1st Regiment of Foot (The Royal Regiment)

This was a two-battalion regiment. The second battalion was at the capture of Louisbourg (954) and the surrender of Montreal. The regiment subsequently served against the Cherokees in South Carolina, the capture of Dominica, and the recapture of St. Johns, Newfoundland.

Facings were blue with white lace and square loops. Buttons were of white metal.

15th Regiment of Foot (Amherst's)

The 15th served at the capture of Louisbourg (957) and Gaspe, the siege of Quebec (594) including the Plains of Abraham, the Battle of Ste. Foy (387), and the surrender of Montreal. Subsequently it served at the captures of Martinique, Saint Lucia, and Grenada.

Facings were yellow with white lace with yellow and black edge and square loops. Buttons were of white metal.

17th Regiment of Foot (Forbes')

The 17th served at the captures of Louisbourg (741), Martinique, Saint Lucia, and Grenada.

Facings were white with white lace with black zigzags. Buttons were of white metal.

22nd Regiment of Foot (Whitmore's)

The 22nd served at the capture of Louisbourg (1,007) and Cape Breton. The grenadier company was a part of the Louisbourg Grenadiers at the siege of Quebec and the surrender of Montreal. It subsequently participated in the capture of Dominica.

Facings were buff with white lace.

27th Regiment of Foot (Blakeney's Inniskilling Regiment)

The 27th served at the the abortive attack on Ticonderoga (650) and the subsequent captures of Ticonderoga, St. Frederick, Isle aux Noix, Niagara, and the surrender of Montreal. It later served in the captures of Martinique, Saint Lucia, and Grenada.

Facings were buff with white lace with yellow stripe between black and blue zigzags. Buttons were of white metal.

28th Regiment of Foot (Bragg's)

The 28th served at the capture of Louisbourg (708), the siege of Quebec (591) including the Plains of Abraham, and the battle of Ste Foy (320). It later served in the captures of Martinique, Saint Lucia, and Grenada.

Facings were yellow with white lace with yellow edges and black diamond pattern with and loops. Buttons were white metal.

35th Regiment of Foot (Otway's)

The 35th served at the surrender of Fort William Henry (586) and the subsequent attack by Indians, the capture of Louisbourg (627) and Gaspe, the siege of Quebec (899) including Plains of Abraham, the battle of Ste Foy (443), and the surrender of Montreal. It later served in the captures of Martinique, Saint Lucia, and Grenada.

Facings were orange with white lace with yellow and red stripe with yellow zigzag between and square loops. Buttons were white metal.

40th Regiment of Foot (Hopson's, then Barrington's, then Armiger's)

The 40th was recruited in Nova Scotia in 1717 from the eight independent companies serving there. It was not given the numeric designation of the 40th until the publication of the Royal Warrant of July 1st 1751. The original proprietary colonel of this regiment was Nova Scotia's governor, Richard Phillips, under whose orders it was formed. From 1717 until 1743, the regiment formed the garrisons of Annapolis, Placentia, and Canso, where its personnel were often involved in warfare with local Indians. It continued to serve in Nova Scotia in operations against the French during the War of the Austrian Succession.

During the Seven Years War, the 40th participated in the capture of Fort Beausejour and the siege and capture of Louisbourg (629). Light troops from the 40th participated in the occupation of Isle St. Jean (Prince Edward Island) on the following August. The grenadier company was part of the Louisbourg Grenadiers at siege of Quebec. Eight companies of the 40th under Lord Rollo served in the final advance on Montreal.

These companies garrisoned the Montreal area until the summer of 1761 and the other two companies were posted to St. John's and Placentia in Newfoundland. The company of 77 officers and men in garrison at St. John's were captured when the French initially invaded the island in 1762. The other nine companies of the regiment meanwhile served in the captures of Martinique, Saint Vincent, Saint Lucia, and Grenada as well as participating in the Havana campaign.

The facings were buff with white lace with black and buff stripes and square loops. Buttons were white metal. The figure depicted in the color insert is based upon a contemporary illustration.

42nd Regiment of Foot (Murray's "Black Watch")

Raised in 1739/40 and initially numbered as the 43`d, the Black Watch was renumbered the 42nd in 1749. The 42nd served at the failed attempt on Louisbourg in 1757, the failed attack on Ticonderoga (1,100), the subsequent captures of Ticonderoga, St. Frederick, and Isle aux Noix, and the surrender of Montreal. It later served in the captures of Martinique, Saint Lucia, and Grenada and fought at Bushy Run.

Facings were initially buff. In 1758, prior to the battle of Carillon or Ticonderoga, this regiment became a royal regiment. At this time, the facings were changed to blue, although the regiment had not received its new regimentals by the time of the battle itself. As a Scottish regiment, its grenadiers wore bearskin caps rather than the cloth caps normally worn (see illustration on the right). The color illustration is based on a contemporary painting of an officer, and the uniform bears the later blue facings.

43rd Regiment of Foot (Kennedy's)

The 43rd served at the siege of Quebec (715) including the Plains of Abraham, the battle of Ste Foy (314), and the surrender of Montreal. It later served in the captures of Martinique, Saint Lucia, and Grenada.

Facings were white with white lace with black stars between two red stripes and pointed loops. Buttons were of white metal.

44th Regiment of Foot (Abercromby's)

The 44th served in Braddock's defeat (685), the failed attack on Ticonderoga (850), the captures of Fort Niagara, St. Frederick, Fort Levis, and the surrender of Montreal.

Facings were yellow ochre with white lace with black and blue zigzags, with a yellow stripe between and pointed loops. Buttons were of white metal.

45th Regiment of Foot (Warburton's)

The 45th served at the captures of Fort Beausejour and Louisbourg (956). The grenadier company was part of the Louisbourg Grenadiers at siege of Quebec. Five companies also served at the recapture of Newfoundland (395).

Facings were green with white lace with deep green stripe and stars and pointed loops. Buttons were of white metal.

46th Regiment of Foot (Murray's)

The 46th served in the failed attempt on Ticonderoga (650) and the capture of Fort Niagara.

Facings were yellow with white lace with double black zigzag and red stripe and pointed loops. Buttons were of white metal. 

47th Reginment of Foot (Lascelles')

The 47th served at the capture of Fort Beausejour, the capture of Louisbourg (949), the siege of Quebec (360) including the Plains of Abraham, the battle of Ste Foy (313), and the surrender of Montreal.

Facings were white with white lace with two yellow between two black zigzags and pointed loops. Buttons were of white metal.

48th Regiment of Foot (Webb's)

The 48th served in Braddock's defeat (645), the capture of Louisbourg (1,029), the siege of Quebec (852) including the Plains of Abraham, and the battle of Ste Foy (373). It later served in the captures of Martinique, Saint Lucia, and Grenada as well as the Havana campaign.

Facings were buff with white lace with yellow stripe between green stripe and scroll and square loops. Buttons were of white metal.

50th Regiment of Foot (Shirley's)

This regiment was raised in North America from New Englanders in 1754. It was to number 1145 men, but was never recruited to full strength. Most of its personnel were captured at Fort Oswego in 1756, at which time it counted 537 officers and men. The regiment was disbanded in 1757.

Facings were red with white lace. Buttons were of white metal. Author's illustration.

51st Regiment of Foot (Pepperell's)

This regiment was raised in North America from New Englanders in 1754. It was also to number 1145 men when completed, but was never brought up to full strength. At the time of its capture at Fort Oswego in 1756, it numbered 440 officers and men. Two companies posted at the Oneida Carrying Place in New York were all that remained before the regiment was disbanded in 1757.

Facings were red with white lace. Buttons were of white metal. Author's illustration.

55th Regiment of Foot (Howe's, then Prideaux's)

The 55th served in the failed attempt on Ticonderoga (650) and the siege and capture of Fort Niagara. Facings were green with yellow lace. Buttons were of white metal.

58th Regiment of Foot (Anstruther's)

The 58th served at the capture of Louisbourg (685), the siege of Quebec (616) including the Plains of Abraham, and the battle of Ste Foy (326). Later, the 58th was sent to sea as a part of the Havana expedition. Its transport vessel was captured at sea and the men taken prisoner.

Facings were black with yellow lace. The coat bore a buff lining, and there was yellow lace on the hat. Buttons were of yellow metal.

60th Regiment of Foot (Royal American)

This was a four-battalion regiment. It initially carried the number of the 62nd Regiment, but this was changed in 1757 to the 60th after the disbanding of the 50th and 51st regiments following their captures at Fort Oswego in 1756. The orders to raise it came on the 25th of December 1755. This formation was the apparent brainchild of James Prevost (1725-1778), a Swiss-born soldier of fortune who eventually became the commander of the 4th battalion. The intention was to raise the regiment entirely from American recruits. Although recruits came from Massachusetts, New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland, and North Carolina, volunteers from England as well as Swiss and Germans were also sent in order to bring the battalions up to strength. A portion of the 3't battalion (118) was at the surrender of Fort William Henry. The 1st and 4th battalions were involved in the failed attempt on Ticonderoga (1st - 550, 4th - 900).

Some 155 Royal Americans accompanied Bradstreet in his expedition against Fort Frontenac. The 1st battalion, lead by Henri Bouquet, was with Forbes at Fort Duquesne, where some of the men fought at the battle of Grant's Hill. The 2nd, under Frederick Haldemand, and 3rd battalions were with Amherst at Louisbourg (2nd Btn. 1,013, 3rd Btn. 901) and Wolfe at Quebec (Monckton's 2nd Btn. 581, Lawrence's 3rd Btn. 607) including the Plains of Abraham, Ste Foy (2nd Btn. 235, 3" Btn. 300) and the final advance on Montreal. It later served in the captures of Martinique, Saint Lucia, and Grenada and the siege of Havana.

Facings were blue with no lace. Three companies of Royal Americans (1 grenadier, 1 light, and 1 line company, with a total strength of 257) served at the recapture of St. John's, Newfoundland. Hat lace was white. Buttons were of white metal. Although the grenadier pictured has the traditional grenadier's cap, it is possible that bearskins may have already been informally introduced by this time. The two illustrations, after P. W. Reynolds, depict an infantryman and a grenadier wearing a traditional grenadier's hat.

77th Regiment of Foot (Montgomery's Highlanders)

The 77th was raised in 1757 as the First Highland Regiment, commanded by Archibald Montgomery (also sometimes spelled Montgomerie). It was initially sent to the western frontier of South Carolina to discourage any French and Indian attempts at invasion from Louisiana. In 1758, the 77th (c. 1,200) served with Forbes' expedition, where some 300-400 were killed or captured at the battle of Grant's Hill. The regiment subsequently again served in the Carolinas and at Dominica, Martinique and Havana. A light company and a line company were at the recapture of St. John's, Nova Scotia in 1762. Together they totaled 158 men in this operation. A contingent also fought at the battle of Bushy Run. The regiment was disbanded in 1763.

Facings may have initially been red, but a short time later were definitely green. The Tartan was probably of the government sett. This uniform as worn by Montgomery himself is depicted on the cover of this issue.

78th Regiment of Foot (Fraser's Higlanders)

Raised in 1757 at Inverness-shire as the Second Highland Battalion of Foot, the 78th regiment was initially numbered the 63`d Regiment. It was renumbered shortly after its arrival in America. The regiment was commanded by Simon Fraser, the son of the unscrupulous Simon Fraser, 11th Lord Lovat, who was executed as a Jacobite after the suppression of the 1745 Scots Rebellion. By the month of December of 1757, it comprised 1,542 men of all ranks organized in fourteen companies. [38]

.It was later reorganized into ten companies before being shipped to America. By July of 1757, the regiment could count some 1,230 upon its arrival at Halifax. [39] It was shortly thereafter augumented to thirteen companies by the arrival of three more companies to New York on the 11th of March 1758.

At the commencement of the Louisbourg operations, some 100 men were detached to act as light infantry. The Fraser's served at the capture of Louisbourg (1,199), Quebec (1,269), including Plains of Abraham, and the battle of Ste Foy (453). It was also in the advance on Montreal, and a detachment served in the recapture of St. John's. During the interval of time between the Louisbourg campaign and that of Quebec, the regiment was deployed in New York. It was disbanded in 1763.

The men wore "full Highland dress" consisting of a plaid kilt, Scottish bonnet, red jacket, and other accessories similar to those worn by the Black Watch. Side arms included a dirk and basket-hilted broadsword. Facings were a very pale buff. Buttons were gilt and officers' lace was gold. The blue bonnet bore a black cockade, or in the case of those allowed to wear them by their highland ranks, various feathers. Sources differ as to the sett of the plaid. Some sources lean toward the government pattern, others have a reddish-brown pattern. The pattern shown in the illustration is based on a reconstruction from the cover of a popular regimental history and is similar to what the recreated unit was wearing at the Fort museum at Montreal, when the author visited there in the early 1980's. A red-based plaid is also worn by a highlander that figures in Benjamin West's famous painting of the death of General Wolfe at the battle of the Plains of Abraham. As the other uniforms shown seem to be historically accurate, and since the Fraser's was the only highland regiment present at this battle, a reasonable presumption could be made that this represents a soldier of this regiment. The exact reconstruction of the Fraser uniform, however, will always remain problematic until an original uniform is located.

80th Regiment of Foot (Gage's Light Infantry)

This regiment was raised in the spring of 1758 by Lieutenant Colonel Thomas Gage of the 44th Foot specifically to act as light infantry. Nearly 500men strong and organized into five companies, it served in the failed attempt on Ticonderoga (350-450) and continued to campaign in the area of the Champlain Valley, participating in General Amherst's occupation of Ticonderoga and Crown Point in 1759 and advancing to Montreal in 1760. Some of its personnel were at Detroit, where they served with distinction during Pontiac's "rebellion." The men wore short brown coats with brown facings, no lace, and black buttons. By 1760 however, the men began to receive red coats with orange-brown facings, which changed to yellow the following year, but were back to orange brown again by 1763. The illustration, after Mollo, depicts the earlier brown uniform.

94th Regiment of Foot (Royal Welsh Volunteers)

The 94th was raised in 1760 and used for garrison duty. Facings were blue.

95th Regiment of Foot (Burton's)

The 95th had its origin in New York in the form of some independent companies that had arrived in November of that year. On the 31st of January 1761, nine (or ten) companies were organized into a regiment under the command of Colonel Ralph Burton. [40]

Initially used for garrison duty in South Carolina, it also participated in the capture of Dominica and the siege of Havana. It was disbanded in 1763.

Facings were light gray with white and green lace. Buttons were of white metal. 

Louisbourg Grenadiers

This was a composite unit formed for the Quebec campaign and consisted of one company each of the 22nd, 40th, and 45th Regiments. Total strength for the Quebec campaign was 326.

Howe's Light Infantry

For the Louisbourg campaign, Major George Scott of the 40th Foot raised a corps of some 550 light infantry from volunteers of the line regiments. Lieutenant-Colonel William Howe was the commander. Their uniforms would have consisted of their regimentals altered by attaching the sleeves of the coat to the Waist coat, grenadiers wings on the shoulders, regimental lace removed, but lapels retained, coat cut short, and the tricorne made into a cap with a flap and button with felt added to come under the chin. On the 23rd of November 1758 Scott's corps was dissolved and the men returned to their units. However, the light infantry concept endured, as we see William Howe again commanding light infantry at Quebec the following year. Some 405 light infantry also fought at the battle of Ste Foy in 1760. These troops continued to serve until the fall of Canada.

Royal Marines

Some 500 marines served at Louisbourg. A force of 602 was involved in the operations around Quebec the following year. They were dressed similarly to grenadiers, except for the fact that their caps were not quite as long and they did not have "wings" on their shoulders. A drawing from the 1750's of a Royal Marine shows buff lapels but white cuffs and coat linings. The one visible coat button seems to be brass. However, Lawson describes them as follows:

"A model of a ship's boat with a landing party of marines, shows them dressed in red coats faced and lapeled with white; red waistcoat and breeches; red cloth Grenadier caps, white fronts and turn up. The fronts have a red heater shaped shield on which is embroidered a white anchor.

"The cap is the usual shape, like those worn by the regiments of the line. The lace is white with a dark blue or black stripe. The drummer wears a white coat faced and lapeled with red, and heavily faced on the front and sleeves with regimental lace." [41]

In 1739, there were six marine regiments numbered the 1st or 44th of the line, 2nd or 45th, 3rd or 46th, 4th or 47th, 5th or 48th, and 6th or 49th. Four additional regiments were added in 1740. According to Lawson, the marine flags bore in their centers a ship with its sails furled and the regimental number beneath it. As Lawson further states that the first ten regiments of marines were disbanded in 1748, this flag information may only apply to these earlier regiments. [42]

However, by the time of the Seven Years War, marines were certainly once more being used aboard navy ships, albeit possibly only being organized at a company level. In fact, Lawson shows a drawing of the 44th, or 1st Marine Regiment flag from 1750, two years after this same unit was supposed to have been disbanded. [43]

Sailors

A detachment of 33 sailors served as artillerists during the Braddock campaign.[44] Similarly, a few naval personnel, commanded by an engineer officer, helped serve William Johnson's artillery at the battle of Lake George. Seamen in varying numbers also participated in the Quebec operations and the conquest of Martinique, Havana, and in many other amphibious operations. The sailer depicted, after Malcolm McGregor, is dressed for sea service. Quite possibly the dress would have been significantly modified for service on land.

Royal Artillery

Contingents of the royal artillery served in every engagement in which regular troops participated, including Braddock's expedition (21), the surrender of Oswego (18), Fort William Henry (29), Ticonderoga (125), Frontenac (27), Louisbourg (267), and Quebec (330) and the Plains of Abraham. In the Ticonderoga operations of 1758, a shortage of available artillerists, many of them having been earmarked for the Louisbourg operations, was a factor in Abercrombie's fatal decision to attack the French lines without the benefit of his heavy guns. Thirty-nine artillerists served in the recapture of St. John's, Newfoundland. Two guns were normally attached to every infantry battalion with a complement of one officer, two noncommissioned officers and twelve men.

The uniform was blue with red facings and yellow lace. Buttons were of yellow metal. Later in the war, the men's uniforms no longer bore lace. When not serving the guns, the men were armed with muskets. Officers and noncommissioned officers more frequently bore fusils or carbines when not about their normal business of directing the guns.

Footnotes