It was way back at the end of October last year that I last posted on my AWI Niagara-Mohawk Campaign collection of figures when I presented the last addition to the collection which were my Butler's Rangers conversions and a selection of Iroquois Indians, before Warlord Games launched their 1:700th range of Napoleonic ships that set me off on another tangent to build a quite different collection.
The Burning of the Valleys, by Gavin K. Watt provided the inspiration to work on my AWI Collection and the cover artwork captures the look of the British and Allied troops that fought along the Niagara-Mohawk frontier, that I wanted with my general officers
As well as just indulging myself by 'sailing off'', if you'll excuse the pun, on another project, the ship building allowed me to pause on the AWI collection as I considered how I wanted to base my figures using an appropriate sabot set up.
This portrait of Sir John Johnson provided the inspiration for the look of my sword waving British General Officer dressed in 1760's style dress regulation, rather than the more campaign style dress code of his likely subordinates, seen worn by the other general officers.
This plan incorporated the rather nice sabots from Supreme Littleness Designs (SLD), who uniquely offer sabots with card rather than mdf bases, giving them a much reduced profile and with their irregular cut edges, a more softened look on the table.
Until recently SLD had been reorganising their business, which entailed their ordering page to be deactivated during the process, and so I took the time to focus on ships during that time and as soon as they were available ordered up the new bases together with some pill bases for my mounted commanders for which I had painted the figures in early November but were unbased and not ready to show.
I really like the SLD Command sabots that allow a space at the back to place an identifier marking to make spotting a particular commander on the table that bit easier but keeping things relatively unobtrusive and I had used them before with my Augustus to Aurelian collection of Romano-Dacians.
The bases are marked up in a similar style to the command chits used in Sharp Practice and help make the relevant commander stand out from his units.
The mounted British commanders are completed to represent Royal Regiment of New York senior officers together with Sir John Johnson, Officer commanding on the Niagra Frontier and as well as my foot commands for my Rangers and Indians I now have 'Mad Dog' mounted, wearing his Seven Years War British Colonel's jacket and tricorne.
As well as the British and their Indian allies, I have started to put the first parts of the American part of the collection together with my mounted American Militia general officers, suitably adorned in a mix of military and civilian garb and the infantry I put together for a Devon Wargames Group club game have been rebased ready to join others when I get the opportunity to add them over time.
The look of my American militia units and their commanders will take inspiration from pictures such as this of the defenders of Breeds Hill by Don Troiani
The Perry militia officers are such a nice set of sculpts and will add lots of character to my American army of State and colonial militiamen.
However with Spanish naval reinforcements ordered up and two other projects to get done before they arrive, I will turn my attention next to the medieval period with some Perry plastic 28mm hobilars currently underway that I am painting for a friend.
Work continues on my Northern Frontier collection for the AWI with the addition of some Iroquois Indians and leaders, together with their fellow comrades in arms, Butler's Rangers.
Other figures completed so far can be followed in the links to the previous posts covering work on this collection.
To quote from The Burning of the Valleys by Gavin K. Watt
'The Indian Territories In 1768, a major treaty was finally confirmed at Fort Stanwix (modern Rome NY) by Sir William Johnson. On behalf of the British government, Johnson negotiated the geographical limits of colonial expansion. The Six Nations Confederacy held a central role in this council acting as the primary speakers on behalf of the Indians present. This position was their historical right as they had developed hegemony over all other native peoples in the north; although their ceding of lands lived in by the Cherokees and Shawnees would prove problematical in the years ahead.'
The territory of The Six Nations
Needless to say this treaty agreement did not sit well with many of the Provincial governments in states such as New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, the Carolinas and Georgia which effectively saw any plans for further westward expansion curtailed, with a line effectively drawn between areas of colonial settlement and the Indian territories, reserved for the native nations.
The antipathy of the colonists to this treaty was not discouraged if not actively encouraged by the provincial authorities and so new settlements continued to expand into the Indian territories with several bloody conflicts breaking out as a consequence.
The pressure put on the native peoples in locations such as the Mohawk Valley in New York state saw them practically forced to trade away hunting and territorial rights in the hope that the British Six Nations Indian Department would grant other concessions in compensation, but by the time of the rebellion, many Mohawks found themselves forced to relocate to tracts of land in western Quebec Province to escape the encroachment of settlers and their former settlements, often termed 'castles', identifying ancient Indian palisaded villages of traditional longhouses, now surrounded by hostile colonists.
Joseph Brant, Mohawk War Chief and Captain in the Six Nations Indian Department, recognised as a senior leader
within the Confederacy, Brant took part in the defence of Quebec in 1775, sailing later to England to meet the King and British government. He played a key part in the successful ambush at Oriskany in 1777 and promoted to a captain in the Indian Department, played a key role in the victory at Stone Arabia in 1780.
The Six Nations of the Iroquois Confederacy, began in the late 14th, early 15th century and were a federation of originally five Iroquoian speaking nations, the Mohawks, Oneidas, Onondagas, Cayugas and Senecas, later joined by a sixth, the Tuscarora in 1722 having migrated north from North Carolina.
As the rebellion caused a split in the colonial population between rebels and loyalists, so to the Indian nations were forced to take sides, with neutrality not really being an option.
In a broad simplification, the Mohawks, Onondaga, Cayuga and Seneca became allied to the British cause, whilst the Oneidas and Tuscarorans supported the rebels, with the former remembered for travelling hundreds of miles to deliver food supplies of maize to a starving Continental Army in Valley Forge.
At the split of the confederacy, Watt estimates that the total pro-British faction numbered some 2700 warriors, compared with 600 supporting the rebellion, with alongside the pro-British Mohawks, several hundred others from the Canada Indians, mainly former Mohawks who had resettled into Canada under French influence during the French Indian War, and the Lakes Nations, Ottawas, Wyandots, Miamis and Potawatamis.
Captain Joseph Brant, centre, amid other Six Nation War Chiefs together with warriors behind, form the vanguard of my collection of Iroquois warriors.
Relations between the Crown and Rebel authorities and their Indian allies were overseen by governmental departments that saw respective appointees granted authority to liaise with the senior war chiefs of the various nations.
Thus alongside the British Six Nations Indian Department and the Quebec Indian Department, the rebels established the Indian Affairs Commission for the Northern Department, with these bodies led by people such as Sir William Johnson, Guy Johnson, Guy Carleton and for the rebels, General Philip Schuyler.
Senior War Chiefs that played a key role along the Norther Frontier were men such as Old Smoke of the largest nation the Senecas, who together with his co-chief, Cornplanter operated to bring large numbers of warriors together alongside those raised by the Mohawk, Joseph Brant and to cooperate alongside the regulars and loyalists of Sir John Johnson and John Butler.
The perfectly equipped light infantry for fighting in the northern frontier woodlands
of the New York - Canada frontier in the AWI. Hardy, fierce and fast moving, The Indians could
strike terror whenever they were encountered.
The Indian warriors were a vital part of the British strategy along the northern border where their abilities to operate in the terrain as scouts and guides, able to protect an advancing army from surprise, or to provide intelligence of enemy activity prior to offering or avoiding battle.
In addition they enabled British column commanders to attack outposts and and to initiate deep raids into enemy territory to deliver blows to both morale and property far and above the numbers needed to be employed on such activities.
Cornplanter, Seneca War Chief, described as energetic, cunning and sagacious, he took part in major actions at Oriskany, Wyoming, Cherry Valley, Fort Freeland, Newtown, Canajoharie and the Schoharie/Mohawk expedition
Of course, due to their deeply held traditions, Indians were not suitable troops to hold buildings and fortifications or to take their place in the lines of an open field battle with the likelihood of taking heavy casualties, in a typically European style of warfare.
Indeed heavy casualties had to be avoided with Indian allies, as losses of men and leaders could easily break the determination of such warriors to continue the struggle and cause them to return home.
The other downside of poorly controlled groups of Indians was often a reluctance to take prisoners, able to provide intelligence and, with multiple killings of civilians, a factor prevalent to both sides in the war but with the added horrors to Europeans of brutal killings of women and children, provided opportunities for rebel authorities to raise high levels of resentment among local populations that made recruitment to militia units much easier.
Indian and loyalist commanders could find themselves held accountable for such excesses even when they were not involved in the action blamed on them and I think this aspect is something I will try to model in gaming with Indians, where a British commander unable to control the Indians suffers accordingly in victory points or force morale.
However the other key factor that emphasised the role of these troops was often the sheer terror they could cause among inexperienced militiamen caught by surprise in broken terrain amid the sudden shock of the war cry, flurry of tomahawks and musket shots.
This is just the first part of my Iroquois collection with another twelve skirmishing warriors set to join them and the leader figures.
These figures are from the excellent range offered by the Perrys.
Alongside the Indians of the Six Nations, often operating in close cooperation with them was to be found another corps, unique to this theatre in the AWI and carrying on the traditions of the Rangers developed by Major Robert Rogers in the French Indian Wars of light infantry capable of operating deep within enemy territory and particularly useful on special operations.
Butler's Rangers were raised and led by Lieutenant Colonel John Butler born in New London, Connecticut in 1725, and raised there before the family moved to the Mohawk Valley following his father being offered a substantial land grant.
He served with General Abercrombie in 1758 at the disasterous attack on Fort Ticonderoga and also under Sir William Johnson at the successful siege of Fort Niagara in 1759 as second in command of the Indians, being a very able linguist, mastering several Iroquoian dialects.
Lieutenant Colonel John Butler raised and led Butler's Rangers
Butler's Rangers were raised in late 1777 and by the end of the war mustered ten companies of about fifty men each, having established a reputation as one of the most effective units operating in the Canadian Department; operating in small and large detachments, ranging far and deep into enemy territory often in conjunction with Indian allies.
Unfortunately Perrys do not at present offer a Butler's Rangers set of figures in their range too date, which is a real pain for anyone looking to build a collection for this particular theatre of the war.
Determined to press on with my plans I searched high and low for potential solutions to this particular problem until I came across this interesting video on Youtube from 'An Extrovert Paints'
Thus what you see before you is my interpretation of this famous corps, using the bits and parts from several sprues obtained from Warlord to recreate the look of these soldiers, as outlined in the video clip above..
Now the other point of debate that any collector of a Northern Frontier range of figures which includes Butler's Rangers is going to encounter is that about white or red facings on this very famous unit which up until fairly recent times has traditionally been portrayed in red facings with the leather jockey cap peculiar to light infantry of this period.
A fairly typical illustration of Butler's Rangers
Frankly, I find both cases for red and white compelling and neither absolutely confirmatory one way or the other, so I decided on red to distinguish them from other loyalist units I may add later in the more common green and white regimentals typical in the earlier part of the war.
However I think the idea of these chaps appearing in anything other than a mix of clothing types highly unlikely, and so have erred towards the mix of head gear and hunting jackets with regimentals that I think captures the independent military character of this famous corps.
The header picture at the top of the post shows them alongside my Indians, and although the Warlord poses are not my favourite, seem to fit in well alongside the better proportioned Perry offerings.
Currently my collection as a whole has some general officers now done, but I, like many others I suspect, am waiting for Supreme Littleness Designs to come back into production with their excellent range of sabot bases and so my commanders are not based up at present.
Thus in the mean time work continues with an additional eight King Royal Regiment of New York loyalists and twelve Indians before I can get on with some artillery pieces and work to start my New York and Albany American militia.
Sources referred to in this post:
The Burning of the Valleys - Gavin K Watt
American Loyalist Troops Rene Chartrand, Gerry Embleton - Osprey
The British Army in North America, 1775-1783, Robin May, Gerry Embleton - Osprey
The next additions to my Niagara frontier AWI collection are these British Light Infantry groups built in units of six to furnish as skirmishers for Sharp Practice, but I will be adding another twelve figures to allow for four groups in skirmish or three groups as formed shock infantry, together with some more suitably attired officer and NCO figures.
I like the way Sharp Practice allows the British player the flexibility to decide how to use their 'light bobs' as this flexibility seems to chime well with the descriptions of their tactical flexibility in 'With Zeal and with Bayonets Only', Mathew H. Spring's book and in depth analysis of British tactics in the AWI, which I reviewed back in February last year.
In it, he describes how the Light Infantry had to relearn the skills of 'bushfighting' not retained from the French Indian Wars and although excelling at the use of the bayonet, found those tactics of little use in the woods.
Lieutenant John Enys on an expedition along Lake Champlain in 1778 recalled as they;
"went into the woods a little way to practice 'treeing' as they call it; that is to say, the manner of hiding ourselves behind tree stumps etc., etc., etc. And at our return the major was pleased to say the men had exceeded our expectations; though I could see very plainly our awkwardness diverted the Indians and royalists, who are far better hands at this work, being bred in the woods from their infancy and accustomed to this manner of hiding themselves in order to shoot deer and other wild beasts."
The weakness of relying on the bayonet in wooded terrain was noted from the Burgoyne expedition in 1777 as recorded by Captain John Money (Burgoyne's deputy quatermaster general) when he related the experience of the 62nd Foot charging four times during the Battle of Freeman's Farm in an attempt to drive away rebel skirmishers;
".... The rebels fled at every charge deeper still into the woods; but when the British troops returned to their position, they were slowly followed, and those who had been the most forward in the pursuit were the first to fall."
Indeed Spring concludes that the British tactical doctrine never really succeeded in remodeling the light bobs into competent bushfighting capable troops, able to match the rebels in this kind of fighting; and that with the adoption of the open-order two deep line, coupled with the switch to 'shock' tactics as the primary offensive infantry tactic, the light bobs, like the grenadiers became the elite corps for this type of work.
On open or lightly wooded ground these tactics enabled the British infantry to overthrow all but the best rebel troops, thus these chaps are better suited to forming that force to dominate such ground and supporting the Loyalist and Indian forces, better suited to opposing the mainly rebel militia operating in the more heavily wooded parts of the battlefield, and how I would see them being used by Colonels Johnson and Butler in their raiding campaigns.
These figures are from the Perry range of metal figures, which come with a range of heads and head-dress to allow for the myriad varieties of look among the different regiments.
I have depicted these two groups as coming from the 8th (blue) and 34th (yellow) Foot who accompanied Johnson on his expedition to the Mohawk Valley in 1780.
Next up Joseph Brant and some of his Mohawk Indians, before I start work on Butlers Rangers.
Hat Companies from Sir John Johnson's KRRNY form the core of my new AWI collection
With lots of building work going on here at Chez JJ, my photographing of new models added to existing and new collections has been put on hold as rooms used for taking pictures have been used to store furniture during the work.
However, whilst concentrating on posting about this year's major holiday that enabled me to get to see some very important battle sites that featured in the Peninsular War, the painting work has continued and with a break in house building projects, I have several new units to post about having grabbed back my room for taking the required pictures in.
A few years ago I decided to renew my love affair with the American War of Independence but in 28mm rather than 15mm which was how I gamed it in previous times.
In 2017, I dipped my toe in the water with my planned scale of collection when I put together a few figures as part of a club Christmas game where traditionally members are encouraged to produce some figures to add to the game, and you can see my efforts putting together some Continentals and riflemen in the link below
The AWI is a curious horse & musket era in that the war was characterised early on with some significantly sized battles culminating in the 'biggies' of Brandywine and Monmouth; but, as the war fell into a conflict of attrition, with British forces drawn away to other theatres, with the conflict taking on a global perspective as other European powers attempted to take advantage of British woes, it soon became a war of who could last the longest with smaller battles and actions becoming a common feature of the latter part of the conflict.
I have always preferred the 'big battle' game but I find myself, with the AWI, equally drawn to the smaller actions, and finding a way to straddle the two types of games has caused me to think long and hard about how to put my collection together to potentially facilitate both.
With the advent of rules such as Sharp Practice, Muskets and Tomahawks and recently Rebels and Patriots, the lower level large skirmish/small battle player is spoilt for choice, and the larger scale collection looks so nice with these kind of games where characterful figures really add to the narrative nature these games produce.
Thus it was, I decided to initially concentrate on putting together a collection pitched specifically at this lower level game, which caused me to look at building the collection around a very specific theatre within the wider war, with a mind to add to the collection gradually, with other troop types, theatre specific dress and other options to enable bigger games in future; well that's the plan!.
It seems that many others looking to do something similar have headed for the South with its great mix of infantry and cavalry together with an eclectic selection of troop types from across the gamete available to both sides.
Tempting though the southern conflict is, I have harboured a long standing interest in the conflict that raged around the northern frontier in the great river valleys along the Canadian border such as the Hudson and Mohawk rivers that saw an equally bitter contest between loyalists and rebels, with the added fighting capabilities of the native Americans, mainly but not totally, in support of the Crown.
The surrender of General Burgoyne at Saratoga in 1777 marked an end to large British armies being deployed from Canada
The region after the campaign of 1777 by Sir John Burgoyne was primarily garrisoned by militia and state levies overseen by a command based in Albany, with very little main Continental Army involvement outside of the expedition of 1779 by General John Sullivan, leading 4,000 troops to eradicate the Mohawk Indian population by destroying their villages after a series of Indian raids in the area had caused outrage and dismay at the highest level.
The campaign by Sullivan only poured fuel on the fire by failing to break the military power of the Six Nations who would return from the Canadian border where they took refuge among the British forts to join the campaigns of Johnson and Butler in the following years.
The American militia forces were able to move quickly with a familiarity of the terrain and fighting skills to match the irregular style of warfare often required, relying on numbers to compensate for any lack of quality in the few open field battles and forts to provide rallying positions and strongpoints for civilians to be able to take shelter; conversely the British and Provincial forces were small in comparison to that available in other parts of America with the few British regulars and Provincials split into small groups to stiffen the capabilities of the irregular forces, equally able to make good use of the field skills of the Indians and loyalists and their familiarity with the region.
My interest in this region was first drawn when travelling in the area many years ago on our honeymoon to Canada and the US and reading about the history as we travelled up from New York, via Boston, Quebec, Montreal, Niagara, Buffalo and then back to New York via Gettysburg and Washington.
My reading of the conflict gathered further inspiration when I picked up a first edition copy of 'The Burning of the Valleys' by Gavin K. Watt a founding member of the reenactment group set up to portray Sir John Johnson's Regiment, The King's Royal Regiment of New York, known as Johnson's Greens when, in their first incarnation, the regiment was clothed as other provincial regiments in green regimentals with white facings.
As the book's title suggest, the content is very much focused on a series of raids in the area of the Mohawk valley that saw Sir John together with Lieutenant Colonel John Butler, he of Butler's Rangers fame, Joseph Brant, Mohawk War Chief and Captain in the Six Nations Indian Department and others march into the northern areas of New York state burning crops and destroying homes in an effort to disrupt the food supplies and production generated in the region that helped feed the Continental Army and civilian population alike.
As well as the military objectives, the war also had a very personal element to it with displaced loyalists and Mohawk Indians highly motivated in taking out revenge against those they blamed for their plight, with the feelings often mutual from rebels simply looking to defend their homes and families whilst caught up in a wider conflict and the demands of the military high command.
Contemporary map of the New York frontier country
Just the sort of theatre of operations that would seem to work particularly well with a rule set like Sharp Practice able to include the local dynamics alongside the military objectives and with plenty of scope to generate small actions amid the raiding, spy missions and other low level military actions that typified the conflict in the area.
So to have a slight break from painting Romans and Dacians, I embarked on building the new collection with units for the 1780 campaign which sees here my first groups of KRRNY hat men in their new look red faced blue regimentals, wide brimmed hats and cut down jackets.
These are the Perry range of British plastic infantry and will form part of the core of my British-Provincial force set to go raiding along the Mohawk.
The other ideal part of building a collection for this theatre, in the AWI, is that most of my new 28mm terrain items will work just as well creating an upstate New York wilderness and countryside as it does representing first century Dacia, once I get some American frontier houses, barns and fencing added to it, together with some fields of crops to make suitable targets for raiders.
The one figure in these group shots that I am not entirely content with is the drummer in 1768 Royal Warrant dress regulation bearskin behind the line of company groups, which is not correct for this unit and will be replaced with a broad brimmed hat option going forward, with my bearskin drummer better suited for the 8th Foot that often operated together with Sir John's forces.
The collection will be using mainly Perry's Miniatures which are a delight to work with in the detail and character the figures display and I will supplement them with a few additions from the Warlord plastics offerings to add a bit of variety and to include a few scratch builds.
Hopefully as the collection grows, and with some added colour parties, I can use the intended sabot basing to allow the same figures to be used for bigger battles and more appropriate bigger battle rules.
Anyway, next up will be Roman Legionaries added to the Romano-Dacian Collection and some British AWI Light Infantry, plus the Peninsular War Tour series of posts continues with a look at our visit to the fortress city of Badajoz.
In addition I'm off to Colours in Newbury this weekend so hope to get a post up about the show and next weekend the DWG is hosting Clotted Lard so I'll be posting on the club blog about another great day of Lardy games.
