Flintlock and tomahawk

Wednesday, 2 September 2026

Fort Welch Thuringia Germany photo Tim Mackenzie

It's the dream of all frontier reenactors to have a fort to play with and these guys have achieved it so congratulations to them. This has been the base for the German Butlers Rangers. Class.

Survey from HaT

HaT is hoping to expand their 1/32 line; their next offering looks to be ARW British Infantry. They have posted a non-binding survey to ask folks how they would want their ARW British sets configured. For those of you not familiar with HaT they did this often with their 1/72 sets.

[https://hat72.com/Crowd132British.php]

Saturday, 29 August 2026

Life and Death of a French Soldier in the American War of Independence 1778-1781 by Bertrand Jost

Life and Death of a French Soldier in the American War of Independence 1778-1781 eBook : JOST, BERTRAND: Amazon.co.uk: Kindle Store

Through extensive research, the author reconstructed the story of a young French foot soldier from his enlistment in the King’s army in 1778 to his death in November 1781, shortly after the battle of Yorktown. The story of Hans Stiegel serves as a thread to paint a broader picture of the American War of Independence through the eyes of the lower French ranks and helps answer some of the fundamental questions behind the reality of this war. Why did these men enlist? How were they treated by their aristocratic officers? What was military life like in the barracks of France, in the colonies and while on expedition in America? What was it like to cross the Atlantic on an overcrowded transport? Upon arrival, what did these uneducated men think of the Americans they encountered: soldiers, civilians and slaves? What did they think of America itself and what was it like to fight in Yorktown when one had to spend the nights digging trenches under constant enemy shelling and days fighting British sorties or storming enemy positions?To portray the war through the eyes of an enlisted soldier, the author focused on previously overlooked details in a large set of officers’ accounts, incorporated new less known and unpublished sources and studied regiment rolls to gather details and statistics on the war casualties. It took sixteen years to compile this extensive material, translate it and weave it into a chronological account.

Newtown 1779

The Battle of Newtown (August 29, 1779) was the only major battle of the Sullivan Expedition, an armed offensive led by Major General John Sullivan that was ordered by George Washington to end the threat of the Haudenosaunee who had sided with the British in the American Revolutionary War. Opposing Sullivan's four brigades were 250 Loyalist soldiers from Butler's Rangers, commanded by Major John Butler, and 350 Haudenosaunee and Lenape (Delaware). Butler and Mohawk war leader Joseph Brant did not want to make a stand at Newtown, and instead proposed to harass the enemy on the march, but were overruled by Sayenqueraghta and other Indigenous war leaders.

This battle, which was the most significant military engagement of the campaign, took place at the foot of a hill along the Chemung River just outside what is now Elmira, New York.

French army Osprey

A really fine book. 1992.

The French forces that fought during the American War of Independence (1775-1783) were, to a large extent, a product of the disasters of the Seven Years' War (1756-1763). During that war the fleet had been swept off the oceans, and nearly all colonies had been lost. Sweeping reforms were demanded. From the end of 1762 a series of royal orders dictated by common sense and good planning were signed by the king, and a vast reorganisation was started, ensuring that the army that fought in the American War presented a very different, altogether more formidable threat to her foes.