UNIFORMS OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION -- De Lancey's Brigade, 1776

UNIFORMS OF
THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION

This Corps was recruited by Oliver De Lancey of New York, from the Loyalists of New York, Westchester, Kings and Queens Counties of New York State, and was to consist of three battalions of 500 men each.

The uniform adopted was a red coat with plain dark blue facings, white metal buttons, white linings, white small clothes and short black spatterdashes, and cocked hats with broad white bindings.

The only distinction in dress was the arrangement of the buttons on the coats: the 1st Battalion having 10 buttons on each lapel at equal distance; the 2nd, 10 buttons by twos, and the 3rd Battalion, 9 buttons in groups of three.

In 1777, and afterward during the war, the men in winter were provided with leather caps and long brown cloth trousers, and in summer with white linen trousers and their contract hats with broad white binding.

The officers wore silver hat cords and loop, silver epaulets, gorget, and breastplate on their crossbelts, silver buttons arranged as the men's, and while on duty wore crimson sashes and carried short light muskets or fusils. They usually wore boots, but if the men were ordered out in spatterdashes the officers wore the same.

In the plate, from left to right we see a private of the 1st Battalion in full campaign dress, a private of the 2nd Battalion in light marching order, and on the right an officer in parade dress.

De Lancey's Brigade, 1776 - 1783

De Lancey's Brigade, 1776 - 1783

[SOURCE: Uniforms of the Armies in the War of the American Revolution, 1775-1783. Lt. Charles M. Lefferts. Limited Edition of 500. New York York Historical Society. New York, NY. 1926.]

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