Bish Bash Bosh 1719

Recently I discovered an article in Wargames Illustrated (issue 262) covering the Battle of Glenshiel 1719. Yet another failed Jacobite rebellion. 

I had thought that the battle wasn’t really tabletop worthy. The Jacobite army didn’t put up much of a fight! However the article changed my opinion as it’s unusual. Here was a Jacobite army defending - no highland charge - with regular Spanish troops in their midst. The government army used Coehorn mortars in the field for the first time, the only artillery they were able to bring along, and it included a battalion and a half of Dutch foot. Interesting…

I could press some of my Killiecrankie/Sedgemoor collection into service and maybe some pieces from my 1745 collection. Uniforms and kit might not be spot on, but it could be a passable representation of the battle. 

How to represent those Spanish regulars…?

You may remember that I upcyled figures from my pirates collection to create Clanrickarde’s regiment for 1690s Ireland.

Nobody is sure of the Spanish uniform facing. I’ve seen them represented with blue facings and with red facings…

Bish bash bosh! More pirate collection figures and a spare Spanish flag used to create a new command base yay!

And there you have Don Pedro de Castro’s pickets for Glenshiel. I’m willing to overlook the general lack of tricorns which were the norm for ‘hatmen’ by then. Scottish weather and all that (I’m thinking of the effect of rain on felt, thought it was so hot in the glens one poor Spanish soldier dropped dead from the heat!)

I then found an account from an eyewitness that the Spanish were in “white lin’d with yellow”. Tosh I thought! There is a near contemporary painting of the battle which shows the Dutch in white and the WI article  says they’re in yellow? Could the eyewitness have mistaken some Dutch troops for the Spaniards?

Yes they could! (I decided) Having more ‘pirate’ collection figures pretty much kicking their heels it was time for more upcycling. 

More bish bash bosh!

A dozen figures which had been generic French/Spanish regulars, painted yonks ago to  fight pirates, placed on bases just to see how they look. 

I’ve repainted the facings a very nice yellow, turned a white cockade black and added an orange sash, being a colour strongly associated with the Dutch. I didn’t have a suitable flag so printed one from warflag.com (a free site that has been around forever!). I’m leaving them in grey rather than painting the coats white as I have found reference to the Dutch wearing grey (they only need to look the part rather than be an accurate miniature reproduction of the troops present on that hot June day).

The painting took me no time at all. Pretty much the time it took me to also make dinner! Sometimes it’s nice to have that quick fix in between major painting projects. Basing completed that evening and the next day. 

And there you have “Huffel’s Regiment and four Companys of ameronce”, the Dutch foot at Glenshiel. Together there may have been only 210 men engaged so I’m happy to represent them with one unit.

Thanks for reading.   

Chris