Brigadier-General the Marquis de Lafayette

I'm not going to attempt a biography of Marie-Joseph Paul Yves Roch Gilbert du Motier de La Fayette, Marquis de La Fayette (what a name!). He was born in 1757 into a family with a long tradition of military service (one of his ancestors had been a companion-at-arms to Joan of Arc) and commissioned as an officer in the French army at the age of 13. By this time Lafayette had already become quite rich, as a result of inheritances from various relatives. Six years later he headed off to America to fight for liberty and glory (possibly encouraged by a hatred of the English born of his father's death at the Battle of Minden), and he was given the rank of major-general. This caused a bit of scandal at the time, as Lafayette's uncle-in-law was the French ambassador to Britain and at this stage in the war the French government's official position was against its officers heading off to America and doing anything that might provoke a war with Britain. Lafayette was undeterred and bought his own ship to take him there.

Lafayette began his war as a member of Washington's staff. He was wounded at Brandywine whilst trying to rally some Pennsylvania regiments. In June 1778, when Washington planned to attack the British during their withdrawal from Philadelphia, Lafayette was put in command of the reserve. However, in light of General Lee's reluctance to engage with the British, Lafayette was given command of the vanguard and he hurried after the British column as a presage to what quickly became the battle of Monmouth. He returned to France in February 1779 where, after a token week of house-arrest for disobeying the king, he began to agitate for a French invasion of Britain to support the Americans. That plan came to nothing, but Lafayette does seem to have been successful in persuading the government to send more men to America. He wasn't given another active field command until the siege of Yorktown in 1781, acting in various staff roles.

In the Caliver/"British Grenadier!" scenarios, Lafayette appears as a brigadier in the "early Monmouth" and Yorktown scenarios.  So when I found him in my Old Glory lead-pile I thought it was time to add him to my collection of personalities.  This is an, er,  interesting sculpt.  I can see what Old Glory are trying to do, and the figure does have the long, oval face that one sees in contemporary portraits.  I think they've captured a youthful look, but I can also see how others might think this sculpt is a bit odd.  I assume that it's a map he's not quite carrying (it looks like it's just resting on his thigh) - also a bit odd.  Anyway, here he is.

This is the last bit of AWI for a while.  I'll be filling the time until the next lot of AWI stuff by posting about the various other projects I've been working on, some of which aren't even historical!  That should increase the rate of posts a bit.

1 figure. Painted September 2024. 

American staff (4)

These are more Old Glory staff figures: the guys on foot from the "Dismounted Continental High Command" pack and the mounted general is the Philip Schuyler figure from the "Continental Personalities" set. Schuyler is an interesting choice for a personality figure, as his career as a Major-General in the Continental Army wasn't very distinguished and he resigned in 1779. He doesn't appear in any of the Caliver/"British Grenadier!" scenario books, so I could put him to use as someone else. Most of the scenarios involve the famous trio of Washington, Gates and Greene as the commanders-in-chief on the American side. But there are a hand-full of scenarios that have others as the c-in-c: Brigadier-General John Ashe (Brier Creek); Major-General Charles Lee (Monmouth); Major-General Benjamin Lincoln (Stono Ferry, Bound Brook); and Major-General Artemas Ward (Dorchester Heights). So this is basically a general and staff on a "British Grenadier!" c-in-c base of 70mm x 60mm to represents these gentlemen in the relevant scenarios.

I thought the Schuyler figure was pretty good, and the horse doesn't look like it's about to fall in the Grand National.  He's supposed to be looking at the chap waving his arm but, annoyingly, the eyelines of the two don't quite match up.  I thought maybe the general has received a despatch or some new orders, which the staff are reading, and he's thinking how best to act on this change in circumstances.

4 figures. Painted September 2024.     

 

American staff (3)

This is my rendition of the Old Glory Miniatures pack "Dismounted Continental High Command".  I've used a few of these figures before, in a command stand for British artillery.  However, this is the first time I've collected a large number of the figures together for the purpose for which they are advertised.  This base isn't supposed to represent any particular commander.  I just wanted to use the figures to create a vignette that could be used in a Continental camp.  Perry Miniatures have a "camp vignette" scene, which I painted for the British/loyalist side (see here).   

So I looked trough the Caliver/"British Grenadier!" scenario books to see where a base like this might be useful.  Camps appear on the table in the following scenarios:  

·     Long Island - American

·   Germantown – British/Hessian

·   Whitemarsh – American

·   Stono Ferry – British (71^st Foot)/Loyalists

·   Brier Creek – American (militia)

·   Savannah – American

·   Eutaw Springs – British/Loyalist

·   Yorktown/Gloucester Point - American

I decided to create a vignette for later(ish) war scenarios, basically Savannah and Yorktown.  The Old Glory set is supposed to give you 2 of each type of sculpt.  My pack had 3 of some figures and only 1 of others. Also, there's only one table; despite there being at least two tables-worth of figures - that's a bit mean.  Anyway, here are a good number of the figures in the pack, a mix of senior officers, ADCs and others. Further figures will appear in another command stand I've been working on.  I'm intending on turning the remainder into Loyalists.  Old Glory figures can be a bit hit and miss.  I find they can be tricky to paint, not least because it can be difficult to work out what they are actually doing and the uniforms sometimes lack precise definition - and sometimes you realise that a lump of extra metal which doesn't seem to have a purpose is simply a lump of extra metal.        

I painted these figures as best as I could.  There's no particular rhyme or reason to the uniforms.  I guess that the senior guy in the sash pointing is probably meant to be Washington; but I gave the figure a major-general's sash to anonymise him.  The officer delivering the despatch is painted in the brown faced yellow coat of Sherborne's Additional Regiment simply because I wanted some colour to break up the dark blue and buff.  The most difficult figure to paint was the chap who (I think) is taking snuff - his head was simply a blob, with no discernable features; so I did my best to paint those in.  I based the large map on this map of the fortifications of Yorktown.  With 9 figures, it's quite a busy stand, but I think it does the job ok.

9 figures and 1 table.  Painted August-September 2024.

Rhode Island Train of Artillery

In May 1775 the Rhode Island Assembly voted to raise troops to contribute towards what then became the Continental Army (the Rhode Island contingent being called initially the Rhode Island Army of Observation).  Three infantry regiments and a unit of artillery were formed.  I'll write about what became of the infantry regiments shortly (I painted one last year and completely forgot about it, although photos of it appear in the fourth Caliver/"British Grenadier!" scenario book).  In the meantime, here is the artillery train.  The uniform was notable for its brown faced reds coats and the leather caps.  These caps had a front of black leather which was decorated with a gold painted anchor and the words "For Our Country" painted above it.  Some time around December 1775/January 1776 the unit was incorporated into the Continental Artillery Regiment and at some stage thereafter the uniform was changed to the more common artillery uniform of blue coats faced with red.   The unit was stationed at Boston in 1775 and then New York, and companies fought in the Saratoga, Philadelphia and Monmouth campaigns. 

These are most of the figures from Old Glory's pack of Rhode Island artillery.  The pack also contains two figures of an officer waving a sword - I haven't painted those because both swords had broken off.  My artillery pieces have 4 crew members on a 60mm x 70mm base, so I don't need those officers anyway.  I may at some stage try to glue one of the swords back on and paint the figure as John Crane, who commanded one of the unit's companies.  These figures are typical Old Glory sculpts - some are better than others and it's difficult to know precisely what's happening.  It looks as if the crew are preparing to fire, but there's no one with any sort of match and the chap with the handspike looks as if he's trying to move the gun.  Anyway, I'm not all that bothered and I think the crews generally look ok.  Perry Miniatures make a pack of figures in the Rhode Island uniform.  That was released after I'd already acquired the Old Glory figures and it is hard to justify buying another pack.  Anyway, I think I've done the best I can with these figures, and having a couple more 6-pounder models is always useful.  I painted the guns in my "red oxide" colour, which I discussed some years ago in this post.  

As the unit history above indicates, figures in this uniform are really only fit for service in 1775 and early 1776, Long Island being the most likely battle to use them in (even though the uniform may well have changed by then).  The unit fought at Newport in 1778, most probably in the standard blue faced red uniform, but I suppose I can use these figures for two of the eight American guns that are required for that scenario.   I now have seventeen American gun crews, which is far more than one needs for the AWI - the largest numbers are at Brandywine and Monmouth, which require respectively twelve and nine guns on the American side.

8 figures and 2 guns. Painted December 2016.

 

 

American Generals (2)

These three Continental generals are all Old Glory sculpts. Old Glory's figures generally can be rather hit-and-miss, although their AWI range is one of their best. The range includes many more types of American troops than the Foundry/Perry range (such as Continental marines and figures in light infantry caps). Old Glory also do French troops, the British Legion and lots of personality figures. The two figures shown below are from the pack "Continental Mounted Colonels" whilst the figure on the extreme right above is actually from the "British Mounted Colonels" pack. I bought the two packs at the same time and they became muddled together, but I don't think it makes any different - the uniforms were much the same. That said, the two "Continental" figures have button-hole lace, which I'm not sure they should do as the Americans generally did not wear it. Even British officers tended to remove their lace as the war progressed. I don't think generals should be wearing cummerbund sashes either, although they would be correct for infantry officers.

One of the weaknesses in the Old Glory range is the horses, most of which are in rather strange poses. They usually look as if they are just about to fall over a Grand National fence, the upper legs often have large chunks of metal on them which can take ages to scrape away and there's always the problem of the saddles not fitting on the horses properly. All that said, I think these Old Glory figures have "character". I don't mean that in the euphemistic sense of them being rubbish sculpts, but rather that they do capture something that can often elude other manufacturers. Not in the Perry class certainly, but then the Perry range only has one pack of generals for each side and you will need a few more. These figures are advertised as "colonels" but I have painted them as generic generals.

Painted June 2007.

Major-General Friedrich Riedesel

Friedrich Adolf Riedesel (1738-1800) was the commander of the Brunswick contingent, troops which like those of Hesse-Cassell were hired out to King George by his fellow monarchs in Germany. Riedesel joined the army when aged 17 (much to the displeasure of his parents, apparently) and saw action in the Seven Years' War. He was swiftly promoted and by the mid-1760s Riedesel was the adjutant to Duke Ferdinand of Brunswick. Duke Charles sent a corps of troops to America in 1776, initially of 4,000 infantry and about 350 dragoons, and Riedesel was placed in command. The Brunswickers were stationed in Quebec and then took part in General Burgoyne's ill-fated Saratoga campaign. The troops that survived the campaign entered captivity when Burgoyne surrendered his army in October 1777. Riedesel's wife Caroline and children had accompanied him on the expedition. They were released by the Americans in 1781.

2,431 Brunswickers are recorded as having surrendered at Saratoga, and the number of killed, wounded, captured or missing was recorded as 1,122. The troops fared badly in captivity, being put to work for their food and clothing and then being marched down to Virginia during the winter of 1778/79. Many Brunswickers elected to remain in America and so deserted. Of 5,723 total men who came over to America during the war only 2,708 returned, of whom fewer than 500 were from Riedesel's Saratoga force.

I have two Riedesels in my collection, from the Old Glory (left) and Perry (right) ranges. The Old Glory sculpt is from their "Foreign Generals" pack, which also includes Steuben, Knyphausen, Lafayette and a couple of French generals. I find Old Glory's AWI range a bit of a mixed bag. This sculpt is ok, although the horse looks as if it's scratching itself in the way dogs do (which horses don't). However, I do like the pose of Riedesel himself; he looks as if he's completely lost in the back woods of the Hudson River valley. The Perry sculpt is much finer; Riedesel looks younger and more dynamic than his Old Glory counterpart, which is more accurate given that he was not yet 40 when captured in 1777 (although he still seems to have that "what on earth am I doing here?" look about him). I thought the horse's saddle furniture looked odd when I painted it and I discovered last week that this horse is largely the same sculpt as Napoleon's horse from the "Napoleon's personal staff" set in the 1815 French range! Both figures sport the yellow facings of the Musketeer Regiment von Reidesel. The uniform is basically the same as that worn by Hessian generals, except that the silver sash has a yellow weave instead of red. Painted May 2006 (Old Glory) and January 2007 (Perry).