This regiment was raised in January of 177 by Henry Sherburne, primarily from recruits in eastern Connecticut and Rhode Island. 

On May 25, 177, one company of the Regiment took part in the audacious raid (known as Meig’s Raid, or the Battle of Sag Harbor) on eastern  Long Island, returning after destroying forage and capturing 90 prisoners. The men crossed from Guilford, CT to Sag Harbor in whaleboats, accompanied by 2 schooners. Having grown up living on, swimming in, and also sailing on Long Island Sound in Greenwich, CT, let me tell you that there is no way I would want to row across it in ay kind of boat. It is a very large body of water, quite deep, and the waves can very from fairly calm to not so much! The raid was lead by Colonel Return Jonathan Meigs. For a fascinating account of the action, both written and audio, as well as how someone got the name “Return Jonathan”, see episode 139 of the American Revolution Podcast blog. 

The regiment saw action during the New York and New Jersey campaign of 1776 -1777, and the Philadelphia Campaign of 177 – 1778, including wintering at Valley Forge. It took part in the battles of Staten Island (1777) and Rhode Island (1778). 

In 1778, the regiment was well documented to be wearing brown coats (quite possibly captured British coats died brown) with yellow facings and North American made green serge vests and breeches. 

I have given the regiment the Fort Mercer lag, with no historical justification at all, because it’s an interesting early variation on the eventual US flag, and the fighting at Fort Mercer at least was part of one of the campaigns of the regiment. The flag itself was generated from internet images. 

I believe this is a Don Troiani painting of a soldier from Sherburne’s regiment

This image is from Charles Lefferts book on uniforms of the American Revolution. 

This regiment of New York State Line was first raised in August 1775,  Ulster, Dutchess, Orange, and Suffolk counties for 5 months service during the invasion of Canada.  1776. 

It was re-raised again between February and May of 1776 in and around Albany. Lt. Colonel Frederick von Weissenfels became the commander of the 3rd New York at the Battle of White Plains on October 28, 1776. The 3rd New York was part Alexander McDougal’s brigade defending Chatterton Hill..

The regiment was raised for the third time in December, 1776 under the command of Peter Gansevoort. The regiment saw action in the invasion of Canada, the Upstate New York Campaign, and at Fort Stanwix. It was relieved from Fort Stanwix in November, 1778 and took part in the SDullivan Expedition.During the winter of 1779 – 1780 it encamped with the New York Brigade at Morristown, New Jersey, where it took part in a raid on Staten Island. The regiment was merged into the 1st New York Regiment on January 1, 1781.

These are Brigade Games figures once again. The flag is a generic design by Adolfo Ramos. 

The blue coats with green facings are a bit unusual, and then there’s the Fifer in trendy reversed colors!

Overall, the various iterations of the Regiment saw action over 6 years time.

Lots of looking at the summary sheet. Several months before the game, I had really distilled the rules into a much better summary sheet (there seem to be relatively few rules authors who have a clear idea what belongs on these!). Due to the flooding the weekend before, what I did NOT have time to do was to read through the rules again before the game, and list the characteristics of the various units on each players command list.  With players varying from pretty experienced with he rules, to experienced with the Daniel Mersey “rampant” stable of rules, to no experience, that slowed down the start of the game and caused some confusion all around. I apologize for that, not what you want for a big convention game. 

In the end, the players graciously took that in stride until we all caught on. 

The attack of the British on Charleton Hill, soon to be supported by the Hessians. 

The Patriots defensive line proved to be pretty tough to crack; I probably gave the rebellious scum too much artillery and rated them too generously. Never the less, Sir Steve’s redoubtable battalion of British Grenadiers breaks through near the village of White Plains itself. 

Patriots move to counter the assault upon Charleton Hill.

British Grenadiers break through and strike again! Ouch!

Overall, I was very happy with the look of the game, less so with the undesirable rules confusion. I think the (modified) R&P rules are workable. I liked the (still in evolution)  Light Bobs rules that we played for Concord Bridge better, all things considered, but those rules might be challenging to use for a large game.  Mark and I hope to play another game with R&P in the next few months to solidify our understanding of the mechanics. I plan to run the Battle of Brandywine Creek, 1777 at Historicon in July, but that will be with the Field of Battle 3rd edition rules. 

It has yellow collars, cuffs, lapels, waistcoats, and breeches.

It fought st the battles of White Plains, Brandywine, Germantown, Monmouth Courthouse, Connecticut Farms, and Springfield. 

This regimental flag is by Adolfo Ramos. Other sources show it as being purple and white. 

Drummers had purple facings, and white lace with a purple stripe. The drum hoops were purple and white. 

The regimental colonel was (officially) none other than Landgraf Friedrich II himself; in 1783 it passed to his son, Erbprinz Wilhelm, and became known as the Erbprinz regiment. 

Overall, a most striking unit!

First game, 9:20 AM Saturday (Twnety minutes late – I got stuck in traffic in Waterbury, CT for 20 minutes – a construction site winding down at 7:00 AM, one of the few times when there is usually hardly any traffic there!

My friend, GM Mark T., who lives in New Hampshire. His figures are 40mm scale. 

The Bridge model has a story. Back in ? early middle school, Mark’s class had an assignment to do “Shadow box” type dioramas. Not content with that, he did a 2x 4 foot model of Concord Bridge North, the site of a major skirmish during the British raid on Lexington and Concord. He had some help from his Dad, and the model hung out for decades. Last year, Mark Rehabbed it and built up new terrain for the scenario, which sees a British force trying to hold back a Patriot advance upon their position. A party of British Grenadiers is seen in the far ground, trying to march to the rescue!  Also in the far ground is Chris Parker. 

The patriots try to storm the bridge with their best troops, while many of the others provide fire support from the river banks. 

“Some talk of Alexander, and some of Hercules…” 

The Patriots have taken the bridge, dispersing most of the British Defenders… but the British Grenadiers arrive, with vengeance in mind!

In the end, it is too little, too late. The (skirmish level) rules used were Light Bobs by Chris Parker (2nd edition in evolution, with help from Mark T). The game uses a playing card deck for activations in some interesting ways, but D6’s for combat “Ones are Magical”. I enjoyed the game… and the rules!

Another Saturday game setting up at HAVOC.