Continental Army Generals

For the Freeman's Farm scenario, I need three brigade commanders and an army command stand. Last week I painted all but one brigade commander.

This is Brigadier General Enoch Poor. He wears a blue coat with buff facings and the violet/pink sash of a general officer.

This is Colonel Daniel Morgan, who leads the smallest brigade in my army. Trumbull's famous painting shows Morgan in a white hunting shirt, but I went a few shades darker.

This is my army command stand, with General Benedict Arnold gesturing with his sword, an aide (in the uniform of the Massachusetts regiments) about to gallop off with orders, and officers from the 1st New Hampshire and Dearborn's Light Infantry briefing Arnold on the situation to the front. Arnold's uniform is based on Mollo's plate of the general. The mounted figures are actually from Perry Miniatures' British officers pack, but they painted up well as Arnold and his aide.

Here's more detail of the two American infantry officers. These are both from pack AW-100 "British officers interrogating a captured Continental officer," which I gather from Tarleton's Quarter contains some interesting personality figures. The man gesturing with his hands bears the likeness of Alan Perry himself, while the officer leaning on a walking stick (which is meant to be a British officer) is Dave Brown, author of General de Brigade.

Continental Light Artillery

Poor's brigade had a section of grasshopper guns at Saratoga. I'll be using this butterfly gun instead.

I painted the gunners in matching uniforms for two reasons. First, since all the combatants' artillery uniforms were so similar, a uniformed crew can be used as British or Hessian gunners if a scenario requires. Second, I was just sick of painting an ill-uniformed rabble. It takes a lot of time to make a unit look sloppy, but it's easy as pie to make a unit look uniform.

Connecticut Militia

My GMB flags arrived last week, and I was able to finish Poor's brigade. I'll be putting the finished units on the blog over the next week.

Here's the Connecticut militia, 18 figures strong. My painting notes say:

'Probably mostly in hunting frocks, with quite a few men in red faced brown coats capture from the British brig "Thomas." No standard uniforms were settled on until 1886!'

I elected to stick with various shades of brown for this unit. There's actually a lot of variety in color, but by keeping it all within the brown part of the spectrum, I'm able to get the suggestion of uniformity without actually making the figures uniform. The one figure who really stands out is in the maroon hunting frock.

AWI Progress

Just over one week into painting my Continentals, I've finished most of Poor's brigade. I painted 48 figures this week, almost completing three regiments.

The Perry figures were easy to paint, although I did notice some discrepancies in sculpting style between the earlier figures and those released later. The later figures appear a little chunkier, and don't have quite as nice faces. Still, Perry figures have enough variety of uniform types to allow me to field a very motley looking collection of soldiers.

1st New Hampshire

Here are my painting notes for this unit:

'Clothed from capture of British brig "Nancy." Coats were brown with white lining and red facings. January 1777 Congress ordered all units to be clothed in hunting shirts if coats are not available. A deserter in May 1777 is described wearing "brown clothes." In July two deserters are described wearing "a suit of white clothing" and "a sailor's jacket and long trousers." Another deserter is described as wearing "a blanket coat and blanket overalls."

Lots of online images show the 1st NH in hunter green jackets with red facings, red/pink waistcoat, and green breeches. This seems a pretty unlikely uniform for the entire regiment to wear.

The 1st NH began the war in civilian clothing, being composed of minute and militia companies responding to the "Lexington Alarm." As the war progressed, the unit was issued several different uniforms, including two different sets of brown coats with red facings, brown coats with white facings and green coats with maroon facings (probably where the reenactors get the funky coats from).'

I elected to make this a pretty rag-tag unit. Half the figures are in the brown coats with red facings and white lining captured from the Nancy. The other half are in a collection of hunting shirts and civilian clothes.

2nd New Hampshire

From my notes:

'Sky blue coats faced with red and lined with white. Their waistcoats and breeches were of buckskin, and their stockings of white or gray wool and crossbelts of buff leather. The buttons were of pewter stamped.'

I chose to make this my most uniformly clothed unit. 14 of the 16 figures are in the coats described, with the remaining two in civilian shirts. I used some figures in overalls to break the monotony of buckskin breeches and grey stockings.

2nd New York

I miscounted my figures before priming and ended up two short for this unit. The remaining two soldiers will come with the next batch, and they'll be wearing hunting shirts.

My notes again:

'Raised from the 4th NY regiment of 1775, which had dark brown colored coats faced scarlet. They were completely clothed in uniforms in 1775, but many casualties of the Canadian expeditions would have been replaced by men lacking uniforms.

In addition, they wore white linen cravats or stocks, waistcoats and breeches of Russia drilling, woolen home-knit stockings, low shoes, a felt hat with low crown and wide brim cocked up, knapsacks and haversacks of painted canvas, and wooden canteens.

Later these New York troops were provided with buckskin waistcoats and breeches, or overalls of wool, and woolen mittens and caps. Many also wore the rifle frock for service.'

This is the most ill-clothed of my units, befitting the regiment's hard service in Arnold's Quebec campaign the preceding year. Only four men are in regulation dress. Nine are in hunting shirts, and the two I'll be adding will raise that total to ten.

Poor had a regiment of Connecticut militia and a section of artillery attached to his continentals. I'll be priming the gun and crew, along with the infantry and Poor himself, tomorrow.

I'm still waiting on my GMB order. Once I finish the remaining units, and once the flags get here, I'll get the bases flocked and take some shots of the entire finished brigade.

First Perry AWI

I'm working my way through a brigade of Continentals, but I took time out to paint one figure to completion.

This is a private from the 2nd New Hampshire. I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out. The face is my biggest sticking point. My old flesh techniques may not do these figures justice.

WAB Greeks v. Macedonians

Yesterday Matt came over for a WAB game pitting his Greek army against my newly completed Macedonians. To help the Greeks counter the Macedonians' greater tactical flexibility, I placed several terrain obstacles around the table to restrict the Macedonian maneuver options. As things turned out, the battle separated into three distinct sectors.

On the Macedonian left, Greek hoplites and light cavalry screened the Macedonian heavy horse. Matt had a unit of light horse and a hoplite phalanx to counter the horse.

In the center, the Macedonian pike block would square off against the main Greek hoplite line.

On the right, my largest pike block and the hypaspists would face a Greek hoplite phalanx and the unit of Spartans Matt just finished painting.

Matt moved his phalanxes into the open ground between the terrain pieces. This way he could present a long line and keep me from hitting his flanks.

I moved a unit of skirmishers into the undefended woods. It took a long time to get them through the difficult terrain.

The two lines squared off in the center and on my left. Matt was using the terrain skillfully.

Then, unexpectedly, Matt attacked! The hoplite phalanxes crashed into my pikemen. By moving off the hill, Matt opened his flank to my companion cavalry.

At the same time, Matt's left advanced to meet my right in the bottleneck created by the edge of the forest and the edge of the table.

My skirmishers emerged from the woods to engage Matt's phalanx on its flank.

The initial round of fighting went very well for me. The companion cavalry destroyed one phalanx, and my pikes held.

Things went less well on my right. After the initial round of combat, both of my close order units fled, leaving my archers to bear the brunt of Matt's attack.

The second round of combat in the center was a disaster for me! All three of my pike blocks fled from the Greek phalanx. Fortunately the next turn Alexander was able to destroy the remaining Greek hoplites in the center.

On my left, the Thessalians and mercenary Greeks were able to first pin and then destroy another Greek phalanx.

With little Greek resistance left on my left and center, I was able to send the rallied pikemen and Alexander against the victorious Greeks on my right.

The battle ended with the Macedonian army pushing the Greeks off the table. It was an Macedonian victory, but the Greeks had their moments of success as well.