Poor's New Hampshire Brigade at Saratoga 1777

 

The 2nd New Hampshire Regiment
Fife and Drum Miniatures

Over the past month I have been focused on painting some of the troops for the Continental Army that fought at Saratoga in 1777. I am focusing on Brigadier General Enoch Poor's brigade. At the battle of Freeman's Farm on September 19, 1777, Poor's Brigade was the first group of regiments to arrive on the scene at the engagement started by Daniel Morgan's Virginia riflemen and Henry Dearborn's battalion of light infantry.

Poor's Brigade consisted of the following elements:

1st New Hampshire Regiment - Colonel Joseph Cilley

2nd New Hampshire  - Lt. Colonel Adams

3rd New Hampshire - Colonel Alexander Scammel

2nd New York - Colonel Phillip van Cortlandt

4th New York - Colonel Henry Livingston

1st Connecticut Militia

2nd Connecticut Militia

Total all ranks present: 1,292; 356 sick; 153 "on command"; 7 on leave (per Brendan Morrissey).

For wargaming purposes, I would merge the two Connecticut militia battalions into one militia battalion, thus giving me 6 regiments under the command of Poor.  Dividing 1,292 by 6 = 215 per regiment. This works out to six regiments of approximately 20 figures using a 1:10 ratio of miniature figures to actual soldiers.

If I added all present, sick, on command (I assume that these fellows were hived off into Dearborn's light infantry battalion) and on leave I would have 1,809 total men in the brigade or approximately 300 soldiers per regiment or 30 wargame figures in the unit. If I were to deduct the "on command" soldiers from the brigade, that would average approximately 242 men per regiment or 24 wargame figures per unit.

So pick your poison and build regiments of either 20, 24 or 30 figures. I chose the latter amount for the simple reason that I like larger units. By comparison, my British regiments have 40 figures.

So far, I have painted the three New Hampshire regiments, Morgan's Rifles, and Dearborn's Light Infantry for my game at the Seven Years War Association Convention on August 5th through 7th in South Bend, Indiana. I doubt that I will have enough time to paint the two New York regiments so I will substitute regiments from my existing collection of Continental regiments for my Philadelphia Campaign collection.

Here are some pictures of the lads. Note that (surprise) all figures are from the Fife and Drum Miniatures AWI figuure range.

1st New Hampshire Regiment - Colonel Cilley

The 1st New Hampshire wore green coats with red cuffs/collars and red turnbacks. Some accounts have them wearing red waistcoats, others indicate red or white. I used a mix of all three waistcoat colors in the regiment. I have yet to flag the regiment, noting that I have some GMB Designs flags on order from the UK.

Ist New Hampshire Regiment "in situ"

Close up view of some of the figures in the 1st NH

The side view of some of the 1st NH figures.

2nd New Hampshire Regiment - Lt. Colonel Adams

The regiment wore light blue coats with red collars, cuffs and white turnbacks. Breeches and waistcoats were white or buff. I went with mostly buff colored kit. This is one of my favorite Continental army uniforms in my collection.

2nd New Hampshire Regiment

Close up view of some of the miniatures.

3rd New Hampshire Regiment - Colonel Scammel

This regiment just came off of the painting table and are clothed in dark blue coats with white facings, waistcoats and breeches. I gave them a grand division flag from GMB Designs because it looks like the Fort Ticonderoga flag that they were alleged to have carried. 

As with all of my Continental regiments, I like to add in some figures wearing hunting shirts and some militia figures from the Fife and Drum Miniatures figure range. In some cases, I will do a head swap to include more brimmed or round hats in the regiment.

The whole 3rd New Hampshire Regiment on five stands.

A close up view of some of the figures. Note the officer wearing hunting shirt in the front rank.

Same view as above, but with a view of the second row of figures.

The Continental Advance Guard - Daniel Morgan

I have posted pictures of the Virginia riflemen within the past month, but had not posted pictures of Dearborn's Light Infantry Battalion. The two units were brigaded together because the riflemen do not have bayonets on their rifles, and thus, they would need to fall back to the safety of the Light Battalion, whose soldiers carried muskets with bayonets.

Henry Dearborn's Light Infantry Battalion

Henry Dearborn's Light Infantry Battalion. Each stand wears a different uniform to represent
 that the men in the battalion were chosen men from their parent regiments.

Close up view of some of the figures. Each stand of figures wears a different uniform.

Side view of two of the stands (left - 3rd NH; right - 1st NH)

Another side view of three of the five stands.

Daniel Morgan's Virginia Riflemen 

The figures in this regiment are relatively new additions to the Fife and Drum Miniatures Saratoga range. Wonderful variety of poses and animation created by Richard Ansell.

Colonel Morgan directs his riflemen on the left and some of Dearborn's light infantry on the right.

A view of the whole rifle regiment.

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