From the Journal of the American Revolution: April 8, 2025by Stuart Lyall Manson:
In 1776, the Declaration of Independence charted a new autonomous path for thirteen of Britain’s North American colonies. One of the document’s many allegations was that British authorities had “excited domestic insurrections amongst us.”[1] While its context largely pointed towards Native Americans, another inspiration for this grievance may have been the embodying of Loyalist regiments in 1775 and 1776. Eventually thousands of colonists joined these military units to preserve the North American portion of the British Empire. Two weeks before the enactment of the Declaration of Independence, one of these Loyalist regiments was formed under extraordinary circumstances: The King’s Royal Regiment of New York commanded by Sir John Johnson.
Ironically, the unit was founded not in the colony of New York, but rather in Québec, also commonly referred to as Canada. In the early summer of 1776, Québec Gov. Guy Carleton was completing the colony’s liberation from a Rebel army. The year before, a force under generals Richard Montgomery and Benedict Arnold had invaded Quebec, conquering the settled areas up to the walls of the City of Québec. In the spring of 1776 a British relief force arrived, which ousted the occupiers in an ensuing campaign.At the tail end of this operation, Carleton unexpectedly encountered New York resident Sir John Jonston and 200 of his refugee neighbors near Montréal.
Johnson was a large landowner in the Mohawk River area in the colony of New York, and more importantly, a notorious Loyalist. He and his weary group had just escaped a grim situation in central New York, whose Loyalist and Rebel factions were hurtling towards civil war. Soon after meeting Johnson near Montréal, Carleton wrote to Secretary of State for the Colonies, George Germain, relaying intelligence conveyed by the refugee Loyalist leader: “He represents to me that there are considerable numbers of people, in the part of the country he comes from, who remain steadily attached to His Majesty’s Government and who would take up arms in its defence had they sufficient protection . . . in the meantime they suffer all the miseries that the persecuting spirit of the rebels is able to inflict upon them.”
The specific date of the genesis of the King’s Royal Regiment of New York—the date of Carleton’s commission to Johnson—is commonly cited on the regimental muster rolls as June 19, 1776. Several months later, Johnson referred to the regiment as “a force sufficient for me to stand upon my legs and look my enemies in the face.” This was a natural reaction to the political volatility that Johnson and his Loyalist friends had experienced with their numerically-superior rebellious neighbors back in the Mohawk River area of New York. There is much more fascinating information about the formation of the Regiment in the linked article, which can be downloaded as a free PDF.
From Wikipedia article on the Regiment:
The regiment served with distinction throughout the war, launching raids and relief missions into the Province of New York. In the summer of 1777, the regiment was present at the siege of Fort Stanwix during the expedition of Brigadier General Barry St. Leger, and saw action at the Battle of Oriskany. Along with their Iroquois (Haudenosaunee)allies and other provincial regiments such as Butler’s Rangers, the regiment took part in a series of raids, mostly in the large-scale raid on the Schoharie and Mohawk valleys that culminated in the Battle of Klock’s Field.The regiment eventually comprised two battalions. The first battalion was disbanded in 1783 and the second in 1784. Members of the regiment were granted land and settled along the St. Laurence River and the north shore of Lake Ontario.
The earlier uniform of the regiment is uncertain (and, of course, ALL of the options may have been worn by various individuals!). For sure they wore green coats; the British plan was for most loyalists units to have green coats, mostly with white facings, and brown leather gaiters. The source I used indicated buff belts, so that’s how they appear here.
Wikipedia says green faced red, with buff vests and pants (and they are so illustrated in the PDF from the JAR as well); their-enactment unit below has them in green faced dark blue. Circa 1779, like most Loyalist units they transitioned to Red coats, in this case faced with dark blue. The figures are by Perry with a recycled King’s color from a British regiment by Adolfo Ramos.
Properly, the unit should be wearing caps as do these Canadian re-enactors. There is much more information about “The King’s Royal Yorkers”
on their website.
Unlike the other Grenadiers in the Hessian army of this time, the Von Rall regiment was composed solely of Grenadiers.
