AWI Artillery Help

[kingsmt]

I am beginning to get serious about my Artillery Units in the AWI.

The forces have been gathered and I am looking for suggestions as to which Units to portray.
The Units at the Trenton Campaign are a must. Proctor, Moulder and Hamilton all get slots.
The British Gunners at Saratoga also get an automatic bid.

I've converted 24 Foundry/Perry Gunners into South Carolina artillerymen for Fort Moultrie.
The two British guns at Cowpens are also on the list.

And then there's Yorktown!

I have plenty of unpainted cannons and figures.
What I'm looking for are suggestions as to which units to do.

Any help?

[CapnJim]

If you have 1780-1781 southern-theater units (I don't recall of the top of my head...), you could do Cornwallis' and Greene's artillery units.

Then there are those from the 1777 Philadelphia campaign, or 1778 Monmouth...

It seems you have plenty of choices, which may be the crux of the issue...

[kingsmt]

I'm looking for specific units, not just generalities.
Like Proctors or Hamiltons.

[FifteensAway]

I thought I typed a response earlier but it seems to have disappeared. 

I fear you are asking, in large measure, for the unobtainable - not that you shouldn't ask.  I'd love to give specifics but I have found that such information is really hard to come by.  For a simple example, look at the Wikipedia orders of battle for Monmouth and Brandywine.  While there is information for artillery in both, it is mostly in broad strokes with very little information on specific pieces.  And as to the units, you may get 4th regiment for the British or such and maybe something similar for Continentals but, at least within my experience, it is rare to get anything more specific than that.  And, yes, Wikipedia isn't necessarily the best source - but isn't the worst, either.

But I'll give this much, for the British, I'd paint units of the 4th regiment, with some in tricorns and others in helmets.  And since there wasn't much to differentiate between the different British artillery regiments, you're pretty well covered for British regulars.  And I do believe the majority of the regular artillerists were from the 4th regiment.  I have a memory of a thread on TMP where someone did mention that there was at least one distinguishing characteristic for one of the other regiments, I think it was a white feather - might have been for the 1st regiment but I wouldn't bet any money on that.  Otherwise, all the regiments of artillery were essentially in the same uniform (or maybe there were differences but too subtle for the scale of our miniatures, whether yours in the larger or mine in the smaller).  I'd guess you could paint some units in floppy hats without anybody being able to document that wasn't correct given how many adaptions were made to the warranted uniform guidelines.

You might have better luck with German units.  I would be shocked if you don't already have a copy of Mollo's book on AWI uniforms with its numerous illustrations of artillerymen for most sides - sorely lacking on anything for the Spanish.  If you want to go down the Spanish route, this is the best source I've found to date: http://www.uniformology.com/WORLD-10-SPN.html.  I'm pretty sure there is information for Spanish artillery in that mix.

Your best bet - and maybe some respondents here will have that information more readily to hand - is to dive into books on specific battles in the hopes that you get more detail for that specific battle.  Again, I fear such information to be scare; not non-existent, just scarce.  I'd love to be proven wrong if someone can reference better sources.

I shall watch this thread with great interest because this is an area I'd love to have better information about.

[kingsmt]

15's,   Right now I am concentrating on British and Rebels.
I have the German guns at Trenton all finished and am not working on the Spanish yet.

I have feelers out to several very knowledgeable people.

Hopefully, that will yield some results.

[CapnJim]

I've found that Osprey's "Campaign" series books have decent unit info.  For example, in their Guilford Courthouse 1781 book, they have these artillery units present at Guilford Courthouse:

British reserves
     Captain Macleod's battery (3 x 3-pdrs)

American 3rd line
     1st Cont. Arty Det. (2 x 6-pdrs)

They have many of the AWI engagements covered in their various AWI titles in that series ( I have them all...).  If you don't already have them, it might be worth your while to pick up a few...

EDIT:  Some books are better than others at drilling down to battery level - the newer books are better than their older ones...

[vtsaogames]

Eutaw Springs  1st and 4th Continental Artillery
Captain Gaines, two 3 lb grasshoppers, which broke down from rapid firing (straps holding trunnions broke)
Captain Brown two 6 lb guns, eventually captured by British who also recaptured two 6 lb guns