with the 7th Virginia Regiment leaving Valley Forge with 376 men assigned, and 226 men fit for duty. On June 28th, at the Battle of Monmouth, N.J., Washington’s men demonstrated their improved battle prowess when they forced the British from the field.

The Continental Congress ordered a reorganization of the Continental Army on May 27th, 1778. Under this resolve, the Virginia quota was reduced from fifteen infantry regiments to eleven. The Virginia regiments were still under strength and continued to dwindle in 1779, reduced to a fraction of their paper strength; at this point, regimental history becomes very confusing to track.

Given the number of men fit for duty, these “regiments” are not really “regiments” at all any more, yet they are still named as such.

On July 22nd, 1778 the 7th Virginia Regiment was relieved from the 3rd Virginia Brigade and assigned to the 2nd Virginia Brigade, part of Major General Lord Stirling's division, and the following year in April 1779, following yet another army reorganisation begun in the latter half of 1778, the 7th Virginia Regiment was at Middlebrook, NJ with 244 men, all ranks assigned, but having just 166 men fit for duty.

As directed by Congress the previous May, the Virginia Line was rearranged in September 1778, by reducing the fifteen regiments to eleven, the reorganization seeing the 5th Virginia Regiment (of 1775) redesignated the 3rd Virginia and the 7th Virginia regiments becoming the "new" Fifth Regiment, with the Commander of the "new" Fifth being Colonel William Russell.

Little is written about the 5th Regiment during the winter of 1778 -79. In the reorganization of the Virginia Line in May 1779, the 5th Regiment became part of Brig. Gen. William Woodford's Brigade, and following operations in the Northern Colonies, the Virginia troops were ordered south to join Major-General Benjamin Lincoln in defence of the Southern Colonies, and these troops under Woodford and Scott entered Charleston, South Carolina on April 7th, 1780.

On May 12th, 1780, General Lincoln surrendered the city of Charlestown, along with the entire Virginia Line of Continental troops to the British.

In 1780, the word “Detachment” comes into use, describing a 700-man conglomeration of these “regiments.” 

The 1st Virginia Detachment was led by Richard Parker. The 2nd Virginia Detachment was formed out of various regiments under the 2nd Virginia Regiment’s original colonel, Brigadier General William Woodford, including elements of the 2nd Virginia Regiment, and the 3rd Virginia Detachment would be formed under Colonel Abraham Buford and was composed of elements of the 7th Virginia, as well as various pieces of other units.

The Battle of Waxhaws - Graham Turner

The first two Detachments of the Virginia Line served at the Siege of Charleston in South Carolina and were surrendered to the British Army on 12th May 1780.

The 3rd Detachment was cut to pieces at the Battle of Waxhaws; the Virginia line had effectively ceased to exist, with the single exception of the two-company 9th Virginia Regiment of 1779, which was stationed at Fort Pitt (the present Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania).

Any discussion about the look of a particular American Continental Infantry regiment is always likely to couched in many caveats and for the historical wargamer looking to recreate a look to his forces many choices have to be made in the decision process of what to depict and how.

In October 1778 General Washington held a lottery, drawing to determine which colour coat, blue or brown, would be distributed to state regiments, which 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.

The colours carried by my 7th Virginia Regiment are taken from the insert in the Perry Miniatures plastic Continentals box set.
I have copied them onto a heavy paper, rather than cut them directly from the insert, which is rather too heavy to fold as required when mounted on the staff. 

My 7th Virginia Regiment are depicted as if Washington had had his way, with brown coats faced in a darker red than usual, together with red turnbacks, and with the officers in the grey waistcoat and breeches ordered to complete the look of the 1778 regiment. The drummer's green livery is purely speculative and assumes a captured British drummer's coat, less the lace, has been rapidly furnished for use.

The colours carried are using some of the options offered with the Perry Miniatures plastic Continentals, with which this unit is modelled, and depicted being carried by the Virginian detachment in Graham Turner's picture above. The regiment is finished off with a set of low profile sabot bases from Supreme Littleness Designs, and I have built it as a 24-figure strong unit to better represent its strength of 472 men at the start of the Philadelphia Campaign and will likely use it like this to represent a combined Virginia Regiment for other actions.

One of the more interesting aspects of representing the Virginian regiments on the table will be recreating their rifle companies, perhaps providing a more enhanced skirmishing capability, but a reduced rate of volley fire to simulate the slower loading rifle companies. Of course after June 1777, one might just choose to assume the unit is all musket, with the Riflemen on detached service with Colonel Morgan.

Work now proceeds on to the next two units to feature here on JJ's, namely His Majesty's 44th Regiment of Foot, and the 11th Virginia Continental Regiment.

As always more anon.

JJ