The 3rd New Hampshire Regiment 1776 : The home site for 3rd NH Regt, a re-enacting community of the American Revolution.

The 3rd New Hampshire Regiment 1776
The home site for 3rd NH Regt, a re-enacting community of the American Revolution.

Uniform Requirements
How the the uniform of the 3rd NH should look and what you should purchase, what to buy and what NOT to buy.

We require that all "soldiers" eventually acquire (usually within a year, with some exceptions) an outer wear coat, either our standard regimental "Lottery" coat or an appropriate civilain style "Militia" coat:

A) The Lottery Coat: This coat must be purchased as a kit from our own supplier and no other, and you may sew it together yourself or pay a seamstress. Our own seamstress can do it for you, contact us for details. The kits as of May 2009 are going for $175.

B) Instead of a regimental coat a member may now choose to go with a militia portrayal. The coat for this must fit our "Battle Road" requirements for a New England militiaman of 1775. There are now many sources for these coats, contact us for a listing and the specifics.

C) A fringed "rifle frock" can be used in place of a regimental coat provided that it is of the standards listed below and is only used for events portraying the year 1777 and later, and it only a temporary fix until the regimental coat is acquired.

The 1779 French Contract "Lottery" Coat: Brown broadcloth wool with madder red facings.

This is an original surviving linen waistcoat. It is civilian. The military version we would wear looks similar but would be wool with pewter buttons.

This is a pair of original surviving linen breeches. The color range appropriate for us would be from off-white to this color of brown. Our breeches should be wool or linen, no cotton, with pewter buttons.

Civilian "Militia" look:

HATS

This common shape of cocked hat, or "Tricorn" is a civilian style for the period and is NOT correct for a Continental uniform. It is noticeable by being a symmetrical triangle.

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This is the correct shape. It has evolved to almost a "Bicorn" shape. The hat is also canted off center to the left so that the front corner is over the left eye.

This is one of the styles of cocked hat we accept. It is a plain hat blank folded up with a button and a cockade added. There is no wool trim, the cockade should ideally be horsehair (this one is silk) and the tie down ribbon here is wool.

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This is the ideal hat. It is the "Private's Military Cocked Hat" from G.G.Godwin. It is heavyweight wool and trimmed fully in worsted wool braid.

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This is a very similar hat of the same shape and style. But it is wrong. It is by Jas Townsend & Son, it is made of thin flimsy wool and uses synthetic trim. We do not want to see any more of this brand of hat.

This hat is also wrong. While it is a good style for civilian/militia it also has synthetic trim. It is also by Jas Townsend.

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Overall

The early days, we were struggling to get our impression together.

Getting better. Our hats still need to be worked on.

Much better, almost perfect. Hat is good, breeches are gray linen, gaitors are skin tight.

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Substitute uniform

In the event that a member can't afford a Lottery Coat or new ones are temporarily unavailable or the member is waiting for his to be finished, a substitute uniform is allowed. It is the hunting/rifle shirt worn over the rest of the standard Continental uniform. This uniform is acceptable to represent Continental soldiers of the years of 1777 and up, it is not acceptable for civilian or militia of 1775/76.

Mr Henry Cooke is modeling a perfect Continental linen tow cloth hunting shirt. It is natural colored coarse gray/brown linen, not white, not bright colors and not cotton. This is what we want and expect for a substitute uniform. Image courtesy of 10th Mass Regt.

This particular one is hand made. The closest commercially made one at a reasonable price is the "Hunting Shirt" in natural linen by Jas Townsend, item # SL-127 at $70. It must be only SL-127 from them.

Earlier War Impressions

We occasionally do an earlier war impression. There are specific rules to doing a good impression for these periods. Most importantly is that you cannot backdate any unforms or equipment to a time that it cannot be documented to exist or was issued to the 3rd NH.

3rd NH/2nd Cont Regt-Early Continental April 1776

The only documentation we have of a uniform coat for 1776 specifically for the 3rd NH Regt/2nd Cont Regt is from a deserters description from April 1776, a blue coat with green facings.

There is no specific description of its construction, however research by Henry Cooke suggests coats of that period could have followed roughly the British 1768 Clothing Warrant but with the exception of false facings: cuffs, collar and lapels single layered and sewn down.

Equipment-Documented early style Continental packs, usually the flat single flap knapsack or a snapsack or a tumpline. The Warner style knapsack is probably too late for this period, most likely post-1776 issue. Captured Britsh equipment of the proper period is allowed, this includes hair on goatskin knapsacks and standard 36 round cartridge pouches or 18 round belly boxes. Other cartridge pouches would follow the earliest known Continental issues. Very few bayonets.

Militia/Early Continental Dec 1774-April 1776

No uniforms for NH troops for this period, they wore regular civilian clothing of the time. Equipment was sparse and varied:

Arms-Various older muskets generally of a British derivative, a few rebuilt French muskets, and some homemade muskets using parts of a wide national variety. Just before Bunker Hill many muskets were issued to the troops because many did not have any. Equipment-Either older British issued belts and cartridge boxes from the French & Indian War or homemade gear. Many troops came with none expected to be issued equipment by the Province. Most packs would be either snapsacks or tumplines, no haversacks allowed for this period, no Warner style knapsacks. No bayonets. Virtually no captured British equipment.

Pre-1774

As a rule New Hamshire troops were always poorly equiped no matter what war it was. Equipment should reflect either outdated military issue (back date the equipment by a decade or two) or homemade usually reflecting an older design. Exceptions: After the Battle of Lake George 1755 the NH Provincial Regiment captured the French baggage train and accquired over 1000 French knapsacks and muskets. 1758-NH was issued stands of arms, this was the older Long Land Tower (Bess) muskets (probably Model 1730/40 transitional) with 9 or 18 round government issue belly boxes on long narrow black belts.

Much of this equipment can be forward dated to Early Revolution.

Massachusetts impression variations

We often do a Massachusetts Early War impression for Battle Road 1775 related events. This would generally follow a typical Mass militia man of Middlesex County-Early 1775 impression. Much of this overlaps the 1775 era NH militiaman with known exceptions: Perhaps a slightly higher ratio of fowlers or homemade muskets, homemade cartridge pouches, no bayonets unless we portray a specific Minuteman company. Packs can be snapsacks, market wallets, tumplines, or flat knapsacks, no Warner knapsacks, no haversacks and no captured British equipment.