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

[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. "

[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.

[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

[Freedomlover]

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.

Doubtless, but I can't prove it just yet. However, there were kilted Union troops during the War of Northern Agression (1861-1865).

BTW, the figure of "88 frigates" in the quoted OP article is ludicrously wrong. According to the Navy List for those years the RN only had about 60 in commission at any one time, and there were never more than half a dozen in American waters at the same time.

[macwilkin]

Doubtless, but I can't prove it just yet. However, there were kilted Union troops during the War of Northern Agression (1861-1865).

Historians disagree about whether the 79th New York Infantry actually wore their kilts in combat -- most tend to believe that they were actually wearing either tartan trews or the standard federal sky-blue kersey trousers. One source maintains that the trews were worn throught the War of the Rebellion/Civil War. There were other units, such as the 12th Illinois Infantry, which wore balmorals, but information on the various militia units, North or South, that identified themselves as "Scottish" is lacking, especially in comparison to other ethnic units, like the Irish or the Germans.

I can't say I have ever seen any documentation for colonial/patriot forces wearing kilts.

Cheers,

Todd