A New Project

I had been thinking for some time that I needed to do some Americans for the American War of Independence. Now I know that my AWI British and Hessians were built because we had a shortage of British in our collective forces and that the French were all built to supplement and provide variety to the vast numbers of American troops already in the group, but I felt the need to own some Americans. So when a local supplier ran a special on the Perry plastic fugures at 30% off (making them a marginally cheaper than buying them direct from the UK, but able to be delivered next day) the inner magpie yelled “BUY ‘EM”! And buy ‘em I did…five boxes of ‘em…190 figures…enough for 12 battalions if I buy a few extra command sprues, which I have.

And what lovely little figures they are. Slightly smaller and more delicate than the Franco-Prussians I have been working on of late and the sprues have a nice mix of arms that means it is possible to create units marching formally, informally or a mixture of the two. The ability to add a few figures in hunting shirts, or even whole units in hunting shirts by buying few additional riflemen sprues is also attractive.

Since most of the Continental units owned by others in the group are all kitted out in the traditional blue and white uniform (with the occasional buff trousers) I decided that I wanted to do a mixture of uniforms from the 1777-79 period where other coloured coats were more common. I also wanted to good representations of the different states. I have elected to do four units from Virginia, four from Connecticut, two from South Carolina and two from New Hampshire that will give me an interesting mix of coat colours and head gear.

The first unit I have done is the Second Virginia State Regiment.

Formed in 1776 this regiment was intended for home defence, but when recruitment slumped after the heavy losses in the Virginia regiments at Germantown it was transferred into Continental service in January 1778. It joined the army at Valley Forge in time to participate in the Philadelphia Campaign. The following year it fought at Monmouth. It remained with the Continental Army until late 1779 when it was recalled to Virginia and many of the companies were disbanded the following year. Those companies that weren’t disbanded were merged with other State companies and served at Yorktown to be formally disbanded in 1782.

I chose this regiment because the green trousers, red waistcoat and blue coat presented an interesting uniform variant.

Next in this project, that could be a few weeks away yet, will be the Second Virginia Line Regiment, with grey coat faced green and with s round hat.

A future purchase will add some artillery and a squadron of Continental dragoons.

Speaking of purchases what better way to come home from a hard day in the salt mines to find on the doorstep a big batch of toys…and on my birthday too…

The special day was later celebrated by the consumption of this delicious Grand Cru…