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17350 - CAPTAIN AND FIFER, 62nd REGIMENT OF FOOT,
1777 (Click
here to go back) |
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| With customary flair, Lieutenant General
John Burgoyne launched the Saratoga Campaign in mid-June 1777 by raising
the British royal standard at St. Johns, Canada, just above the New
York line. The 8,000-man army that "Gentleman Johnny" assembled
for his projected advance on Albany included a German infantry division
mustering 3,000 rank and file and a British infantry division of 3,700
enlisted men.
Most of Burgoyne's British infantrymen belonged to the 9th, 20th, 21st, 24th, 47th, 53rd, and 62nd Regiments of Foot, which had arrived in Canada in the spring of 1776 in response to the failed American attack on Quebec. A logistical setback ensured that Burgoyne's Redcoats would set out for Saratoga in uniforms better adapted to the wilds of upstate New York than those specified by the Royal Clothing Warrant of 1768. A British infantryman was supposed to receive a complete new uniform every year, but the garments intended for Burgoyne's troops in 1777 were captured at sea and ended up covering General George Washington's Continentals in New Jersey and Pennsylvania. In April 1777, Burgoyne's British regiments received orders to trim the tails of their coats to obtain the extra cloth needed to repair those worn garments. The battalion companies also cut up their cocked hats, refashioning them into caps adorned with hair crests appropriated from local livestock. These changes transformed the appearance of Burgoyne's British division into that of a dashing light infantry corps. Shorter coats and narrower headgear made it easier for these troops to maneuver in wooded country. At the start of the American Revolution, company officers in British regiments of foot were armed with swords and half-pikes called spontoons. Realizing that polearms served a more practical use on European parade grounds than in the forests of North America, many captains and lieutenants exchanged their spontoons for light muskets called fusils. Existing portraits and other documentation show that some officers also discarded their swords, relying entirely on fusils and bayonets to defend themselves. In keeping with other European armies, company musicians in most British infantry regiments wore coats with reversed colors. Bearskin caps and elaborately laced coats also signified their special status. As an added distinction, drummers and fifers in buff-faced regiments wore red waistcoats and breeches and had their coats lined in red. |
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