The War of 1812 is luring me with a siren call. I'm back to painting Perry plastic Napoleonics as the 49th Foot (the Green Tigers) and working out which combination of US army uniforms to go with for the opposition. Meanwhile, I've been raiding 3 libraries for 1812 material (mine, the Regina Public and the University of Regina). Best pickings to date at the UofR since they teach Canadian history and I get extended borrowing privileges as a faculty member.
Recommended reading so far
As soon as I read 'War of 1812' my mind went to my as yet unpainted 1812 French and Russians.
ReplyDeleteFunny how the brain does its links!
Jim
DeleteI would have thought that a Brit would have thought 1812= Salamanca. Perspective is everything. It's interesting to see the contrasting bicentennial views appearing in the press this spring. BBC History talks about lessons learned and a strategic British victory due to Economic blockade. US press talk about giving the the Brits a bloody nose - frigate actions, Harrison's victories in the old west, Chesapeake and New Orleans.
Now Canadians know that one of the main US aims was the conquest of Canada - the famous "mere matter of marching"- and that we beat back invasions in 1812, summer 1813, late fall 1813 and then summer 1814.
Cheers
PD
Hi Peter
DeleteNope, 1812 immediately linked to my internal embarrassment of two unpainted armies while I am basking in the Sunshine State.
I wonder if the embarrassment factor will be as strong as soon as I am re-united with my paintbrushes back home or will some other period appear higher in the priorities.
I have been planning to experiment with upscaling Bob Corderys The Portable Wargame ruleset with a terrain set inspired by Ian Dury. Link all that with a 'snow terrain' setup and you'll see where my 1812 brain is pointing.
Then again being a 'cosmopolitan' Scot and a lot less of a Brit than usual means I look more at the bigger world picture and less at where the Redcoats have been.
hmm, 1812, snow, must be River Raisin. :)
ReplyDeleteAre you going with the Belgic shako for the 49th? There is a good chance they had it for the York, Stony Creek and Chrsyler's Farm, Not so as likely for Queenston. If so, you could get away with using the stovepipes with British bodies to do US in the early war coatee with lace and the felt shako which was still being widely worn in 1813.
I've got the green tigers in stovepipes - for the sound reason that the semi-painted battalion originally intended for the peninsula had stovepipes! Just about everything I find shows the stovepipe until 1814, or shows the belgic with a caption indicating that it should be a stovepipe! However, I ready to be corrected on that front!
DeleteI expect that I'll put most Brits in stovepipes and the Yanks in a mix. Victrix does a box of 32 heads (just the heads they go on the Victrix plastic brits) in round hats which will end up on US militia at some point.
Cheers
PD
The date for the issue of new shakos to various regiments is iffy, 1814 is almost certain, 1813 is possible at best with the stove pipe being most likely.
DeleteSome sources claim that US 4th infantry was wearing round hats in 1812, being straight from the Indian Wars.
You can of course make use of the Belgic shakos for the US if you are willing to fix the cords and fudge the plates.
I checked online and the 49th reenactment unit uses stovepipes for the most part. As for the US shako, yeah I could haul out the Xacto and "fix" the details. Or I could ignore them on the basis that no-one will notice in 25mm, that info on US uniforms is sketchy and that patterns were hardly uniform, or say that they are using captured British equipment!
DeleteWhat did you do in 54mm (other than using Mexicans to sub for New York militia Mr Historical)?
Cheers
PD
I scraped the cords and painted on new ones for the 1st regiment, then Barszo released their US infantry. The difference is pretty small, the British cords are looped up on both sides, the US only on the right, instead of joining the plume on the the left they did down to the bottom. Depending on how well the figures are done it wouldn;t be that noticable. Removing wings and shoulder baubles was more work, and of course lace. Again depending on the figures you could ignore it or do one of the many units in 1813 who seem to have had the old style jacket and new style shako.
DeleteBtw those Mexicans were used for US regulars not militia. Turns out I was following a source which showed the "Yeoman crowned" light artillery shako which apparently wasn't actually issued to the old regiments after all. Later research has sort of rescued these figures though as it appears to have been issued to some of the new regiments.
Lots of room for interpretation and obscurity when it come to 1812.
Is the "yeoman crowned" the bell topped hobby I see in modern illustrations? The US plan will be to have a variety of uniforms to help keep the units straight nd since that was the reality. I see a lot of pictures with the older laced jacket for 1813. Both shakos will appear but most will the stovepipes. At least that's today's story....
DeleteAll of Don's books are excellent! He is an outstanding writer and well researched. This post will inspire me to finish re-basing and touching up some paint on the 1812 figures I purchased from Ross.
ReplyDeleteJeff
Jeff
DeleteAbsolutely! That goes for the books he's written himself, but also the compilations that he's edited (Fighting for Canada Vols I and II) and reissues that he's edited. One of my personal favourite is the reissue of Stacey's book on Quebec.
Cheers
PD