American Revolutionary War Civilians and Casualties

Wrapping up my AWI painting for a while are these extra  figures.

First some British casualty figures

Considerable variety.

Not to be left out, some Patriot ones, too. 

Both sets are byPerry. 

"I ain't dead yet!"

Perry Camp scene

Soup's on!

Women and children.

A variety of ages and stations. 

Watch out for Indians!

Colonial civilian men.

Once again, different classes. 

With these done, I have painted 850 AWI figures in the past 12 months.

I still have some Brigade games civilians, canoes and canoeists, a few more Patriot infantry and artillery, British artillery, a few more Indians, and a French force to do for this project. However, I will likely take a break and go back to some Napoleonic figures, and then pick up again with the remaining AWI stuff in early 2027.

Georgia Loyalist Militia, American Revolutionary War

 Georgia was the smallest and least radical of the 13 North American colonies. 

Georgia did not even send a representative to the first Continental congress in 1774, and for the second Congress in 1775,  the delegates couldn't agree on a position and thus none went; one county, acting on its own, sent Lyman Hall to Philadelphia where he was the only representative from Georgia for quite some time.

The Patriot cause in Georgia was bolstered by the events of Lexington and Concord (1775), resulting in the second Provincial Congress of Georgia later that year. That body adopted the Association's ban on trade with Great Britain, and set up local committees to enforce it. 

The heavy-handed tactics of the local committee in Augusta led to the first violence in the backcountry. On August 2, 1775, members of the committee confronted Thomas Brown at his residence on the South Carolina side of the Savannah River above Augusta. Brown had come to Georgia with seventy or so indentured servants in November 1774 in answer to Governor Wright’s advertisement of the advantages of the newly Ceded Lands above Augusta and founded a settlement called Brownsborough. He attracted the anger of the Whigs by publicly denouncing the Association and summoning friends of the king to join a counter-association. When he refused to swear to honor the Association, the crowd of Liberty men tortured him in various ways, scalping and fracturing his skull, burning his feet, and hauling him, unconscious, through the streets of Augusta as an object lesson to those who would denounce the Association.

When he recovered, Brown retired into the Carolina backcountry, where he and other leaders enlisted hundreds of loyalists and threatened a march on Augusta. After much marching about and some skirmishing around the town of Ninety-Six, Brown and his friends heeded South Carolina governor Sir William Campbell’s advice to await the arrival of the British. Brown retreated to Florida and persuaded Florida governor Patrick Tonyn to allow him to recruit a corps of rangers who would lead Indians to fight on the frontiers in conjunction with the expected landing on the coast. Meanwhile, rumors of a British-instigated plot to enlist enslaved Africans and Indians to help defeat the American patriots alarmed Georgians and Carolinians. Though false, the rumors were generally believed, and John Stuart, the Indian Commissioner, fled in fear for his life from Charleston, South Carolina, to Florida.  [from The New Georgia Encyclopedia, where there is a detailed article on the War in Georgia].

Battles took place in Georgia and adjacent British controlled Florida

Battle of the Rice Boats (Naval in Savannah, March 1776), Battle of Kettle Creek (February 1779), Battle of Briar Creek (March 1779), Siege of Savannah (September 1779), Siege of Augusta (May-June 1781. The evacuation of Savannah by the British took place in July 1782.

Thus Georgia narrowly avoided being retained by the British in the peace treaty signed in 1783, and the same treaty also returned Florida to Spain. 

Kings Royal Regiment of New York, American Revolutionary War

From the Journal of the American Revolution: April 8, 2025by Stuart Lyall Manson:

In 1776, the Declaration of Independence charted a new autonomous path for thirteen of Britain’s North American colonies. One of the document’s many allegations was that British authorities had “excited domestic insurrections amongst us.”[1] While its context largely pointed towards Native Americans, another inspiration for this grievance may have been the embodying of Loyalist regiments in 1775 and 1776. Eventually thousands of colonists joined these military units to preserve the North American portion of the British Empire. Two weeks before the enactment of the Declaration of Independence, one of these Loyalist regiments was formed under extraordinary circumstances: The King’s Royal Regiment of New York commanded by Sir John Johnson.

Ironically, the unit was founded not in the colony of New York, but rather in Québec, also commonly referred to as Canada. In the early summer of 1776, Québec Gov. Guy Carleton was completing the colony’s liberation from a Rebel army. The year before, a force under generals Richard Montgomery and Benedict Arnold had invaded Quebec, conquering the settled areas up to the walls of the City of Québec. In the spring of 1776 a British relief force arrived, which ousted the occupiers in an ensuing campaign.At the tail end of this operation, Carleton unexpectedly encountered New York resident Sir John Jonston and 200 of his refugee neighbors near Montréal.

Johnson was a large landowner in the Mohawk River area in the colony of New York, and more importantly, a notorious Loyalist. He and his weary group had just escaped a grim situation in central New York, whose Loyalist and Rebel factions were hurtling towards civil war. Soon after meeting Johnson near Montréal, Carleton wrote to Secretary of State for the Colonies, George Germain, relaying intelligence conveyed by the refugee Loyalist leader: “He represents to me that there are considerable numbers of people, in the part of the country he comes from, who remain steadily attached to His Majesty’s Government and who would take up arms in its defence had they sufficient protection . . . in the meantime they suffer all the miseries that the persecuting spirit of the rebels is able to inflict upon them.”

The specific date of the genesis of the King’s Royal Regiment of New York—the date of Carleton’s commission to Johnson—is commonly cited on the regimental muster rolls as June 19, 1776. Several months later, Johnson referred to the regiment as “a force sufficient for me to stand upon my legs and look my enemies in the face.” This was a natural reaction to the political volatility that Johnson and his Loyalist friends had experienced with their numerically-superior rebellious neighbors back in the Mohawk River area of New York. There is much more fascinating information about the formation of the Regiment in the linked article, which can be downloaded as a free PDF. 

From Wikipedia article on the Regiment:  The regiment served with distinction throughout the war, launching raids and relief missions into the Province of New York. In the summer of 1777, the regiment was present at the siege of Fort Stanwix during the expedition of Brigadier General Barry St. Leger, and saw action at the Battle of Oriskany. Along with their Iroquois (Haudenosaunee)allies and other provincial regiments such as Butler's Rangers, the regiment took part in a series of raids, mostly in the  large-scale raid on the Schoharie and Mohawk valleys that culminated in the Battle of Klock's Field.

The regiment eventually comprised two battalions. The first battalion was disbanded in 1783 and the second in 1784. Members of the regiment were granted land and settled along the St. Laurence River and the north shore of  Lake Ontario.

The earlier uniform of the regiment is uncertain (and, of course, ALL of the options may have been worn by various individuals!). For sure they wore green coats; the British plan was for most loyalists units to have green coats, mostly with white facings, and brown leather gaiters. The source I used indicated buff belts, so that's how they appear here.

Wikipedia says green faced red, with buff vests and pants (and they are so illustrated in the PDF from the JAR as well); their-enactment unit below has them in green faced dark blue. Circa 1779, like most Loyalist units they transitioned to Red coats, in this case faced with dark blue. The figures are by Perry with a recycled King's color from a British regiment by Adolfo Ramos. 

Properly, the unit should be wearing caps as do these Canadian re-enactors. There is much more information about "The King's Royal Yorkers" on their website.

Kings Orange Rangers, American Revolutionary War

The King’s Orange Rangers regiment was formed in late 1776 by William Bayard of New York and commanded by his son, Lieutenant Colonel John Bayard. 

The regiment was plagued by problems throughout its existence including an outbreak of smallpox, lack of morale and discipline, infighting between officers, and even a shipwreck. The regiment was moved from the British encampment in the Manhattan area in the fall of 1778 to Halifax, Nova Scotia; this was likely a strategic move to combat internal conflicts and desertions within the regiment. 

Raid on Liverpool (Nova Scotia, 1780)

The most dramatic privateer raid occurred on September 13, 1780. Two American privateers, the Surprize under Cpt. Benjamin Cole, and the Delight, under Cpt. Lane, unloaded nearly 70 men at Ballast Cove shortly after midnight. By 4am they had captured the fort and taken Howard, two other officers, and all but six of the KOR garrison as prisoners. Perkins called out the militia, engineered the capture of Cole, and negotiated with Lane for the recovery of the fort and the release of the prisoners. Within a few hours "every thing [was] restored to its former Situation without any Blood Shed." Liverpool was not bothered by privateers for the remainder of the war. Most of Howard's company was ordered back to Halifax in mid-1781, but owing to appeals by the town's leaders, a detachment of 20 men under Lt. McLeod remained for the duration. 

[this, the preceding, and the following from Wikipedia article on the unit]

Port Williams (1781)

At Port Williams, Nova Scotia, the threat of American privateer attacks had subsided. In the spring of 1781, Major Samuel Bayard was ordered to take a detachment of Rangers overland from Halifax to Port Hughes in Nova Scotia to overawe local Planters who were planning to erect a Liberty Pole and thereby break with the King. There they fixed bayonets and "with bright weapons glittering, colours flying and drums beating, they marched up Church Street and back to Town Plot, where the barracks stood." This show of force brought the locals back in line. 

The King's Orange Rangers were to be stationed in Nova Scotia for the remainder of the war, at which time the members dispersed and were resettled. Only a few individuals chose to go to the land that had been assigned to the regiment in New Brunswick at the end of the war.

Obviously, I chose this unit for its interesting uniform (which was only issued in 1780)!

The flag is speculative and modified from that of another unit. 

The figures are by Perry. The history of the unit is a reminder that, by it's conclusion, the American Revolutionary War had become a worldwide conflict, involving North America, the Caribbean, India, and more, with the British fighting not only the Americans, but the French, Spanish, and Dutch, plus of course drawing a large number of contracted soldiers from various minor German states. 

This unit has at least one Canadian re-enactment group - lots of photos on their FB page.

Some more Canadian re-enactors, probably from a different group, at the citadel in Halifax, Nova Scotia. 

Hessian Grenadiers #2, American Revolutionary War

 This is one of the combined Grenadier battalions of the Hessian troops sent to America. 

For my convenience rather than any historical composition, 3 figures are from each of my four Hessian Fusilier regiments. 

They have "borrowed" a white "Leibfahne" from one of their component regiments, very much contrary to regulations!

These are Perry figures, with the flag courtesy of Adolfo Ramos. 

Note the orange cloth "bag" with white stripes on the three men for Fusilier Regiment Von Lossberg, in contrast to the black and brass of the Fusiliers - the only hessian regiment with different colors for the Fusilier and Grenadier miters of the same regiment. 

Hessian Fusilier Regiment Von Ditfourth - American Revolutionary War

This Hessian Fusilier regiment traces its origins back to 1702.

It had "sulfur yellow" facings and cloth backing on their miters.

It fought at White Plains, Rhode Island, and Charleston. 

These are Perry figures once again.

The flag is from Flags of War. 

It became a Musketeer regiment in 1782.