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Osprey Men at Arms #450
American Loyalist Troops 1775–84
To mark the 450th book in the Men-at-Arms series we return to the subject of the very first book in the series, which was published nearly 35 years ago. Author of 27 other Men-at-Arms titles René Chartrand uses newly discovered material to offer a more modern analysis of the American Provincial Corps in this book, American Loyalist Troops. Packed with new photographs, completely new and up-to-date text and illustrations from Gerry Embleton (the much-loved illustrator of over 60 Osprey titles) this book examines the history of the American volunteers who fought on the side of King George in the American Revolutionary War (1775-1783).
In total something between 30,000 and 50,000 of these "Tories" served in dozens of units, on all fronts from Canada to Florida, and many regiments distinguished themselves in battle. After the final British defeat the survivors and their families withdrew, many into Canada, where they continued to provide a loyal militia to defend the Crown territory. This book will provide updated and comprehensive information on unit identities, commanders, strengths, areas of enlistment, combat record, tactics, uniforms and equipment.
In total something between 30,000 and 50,000 of these "Tories" served in dozens of units, on all fronts from Canada to Florida, and many regiments distinguished themselves in battle. After the final British defeat the survivors and their families withdrew, many into Canada, where they continued to provide a loyal militia to defend the Crown territory. This book will provide updated and comprehensive information on unit identities, commanders, strengths, areas of enlistment, combat record, tactics, uniforms and equipment.
48 pages, Paperback
First published September 10, 2008
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
August 14, 2022
American Loyalist Troops 1775–84 is a long, boring and dry compilation of every known unit of Loyalist troops in the war and whether they used red, green or blue coats. The Osprey veteran René Chartrand packs as much information as he could find to fill this 48 pages Man-at-Arms book. The resut is an endless list of unit names with a stub of one or two short paragraphs detailing basic pieces of uniform like buttons, coat facings and other memorabilia of interest only for modellers and reenactors.
It doesn't read as the usual René Chartrand book, and is clearly below his high standards. The list of units is too long and most of the information is too vague for the narrative to flow normally. The plates are okay, but nothing outstanding. In one of the good plates (E3) a ranger from Jessup's Loyal Rangers stands above a bluecoat he killed in the bush. Plate A2 has a black ex-slave of the Ethiopian Regiment with "Liberty to Slaves" written on his shirt. The rest is very repetitive and bland.
The photographs of pieces of cloth, flags and portraits are too dark and blackened to be useful. One portrait of LtCol Banastre Tarleton is well represented, which is nice. The portrait of Thayeadanegea (Joseph Brant), the Mohawk Chief, is too dark to be useful.
The loyalists are described as being a no insignificant 20% of the population in the original 13 Colonies and coming from recent migrants from Britain, public servants, landowners and businessmen with strong ties with the metropole, freed black slaves and ordinary citizens that felt the Crown would protect their rights better than "the rampaging advocates of 'Liberty,' who in practice often turned violently upon anyone who disagreed with their arguments." Since the revolutionaries were quick to seize property of those who opposed the independence, and massacred loyalist troops and hanged loyalist officers, that's not far fetched.
The main contributions of the loyalist "Tories" was to provided highly accurate intelligence, light infantry and cavalry units that placed the revolutionaries in a plain field for a larger, more powerful regular British army to maneuver and fight in the bigger battles; with many ranger and loyal regiments and legions. Without the French and the Spanish there is no way the 13 colonies would have won. The most effective loyalist units were the Butler's Rangers, the British Legion, the Loyal American Legion and the Queen's Rangers. Other units have pompous names like "Royal Fencible Americans" and "Emmerich's Chasseurs". Some units were big enough to fight in pitched battles while many others were too small to anything but understrength garrison duty. The main commands were New York, Canada and the Caribbean, all three conducting their operations independently.
This book's subject is too vast and should have been done in three volumes so each region could be explored properly, from the Canadian wilderness to the more adventuresque Caribbean fighting against the Spanish. The odyssey of United Corps of Pennsylvania & Maryland Loyalists is quite interesting, being sent to Pensacola via Jamaica, they were captured by the Spanish in Pensacola and sent as prisoners to Havana, in Cuba. Being exchanged they were sent back to New York until resettled in New Brünswick after the war.
Oddballs were French Canadian settlers who were forced into service, including with threats from conscripting two married men to each deserter, and Indians serving with the British; given that expansion into Indian lands was a major factor in the deflagration of the war it is easy to see why.
The book ends with the loyalists being ressettled as units, accompanied with their families, into British Canada. The British governament cared for them until their communities became self-sustained. Many had been persecuted and had their property seized; some were murdered. Five great fleets resettled over 35,000 loyalists and their families in Canada. A woman is mentioned as not having shed a tear during the war but being overcome by grief as, while holding her baby, she watched the ships that resettled them sail away; but doesn't really quote what she said. Page 40 depicts a draft of loyalists drawing lots for their land alongside their wives. After all lots were set, the units were disbanded. Chartrand then presents a vast bibliography and the plate details.
The mindset of those men and women really warrant further study, such as a Warrior title. Recently Osprey announced a Combat title and that's a good thing. René Chartrand ends his narrative with the words "Indeed, although the fact is largely unappreciated in present-day Canada, it was the Loyalists who brought north many of the basic political and cultural institutions that now largely define the modern nation. Like the French-Canadians they joined in their new country, the Loyalists surmounted the consequences of a lost war, and built a new and forward-looking society that preserved their ideals."
It doesn't read as the usual René Chartrand book, and is clearly below his high standards. The list of units is too long and most of the information is too vague for the narrative to flow normally. The plates are okay, but nothing outstanding. In one of the good plates (E3) a ranger from Jessup's Loyal Rangers stands above a bluecoat he killed in the bush. Plate A2 has a black ex-slave of the Ethiopian Regiment with "Liberty to Slaves" written on his shirt. The rest is very repetitive and bland.
The photographs of pieces of cloth, flags and portraits are too dark and blackened to be useful. One portrait of LtCol Banastre Tarleton is well represented, which is nice. The portrait of Thayeadanegea (Joseph Brant), the Mohawk Chief, is too dark to be useful.
The loyalists are described as being a no insignificant 20% of the population in the original 13 Colonies and coming from recent migrants from Britain, public servants, landowners and businessmen with strong ties with the metropole, freed black slaves and ordinary citizens that felt the Crown would protect their rights better than "the rampaging advocates of 'Liberty,' who in practice often turned violently upon anyone who disagreed with their arguments." Since the revolutionaries were quick to seize property of those who opposed the independence, and massacred loyalist troops and hanged loyalist officers, that's not far fetched.
The main contributions of the loyalist "Tories" was to provided highly accurate intelligence, light infantry and cavalry units that placed the revolutionaries in a plain field for a larger, more powerful regular British army to maneuver and fight in the bigger battles; with many ranger and loyal regiments and legions. Without the French and the Spanish there is no way the 13 colonies would have won. The most effective loyalist units were the Butler's Rangers, the British Legion, the Loyal American Legion and the Queen's Rangers. Other units have pompous names like "Royal Fencible Americans" and "Emmerich's Chasseurs". Some units were big enough to fight in pitched battles while many others were too small to anything but understrength garrison duty. The main commands were New York, Canada and the Caribbean, all three conducting their operations independently.
This book's subject is too vast and should have been done in three volumes so each region could be explored properly, from the Canadian wilderness to the more adventuresque Caribbean fighting against the Spanish. The odyssey of United Corps of Pennsylvania & Maryland Loyalists is quite interesting, being sent to Pensacola via Jamaica, they were captured by the Spanish in Pensacola and sent as prisoners to Havana, in Cuba. Being exchanged they were sent back to New York until resettled in New Brünswick after the war.
Oddballs were French Canadian settlers who were forced into service, including with threats from conscripting two married men to each deserter, and Indians serving with the British; given that expansion into Indian lands was a major factor in the deflagration of the war it is easy to see why.
The book ends with the loyalists being ressettled as units, accompanied with their families, into British Canada. The British governament cared for them until their communities became self-sustained. Many had been persecuted and had their property seized; some were murdered. Five great fleets resettled over 35,000 loyalists and their families in Canada. A woman is mentioned as not having shed a tear during the war but being overcome by grief as, while holding her baby, she watched the ships that resettled them sail away; but doesn't really quote what she said. Page 40 depicts a draft of loyalists drawing lots for their land alongside their wives. After all lots were set, the units were disbanded. Chartrand then presents a vast bibliography and the plate details.
The mindset of those men and women really warrant further study, such as a Warrior title. Recently Osprey announced a Combat title and that's a good thing. René Chartrand ends his narrative with the words "Indeed, although the fact is largely unappreciated in present-day Canada, it was the Loyalists who brought north many of the basic political and cultural institutions that now largely define the modern nation. Like the French-Canadians they joined in their new country, the Loyalists surmounted the consequences of a lost war, and built a new and forward-looking society that preserved their ideals."
June 6, 2024
Very, very brief overview of Loyalist units. The entries for individual regiments tend to be little more than the dates the unit formed and disbanded plus brief mentions of where they fought.
April 26, 2019
This amounts to a tabulation of data--a listing of all actions in which Loyalist units participated, and of all the Loyalist units raised during the war--rather than a prose history. While the Loyalists did engage in quite a few forage raids or skirmishes with state militias, they were rarely at the centre of militarily significant campaigns such as New York & New Jersey, the Philadelphia campaign, the Saratoga campaign or Yorktown, so there's not as much to write about them to begin with, which is compounded by the fact that (apart from high-profile exceptions like the Queen's Rangers, British Legion or Ethiopian Regiment) historians haven't really been interested in them--American historians prefer to ignore the large numbers of their countrymen who sided with the Crown, while British historians largely ignore the war altogether. So there's not much material for an Osprey author to use. Still, this is excellent as a collation of detail, and the illustrations are, as always with Osprey, superb.
January 5, 2024
Pretty cool, but could be better.
Osprey Publishing is surely an informative source on many subjects, from German WWII uniforms to British and American soldiers from the War of 1812, and this book was no different. It had A LOT of information on Loyalist American regiments and their origins, leaders, weapons, service, and uniforms. Furthermore, the eight pages of drawn uniforms from different regiments, pictures, and portraits were heavily appreciated for a reader like me.
But, why wasn't this book ranked higher? Frankly, it isn't organised well. The text was small and the spacing between the descriptions of different was uncomfortable. Though barely 50 pages, it took me a day to read it.
In conclusion, this book is great in spite of the organisation. I recommend this book to American Revolutionary War reenactors, but also those interested in American history, history of the American Revolutionary War, or American or Commonwealth military history.
Osprey Publishing is surely an informative source on many subjects, from German WWII uniforms to British and American soldiers from the War of 1812, and this book was no different. It had A LOT of information on Loyalist American regiments and their origins, leaders, weapons, service, and uniforms. Furthermore, the eight pages of drawn uniforms from different regiments, pictures, and portraits were heavily appreciated for a reader like me.
But, why wasn't this book ranked higher? Frankly, it isn't organised well. The text was small and the spacing between the descriptions of different was uncomfortable. Though barely 50 pages, it took me a day to read it.
In conclusion, this book is great in spite of the organisation. I recommend this book to American Revolutionary War reenactors, but also those interested in American history, history of the American Revolutionary War, or American or Commonwealth military history.
January 29, 2020
Much more useful for uniform colors (which is why I bought it) and where they served then for major information about them beyond the very basic.
June 7, 2013
I just wish there was more in this slim but vital volume although a brief record of every Loyalist regiment is quite nice.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews