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May 16 11 8:30 PM

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I have almost finished my first British Brigade and I am now looking at the American side, starting with Hartley's Brigade. Initially I thought the 1st Pa (Rifle) would be in hunting shirts but it now seems that they had the cocked hat and green jacket. Would there have been a mixture of the old hunting shirt and the new jacket, and would that have been the case for most of the Continental Army units at that time?
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#1 [url]

May 17 11 12:42 PM

Hello,

According to Berg's Encyclopedia of Continental Army Units the 1st Pennsylvania (which you may often find referred to as "the 1st Pennsylvania Regiment of 1777 - the key words here being "Regiment" and "1777") was formed from a number of groups of 1776 veterans, including a cadre from the old 1st Continental Rifle Regiment (whose CO, Col. Edward Hand, took command of the new unit for the first four months of 1777). The 1st Continental had received green coats faced red in the last months of its existence, to go with the green hunting shirts, and it is likely that veterans wore these when they enlisted in the 1st PA.

However, according to Katcher's Uniforms of the Continental Army it appears that between January and September 1777, the new regiment was issued over 450 coats, but interestingly, no hunting shirts. What we don't know, is what the colour(s) of these coats were - I say colours, because quite often it was not possible for the State authorities to supply enough matching suits of clothing to each regiment for all the men to look the same (and quite often, the few that matched the "official" uniform went to the officers and NCOs).

A couple of deserters from the regiment in this period (Jan-Sep 1777) are recorded wearing blue coats faced white or red (blue faced red was later its official 1779 uniform, but the blue coats faced white had "1 PB" stamped on the buttons, suggesting they were made for the unit). However, a larger number of deserters appear to have worn "light" or "cloth" coloured coats - often a euphemism for undyed wool, which would be a dirty cream colour - and there were one or two wearing "dark" hunting shirts (presumably the 1776 clothing issue).

Thus, in terms of uniform, I suspect that it was like many Continental regiments of this time, namely there was no unitary appearance, but quite likely each company had a uniform of its own, which might - or more likely might not - be similar to that of the next company. What they would have done, though, is try to distribute the clothing so as to have each company look as "uniform" as possible. In other words, your tabletop unit would have a mix of coats with the odd surviving hunting shirt, and a few guys in civilian clothing to represent the new recruits who had not yet received anything, but with the figures on any base looking more or less the same, and officers/NCOs in "official" uniform.

Tactically, the 1st PA was not a rifle regiment, regardless of its cadre. It is thought that during 1776, the old 1st Continental had gradually issued muskets to the R&F, leaving only a few riflemen. Apart from the fact that Washington was not a big fan of riflemen (or certainly not a fan of having large numbers of them in his army), the tactical "norm" of the time in almost every army was to support riflemen with large numbers of musket-and-bayonet men to protect them, due to the rifle's lack of a bayonet and slower re-load time. The PA and VA regiments of 1777 (and beyond) did retain a number of riflemen, who were occasionally detached to serve in ad hoc units - eg Morgan's contingent at Saratoga - but who otherwise were just normal line infantry. I would use them as such at Brandywine.

I hope that helps; if you want more info, just ask.

RtL

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#2 [url]

May 17 11 4:49 PM

I suspect the 450 uniforms issued from January-September 1777 may have been some of the "Lottery Coats" donated by the French from their old stores. Iirc, the Lottery Coats were Blue faced with Red and Brown faced with Red. It sounds as though the 1st PA drew the Blue coats.

It also makes sense that in 1777 the purpose-built blue faced with white coats would have the custom buttons, while the blue faced with red would not have been made specifically for the Pennsylvania troops and may have already had generic buttons.

I don't have time to look this up right now, but I'll pin it down later if I have a spare moment.

Then let us fill a bumper, and drink a health to those
Who carry caps and pouches, and wear the loup'ed clothes.

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#3 [url]

May 20 11 10:51 AM

Thanks for the information. Having bought some packs of "Hunting Shirts" it would be a pity not to use them. From your replies it seems that a reasonable approximation would be the command group (or most of it) in the Blue coat and white facings, a number of hunting shirts on the grounds that unless soldiers have changed a lot the older hands would have kept the old kit to show that they had been around for a bit and the remainder in brown coats with various facings as the "light " coats referred to by Rtl.

Does this see reasonable?

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#4 [url]

May 20 11 1:02 PM

Sounds like a reasonable mix.

One point - the "light" coats would be off-white/cream/light grey, rather than brown, but there's no reason not to include some "brown jobs" in there as well. As I said, I suspect this regiment - like so many other Continental units in the mid-war years - was a mish-mash of clothing, with individual companies looking fairly uniform, but not too much colour co-ordination or "accessorising" above company level.

There is a wargaming mantra that goes "we don't really know what they wore, so you can give them anything and nobody can argue." Whilst not completely untrue, there are in fact quite a few instances where we do know exactly what a specific unit was wearing during a particular campaign, because people documented it. That said, this unit has more than a fair share of "grey areas" so there is plenty of latitude - and ultimately they are your figures, so have them how you want. Most gamers like to make their less-documented Continental units "generic" so they can be whoever they want them to be in any given game and simply have an alternative command/flag base ready to swap over.

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#5 [url]

May 20 11 2:36 PM

Meh, forget what I said about the French-made Lottery Coats. I looked it up and there is conflicting information about when they were issued. While some sources suggest the coats were issued in 1777, most reliable sources suggest they weren't distributed until the spring of 1778.

Then let us fill a bumper, and drink a health to those
Who carry caps and pouches, and wear the loup'ed clothes.

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