Emmerich's Chasseurs (2)

This is the infantry component of the loyalist corps raised in 1777 by the German soldier Andreas Emmerich.  For the cavalry troops see my previous post here.  Emmerich raised a rifle company, a light company and three companies of "chasseurs".  As a representation of all these infantry troops I decided to use the Perry hard plastic Continental infantry rather than mess around with British light infantry figures or attempt conversions.  In any event, the uniform is similar to that of the Lefferts painting, save that these plastic figures don't have full gaiters.  A lot of illustrations of loyalist infantry show the men in either full gaiters or Indian leggings; however, as yet there aren't any Perry AWI figures you can use to represent this uniform other than the metal Saratoga British, which of course have their particular style of headwear.  The two officers are metal figures.  The one in front, who is supposed to be Emmerich himself (at the age of 40/41 he has a bit of grey hair) is from Foundry; the chap in the second row waving his hand is by Perry Miniatures.

I wrote in my previous post that Emmerich's Chasseurs were disbanded in late 1779 due to internal friction and recruitment/retention problems.   After the war Emmerich returned to England and in 1789 he published "The Partisan in War", his thoughts on the American Revolution and the use of light infantry (see a pdf here). He then had plans to publish a five-volume autobiography entitled "Histoire Memorable de la vie du Lieutenant-Colonel-Anglois Andre Emmerich", but that didn't progress very far.  Emmerich had grown up in Hanau, a town which from 1736 (the year before Emmerich was born) formed part of the state of Hesse-Kassel. In 1806 the Holy Roman Empire was disbanded by Napoleon after his victory at Austerlitz and the Confederation of the Rhine was created in its place.  The following year, Hesse-Kassel became part of the new Kingdom of Westfalia, over which Napoleon's brother Jérôme was appointed king.  Emmerich, always in pursuit of adventure despite being in his 70s, became involved in an insurrection against the new French regime.  He was captured in June 1809 and executed by a firing squad in Kassel on 19 July, 1809.

In terms of scenarios, Emmerich's Chasseur appear in units of 4 figures for the Hudson Forts and 12 for Indian Field (in addition to 4 cavalry).  However, I also intend to use these figures for another loyalist outfit, the Prince of Wales' Volunteers, who appears as a 12-figure unit in the Newport scenario (August 1778).  The PoWV are also recorded as having green faced blue coats, at least in the early years of the war.  The paintings by Don Troiani have the PoWV with white rather than black cross belts and white tape on the tricornes (see here and here).  I confess I should have painted white lace on the hats, not least because that's a good way of distinguishing between loyalist and patriot troops.  I've been giving loyalists a lot of thought and research recently, as I'll be focussing on them over the next couple of months.  If anyone's interested, I can post a list of the units I intend to do, with notes on figure and uniform choices.  Currently on the painting desk are the East Florida Rangers (mounted) and its successor unit, the King's Carolina Rangers (foot).  The latter will be the last Perry plastic Continental infantry figures I paint for a while.

12 figures.  Painted October/November 2015.