The German Regiment

Glover's Marbleheaders are almost finished (just 2 left to paint) but in the meantime I thought I would post some pics of the German Regiment. This unit was raised from recruits in Maryland and Pennsylvania. It is sometimes referred to as the 8th Maryland Regiment, although there seems to be some doubt as to whether Maryland ever formally adopted the regiment onto its establishment. Eight companies were raised in July 1776, largely from the state's German immigrant communities. The regiment fought at Trenton, White Plains and Brandywine, before being disbanded in 1781.

I modelled this regiment whilst painting De Borre's 2nd Maryland Brigade from the Brandywine orbat (in Sullivan's 3rd Division). Volume 1 of the Osprey on George Washington's Army refers to an order of hunting shirts and and officer dressed in a blue faced red coat. On the basis of that information I decided to use a mix of coated and hunting shirted figures, with a couple of new recruits in civvies thrown in. The idea, in effect, was to paint up a generic Continental unit for general use. I think this was the first regiment I painted that features a mix of Perry, Foundry and Eureka miniatures. I had no idea what kind of flag a regiment of German patriots would carry, so gave them a simple flag with just "Liberty" on a red field. As this is an older regiment in my collection, there are a few figures that would not make it past quality control nowadays. In particular, my "black-lining" was much bolder than it is today; I find that now I spend about 30 minutes "touching up" each batch of figures to ensure the black-lining is much less noticeable than it used to be.

I have some photos of my Cornwallis command stand which I will post later in the week. Hopefully the Marbleheaders will be photographed at end of the week. In October I am going to take a short break from the AWI (not completely mind, as there are one or two things I want to do).

16 figures. Painted March 2004. Flag by GMB.