Green Coats and Glory: The United States Regiment of Riflemen, 1808-1821 by John C. Fredriksen, Ph.D. We all have books that we wish we had written. John C. Fredriksen’s Green Coats and Glory is mine. Buffs and historians of the War of 1812 are very well acquainted with Fredriksen’s work in bringing us useful bibliographies and edited manuscripts. He is dedicated to bringing to light the story of the U.S. Army in the Early Republic period, a laudable goal as there is so little out there in current scholarship. This unit history of what is arguably the Army’s elite foot regiment is a good first step in that effort. The original edition of this work was published in Military Collector and Historian in 1998 and won the prestigious Harold L. Peterson award for “Best Essay on Military History.” The current edition is published by the Old Fort Niagara Association in 2000 and is available through their website http://www.oldfortniagara.org or call (716) 745-7611. Retail price is $12.95. This latest edition is enhanced by considerable additional text and two appendices addressing the rifleman’s uniform and his weapon, the Model 1803 rifle. The Rifle Regiment was authorized by Congress in response to the “Chesapeake Affair” of 1807. The Jeffersonian Democratic-Republican Party enhanced its campaign aspirations by blatantly appointing political figures to the senior officer ranks of the new formation. As companies were raised, they were sent to join the army at New Orleans where sickness devastated the ranks. As war with Britain approached, the old officers were promoted or retired and a newer crop of competent officers rose to positions of authority. The ten-company regiment had detachments serving in scattered locations. A company served with Harrison at Tippecanoe in 1811 while two companies participated in the unsuccessful siege of the Castillo de San Marcos at Saint Augustine, Spanish East Florida in 1812. North Carolinian Benjamin Forsyth led his battalion of riflemen to fame in the Central Theater. This brash officer was aggressive and competent, a rare combination in the 1812 U.S. Army. Forsyth’s riflemen made the acquaintance of what would become their best match, “Red George” MacDonnell’s Glengarry Light Infantry Fencibles. These two elite green-clad corps would skirmish throughout the war from the Niagara River to the St. Lawrence. Unfortunately, the swashbuckling riflemen developed a deserved reputation for plundering the bodies of their victims as well as the homes of their opponents. The Rifle Regiment was represented on more battlefields than any other American force and the author ably describes each encounter. We meet the many personalities who officered the rifles: Dan Appling, Ludowick Morgan, James Gibson, Bennett Riley, Thomas A. Smith and many others. Fredriksen effectively peppers his narrative with first-hand commentary gleaned from official reports, journals, and other sources. So effective were the riflemen that Congress authorized three more rifle regiments in 1814. Never recruited up to full strength, these additional riflemen nonetheless made a significant contribution to the war effort. After the war, the rifles were consolidated into a single regiment and marched off to St. Louis where detachments participated in founding a number of forts along the Missouri and other waterways. When the Army was down-sized in 1821, the Rifle Regiment disappeared, it’s veterans sent off to various infantry formations. Rifle units appeared briefly in the Mexican War and again in Berdan’s Sharpshooters during the Civil war. Fredriksen’s writing style is effective and engaging. His command of primary sources is unmatched. I was particularly struck by his adroit assessment of the little-known engagement at Conjockta Creek near Buffalo in the 1814 campaign. Fredriksen nominates this two-hour skirmish as a “decisive defensive engagement of the War of 1812” and a “clear strategic triumph” for the Americans. Like me, Fredriksen notes that sometimes even small fights can overthrow the plans of the general and force the sequence of events along uncharted paths. Should you purchase and read Green Coats and Glory? By all means. Do we need more regimental histories of U.S. forces? Well, counting Green Coats we have exactly one comprehensive regimental history. Will this book inspire you to buy and paint more figures and wargame even more? I suspect so; it did me. Thanks to John C. Fredriksen for giving us this fine addition to the literature and he has our best wishes for even more. Back to Table of Contents -- War of 1812 #2 Back to War of 1812 List of Issues Back to MagWeb Magazine List © Copyright 2001 by Rich Barbuto. This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com