THE 93RD SUTHERLAND HIGHLANDERS

Knuckleduster's 93rd Highlanders

There can be fewer acts of valor in the face of overwhelming odds than the 93rd Highlanders' storming of the American advance redoubt at New Orleans. As the British Army was being bled white by withering fire, the 1st (flank) company of the 93rd surprised and overwhelmed a redoubt next to the river on the American right. Unsupported and exposed to a hail of lead from the US 7th Infantry, the detachment was mowed down. The remainder of the regiment, which should have been behind them, were inexplicably ordered on a futile and suicidal march across the middle of the killing zone to join another group assaulting the American left.

The main body of the regiment was observed standing at the canal in front of the the American position without the ladders and fascines they were promised in order to cross the the water and scale the works, awaiting orders which would never come from the silent lips of their dead commanders, "unable to go forward, too proud to retreat."

So we have here, as is so often the case, lions used like dogs. C'est la guerre. Fortunately, the only widows gaming produces are tin widows, so we can send our little men on any doomed mission we can dream up with a clear conscience!

So...

The 93rd assembled in Plymouth, England for the expedition. They were ordered to wear trousers due to a shortage of kilt hose (socks) and a feeling among command that kilts were "ill-calculated for severe service" (maybe it was really a shortage of Bond's Gold Powder). Tartan arrived from South Africa in time to be made up into trousers ("trews"). Their bonnets were considerably simpler than those worn in the Peninsular War or at Waterloo, and certainly a far cry from the Lady Ga-Ga getup worn in the Crimea. A simple blue tam was worn with a wide, red-and-white checked band around the bottom. A pom ("tourie") topped off the cap, white for grenadiers, green for lights, and red for everyone else. 

The tartan was the Government Sett. I own and occasionally wear a kilt of this pattern, so you would think painting it would be easy. Think again. I am very much a novice when it comes to painting tartan, but I gave it my best. I painted them blue, then green stripes, then a light green highlight at the junction of the green lines, then a thin black line down the center of the green. A far cry from the Crystal Brush competition, but it gets the job done and looks good at arm's length.

The 93rd is an essential unit to have if you're planning on gaming the Battle of New Orleans. They were critically important on the day of the battle, and they took part in a hotly-contested night battle during the lead-up to the battle.

I'll leave you with a joke a musician friend of mine from Northern Ireland often tells. Do you know the difference between a kilt and a skirt? If you're wearin' underwear, it's a skirt!

Adios,

Forrest Harris

Knuckleduster

AND HERE'S THE LINK TO THE KNUCKLEDUSTER PRODUCT PAGES!

Native Warriors

The Mohawk (properly called the Kanien'kehá:ka), Cayuga, Onondaga, Oneida, Seneca and Tuscarora in the East, and the tribes of Tecumseh's federation in the West, were heavily engaged throughout the War. Native warriors fought on both sides, but primarily for the British. They are essential figures to possess in order to game the Battle of Crysler's Farm, Queenston Heights, the Thames, and numerous smaller conflicts.

By 1812, aboriginal dress had incorporated a lot of European items, so figures from the French and Indian War are not quite right for the period. Crysler's Farm is a good example; during the winter, warriors were likely to be wearing wool coats or capots and stocking caps or head scarves rather than scalplocks and linen. Can you imagine being bare-chested in sub-freezing temperatures with nothing but a loincloth and leggings? (Can you imagine a gamer dressed like that? Now I've gone and lost my appetite!)

Knuckleduster has two packs of warriors; one dressed for summer, and one for winter, plus a pair of high-ranking leaders with large blankets and traditional gustoweh headdresses. Leggings and breechclouts are worn by all, but generally covered by a shirt or coat belted with a sash.

There are numerous excellent Native figures on the market, mostly of the "naked savage" variety which depict traditional summer dress, which is why I only make one figure in that idiom. The remainder of my figures make an attempt to show what they would have looked like in 1812.

Summer dress; only one "naked savage" in this group. Linen shirts and scalplock hairdress for summer. Bare heads were plucked, not shaved (sounds painful), and a small square patch of hair was left in the back of the crown, which was grown long and braided. A decorative "roach" was attached to the hair, composed of dyed porcupine quills, deer hair, and various feathers, creating a very personalized headdress. Mohaws did not have the "Mohawk" hair style we associate with them, and popularized in the movie, "Drums on the Mowhawk." Inspiration for that movie's hairdresser must have come from certain Plains Indian tribes, such as the Pawnee, who had bristling strips of hair on the top of their scalps. 

Cold weather dress; heavier shirts and coats are worn, as well as head scarves that cover their traditional hairstyles. Warpaint is very much in evidence, black and red being the most common colors.

It's difficult to do justice to all their wampum belts and other decorative fabrics. Sashes and belts were finely decorated, some with geometric designs and others with very sophisticated floral patterns woven into the cloth. Even loincloths (breechclouts) sported colorful stripes and geometric designs. As a result, they've been painted to give only an impression of these ornate designs.

 Scalplocks, hair roaches, and warpaint present a fierce appearance. 

For more information, take a look at Stuart Asquith's excellent book on War of 1812 Uniforms, as well as Renee Chartrand's book on the British and Canadian forces.

Forrest Harris
Knuckleduster

REMEMBER THE RIVER RAISIN!

The uniforms of the War of 1812 are varied and endlessly fascinating. One of the most unusual uniforms was worn by the Kentucky Volunteer Cavalry at the battle of the Thames in 1813.

This cavalry unit, which also included men from the area where the River Raisin massacre took place, was trained to fight mounted or dismounted in the wilderness, and were armed with a rifle, hatchet, and long knife.

During the battle of the Thames, Harrison used them to overrun the British 41st foot deployed in the woods on the American right. He commented that nobody could gallop through wooded terrain like American backwoodsmen, and the result of the charge, one of only two cavalry charges undertaken in the War of 1812, was a complete route of one of Britain's most heavily-engaged and well-regarded regiments in North America.

I finally painted a unit of these figures in their distinctive black hunting shirts with red fringe. Their gear was, in reality, probably black, but I chose buckskin belts to stand out against the black shirts, reasoning that it would not be uncommon to find natural colors of leather in use among troops such as these.

They are armed with the Model 1804 Harper's Ferry Rifle, the official rifled longarm of the US Army during the war. It was a half-stock weapon with no sling. I've thrown in a dragoon pistol, since they were ubiquitous among mounted troops of all types during the Napoleonic era.

"Ok you, hand over that bugle . . ."
  (I really need to glue the flag on one of these days!)

The command figures include a bugler and standard-bearer, and in a separate pack is their leader, Richard Mentor Johnson. I posed this figure to be reminiscent of an illustration depicting his supposed duel with Tecumseh, whose death many credited him after the battle (a fact trotted out when he ran for Congress after the war); after I painted my sample, I learned that his white horse was not the sentimental hyperbole I had supposed, and that he in fact rode a white horse into battle!

Forrest Harris
Knuckleduster.com

SHADES OF 1813; THE US ARMY'S TRANSITIONAL UNIFORM

One day in January, having realized my boyhood dream of being able to create a Napoleonic army out of thin air in an afternoon with a few spins of the centrifugal casting machine, I sat down to figure out what I would need to put on the battle of Crysler's Farm using my Knuckleduster figures. Turns out, I needed a new type of uniform for most of my American troops, and I hadn't yet sculpted it.

Knuckleduster's new 1813 figures painted as a variety of units.

So, as is my wont, I sculpted it! Now I have filled this gap in the product line, and a colorful gap it is.

My American troops at that time all fell into three basic types; 1812, 1814, and various militia. But none of these were quite right for 1813. Turns out, the American army throughout the 1813 campaign season (a third of the war), wore a hybrid of the 1812 and 1814 uniform. On paper, the US Army had an entirely new uniform in 1813; a plain coatee without much of the lace adorning earlier incarnations of the garment, and a durable, smart new leather shako. But as any student of military history can tell you, the dictates from on high do not always translate into changes in the field; at least not right away.

Brown coatees. These troops wear the M1813 shako with
the large, brass shako plate issued the first year this new
headgear was distributed.

The leather shako was delivered very quickly to the front lines, and most units had them in hand for the 1813 campaign season. The coats were another story; the old laced 1812 coatee continued to be worn by a substantial number of units, and because of shortages of blue dye, it was delivered to units in various shades of grey,"drab" (which could theoretically be dyed blue at a later time), brown, and black. According to Chartrand, the Army specified that, "the mixed color coatees and garments were to be cut as prescribed in the February 1812 regulations, with red collars and cuffs, and white lace binding."

Drab coatees, which could be dyed blue if the unit happened to
capture an indigo dye factory somewhere in the Canadian wilderness.

Chartrand put together a listing of what was issued during the winter of 1812-1813. There is no guarantee that these were the uniforms worn at Crysler's (not "Chrysler's") Farm, but it is a decent guess. The units wearing this old coat/new cap (as we know, a shako is a "cap" and a bicorne or tricorne is a "hat") configuration, were as follows (coat color follows listing):

LEATHER SHAKO, LACED 1812 COATEE
12th US: Drab, red facings
14th: Brown for some, Drab faced with Red for others.
21st: Blue, red facings
16th: Black, red facings

Black coatee (black is surprisingly difficult to photograph
so that it looks like black and not blue or grey!)

The 25th had the old felt shako and a blue coat faced with red (and with minimal lace). I have no information on the 13th or the 9th. Most would have black leather belting, however on the very dark uniforms, I have used white to make them stand out (for shame for shame). Also, apparently some units had black lace instead of white. If you'd like to track down that information, you are welcome to do so!

If you have corrections or additional information, please pass them along.

All the best,
Forrest Harris
Knuckleduster

Soure: A Most Warlike Appearance, Renee Chartrand, 2011

BRITISH INFANTRY IN WINTER GEAR

The War of 1812 was fought largely in Canada and the northern US, therefore winter gear was a necessity. At the Battle of Crysler's Farm (the correct spelling, although "Chrysler" is sometimes used by those more familiar with the cars), the American 3rd Brigade commander Covington mistook the British 49th Foot for militia because of their greatcoats.

 The British Army's winter gear included not only the greatcoat, but also various fur-covered shakos, fingerless gloves, and "beef boots," the design of which Renee Chartrand speculates to be similar to a "mukaluk," although no examples or documentation of their design survive today.

"Beef boots." 

 Shako with fur cover.

Officers took the field in a variety of gear, including custom-made fur hats, long fur stoles, leather-cuffed trousers, and boots of various types.

The straps were worn under the cape which covered the shoulders. The blanket is still rolled and strapped over the backpack, but should be painted the light tan color of British blankets rather than the grey of a greatcoat, since the greatcoat is being worn and not rolled over the blanket. Sashes are worn over the coats, but wings and epaulettes are not.

These figures are available in standard packs, or in a bulk pack containing a 24-man unit.

The spirit of a British army on the march in the winter is best portrayed by this photo from the Crimea, a war fought by the British in uniforms which were still very Napoleonic in appearance:

As always, visit www.knuckleduster.com to see what's new!

All the Best,

Forrest Harris

Knuckleduster

British Infantry in Belgic Shakos

A vexing question that one confronts when researching the Niagara campaign of 1814 is the type of headwear used by various units of the British army (at least according to Rolling Stone magazine . . . what a bunch of hipsters we are). After a considerable number of emails and a lot of trips to obscure Yahoo group bulletin boards, I feel I still have not arrived at a really satisfactory answer, so I will present the arguments and allow you to draw your own conclusions.

(An officer, NCO, and center company men from among my new releases)

The Belgic shako, sometimes called the "Waterloo" shako, was adopted by regulation in 1812, but did not find its way into the hands of infantrymen in the Iberian Peninsular until nearly the end of hostilities, if at all, and is usually associated with the Hundred Days campaign, ending with the Battle of Waterloo in 1815.

A British infantryman's cap (shako) was meant to last him two years. If an infantryman was issued a stovepipe shako in 1812, it would not be replaced until 1814 unless the entire unit was re-equipped. It should be a simple matter to examine the written orders in Canadian or British archives to determine which caps were in service. As it turns out, the orders provide very little guidance as the headgear is simply referred-to as "caps", or "felt caps."

Grenadiers (tufts blending in with the white background)

For example, consider this order by the Military Secretary's  Office to the commander of the Upper Canada Militia in January of 1813:


(I found this on a reenactor's bulleting board, quoted from a document entitled Clothing for the Upper Canada Militia 2 January 1813 (C3526 / Vol C1220 / P 83.)

Green Jackets
Red Cuff and Collar,
White Lace
Blue Gunmouth Trousers
Felt Regulation Cap

Is a "Felt Regulation Cap" a stovepipe or Belgic shako? One could suppose the latter, since the order was written in early 1813, and the "regulations" at the time specified Belgic shakos. But were there not vast stores of stovepipe shakos, and did militia units really receive the latest and best? Further documents mention 600 "bucket caps" returned to storage at Kingston after an issue of supplies in 1813. Were they stovepipe shakos returned because they had been replaced by Belgic shakos, or were they the shorter bucket shakos worn by the Caldwell Rangers, replaced by stovepipe shakos still in wide circulation?

Dressing the line; the spontoon still in use by some units.

Arguments, therefore, revolve around speculation about what equipment might have been in stores, assumptions about Horse Guard's attitudes toward equipping provincial units in far-flung quarters, and isolated and obscure eye-witness accounts, many of which are open to interpretation.

The consensus among reenactors, seems to be that regular units of the British Army, even in North America, were equipped with the Belgic shako by the time the Niagara campaign commenced. There remains some debate about the Incorporated Militia regiment so that portraying them in either headgear can find some justification. The remainder of the militia, especially the Sedentary Militia, are presumed to be wearing primarily castoffs and items brought from home, and one might presume this meant stovepipe shakos or round hats.

Ensigns trooping the legendary "Invisible Colours" of 

the "King's Own Mysterious Fusiliers." 

What's a real mystery is where I'm going to find time to paint flags!

If you have additional information about this topic, especially information drawn from primary documents, please post your comments below.

Also, for some lively reading on this and other topics concerning uniforms of the War of 1812, visit the yahoo group, http://groups.yahoo.com/group/WarOf1812/

PORTER'S MILITIA BRIGADE

During the Niagara campaign of 1814, the US Left Division included a brigade of militia under the command of General Peter Buell Porter, including troops from New York and Pennsylvania. They acquitted themselves well in both the battle of Chippewa and Lundy's Lane, and to the surprise of a skeptical Winfield Scott, did credit to the American army during the campaign.

In previous campaigns, the militias of Pennsylvania and New York each had various state militia uniform distinctions, however during the 1814 campaign they were equipped by the US government and dressed much like the remainder of the Left Division. The leather shako and short grey roundabout jackets were very much in evidence. In order to portray them on the tabletop, I have chosen to sculpt them with bayonets unfixed and in their scabbards, and with a variety of irregular equipment. Their shakos are not trimmed out to the full extent one would expect of a disciplined regular, and substitute headgear such as straw hats, round hats, and old felt shakos are worn by some of the troops.

The long garment worn by this figure is a work smock, not a long wool coat. These were a very common item in camp and rarely seen on the wargame table. The pattern formed the basis of the rifle frock, which had the addition of fringe and a "cape" (layer of cloth over the shoulders, also with fringes).

Miltia units sometimes painted their unit designations on the shakos rather than wearing a shako plate. They were also quite fond of decorating their knapsacks, canteens, and caps with stars, eagles, and other patriotic designs.

I have yet to sculpt command for these figures. I will be adding some Pennsylvania and New York uniform flourishes to the command packs. For instance, New York militia commanders wore cocked hats and coats with lapels as Napoleonic French.

The new militia packs can be found here at knuckleduster.com.


All for now!
Forrest
Knuckleduster

CREATING THE LINCOLN AND YORK MILITIAS FOR LUNDY'S LANE

Add caption

Canadian militia attire in the War of 1812 is a confusing subject. In attempting to put together a unit to represent the Lincoln and York Militias at the battle of Lundy's Lane, I turned first to standard wargame references such as Renee Chartrand's excellent Osprey volume on Canadian troops and Stuart Asquith's more recent uniform book. As good as these references are, it wasn't until I had consulted reenactors portraying the Lincoln militia that I felt I could confidently field a wargame unit.

Note: This unit should not be confused with the Incorporated Militia posted on the British left at Lundy's Lane, a unit which more closely resembled British regulars and which will be the subject of a future post.











My first question was whether the Lincoln and York militia men wore uniforms or civilian clothes. It turns out that although they very much wanted to present a uniform appearance, it was very rarely achieved. Throughout the war, red coats with yellow facings, green coats with red or yellow facings, castoffs from the 41st Foot, and the ubiquitous "gunmouth" blue trousers were sporadically issued to the militia. The troops who came the closest to military uniformity were the flank companies, who tended to have uniforms, including lace and possibly wings. These troops served (or were "embodied") for longer tours of duty than the center companies (a term which was not used in the militia), which tended to be sedentary militiamen called away from their farms and businesses only during times of dire emergency. The latter only sometimes had uniforms. If no uniform was available, the sedentary militiaman was instructed to report for battle turned out in a coat made of a dark cloth, and to avoid grey, which was the color frequently used by the Americans.

I next asked what headgear should be worn, and specifically if the Belgic shako was in use at Lundy's Lane. I thought this would be the more difficult question, but it turns out there was broad consensus that all the regular troops and most of the incorporated militia had been issued the Belgic by this time (the incorporated militia was made up of volunteers from the other militia formations and served for longer periods of time). The sedentary militia, however,  had to content themselves with castoffs from the regulars, and if they had any military headgear at all, probably wore stovepipe shakos, even at Lundy's Lane in 1814. The remainder of the men would have turned out in a variety of headgear, including straw hats, civilian round hats, tams, fatigue caps, or wool caps of various sorts. Officers in the militia by 1814 would have been expected to report for duty in red coats with blue facings and scarlet sashes, but many militia commanders still preferred the round hat.

 Some of the sedentary militia 
were instructed to tie white cloth 
to one arm to identify them 
as King's troops.

In portraying the Lincoln and York Militias on the wargame table in the Niagara campaign, a mix of figure types should be used. Here are the figures I will be using to create my 36-man unit (I'm partial to the big battalions!):

CANADIAN SEDENTARY MILITIA ADVANCING
LOWER CANADA MILITIA COMMAND, ROUND HATS
UPPER CANADA MILITIA ADVANCING

I've tried to make these figures compatible with the newer plastic figures, so you could augment these with figures from other manufacturers, or wait for my upcoming releases. More uniformed flank company figures are on the sculpting table right now and will be available soon.

Here is a very helpful discussion from an 1812 reenactors site. It explains how the Upper Canada militia was uniformed throughout the war, and the research all comes from primary documents.

If you are not completely decrepit, don't mind sleeping rough in order to reap the reward of a night singing old songs around a snapping campfire, and have a few bucks left to throw around when you're finished filling your Knuckleduster shopping cart, please consider reenacting the War of 1812.

All the best,
Forrest Harris
Knuckleduster

LOWER CANADA MILITIA

By now, most of you will have seen the new 28mm 1812 figures I am producing. The War of 1812 was a sideshow in the great Napoleonic Wars, but an important one for Americans and Canadians, the latter taking great pride in the defense of their border, and the former who wreaked just enough havoc to declare victory and go home to try their luck thirty years later against Mexico, an adversary with much better weather.

These figures are Lower Canada Milita in round hats from the new Knuckleduster collection (I am ever-so-slowly painting samples to photograph; sculpting always takes priority). These troops were drafted by the Lower Canada  Assembly who entitled them The Lower Canada Select Embodied Militia, which is certainly catchy, but difficult to fit on product label.  They took part in a number of battles, including Plattsburgh and Chateauguay. Like most Canadian militia, they were ordered to wear red coats and dark blue-grey trousers (not the grey trousers worn by regulars in the Peninsular and Waterloo campaigns), and like most militia units of any nationality, they were chronically short of supply, especially early in the war. They often had to resort to expedient uniform modifications, such as the use of "round hats" (top hats) instead of shakos and olive green coats (see figures on the left) instead of red.

Here are their officers:

In truth, by late 1813, most militia would have received proper uniforms with shakos, but I've always been of the opinion that exotic uniforms are much more fun to push around on the wargame table, and as long as there is the merest historical excuse for using them, I will choose dashing round hats over mundane shakos any day.

In a pinch, these figures will also do for Royal Marines, although to be technically correct, you may want to add the strap that reaches from the brim to the crown on each side (this would be a delicate operation, to be sure, and I'm not sure what material you would use).

The Lower Canada Militia should not be confused with the Upper Canada "Incorporated" Militia that took part in the Niagara campaign. Officially titled the Volunteer Battalion of Incorporated Militia of Upper Canada, they were made up of volunteers from the Upper Canada Militia who served for a longer period of time than the Sedentary Militia. By the time of Lundy's Lane they marched in full British gear, including Belgic shakos, red coats, and blue facings.

[Editor's Postscript:  There are perfectly respectable researchers who portray the Incorporated Militia in Stovepipe shakos with green-faced red coats, issued in 1813. The issue of the shako is unclear at best (see my post on the subject) and the cloth for the blue facings was not sent until just prior to the Niagara campaign with instructions for regimental tailors to make the necessary alterations.]

References

Stuart Asquith, The War of 1812, A Campaign Guide to the War with America, 1812-1815, Partizan Press, 2008.

Philip Katcher, The American War, 1812-1814, Osprey Publishing 1990

And that august repository of all useful knowledge, Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canadian_Units_of_the_War_of_1812