71st Foot, "Fraser's Highlanders"

Originally raised in 1756 and designated as the 78th Regiment of Foot, the 71st was officially raised by Lieutenant-General Simon Fraser, Master of Lovat, in the 1770s for service in America. The regiment fought at Brandywine, Cowpens and Yorktown. Two battalions were raised and both seem to have served in the war. Here are both battalions arrayed for battle as they might have appeared at Brandywine in 1777, where they formed a brigade with the 42nd Foot under Major General Leslie.

The figures are by Perry Miniatures, who make highlanders in both "early war" and "late war" dress. The early war figures wear kilts and full plaid; I used these for my "Black Watch" regiment. The late war figures, seen here, replace the kilt with overalls and abandon the plaid in favour of simpler (and cooler) dress. I painted the overalls in tartan after seeing a painting by Don Troiani of the regiment dressed in trews at the Battle of Cowpens. The tartan is the standard "government sett" that all highland regiments wore in this period.

I hand-painted the second battalion's two flags as sources suggest that the flags were diffentiated from those of the first battalion by the addition of a gold "pile wavy" in each upper right-hand corner. I had intended to paint those wavies on a second set of GMB flags, but the units were needed for a Brandywine game and the flags did not arrive in time (despite GMB's very best efforts). So the flags you see, in the rear unit, were painted in the early hours of the morning on the day re-fight of Brandywine began! Painted October/November 2005. Two battalions of 18 figures each. Flags by GMB (first battalion) and myself (second battalion).