Kilts in the American Revolution?

[Caradoc]

From another thread, starting a new one just for this topic:

Kilts truly are very practical to wear. I first started wearing kilts on the job after seeing a picture of a WWI Scottish soldier leaping into a trench in his kilt. Further research revealed that even the kilted soldiers in the American Revolution faired better health wise than the trousered soldiers. (Yes, there were kilted citizen soldiers back then.)

I've heard this in several various posts. Does anyone have any documentation on the topic, or is all of the talk anecdotal?

[Riverkilt]

Know our board experts will soon fill in the gaps.

Google is your friend. Found this at

http://www.freerepublic.com/forum/a3b42b07a6dde.htm

It was on August 22nd, 1776 when Howe began to move. Rather than face Knox' artillery at the Battery, Howe smartly navigated 88 frigates across the narrows where the Verrazano Bridge now stands, to land in Graves End. Each frigate was filled with German and English troops. Some of the English companies included the 17th Light Dragoons (as they spelled it) and the Black Watch Brigade ( A Scottish brigade with Black Kilts). 15,000 men landed on Brooklyn from Staten Island, along with Commanders Clinton, Cornwallis and the Hessian (German) Count von Donop.

Ron

[macwilkin]

Know our board experts will soon fill in the gaps.

Google is your friend. Found this at

http://www.freerepublic.com/forum/a3b42b07a6dde.htm

It was on August 22nd, 1776 when Howe began to move. Rather than face Knox' artillery at the Battery, Howe smartly navigated 88 frigates across the narrows where the Verrazano Bridge now stands, to land in Graves End. Each frigate was filled with German and English troops. Some of the English companies included the 17th Light Dragoons (as they spelled it) and the Black Watch Brigade ( A Scottish brigade with Black Kilts). 15,000 men landed on Brooklyn from Staten Island, along with Commanders Clinton, Cornwallis and the Hessian (German) Count von Donop.

Ron

Google...not for scholarly research...about as reliable as Wikipedia some times!

Don't get me wrong, I use google as well, but, in the words of Forrest Gump, "you never know what you're going to get". In this case, this is a political forum, and no sources.

We (our library staff) encourage students to not rely on google so much for this very reason. Google does not discriminate between "good" and "bad" web sites; it's up to the reader.

For an excellent source on the British Army in North America, I highly recommend "Redcoats: the British Soldier and war in the Americas, 1755-1763" by Stephen Brumwell. He devotes one whole chapter (8, p. 264) to the Highland Regiments.

Another good source is Stuart Reid's "18th Century Highlanders".

In regards to the question, a number of Highland Regiments in the British Army served in North America from the 1750's onwards. There were also Loyalist Provincial units, mostly Highlanders and ex-Jacobites, who also wore kilts, like the Royal Highland Immigrants and the North Carolina Regiment. Most Highlanders tended to side with the British ironically, or tried to stay neutral. Large settlements of Highlanders were in NC and the Hudson and Mohawk River Valleys of New York.

A few Highlanders favoured the colonial cause, like ex-Jacobite Hugh Mercer, who fought at Culloden, but most had already been through one rebellion and probably didn't want to be on the losing end again. Also, the American colonials villified the Highlanders for their service; Jefferson included a line in the Declaration of Independence about "foreign and Scotch mercenaries", until the Rev. John Witherspoon, a Scot, asked him to remove it, and I remember reading a letter from a Scot who was captured by the Americans and was verbally abused by civilians for being "Scottish". I will see if I can dig that up.

One final note: the Black Watch refused to take any battle honours on their regimental colours for the Revolution, because they felt it was not right to take battle honours for a war "between kith and kin".

Cheers,

Todd

[Caradoc]

Google...not for scholarly research...about as reliable as Wikipedia some times!

...which is exactly why I'm looking for print references.

[Kilted KT]

This link will help....
http://lcweb2.loc.gov/cocoon/legacies/PA/200002950.html

and I quote from that page

"The first Scottish tartan kilt was first seen in the Laurel Highlands of western Pennsylvania in the year 1758 when soldiers of the famous 42nd Highland Regiment (Black Watch), under the command of General John Forbes, marched westward from Philadelphia to wrest control of the fort at the forks of the Ohio from the French. At Ligonier, which lay some 20 leagues west of Fort Duquesne, Forbes had a wooden fort constructed that would serve as a staging area for the final assault. The fort was named after Lord Ligonier, who was the Commander in Chief of the British Army at that time. The town of Ligonier, scene of the Ligonier Highland Games, takes its name from that fort. General Forbes led his troops to a victory that saw the French fleeing the area never to return. Fort Duquesne was burned to the ground, and over its ashes rose a settlement named "Pittsburgh" by Forbes in honor of William Pitt, the British Prime Minister, who had proven to be a friend to the Scots. "

[HeathBar]

Kilts truly are very practical to wear. I first started wearing kilts on the job after seeing a picture of a WWI Scottish soldier leaping into a trench in his kilt. Further research revealed that even the kilted soldiers in the American Revolution faired better health wise than the trousered soldiers. (Yes, there were kilted citizen soldiers back then.)

I saw this too. I knew that British forces had kilted troops in North America during both the French-Indian War and the American Revolution. But during the Revolution, were there any kilted American troops.

[MacWage]

I saw this too. I knew that British forces had kilted troops in North America during both the French-Indian War and the American Revolution. But during the Revolution, were there any kilted American troops.

Is that "Colonials" AKA "PATRIOTS" and "Whigs" (also a contemporary Brit political party)?

"American" can apply to loyalists and patriots alike.

This, i would like to know. Thus far, my research is focused more on South Carolina and religious matters.

There was a settlement in Western North Carolina (New Sterling and New Perth ARP churches-> "dissenant presbyterians"), where members spoke gaelic and wore kilts before the war. From what I can tell, they were patriots. I'm not sure if they wore any in combat (pitched battles or skirmishes).

[M. A. C. Newsome]

MacWage,

Do you mean east North Carolina? There were no permanant settlements in western NC before the Rev. War that I am aware of (though a couple of illicit attempts were made) and never any Gaelic settlements.

Eastern NC, on the other hand, was another matter....

M

[HeathBar]

Is that "Colonials" AKA "PATRIOTS" and "Whigs" (also a contemporary Brit political party)?

"American" can apply to loyalists and patriots alike.

Yes, I meant Patriots or Colonials. I just couldn't think of the word at the time.
I too, had read, in How Scots Invented the Modern World, that during the Revolution, Scots living in the colonies remain loyal to the king. But Scots/Irish sided with the Colonists.

[MacWage]

This is a brief aside. To finish my second masters, I did a research project on the Associate Presbyterians and the Reformed Presbyterians in the Southern campaign of 1780/81.

I was examining the myth/legend that the "dissenent presbyterians" (these two groups) were patriot to a man and the backbone of the patriot army. As many were Scots who came through Ireland, many called them Irish presbyterians (as opposed to the Church of Scotland) or simply "Irish" (to seperate them from the main presbyterian body). Others came direct from Scotland, though they were still called by these names, showing a religious distiction, rather than racial/national.

I found that there was a split among these bodies, as with most. A notable figure is the Reformed/ Covenanter preacher William Martin, who was arrested as a patriot. There was also a notable Tory pastor, who served a church that came out as pretty much patriot when the British army forced the issue. He served several churches and wasn't ran off from them until 1781 or even 1782! He died in 1782, on the return ship to Britain.

I found a remarkable number of congregations that tried to skirt the issue until the last possible moment, showing a congregation of mixed sentiments. When the time came to force issue (namely Tarleton and Cornwallis coming to the immediate vacinity), most came out as patriot, BUT NOT ALL. One church, in Vidette, Georgia (near Augusta) was Loyalist, while its yoked partner 8 miles away was solidly Patriot. The Loyalists went to one and the Patriots the other, with members passing one to get to the other. Up until the issue was forced, both were served by the Tory pastor, as well as Long Cane (the home of the Calhoun family-famous in the years between then and the Civil War/War between the States). After the war, these same churches called another pastor to serve BOTH.

Of note was the RAPID rise in the legend, that by only a few years later it was preached and, suddenly, the loyalists were converted into patriots. I believe that this was deliberate to repair burned bridges and reconcile old friends. The relavent church histories are remakably silent or evasive about that period, though it was EXTREMELY important to the communities. Such is stark in relation to the complexity and detail immediately before and after the war. It looks EXTREMELY deliberate.

In short, it was not as clean and easy as:
"Scotch-Irish"/Presbyterians-> Patriot
"Scots"/"Highlanders"-> Loyalists

The Cape Fear Scots (including Flora MacDonald) were by a vast majority Loyalists.
The rest of the Scottish immigants were much more mixed.

By and large, the Loyalists either moved back to Britain, to Canada, to another area under assumed histories, or fought to rebuild lost friedships (not something easily done). A simple way to see the mixing of people is the post war exodus of Loyalists and the mix of people who were patriots and stayed.

To get back of topic-> the "Western" highlanders were mentioned in "From Sterling to New Stirling" (the history of the New Stirling ARP Church in Stoney Point, North Carolina). I can't locate the book for some reason or another, otherwise I would quote it directly. Also, nearby is New Perth In Troutman, North Carolina. Both setlements included Covenanter and other like minded Highlanders. Upon investigation, I was told some of the early sessional records were in Gaelic and contemporary records describe Kilt and bonnet wearing dirk wielding highlanders as church members in both of these areas BEFORE the war.

These towns are, generally, near Charlotte, North Carolina, which was settled in the years right before the war, by many Scots of both Highland and Lowland descent. It was also the area to which the general fled after Camden and the destination that Cornwallis hoped to go after leaving South Carolina. South Carolina, however, held him and the army in that state for a year, instead of letting them march out in a mater of weeks, much to the death and destruction of the state and its people. Patriots and Loyalists came to help/hinder from Georgia and North Carolina.

What I do not know is if any of these kilt wearing Reformed Presbyterian Scots actually fought garbed as such in actual combat during the Revolution/American Rebellion. But, if there were kilted Patriots, these make ideal candidates. The history I read made no mention of it either way, only that these highlanders fought as patriots.

Does anyone here know any answers? Or come across anything?