South Carolina Royalist Regiment 1781

 

The South Carolina Royalists were raised in May 1778 under Col Alexander Innis. They fought  at the siege of Savannah 1779. In 1780 they were part of the garrison at Ninety-Six. In 1781 they were constantly engaged against Marion’s brigade and also fought at at Hobkirks Hill.  They were a long serving, hard fighting regiment.

Although raised as an infantry battalion by the summer of 1781 they were converted to a legion type organization.   From a nine company infantry regiment eight companies were equipped  as cavalry, and one infantry company.  In this configuration they were more mobile and equipped to fight the American partisans.    They reverted back to infantry companies before being moved to to St Augustine, November 1782 .    It appears the regiment had many black soldiers in its ranks. When disbanded in October 1783 the white soldiers were sent to settle in Nova Scotia.  Black soldiers were combined with other men from various loyalist corps and sent  to the West Indies to serve there as Carolina Corps.

I have painted the regiment in red coats faced yellow with overalls and round hats.  There is not a lot of documentation for this regiment so it's a educated guess based on what is out there.  Here is what we do know;  Early in their history they had red coats faced white.   Wiederhold’s 1783 Almanack states that the South Carolina Royalists had red coats, but no facing and button colors are indicated. The 1783 New York List mentions “Red Coat — Yellow Lappel Variety button hole,” for the South Carolina Royalists.  it is also possible they might have had blue jackets for a short time.  I went with yellow facings as info not have a yellow faced regiment!  Not very historical but colorful!  

There is no evidence for a regimental colors, but that has not stopped me from giving them a set.  These are based on British regulation colors for the period.