Thursday 2 December 2010

55th Foot


The regiment was raised in Scotland in 1755, initially as the 57th Foot. It was re-numbered the 55th in 1757. It was sent to Halifax in 1757 and saw extensive service in the F&IW. Lord George Augustus Viscount Howe was appointed Colonel of the regiment in September that year and proceeded to train the regiment in light infantry tactics, skills that Howe had studied with Robert Rogers. Howe, described by General Wolfe as "the best officer in the British army", was one of the older brothers of the AWI's Billy Howe. In 1758 the regiment took part in Abercrombie's attack at Ticonderoga, during the course of which Howe was killed in a skirmish. The regiment continued to fight until the French surrender in 1760. The regiment then remained in America on garrison duty. A detachment suffered badly in the Battle of Bloody Run during Pontiac's rebellion.


In 1763 the regiment's men were drafted into various other regiments while the officers went to Ireland to raise a new battalion. The 55th next appeared in American in December 1775. It was present at the battles of Long Island, Brandywine and Gremantown. In November 1778 the battalion left America for duty in the West Indies.


This is another older unit that I have recently added to. The 55th was one of the first British regiments I painted, back in 2004. I only painted 12 figures because that was what was required for the Brandywine and Germantown orbats. When I was going through the leadpile recently I found two dozen firing line figures of Brits in 1768 warrant dress. After a perusal of the various "British Grenadier!" scenario books I decided to add another 4 figures to the 55th Foot and then paint the 57th Foot from scratch. The 55th increases to 16 figures for the Long Island scenario so I thought I might as well use up some of these spare figures getting the battalion up to full strength. Completely co-incidentally, I noticed that Steve Jones had recently done the same thing on his rather excellent blog.


16 figures. Painted 2004 and November 2010. Flags by GMB.



11 comments:

Sire Godefroy said...

I've still to make use of Foundry's parade ground figures, but your miniatures got me inspired again. Thanks for sharing another great looking AWI unit!

Cheers
SG

Christopher(aka Axebreaker) said...

Really great yet again Giles!!

Cheers
Christopher

Anonymous said...

Giles,

Have you seen Der Alte's range of figs for the AWI yet?

Theo

Anonymous said...

Giles,

Any ideas for AWI books from Santa? Anything new that you have come across?

Theo

WSTKS-FM Worldwide said...

Hello there Giles,

Lovely scarlet coats there. Well done!

Best Regards,

Stokes

AD said...

Another great looking unit, Giles. Nice to see your latest work.

Kevin said...

Nice work, glad to see you are back to AWI!

Giles said...

Thanks for the comments, chaps.

Theo - yes I have seen DAF's new figures, and am very imressed with them (the militia in particular). I'll certainly be buying some when they are released. As for recent books, I see a new biography of Washington has just been published by Allen Lane. I picked up "Empires of the Imagination" by Holger Hoock but haven't started it yet - it had good reviews and is about the impact of Britain's empire on arts and culture.

Giles

Bluewillow said...

cracking unit Giles and one of my favourites I have it for FIW and AWI!

cheers
matt

Anonymous said...

Nice work Giles,

Helen

Doc Smith said...

Nicely done Giles, those old Foundry's are quite decent figures and look very good done to your connoisseur standard of painting. I'd imagine they'd be a tad shorter than the Perry's AWI figures though. That's OK - I remember (not that long ago really) it was Foundry that were the benchmark for AWI.

Cheers,
Doc