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Soldiers of the Revolutionary War
This book combines Men-at-Arms 273: `General Washington's Army (1) 1775-75', Men-at-Arms 285: `King George's Army 1740-93 (1)', Men-at-Arms 289: `King George's Army 1740-93 (2)', Men-at-Arms 290: `General Washington's Army (2) 1778-83' and Men-at-arms 292: `King George's Army 1740-93 (3)'. This book examines in complete detail the uniforms and equipment used by the rival armies of George Washington and King George in the American Revolutionary War. General Washington's three armies, the New England Army, the Army of the United States and the forces of the Continental Congress obtained their clothing from a variety of sources, until the receipt of 25,000 uniforms imported from France in 1778 allowed the majority of Washington's men to be dressed in uniform brown and blue. This book looks into the methods whereby these uniforms were procured, as well as investigating the gradual standardisation of the dress and equipment of King George's army over the same period.
240 pages, Paperback
First published September 18, 2002
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
January 27, 2021
This is not a good book. In fact it is one of the worst I have ever read.
What Osprey did was combine five smaller books into this one. It was a bad idea!
The title is very misleading: "Soldiers of the Revolutionary War."
After two books on the American armies, there are three on the British Army covering the period from 1740-1793. The Revolutionary War only lasted from 1775-1783, so much of these three books cover periods and places completely outside of the scope of the title.
And what's in these books is mostly descriptions of what soldiers wore in great detail. So I give credit for this detail and research.
But the result is not one you can read. I mostly skimmed the whole book in a few hours. If you were a re-enactor or a modeller, I can see value in this.
But does even the serious military scholar care about the 24th and 25th Regiment's colours?
There was no effort to explain what makes up a regiment or listing the various ranks.
I was very disappointed and cannot recommend this book to anyone who does not want to know exactly what soldiers were wearing in this time period.
p. 114: Duke of Argyll: "The army was the last refuge of the desperate and the criminal classes."
What Osprey did was combine five smaller books into this one. It was a bad idea!
The title is very misleading: "Soldiers of the Revolutionary War."
After two books on the American armies, there are three on the British Army covering the period from 1740-1793. The Revolutionary War only lasted from 1775-1783, so much of these three books cover periods and places completely outside of the scope of the title.
And what's in these books is mostly descriptions of what soldiers wore in great detail. So I give credit for this detail and research.
But the result is not one you can read. I mostly skimmed the whole book in a few hours. If you were a re-enactor or a modeller, I can see value in this.
But does even the serious military scholar care about the 24th and 25th Regiment's colours?
There was no effort to explain what makes up a regiment or listing the various ranks.
I was very disappointed and cannot recommend this book to anyone who does not want to know exactly what soldiers were wearing in this time period.
p. 114: Duke of Argyll: "The army was the last refuge of the desperate and the criminal classes."
Displaying 1 of 1 review