Burgoyne's British Troops - "Habit And The Usage Of Fighting"
April 19, 2023, is 248th anniversary of the first battle of the American Revolution, fought at Lexington, Concord and along the British retreat to Boston. This is a good time to look at those regiments of the British Army which made up a substantial part of the Convention Army, including one that fought on what has become "Patriots Day" in Massachusetts.
An online summary of the fighting at Saratoga in 1777 states that defeat of "the superior British army" was crucial to the United States winning the Revolutionary War. What would have made the British army superior in the Saratoga campaign? Although Lieutenant-General John Burgoyne's forces outnumbered the garrison posted at Fort Ticonderoga and Mount Independence in July of 1777, numerical superiority was lost as the campaign progressed. At the time of the surrender, Burgoyne claimed he faced 16,000 Americans with an effective force of only 3,500 troops. [1]
Burgoyne's troops were more uniform in appearance than their opponents, as one German officer observed "Many [Continental Army] officers were wearing any old uniforms...", while those of the militia wore their usual clothes, and the color of each soldier's coat seemed to be "up to the imagination of every individual". Despite their motley appearance, he noted that at the time of the surrender "There was absolute silence in those regts. [regiments - as Burgoyne's defeated army passed,] as can only be demanded from the best disciplined troops." [2]
British and German troops were also well disciplined, and trained prior to their deployment to America. Sergeant Roger Lamb of the 9th Regiment of Foot, captured at Saratoga, described his initial entry into the British army in his Memoirs. His training started with four hours of marching a day for three weeks, before receiving his musket and accoutrements and being drilled in its use, a series of positions and movements known as "The Manual Exercise". A corporal in 1774, he was sent along with non-commissioned officers from his and other regiments to learn light infantry maneuvers, suited for wooded areas such as those found in North America. [3] A 1777 British print in the Library of Congress, titled "Qualifying For A Campain" [sic] suggests that not everyone in England viewed the nation's preparation for war as adequate, as officers in an "Academy" are pictured chatting, sitting idly about, and shooting down a house of cards with a pistol propped on a hat, among other things, below a map titled "Seat of War in North America".
Presumably a key factor of the alleged superiority of the British troops defeated in the Saratoga would be their combat experience. Lamb found that when fighting in the woods, standard drills and excellence at the Manual Exercise was of little value, versus being able to load, fire and charge quickly with the bayonet. More he found, "... habit and the usage of fighting will soon supply coolness and self-possession in action... Men who are familiarized to danger approach it without thinking, whereas troops unused to service apprehend danger where no danger exists." [4]
A review of the ten British regiments which either in whole or in part made up half of Burgoyne's army shows little combat experience fighting in the Revolutionary War prior to the Saratoga campaign, or in North America in general. [5] Two, the 47th and 62nd Regiments of Foot, claimed battle honors for service in North America during the Seven Years ("French and Indian") War. Three regiments, the 24th, 53rd and 62nd, participated in various and limited roles in the June 8, 1776 Battle of Three Rivers, as fresh reinforcements to the British garrison at Quebec, pushing a weakened American expeditionary force out of Canada. There, "The Rebels fled from all their batteries [outside Quebec] without firing a shot ... They ran, scarcely allowing themselves time for refreshment, till they passed the river at Trois Rivieres, 90 miles from Quebec, and secured their batteaux." [6]
The 47th Regiment of Foot alone of the British regiments with Burgoyne had Revolutionary War combat experience before arriving in Canada. The 47th was raised in 1741. It first saw combat in Scotland on September 21, 1745, during the Jacobite Rebellion. In 1750 the regiment was sent to Canada for the first time, where it fought at Louisburg in 1758, and Quebec in 1759 and 1760. The black stripe in the regimental lace around the buttonholes of its coats is said to commemorate the death of Major-General James Wolfe in September of 1759 on the Plains of Abraham outside the city walls of Quebec. Following the French and Indian War, the regiment was posted to Ireland in 1763 for ten years, then returned to America 1774, and was stationed in Boston in 1775. [7]
Fifteen years after fighting at Quebec, the 47th saw combat again on April 19, 1775. The flank companies of the regiment, its grenadier and light infantry companies, were among those ordered to march to Concord with Lieutenant-Colonel Francis Smith to seize military stores. The remaining companies of the regiment marched with a relief column under Brigadier-General Hugh Percy to support Smith and his men on their march back to Boston. The 47th did not participate in the fighting at Lexington Green or North Bridge in Concord, but suffered 18 killed and 55 wounded in the retreat back to Boston. [8] Two months later, the flank companies of the regiment fought at Bunker Hill on June 17, 1775, taking 73 casualties.
The 47th would remain in Boston, under siege, until being transported to Canada in March of 1776, and Quebec in May. [9] On July 1, 1777, the 47th numbered 524 rank and file, as part of the British column under Burgoyne camped before Fort Ticonderoga. [10] By the end of the Saratoga campaign, on October 17, 1777, the number of those with Burgoyne was reduced to 387, a difference of 26%. [11] They, and all of Burgoyne's men, could claim the "habit and the usage of fighting", but so did those they faced. That included many of the American militia as well as Continental Line regiments, such as Massachusetts Militia Private David How who had not only fought at Bunker Hill in 1775, but in the defense of New York City in 1776, and the Battle of Trenton.
Burgoyne himself had come to respect "the rebel troops", writing on October 20th that his earlier views were "delusive" and duty required he share his experience. Continental regiments he found were disciplined, the militia "inferior in method and movement, but not a jot less serviceable in the woods" and with all their "panic ... confined, and of short duration; [their] enthusiasm is extensive and permanent." [12]
The 47th Regiment of Foot continued to serve Great Britain in peacetime and in combat, around the world, as a distinct regiment of the British army until 1881. In 1861 the regiment sailed to Canada again, in the event Great Britain were to fight the United States in the American Civil War. It memory and honor has been sustained in museums, articles and books including most recently Paul Knight's "A Very Fine Regiment" (available from many sources including the Fort Plain Bookstore; and reviewed in the Journal of the American Revolution). Re-enactors in America and Great Britain portray the men who fought on April 19, 1775, on June 17, 1775 at Bunker Hill, and during the Saratoga campaign with Burgoyne; and who marched with the Convention Army.
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