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.

Colonel Frederick Visscher

Frederick Visscher commanded the Third Regiment of Tryon's County's militia, and fought at Oriskany in the rearguard of the American column.  Visscher was born in 1740 and, like many settlers in the Albany area, was of Dutch descent.  He served in the F&IW and joined the patriot cause with his two brothers, John and Harman.  Visscher's friends and neighbours Colonel John Butler and Sir John Johnson both chose loyalty to the Crown.  As a veteran of the F&IW, Visscher was given a colonelcy in the local militia.  His brothers were also commissioned into the Third Regiment.  Visscher and his men were at the back of Herkimer's column, guarding the baggage wagons.  After the ambush was sprung, Visscher found himself cut off from the rest of the force.  His men fought their way back through the Indians who had encircled them and retreated back the way they had come to Fort Dayton.  They were pursued by the Iroquois and bodies were found some miles away (records rather chillingly mention "Major Blauvelt and Lieutenant Groat, taken prisoner and never heard of afterward").   In May 1778 charges of cowardice were brought against Visscher and certain others who were accused of running away and abandoning the rest of Herkimer's column.  However, nothing seems to have come of those charges, at least as far as Visscher was concerned.  He continued to serve in the militia and seems to have been held in high regard.  It appears that in May 1780 the home of Visscher's parents was attacked by a band of Tories and Indians led by Sir John Johnson while Visscher and his two brothers were visiting whilst on leave.  A vicious fight in the house saw his brothers killed and Visscher himself scalped and left for dead after he had been hit in the back by a tomahawk.  The house was set on fire but Visscher managed to help his wounded mother to safety.  Apparently Visscher had a silver plate made to conceal his scalping scar during public occasions.  After the end of the war, Visscher became a judge and a member of the state legislature.  He died in June 1809.

Visscher appears in the "British Grenadier!" Oriskany scenario as a brigade commander and this figure is of course a companion to those of Lieutenant-Colonel Ebenezer Cox, Brigadier-General Herkimer and Hanyery Tewahangarahken.  It is another one of the figures from Galloping Major's "Anglo-American Militia Command" pack in their F&IW range.  As I said in my post on Ebenezer Cox, Visscher should be mounted but (again) I like this pose, which suggests he can hear the ambush has started.  Given that he was a prominent, senior officer, I wanted to give Visscher some decent clothes and so he appears in a more colourful suit than I suspect he wore on the day.  

1 figure.  Painted December 2016.

Lieutenant-Colonel Ebenezer Cox

I'm going to kick off the new year with some more personalities.  Colonel Ebenezer Cox was one of the commanders of the vanguard of the American column that was ambushed at the battle of Oriskany on 6 August 1777 while on its way to relieve Fort Stanwix.  He was born in June 1741 and was killed at the battle.  His official position at the time of the battles appears to have been second-in-command of a unit of Tryon Country militia (Brigadier Nicholas Herkimer being the commanding officer of this unit).  Apparently Tryon County's militia was formed into five regiments, each with distinct recruiting districts - Cox led the First Regiment, with men drawn from the Canajoharie area.  In my post on Herkimer, I noted that on the morning of 6 August Herkimer had misgivings about pushing on to Fort Stanwix before reinforcements had arrived, but was cajoled into continuing his advance by his other officers.  Cox is named in histories of the battle as being one of those officers who accused Herkimer of being a coward and a Tory.  Cox must have been with Herkimer at the front of the column when the Crown forces attacked - he and several other officers were killed in one of the first vollies, whilst Herkimer was hit in the leg shortly thereafter.  The First Regiment appears to have lost five of its captains and one lieutenant in the battle and so must have been pretty cut up in the battle. 

So unfortunately, the real Ebenezer Cox (who was the father of four young children at the time) had didn't live beyond the battle's opening stages.  However, he is listed as the vanguard's commanding officer in the "British Grenadier!" Oriskany scenario and so I wanted to have a figure to represent him (and act as another militia commander more generally).  This is another Galloping Major sculpt, from the "Anglo-American Militia Command" pack in their F&IW range.  The look and pose of this figure is perfect, I think - running for cover just after the ambush has been sprung.  Also, unlike a lot of command figures who just stand around, this chap is actually shouting orders.  I suppose militia commanders should be mounted, but to be honest I think they look better on foot - I expect they jumped off their horses pretty quickly at Oriskany.   

1 figure.  Painted December 2016.

 

 

Brigadier-General Nicholas Herkimer

Nicholas Herkimer was born in 1728 (or thereabouts), the son of German immigrants.  His family lived in the German Flatts area of upstate New York, in the Mohawk Valley.  Herkimer saw action in the French attack on German Flatts in November 1757.  The following year he was promoted to captain in the local militia.  By the time war broke out in 1775, Herkimer was a militia colonel.  In June 1776 he led a small forced to see the Mohawk leader Joseph Brandt, in an attempt to persuade Brandt to remain neutral in the war with Britain.  Brandt refused, and remained loyal to the Crown for the duration of the war.  By September 1776 Herkimer had been made a brigadier general in the Tryon County militia.  In August 1777 British troops laid siege to Fort Stanwix (on the site of modern Rome, New York) and Herkimer ordered the local militia to form a relief column.  There is some suggestion that Herkimer wanted to wait  but was stung into action by his junior officers, who had used the fact that Herkimer's brother was a Loyalist officer to question Herkimer's motives.  The militia set off and on 6 August Herkimer's column was ambushed in a ravine by a mixed force of Loyalists, jaeger from Hanau and Mohawks under Brandt's command.

Shortly after the ambush began Herkimer's horse was shot and he himself was badly wounded in the leg.  He propped himself up against a tree and continued to direct the battle as best as he could.  The Indians had sprung the trap too early and the rear elements of Herkimer's column fled.   Those who remained faced what must have been a horrific hand-to-hand battle.  A common tactic of the Indians was to wait for the flash of a musket before rushing to attack with hand-held weapons before the firer had time to re-load.  However, the Americans were able to rally and fight their way back down the ravine to higher ground.  Herkimer was able to organise a more effective and co-ordinated withdrawal and the remains of his force were able to disengage and retreat back to Fort Dayton.  The battle was very cost for the American side, which lost approximately 450 casualties against 150 dead and wounded Loyalists and Indians.  Herkimer's wound was attended to, but his leg because infected and the decision to amputate was taken too late.  The operation took place 10 days after the battle and was not successful.  Herkimer died on 16 August, aged 49.

This figure continues the Mohawk frontier theme of last post's Magua.  I put this figure together from King's Mountain Miniatures' "officer firing pistol" (code OMM-009) with one of the heads from OMM-07.  I had intended this figure to be the officer for a unit of loyalist rangers I was painting for the Oriskany orbat (see next post), but I decided the uniform coat was too long.  I put the figure to one side, but then realised it would be perfect for an American officer, so why not Herkimer himself.  His leg was shattered early in the fight, but let's not let that get in the way of having a nice figure on the table, and I thought the pose looked suitably desperate.  As with Magua, I used a picture for reference material.  Above is the painting "Herkimer at the Battle of Oriskany" by F C Yohn, from circa 1901.  My sources aren't consistent on what uniform a brigadier-general would have worn this early in the war.  By 1780 the official uniform for this rank in the Continental Army was dark blue faced buff, but I have seen some references to dark blue faced red for early war officers.  And of course Herkimer was militia, not Continental Army.  Yohn may have worked from a dark blue faced red uniform coat that was worn by the commander of Fort Stanwix, Colonel Peter Gansevoort who was promoted Brigadier in the militia later in the war.  So I decided to stick with red facings rather than buff - it just looked more militia-ish. (I've started a new label with this post - "Personalities".  This will capture the "real life" people in my collection, as opposed to generic command figures or fictional characters like Magua and Hawkeye.  There are other personalities in my collection not as yet featured on TQ - the British generals, for example, and Tarleton himself.  Hopefully I'll add those in due course.)  

1 figure.  Painted September 2016.

 

 

 

     

Count Casimir Pulaski

Pulaski was born in Poland in 1745 into a well-known noble family. His soldiering began in his early twenties when he joined the Polish groups opposing Russian influence and intervention in their country. That opposition quickly led to armed conflict and Pulaski proved himself to be an excellent commander of men. Outlawed by the Russians in 1771 and accused of trying to kidnap the Polish king, he fled to Turkey and then Paris. There in 1777 he met Benjamin Franklin and Lafayette and agreed to join the struggle for independence, no doubt keen to support another country trying to win its freedom. Franklin introduced Pulaski to George Washington, who appears to have given Pulaski some sort of staff or advisory role. Pulaski's first engagement of the war was at Brandywine, where he led the scouting party that discovered the British flanking movement which threatened the American escape route. He collected whatever cavalry he could and bought time for the American army to withdraw.

Congress rewarded Pulaski with a commission as brigadier general and command of all American cavalry. He spent the winter of 1777-8 training and outfitting the cavalry units but in March he resigned his command due to difficulties with his officers (who appear to have disliked being ordered about by a foreigner who had not mastered English). Pulaski suggested to Washington that he form an independent legion of cavalry and light infantry. This idea was approved by Congress and Pulaski's Legion was born, which became the model for other legions such as Lee's and Armand's. Many of the recruits were German deserters and British PoWs, officered by Polish and French expatriates (apparently thirteen Polish officers served under Pulaski in the legion). In 1779 the legion , then only about 120 men strong, was sent to the south and Pulaski was instrumental is lifting the siege of Charleston. The Americans then moved onto their own siege of Savannah. By this time French forces had arrived and on 9 October 1779 the allies made their disasterous attack on the town. Seeing the French infantry falter, Pulaski galloped forward with his legion to rally the men but was mortally wounded by cannon shot. He died two days later, on 15 October 1779, and was buried at sea. He was 34 years old.


The Pulaski here is the "Baron Munchausen" figure from Eureka Miniatures. This was a kind freebie from Eureka. There is another variant of this set which has the Baron mounted on only half a horse that is drinking from a fountain (see here for an explanation). At first I thought about painting the figure as a German officer or a French cavalry commander but then I realised that it would make a perfect Pulaski. The uniform is light cavalry in style and suitably, while the sabretache has a design that looks vaguely like the white eagle that is emblem of the Polish coat of arms. I took my lead from the painting above, "The Death of General Casimir Pulaski" by S. Batowksi, and you can see that Pulaski's uniform in the painting (admittedly painted in 1932!) is not far off from that of Munchausen. The hat is a bit tall, perhaps (although see the troopers to the left of Pulaski in the painting), but is in keeping with the flamboyant look which seems appropriate for such a larger-than-life character. Following Batowksi, I painted the uniform and horse furniture in the standard Polish colours of crimson and dark blue.

Painted May 2011.

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.

American generals (1)

These are the three figures from the Perry pack of Continental mounted infantry officers. These are not "personality" figures as such, although I heard a rumour once that Alan Perry had certain generals in mind when he sculpted them (I don't know exactly whom, but I recall they were the senior officers at one of the Southern battles, Camden perhaps). The officer in a hunting shirt certainly makes a very good Daniel Morgan. The chap waving his hat is a particularly dynamic and elegant sculpt. I cannot quite remember why I gave the coated officers red facings rather than buff, probably because Mollo's "Uniforms of the American Revolution" has a picture of an officer of brigadier general rank with red facings. Given that my c-in-c personality figures do have buff facings, I'm not sure this matters much anyway. In the "British Grenadier" rules, brigadiers are based on 60mm x 30mm bases. As I have stated before, generals in these rules play a very important role, as they need to be in base-to-base contact with units to help rally off disruption points and order charges.

Painted some time in 2004.

George Washington

I will not attempt to write a potted biography of George Washington, so I shall stick to commenting on this vignette. C-in-C bases for "British Grenadier" are 70mm x 60mm, although to be honest you can use whatever size you like. The Perry twins brought their George Washington vignette along to the Monmouth re-fight in November 2004 and it was a huge affair including a very impressive tree. My command stands tend to follow the same pattern of either the general with a mounted aide and another on foot or the general with 3 aides on foot. This is a bit different. All the figures are from the Foundry range. Washington is accompanied by the General Gates figure from the Continental personalities pack and I have given him a guard and a sergeant carrying Washington's headquarters flag. Both wear the blue faced red coats of a typical Virginian regiment.

There is some historical doubt (from what I can tell) about exactly when this flag was created, but Washington seems to have used a flag of 13 stars on a dark blue field as his personal C-in-C marker. Sources indicate that there were several different variations of the flag, and this one is reported to have been seen in Valley Forge. Some suggest that this flag is the origin of the stars in the US "stars and stripes". There is another flag described as being that of "the Comander in Chief's Guard", which shows Liberty, and eagle and a soldier holding a white horse, all on a white field. Flag Dude makes this flag but as yet no company makes figures in the exact uniform of Washington's Guard to go with it! I bought this other flag, so hopefully at some stage I will have some proper guard figures to go around this vignette.

Painted February 2006. Flag by GMB.