British Pickets at Saratoga

 

British flank company pickets in the Saratoga Campaign

I have been working on some two-figure stands of British pickets to use in my Saratoga Campaign war games. I paint two stands of two figures for each British regiment that I paint, my plan being to converge all of the stands into one collection of converged light infantry pickets. I can also keep the figures with their parent regiment, thus adding four more figures to the British regiments.

At the battle of Freeman's Farm on September 19, 1777, Hamilton's Brigade of British regiments were located in the center of the British deployment. An advance guard commanded by Simon Fraser was deployed as the right wing of the army. 

Hamilton sent a picket detail of 100 men ahead of his brigade's advance towards Freeman's Farm. The pickets were commanded by Major Forbes (9th Regiment) and they quickly occupied the ground around Freeman's Farm. Daniel Morgan's riflemen emerged from the woods and surprised Forbes' picket and cut down the majority of them with their fire, killing all but one of their officers.

There was another small picket of approximately 100 men that was attached to Fraser's advance guard. These were under the command of a Captain Alexander Fraser.

The figures are Fife and Drum Miniatures (of course) British flank company figures for the Saratoga army.

A close up view of the British pickets.

Next in the painting queue are some more Brunswick grenadiers and maybe some Loyalist troops.