“A View of Ticonderoga from a Point on the North Shore of Lake Champlain”
Gregory J. W. Urwin
Professor of History, Temple University
“A View of Ticonderoga from a Point on the North Shore of Lake Champlain,” 1777
Artist: James Hunter
King George III Topographical Collection, British Library
If the watercolor above seems familiar, it is because Redcoat Images, No. 192, featured the same view attributed to the same artist, Lieutenant James Hunter of the Royal Artillery. That work resides in the Library and Archives in Canada, but it turns out to have a twin in England. An examination of the holdings of the King George Topographical Collection at the British Library reveals that Hunter produced a second version of this scene, which ended up in the possession of his sovereign. The artist signed and dated his work in the lower left corner.
Hunter depicts an early stage in Lieutenant General John Burgoyne’s Saratoga Campaign. This is thought to depict the landing of Brigadier General Simon Fraser’s Advance or Advanced Corps at Three Mile Point in June 1777. Fraser’s Advance Corps consisted of a detachment of Royal Artillery, Captain Alexander Fraser’s Company of Select Marksmen, a Grenadier Battalion (drawn from the 9th, 20th, 21st, 24th, 29th, 34th, 47th, 53rd, and 62nd Foot) and a Light Infantry Battalion (drawn from the 9th, 20th, 21st, 24th, 29th, 34th, 47th, 53rd, and 62nd Foot).
In the near background, Lake Champlain is crowded with small craft. There are four bateaux and one gunboat. The latter is armed with a 12-pounder and propelled by sailors manning long oars. The gunboat is one of several that Major General Guy Carleton, the governor of Canada, assembled on the lake the previous year to support his abortive invasion of New York. Fourteen of these vessels were imported pre-constructed from England and assembled at the St. John shipyard on the Richelieu River. Others were built from scratch at St. John. All of them were designed to carry one gun in the bow. Contemporary sources disagree on the number of gunboats the British ended up using on Lake Champlain. The figures given in contemporary journals range from twenty to twenty-seven. We know that at least twenty-two of these gunboats participated in the Battle of Valcour Island in October 1776, along with their commanders and armament. Eighteen of these vessels were commanded by officers or NCOs of the Royal Artillery and three were commanded by Hessian artillery officers. Two gunboats carried 24-pound guns, nine carried 12-pounders, seven 6-pounders, two 8-inch howitzers, and two 5 ½-inch howitzers.
For Redcoat Images readers, the most interesting aspect of this watercolor is the four soldiers standing on the high ground toward the right side of the watercolor. One wears blue and three are garbed in red. A blow-up of this group reveals much, much more. See the comments that follow that enlargement below.
The leftmost figure in this group is a soldier wearing a blue regimental coat faced and lined in red. He is most probably an officer or sergeant from the Royal Artillery Regiment. He has a white ruffled shirt, a black neckstock, a white waistcoat, white breeches, and a pair of long, white, Indian-style leggings. His hair is worn en queue with side curls. He wears a black cocked hat with gold or yellow edging. A sword belt is slung over his right shoulder and worn under his coat. It has a gilt or brass plate. A gold-mounted sword or brass-mounted hanger hangs on this figure’s left side. He is gesturing at three sailors in blue jackets who are approaching from the lake below.
Behind the officer stand three enlisted Redcoats in uniforms adapted to campaign conditions. Instead of cocked hats, the Redcoats wear caps with black plumes. The caps have front peaks cut in the light-infantry style. The two foremost Redcoats have narrow visors on their caps, but the third one does not. The men’s regimental coats are cut short. Interestingly, they do not display the same facings on their coats. One soldier has white facings and another has blue. (The former could belong to the 47th Foot and the latter to the 21st Foot or Royal North British Fusiliers). It is not possible to discern the facings of the rearmost soldier. The soldier with white facings stands directly behind the officer and has his musket slung. He wears a white shirt, a black neckstock, a white waistcoat, breeches, and a pair of blue Indian leggings. The blue-faced soldier leaning on his rifle is dressed similarly, but he sports a pair of green Indian leggings. The two Redcoats in the forefront of this group look to be equipped with waistbelts. The one at right seems to have a yellow sash draped across his mid-section extending from his right shoulder to his left hip. Could this be a wampum belt or some other piece of Native American regalia? The three soldiers do not have wings on the shoulders of their coats, which indicate that they belonged to the Company Select of Marksmen rather than the light infantry.
Governor Guy Carleton ordered the formation of the Company of Select Marksmen in the spring of 1776. He drew the two best shots from every company belonging in each British infantry regiment in Canada. About a third of these men were armed with Pennsylvania rifles captured during the disastrous American invasion of 1775-76, French military rifles stored in the armory at Quebec, and most probably with the British pattern 1776 military rifle (shipments of which reached Canada in the second half of 1776). The other two-thirds of the men in this company carried muskets.
The Company of Select Marksmen was also known as Captain Fraser’s Company of British Rangers (after its commander, Captain Alexander Fraser) or the British Rangers. Its main mission was to support the Indian warriors operating with British forces. Captain Fraser trained his men to fight both Indian-style and in the European manner. The Company of Select Marksmen served bravely at Valcour Island and Ticonderoga during Carleton’s advance in 1776. They fought under Burgoyne the following year at Ticonderoga, Hubbardton, Bennington, Freeman’s Farm, and Bemis Heights. When all seemed lost at Saratoga, Burgoyne entrusted his secret papers to Captain Fraser, and the latter led his Select Marksmen and the few native warriors who had remained faithful in cutting their way through the surrounding Rebels (thus duplicating a similar feat performed by the company at Bennington).
Confirming the association of these Redcoats with the British Rangers is the presence of two Indian warriors skulking in the shadows in the far right foreground.
Needless to say, this watercolor is an important piece of evidence documenting how the British Army adopted to a rugged environment during the American War.
As a bonus, Redcoat Images reprints the Hunter watercolor from the Library and Archives of Canada for ready comparison.
This article was written by Gregory J. W. Urwin as part of his series “Redcoat Images” and is used here with his kind permission.
Gregory J. W. Urwin
Professor of History, Temple University
Associate Director, Center for the Study of Force and Diplomacy at Temple University
General Editor, Campaigns and Commanders, University of Oklahoma Press
Academic Fellow, Foundation for the Defense of Democracies
Fellow, Company of Military Historians