18th century scottish regiments

[timemeddler]

Trying to find information on Scottish regiments around the time of the French and Indian war, and the American Revolution. I'm mostly trying to find out how they would have been outfitted at the time, since they would have been part of Britain. Would they have used the same brown bess as the British Regulars or did they have their own? Tartans they would have worn? The internet is pretty limited on what they had as soldiers.

[figheadair]

Trying to find information on Scottish regiments around the time of the French and Indian war, and the American Revolution. I'm mostly trying to find out how they would have been outfitted at the time, since they would have been part of Britain. Would they have used the same brown bess as the British Regulars or did they have their own? Tartans they would have worn? The internet is pretty limited on what they had as soldiers.

All the Highland regiments at the time of the F&IW (generally referred to as the Seven Years' War in Britain) wore the 42nd (Black Watch or Government) tartan.

There are a number of portraits of the period showing the dress and arms of Highland soldiers (generally, officers) such as the Pinch of Snuff c.1760 by Delacour.

[Father Bill]

The internet is pretty limited on what they had as soldiers.

There, you see - instant answers, and yes, XMarks is part of the Internet! ;)

[Troglodyte]

There is a wealth of information on this subject, and you could do a lot worse than trawling through David Stewart of Garth's Sketches, as they give both the official regimental view of events and engagements, as well as personal first-hand accounts. He is often quoted.

Garth himself was an experienced officer, and seems happy to criticise officialdom when it is deserved.

One such is the withrawal of the broadsword for the Highlander, at a time when it was proving both a favourite with the individual Highland soldier and useful in the kind of warfare seen in North America.

You will find that some regiments were only short-lived, being raised for colonial service and disbanded after only a few years. But the 42nd (Black Watch) may be worth singling out for more detailed study.

[kilted2000]

There is a series called Osprey that covers military history. They have several books on the period and on Scotland in particular. Just Google osprey and highlanders and you should find them.

[RGM1]

I.am a bit confused. The print seems to have a red stripe and my understanding is the Black watch tartan does not have any red. I claim a clan connection with the Murray's whose tartan was inspired by the Black Watch tartan to which a red stripe was added.

[figheadair]

There is a series called Osprey that covers military history. They have several books on the period and on Scotland in particular. Just Google osprey and highlanders and you should find them.

These books are a useful guide but include a number of inaccuracies.

[figheadair]

I.am a bit confused. The print seems to have a red stripe and my understanding is the Black watch tartan does not have any red. I claim a clan connection with the Murray's whose tartan was inspired by the Black Watch tartan to which a red stripe was added.

These drawings are a useful guide by not necessarily historically accurate. It is from a series of prints by Friedrich von German, captain of a regiment from Hesse-Hanau, one of the many German auxiliary troops hired by George III to fight in the American Revolution. He arrived in North America in 1775 During the war and painted a series of watercolors of American, British, and German soldiers.

There is no definitive evidence of the 42nd sett with red, or the Atholl tartan being worn during the AWI.

[Troglodyte]

I.am a bit confused. The print seems to have a red stripe and my understanding is the Black watch tartan does not have any red. I claim a clan connection with the Murray's whose tartan was inspired by the Black Watch tartan to which a red stripe was added.

Peter Cochrane's 1987 Scottish Military Dress addresses this, and makes reference to Morier's painting of a Highlander of the 42nd, and notes that the red overstripe shown on the government tartan was introduced by Lord John Murray when he became colonel in 1745 - but probably for the grenadier company only.

Cochrane quotes James Logan, although he was writing a century later, who says of this red overstripe that '...it appeared to me very un-uniform...' but tells us that the same is included in an 1812 aquatint of a 42nd Grenadier by Hamilton Smith, and that the same differentiation from the 42nd was used for Loudon's Highlanders in 1745.

There is a Black Watch Red Hackle version of the regimental tartan, with a red overstripe between the double black lines on the blue, that was introduced in 2009 by House of Edgar as a tribute to those who served in the regiment.

[figheadair]

Peter Cochrane's 1987 Scottish Military Dress addresses this, and makes reference to Morier's painting of a Highlander of the 42nd, and notes that the red overstripe shown on the government tartan was introduced by Lord John Murray when he became colonel in 1745 - but probably for the grenadier company only.

Cochrane quotes James Logan, although he was writing a century later, who says of this red overstripe that '...it appeared to me very un-uniform...' but tells us that the same is included in an 1812 aquatint of a 42nd Grenadier by Hamilton Smith, and that the same differentiation from the 42nd was used for Loudon's Highlanders in 1745.

There is a Black Watch Red Hackle version of the regimental tartan, with a red overstripe between the double black lines on the blue, that was introduced in 2009 by House of Edgar as a tribute to those who served in the regiment.

I can't find the original but here is the aquatint showing Grenadiers of the 42nd or Royal and 92nd or Gordon Highlanders by J C Stadler after Charles Hamilton Smith, 1812.



The tartan appears to be Wilsons of Bannockburn's 42nd Pattern Officers, Sergeants and Privates which was included in their 1819 Key Pattern Book as Coarse Kilt with Red. Here's me weaving it.



The Coarse Kilt with Red tartan appears to have been adopted by the 42nd in the 1780s and seems to have been what Logan, whose reference was based on David Stewart of Garth's history of the 42nd, seems to have been the basis for the 42nd red line claim. I am not aware of any contemporary evidence to support Lord John Murray introducing the red stripe.