62nd Regiment of Foot 1777

  Next regiment in my Saratoga project will be the 62nd Regiment of Foot.  This regiment played a prominent part in the fighting around Freeman's Farm on the 19th September battle.  Holding an angle within the British defensive position the regiment was decimated in the afternoon fighting.

The regiment is dressed in the campaign modified uniform of cut down coat and hat.  It is a very smart uniform and immediately identified the wearing as a member of this I'll fated expedition.  Unlike so very much in The Rev War uniform this campaign dress is visually documented in a series of watercolors done during the tine.  More information on these can be found on this blog at this link,
https://bravefusiliers.blogspot.com/2017/03/von-germann-and-stephen-strach.html

If interested in this campaign and this regiment I would highly recommend visiting the site of the recreated 62nd Regiment here,

 http://www.62ndregiment.org.


 The figures are from the wonderful Fife and Drum miniatures and the regimental colors are from GMB.  Both outstanding.

20th Regiment of Foot 1777

  Fife and Drum miniatures has branched out and added the Saratoga campaign to their figure line.  They have British line infantry in the campaign modified uniform.  They have also added Mohawk Indians and soon will release Morgan's Rufkemen.  This is outstanding as I have long been fascinated by the campaign and have wanted to field a British Army  for the campaign.

My first regiment is the British 20th Regiment of Foot.  They were sent to the relief of Quebec in 1776 and later took part in the 1777 campaign.  They played a prominent role in the fighting in the 19 September at Freedman's Farm.

  The figures are dressed in the campaign modified uniform for the northern theater.  Regimental coats were cut down to light infantry style.  Cocked hats were cut down to light infantry style caps with horse hair crests.  Each regiment had the crest dyed a different color and the 20th appears to have dyed theirs black or very dark grey.  The Regimental colors are from GMB.

  These are great figures and a great start to yet another period within a period.  More to follow!

New Saratoga Book

  A great new book about the Saratoga campaign.  My friend George just loaned me this.  We have a mural fascination with the campaign and have followed the path of Burgoyne's army and walked the battlefields countless times together.   He bought it as soon as it came out and dropped it off for me to read after a recent game.

  This is a big coffee table book.  Don Troiani needs no introduction.  The book is filled with both his individual soldier studies and a number of battle paintings.  in addition numerous pictures of artifacts (many from his collection) grace the book. You can lose yourself flipping the pages and admiring the art work.

 But to me the heart and soul and reason to buy this book is the narrative by Eric Schnitzer.  This is first rate and very well done.  Saratoga NHP has produced a long line of superb historians of the campaign and battle and Eric is the most recent.  His writing reflex an individual who has long studied the campaign;  not just the primary sources but has walked the terrain.  He is extremely knowledgeable about 18th century military culture and  tactics.  In addition he has uncovered and used a number of primary accounts I have not seen other authors use.  This background has produced one of the very best short accounts of the campaign.  My only complaint is I wish for a much longer and more detailed retelling of the campaign and battles.  One can only hope this will arrive someday.

I highly recommend this book!  I know when I was reading it the other night Janine stole a place at it and saus, "I think I know what to get you for Christmas.". One can only hope .

Von Germann and Stephen Strach

Captain Friedrich von Germann served in the  Hesse-Hanau regiment during the Saratoga campaign of 1777.  One of the many German auxiliary troops hired to fight during  the American Revolution by the British he arrived in Canada in 1776 and was present at the surrender at Saratoga 1777.

During the war, he painted a series of watercolors of American, British, and German soldiers. Most students of uniforms or the Saratoga campaign are familiar with his watercolors usually through the copies which are in the New York Public Library.  But these  are most likely 19th-century copies of von Germann’s watercolors, possibly by the artists E. Sack and Kail (whose names appear on the drawings). They were commissioned by the New York historian William Leete Stone to illustrate a personal copy of his translation of “Memoirs, and letters and journals, of Major General Riedesel during his residence in America.”

The late historian Stephen G. Strach located and had copies made of many of the original watercolors.  Stephen was a amazing researcher and historian with the National Park Service.  I was honoured to work with him on the American Battlefield  Protection Program and on various details to Saratoga National Historical Park.  I learned more from him and his wealth of knowledge then any other historian I worked with.  An battlefield walk of the Freeman Farm area helped to better understand the action there and will live on in my memoires.

 The original water colors are located in the archives of the city of Brunswick in Germany.  There were more water colors done then previously though and additional views of other British regiments were available.  Stephen had been working on a history of von Germann and his water colors as well as the uniforms of the Saratoga campaign.  He was kind enough to share with me many of these water colors, and I promised to not share these until his publication.  Unfortunately his untimely death in 2005 ended the project and our friendship.

I recently found the copies of the von Germann water colors Stephen gave me.  As he will not be publishing his work I feel I can now share these wonderful and informative water colors.  I hope that they can be of use to students of the Saratoga campaign.  My only request is please give credit to Stephen G. Strach for finding and placing these in the public view.  I hope it is one small way I can help my late friend and perpetuate his memory.  Thank you.