Col Henleys "Additional" Continental Regiment - AWI

 The Additional Continental regiments differ from all other Continental Army infantry regiments by the manner in which they formed.

The 16 Additional Continental regiments were approved by Congress as a separate group on December 27, 1776, specifically in response to a request from Gen. George Washington for additional troops, and Congress expressly delegated their formation directly to Washington.

All Additional Continental regiments were organized in the spring and summer of 1777. In contrast to both the Extra and Additional regiments, all other infantry regiments of the army were organized and supported under the direct authority of individual state governments.

The 16 Additional Continental regiments formed later and under distinctly different circumstances than those of the Extra Continental regiments.

The 1-year enlistments in most Continental Army regiments that formed in the earliest part of the American Revolutionary War expired on December 31, 1776. Therefore, Congress and Washington began preparations for reorganizing the army during that early fall.

The reorganization was to apply to troops from every state, and a major factor in the new plan was the decision to recruit for the duration of the war rather than for a single year.

Eighty-eight regiments were authorized by a Congressional resolve of September 16, 1776, in which Congress formally outlined the 13 state lines of the Continental Army by specifying the quota of regiments for each state.

Congress' estimates of the population of each state governed its allocation of regiments, ranging from 15 regiments each from Massachusetts and Virginia to single regiments from Delaware and Georgia. In correspondence to Congress during December 1776, however, Washington pressed for even more men.

Central to Washington's position was a recommendation to increase the infantry regiments from the 88 called for in September to a minimum of 110.

In contrast to the previously approved 88 regiments, the 16 Additional regiments were organized directly by Washington's authority, rather than by the authority of the state governments, and were placed completely under Washington's control.

The resolution gave Washington the requested 110 regiments, for in addition to the 16 new regiments and the 88 units of the September quotas there were the 6 Extra regiments that had been previously approved by Congress and that were also not explicitly tied to a single state.

Units designated "Additional Continental Regiments" were unnumbered infantry regiments authorized in 1777. These units were raised "at large" and not part of any state's quota, although some were later adopted into state lines. Sixteen regiments were authorized, but because of manpower shortages Washington attempted to raise only 15.

Two of these 15 (Cornell's and Scammell's Regiments) were never organized because their colonels declined the position in favour of other commands, leaving 13 "additional" regiments. Although Washington wrote to Col. Ezekiel Cornell of Rhode Island and Col. Alexander Scammell of New Hampshire on January 12, 1777, and offered each command of one of the 16 Additional Continental regiments, both declined, and the units never raised.

Congress subsequently authorized one more "additional" regiment, Sheppard's Additional Continental Regiment, but it was absorbed into the weak North Carolina line within a year. The 16 Additional Continental regiments are:

Cornell's Continental Regiment (never formed)

Forman's Continental Regiment

Gist's Continental Regiment

Grayson's Continental Regiment

Hartley's Continental Regiment

Henley's Continental Regiment

Jackson's Continental Regiment

Lee's Continental Regiment

Malcolm's Continental Regiment

Patton's Continental Regiment

Sheppard's Continental Regiment

Sherburne's Continental Regiment

Spencer's Continental Regiment

Scammell's Continental Regiment (never formed)

Thruston's Continental Regiment

Webb's Continental Regiment

Formans Additional Continental Regiment

Henley's Additional Continental Regiment

Authorized on January 12, 1777 in the Continental Army as Henley's Additional Continental Regiment.

Assigned on May 23, 1777 to the Eastern Department

Organized in spring and summer 1777 at Boston to consist of 5 companies from Middlesex, Essex, Suffolk, and Worcester Counties, Massachusetts and Hillsborough and Rockingham Counties, New Hampshire.

Reassigned on March 18, 1778 from the Eastern Department and assigned to the Main Continental Army.

Reassigned on July 22, 1778 from the Main Army and assigned to the Eastern Department.

Consolidated on April 9, 1779 with Henry Jackson's Additional Continental Regiment.

Significant Campaigns and Battles

The regiment would see action during the New York and New Jersey Campaign (1776-77) and the Philadelphia Campaign 1777-78. It took part in the following major battles:

Battle of Rhode Island (1778)

Battle of Monmouth (1778)

Colonel David Henley himself seems to have been quite a character. Born in 1749, he served on the staffs of General William Heath and Lord Stirling before being charged with forming his regiment. In November 1778 he was appointed as Washington's Chief Intelligence Officer and set to work devising a system of recording intelligence in a meaningful and constructive way.

Right, after all that - here are a few pictures! Uniforms based again on the illustration in the free uniform info that comes with the Perry plastic box set.

Great stuff, but what's next? I hear you cry :) Well, dear readers, after a couple of recommendations, I have elected to paint up another Perry unit as Sherburne's Additional Continental Regiment, who will hopefully look something similar to this:

Thanks for your visit and especially for any comments you are kind enough to leave!

A Sunday Napoleonic Game at Barry's ......NOT!

 Up until Saturday morning, I was expecting to be at Barrys place on Sunday, partaking in a game put on by gaming mate Mark and featuring his Napoleon in Egypt collection - Brits v Ottomans I believe.

 However, despite prior notification of the event, my dear wife suddenly announced midway through Saturday that she had made a bit of a booboo, and had forgotten I had a game arranged, and had booked us a night away in a nice hotel in central Auckland .... sigh!

So instead of 50-70 images of a large-scale wargame, here are a lesser number of our night out - which was enjoyable, I have to admit - but honestly, I would have rather stayed home and been able to go to the game!

The hotel we stayed in, very close to the Viaduct Harbour in the centre of town.

A very nice room, and in the en suite a bonus - an actual bath - had to have one of those later in the evening!

View from our "balcony" - it was literally 12" wide step outside our sliding French door type windows!

View from the bar of the hotel

The next several images are our walk from the hotel to find a place to eat.

Auckland CBD in the not too distant distance!

Sunset over the North Shore and Auckland Harbour Bridge.

About half an hour later and much closer to the CBD

The old main Post Office in Queen Elizabeth II Square, now a railway station

Old Edwardian era (built 1909-12) Auckland Ferry Building.

The restaurant we eventually ended up eating in - a well-known Auckland Asian fusion establishment

Both images are courtesy of their website!

On the walk back to the hotel, looking back over Viaduct Harbour 

This was inside the hotel lobby/reception area

We walked back into Viaduct Harbour on Sunday morning for breakfast (Note the mid-winter weather!)

We went to Giraffe - this image and the one below are also from the web

And one final image below - the only "Ottoman" I saw this weekend!

The good news is, my next AWI unit is virtually completed, so should make an appearance here in a day or so.

The Green Mountain Boys

 The more I read about the background to this unit, the less involved I suspect they were in the general "revolution" - but I liked the uniform, and they are painted now - and they certainly took some part in the hostilities! See below what I am referring to - I suspect this will be unknown to most readers - possibly even some in the US itself!

The original Green Mountain Boys were a militia organized in what is now southwestern Vermont in the decade prior to the American Revolutionary War. They comprised settlers and land speculators who held New Hampshire titles to lands between the Connecticut River and Lake Champlain, an area then known as the New Hampshire Grants, that is now modern Vermont. New York was given legal control of the area by a decision of the British crown and refused to respect the New Hampshire titles and town charters. Although a few towns with New York land titles, notably Brattleboro on the Connecticut River, supported the change, the vast majority of the settlers in the sparsely populated frontier region rejected the authority of New York.

When the American Revolutionary War started in 1775, Ethan Allen and a troop of his men, along with Connecticut Colonel Benedict Arnold, marched up to Lake Champlain and captured the strategically important British military posts at Fort Ticonderoga, Crown Point, and Fort George, all in New York. The Boys also briefly held St. John's in Québec but retreated on word of arriving British regulars.

In Summer 1775, the Green Mountain Boys became the basis for the Green Mountain Rangers, a regiment in the Continental Army that selected colonel Seth Warner as its leader. Some of the Green Mountain Boys preferred to remain with Ethan Allen and were taken prisoners along with Allen in August 1775 in a bungled attempt to capture the city of Montreal. Among them were Congressman Matthew Lyon and Lieutenant Benjamin Tucker.

Vermont eventually declared itself an independent nation in January 1777, and organized a government based in Windsor. The armed forces of the Vermont Republic were based upon the Green Mountain Boys. Although Vermont initially supported the American Revolutionary War and sent troops to fight John Burgoyne's British invasion from Quebec in battles at Hubbardton and Bennington in 1777, Vermont eventually adopted a more neutral stance and became a haven for deserters from both the British and colonial armies. George Washington, who had more than sufficient difficulties with the British, brushed off Congressional demands that he subdue Vermont. During the Haldimand Affair, some members of the Green Mountain Boys became involved in secret negotiations with British officials about restoring the Crown's rule over the territory.

For the Green Mountain Boys, I have reverted to the Warlord hard plastic figures.

Quite a striking looking uniform, and I like their flag, too!

I have assumed reversed colours for the musicians, as this seems to have been a standard feature of American units.

I really do like the faces on the Warlord figures!

The variety of poses possible from the kit is nice, too.

My next unit will be another 18 Perry miniatures, this time wearing the peaked cap and painted to represent Henleys regiment, to the left of the image below

Thanks, once again, to Uncle Google, here is some info on this unit:

Henley's Additional Continental Regiment was raised on January 12, 1777, with troops from Massachusetts and New Hampshire at Boston, Massachusetts for service with the Continental Army. The regiment saw action at the Battle of Monmouth and the Battle of Rhode Island. The Regiment was merged into the 16th Massachusetts Regiment on April 9, 1779.

Thanks for your visit and support of my blog and extra special thanks to all who leave a comment!