3rd NH Recreated

In October 2004 about 25 historical reenactors with decades of experience joined together to form the new 3rd New Hampshire Regiment, dedicated to teaching the public through hands on experiences about the history of the brave Citizen Soldiers of 18th Century New Hampshire and New England.

We incorporated under the laws of the State of New Hampshire, adopted ByLaws and have since become members in the Continental Line. Weekdays we are ordinary people, lawyers, computer engineers, systems analysts, paramedics, security officers, drivers, homemakers, and we even had a NH state politician sneak into our ranks, but on weekends we become soldiers serving General Washington in the Continental Army.

Why the 3rd New Hampshire?

For many years there were two fine re-enactor organizations, the recreated 1st New Hampshire Regiment and Cherry's Company 2nd New Hampshire Regiment, serving the Rev War re-enacting world well. But New Hampshire had three regiments throughout the war, and no one had yet decided to recreate the last remaining one, the 3rd NH. Well it was suggested to us and it seemed like a good idea at the time, and thus you see now the 3rd New Hampshire Regiment, and together with the afore mentioned groups we now round out New Hampshire's contribution to the Continental Army and the Cause.

Where are you based?

We are based in New Hampshire (of course) covering an area from the Lakes Region south to the Mass border, and including Northern Massachusetts. Basically that means we can take members from anywhere within a 100 mile or so radius of Manchester NH. Captain Daniel Livermore, of the company we usually portray, Livermore's Co, lived in Concord NH, so you could say we are roughly based in Concord, but our members are spread all over the place.

Where and when do you hold your meetings?

Well we don't exactly have regular meetings. Our members value their own personal time highly and prefer to go without meetings except for one or two a year. We of course get together at our events and sometimes we have meetings there. We communicate heavily through E-mail and our monthly Gazette and all members are kept well updated so there is no need for regular meetings. Sometimes new people want seperate meetings to attend to rather than participate in events, but we would rather have them come straight to our events. This breaks the bad habit other groups sometimes experience where there is a cluster of members who prefer to show up to meetings but not participate in events. This is how we help maintain a clean and trim schedule that doesn't over burden the members.

Where do you go?

While we do some "local" events in southern New Hampshire like in Londonderry and Chester, most of our big battle events are west of us near Lake Champlain, such as at Fort Ticonderoga NY, Hubbardton VT, Saratoga NY, or a little closer at Fort at #4 in Charlestown NH. Sometimes we go as far south as New Jersey for rare big events.

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Live Free Or Die!

A first look at our new uniforms, the "Lottery" coats of 1778-79...

Uniforms and equipment.

We have chosen the "Lottery" coat and uniform of late 1778-1779 for our look. The Lottery coat (called the 1778 Contract Uniforms back then) were ordered from France and were perhaps the single best uniform the Continental Army had throughout the eight year long war. They were also the most complete set of uniforms the three New Hampshire Regiments ever recieved, uniforms being a very tough thing for the NH troops to acquire at any period of the war. Half of the contract coats were made in blue faced with red, and the rest were brown faced with red. A lottery was held to see which states would recieve which color coats (hence the nickname "Lottery Coats") and New Hampshire was among the states that drew brown. Superbly made and cut with short tail skirts and slash cuffs, they were issued with white twill wool knee breeches and waistcoats (vests). Our research also indicates that the state regularly issued suplimentary clothing to its troops throughout the war (when ever the state could scrounge for clothing) and thus our look represents the uniform coat with some mismatched small clothes (the breeches and waistcoats).

For weaponry we use replica smoothbore flintlock muskets of the period, of British or French design as they were the most commonly issued, America in the 18th century not yet having full industrial maufacturing capabilities to mass produce muskets. ALL of our guns are SMOOTHBORE flintlock muskets, rifles not being used by New Hampshire troops duing the war, despite what Hollywood or folklore might say. They are fully functional replicas, today made in Italy, Japan or India (as Britain and France do not make copies of their own historical muskets), capable of firing real musket balls with great lethality, but we strictly use blank charges under careful supervision and strict safety regulations (you would be amazed at how many kids think we duck the musket balls in our recreated battles!). We try to drill hard and often, and membership in the 3rd New Hampshire requires some  basic understanding of both 18th century linear battle tactics and modern safety rules (and a basic physical ability to stand in formation for prolonged periods and some marching over rough ground. But we are certainly not Olympic atheletes by any stretch of the imagination!).

2nd Segeant Don Walker as a fully kitted Continental Soldier of the 3rd New Hampshire Regt:

Captain Philip Hills:

Adjutant Dave Hannon:

3rd Sergeant Andrew Walker:

Corporal Wayne Knipping:

Private Stephen Hills:

Private Bethany Hills:

Private Brian Hills:

The rest of the Hills Family, Tristan and Brenda:

The Wermes, Ric and Paula

Private Steve Chappell: