General de Brigade

[Cornet]

I will be painting a set of 15mm Philadelphia Light Horse as a birthday gift, so I wanted to get the details right (more than usual). Philadelphia Light Horse's assitant curator (they have a museum) sent me the following description in response to an email inquiry I sent earlier today:

"The troop authorized a uniform consisting of a short brown coat faced and lined with white, white vest, and breeches, high-topped boots, round black hat bound with silver cord and a buck’s tail sometime after its organization on 17 October 1774. Saddle housings were to be brown and edged with white, with the letters PH worked in them. Weapons were a saber, horse pistols, and carbine. In the Troop museum is a cockade from the hat of one of our officers-- the shape of the cockade is consistent with the type of headgear known as the 'round hat.' A 1785 painting by William Mercer shows the Troop in a sort of cap common to light dragoons. Between 1775 and 1777, the uniform probably more or less consistent, as there appear to be no further authorizations or purchases by or for the Troop. In 1778, the Troop modified its uniform in keeping with the current regulations to be a blue coat faced red. This was likely the first time that the Troop authorized such a color scheme."

Is anyone familiar with the William Mercer painting he mentions? What's the name of it?

I just ran across this depiction of the early-war uniforms of the Philadelphia Light Horse. Some of the details look dubious (the headgear doesn't look quite right, and the collar looks to be of a post-war fashion), but I thought it was interesting none the less. As our own RtL persistently chides, a contemporaneous depiction would be much better.

The Philadelphia Light Horse accompanied Lafayette during the Battle of Barren Hill, which RtL has mentioned elsewhere may be included in the next BG! scenario book; so any information turned up here might aid us all in our little hobby.
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Then let us fill a bumper, and drink a health to those
Who carry caps and pouches, and wear the loup'ed clothes.

[Ronan the Librarian]

I think he was referring to the painting "The Battle of Princeton" by William Mercer (son of the general killed in that action, IIRC).


http://americanhistory.si.edu/militaryhistory/exhibition/zoomify.asp?id=207&type=g&width=640&height=480&hideAlt=1


You can see one member of the PLH to the left of Washington's flag, and there are two more charging into a dip in the ground behind the artillery piece in the right foreground.

As regards the advertising picture, well sometimes people do actually get it pretty much right! I'm not sure about the detail of the band around the base of the cap, and as you rightly say, the collar is a "rise and fall" which is post-war. That apart, it's not bad.
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You can lead a horse to water, but a toy soldier can no longer be lead (due to Health & Safety Regulations).

[Bill Braham]

The Mercer painting is the one that RtL gave the link to.

There is also a plate in Vol 1 of Elting's Military Uniforms n America, a compliation of text and colour plates from the Company of Military Historians journal. You should be able to see this in a public library or via inter library loan.

[going a-viking]