Saturday, April 18, 2026

Sherburne's Additional Continental Regiment... and Meig's raid on Long Island

"Additional Continental Regiments" were those paid  (theoretically, at least) by the Continental Congress, but outside of the quotas it had assigned to each of the  individual colonies. 

This regiment was raised in January of 177 by Henry Sherburne, primarily from recruits in eastern Connecticut and Rhode Island. 

On May 25, 177, one company of the Regiment took part in the audacious raid (known as Meig's Raid, or the Battle of Sag Harbor) on eastern  Long Island, returning after destroying forage and capturing 90 prisoners. The men crossed from Guilford, CT to Sag Harbor in whaleboats, accompanied by 2 schooners. Having grown up living on, swimming in, and also sailing on Long Island Sound in Greenwich, CT, let me tell you that there is no way I would want to row across it in ay kind of boat. It is a very large body of water, quite deep, and the waves can very from fairly calm to not so much! The raid was lead by Colonel Return Jonathan Meigs. For a fascinating account of the action, both written and audio, as well as how someone got the name "Return Jonathan", see episode 139 of the American Revolution Podcast blog. 

The regiment saw action during the New York and New Jersey campaign of 1776 -1777, and the Philadelphia Campaign of 177 - 1778, including wintering at Valley Forge. It took part in the battles of Staten Island (1777) and Rhode Island (1778). 

In 1778, the regiment was well documented to be wearing brown coats (quite possibly captured British coats died brown) with yellow facings and North American made green serge vests and breeches. 

I have given the regiment the Fort Mercer lag, with no historical justification at all, because it's an interesting early variation on the eventual US flag, and the fighting at Fort Mercer at least was part of one of the campaigns of the regiment. The flag itself was generated from internet images. 

I believe this is a Don Troiani painting of a soldier from Sherburne's regiment

This image is from Charles Lefferts book on uniforms of the American Revolution. 

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