[91] When it was proposed to put the Boston army on the new Continental basis on January 1st, 1776, Washington evidently hoped to have it all uniformed. Thus his orders of December 11th, 1775, read: "As uniformity and decency in dress are essentially necessary in the appearance and regularity of an army, his Excellency recommends it earnestly to the officers to put themselves in a proper uniform.... The general by no means recommends or desires officers to run into costly or expensive regimentals; no matter how plain or coarse, so that they are but uniform in their color, cut, and fashion. The officers belonging to those regiments whose uniforms are not yet fixed upon had better delay making their regimentals until they are." The orders of January 5th, 1776, say: "The regimentals, which have been made up, and drawn for, may be delivered to the respective Colonels, by the Quartermaster-General, to the order of those Colonels, who drew them at such prices as they have cost the continent, which is much cheaper than could otherwise be obtained. As nothing adds more to the appearance of a man than dress, and a proper degree of cleanliness in his person, the General hopes and expects that each regiment will contend for the most soldierlike appearance." These "regimentals" were of a brown color. That Little's and Hitchcock's men, or most of them, were in uniform when they came to New York, appears from General Greene's Providence order of April 4th (ante, [p. 62]). A description of the colors of Colonel Joseph Read's Massachusetts Continental regiment refers to the "uniform of the regiment;" so doubtless most of the Boston army was in uniform. But whether they were kept supplied with uniforms may be doubted. The men wore out their clothes fast while throwing up the works, and Washington speaks of the "difficulty and expense" of providing new ones. (Orders, July 24th, 1776.) At this date he does not insist on uniforms, but recommends the adoption of the hunting shirt and breeches as a cheap and convenient dress, and as one which might have its terrors for the enemy, who imagined that every rebel so dressed was "a complete marksman." A valuable article on "The Uniforms of the American Army" may be found in the Magazine of American History, for August, 1877, by Professor Asa Bird Gardner, of the West Point Military Academy.
[92] Force, 5th Series, vol. ii., p. 244.
[93] The last official return of the army before the battle, published in Force's Archives, bears date of August 3d; the next about September 12th. The latter is the proper basis for making an estimate of the numbers for August 27th, as it includes all the regiments except Haslet's known to be then present, and no more. On September 12th the total of rank and file on the rolls, not including the absent sick, was 24,100. To these add 1800 commissioned officers and 2500 sergeants, drums and fifes, and the total strength is 28,400. On the same date, rank and file, fit for duty, numbered 14,700. Add to these 1000 lost on Long Island and 3500 officers, sergeants, drums and fifes fit for duty, and we have, all told, between 19,000 and 20,000 effectives on August 27th; and these figures correspond with Washington's statement of September 2d: "Our number of men at present fit for duty is under 20,000." The army suffered greatly from sickness during August and September. General Heath writes in his Memoirs, under date of August 8th: "The number of sick amounted to near 10,000; nor was it possible to find proper hospitals or proper necessaries for them. In almost every farm, stable, shed, and even under the fences and bushes, were the sick to be seen, whose countenances were but an index of the dejection of spirit and the distress they endured." On the 4th of August, Colonel Parsons wrote to Colonel Little: "My Doctor and Mate are sick. I have near Two Hundred men sick in Camp; my neighbours are in very little better state." And he asks Little to consent to his surgeon's mate remaining with him until his own surgeons were better. [MS. letter in possession of Charles J. Little, Esq.]
[94] General Clinton being absent all summer in the Highlands, the brigade was commanded first by Colonel Read, and afterwards by Colonel Glover.
[95] The figures given here represent the total number of enlisted men on the rolls on September 12, absent sick included. In the case of some of the regiments, especially from the flying camp, under Lutz, Kachlein, and others, only an estimate can be formed. The strength of these is noted in connection with the losses on Long Island in the [next chapter]. The Connecticut militia regiments are credited with 350 men each, as Washington gives the figures.
[96] Glover's regiment did not join the army at New York until August. It was assigned on the 12th to Stirling's brigade, and on the 15th to Fellows'.
[97] Sargent's and Ward's reported on the ground in August. They were probably in Mifflin's brigade.
[98] These regiments were nominally under General Woodhull, but actually under Greene and Sullivan. At the time of the battle of the 27th both were doing duty with Nixon's brigade. (Sullivan's orders, August 25th. [Document 2].) Their strength can only be estimated, but it is probably correct to say that together they were less than five hundred strong.
[99] See Appendix to Drake's Life of General Knox.
[100] The "Highlander" regiments were the Forty-second and Seventy-first. In Stewart's Highlanders, vol. i., p. 354, as quoted in the Memoir of General Graham, the following passage appears: "On the 10th April, 1776, the Forty-second Regiment being reviewed by Sir Adolphus Oughton, was reported complete, and so unexceptionable that none were rejected. Hostilities having commenced in America, every exertion was made to teach the recruits the use of the firelock, for which purpose they were drilled even by candle-light. New arms and accoutrements were supplied to the men; and the colonel of the regiment, at his own expense, supplied broadswords and pistols.... The pistols were of the old Highland fashion, with iron stocks. These being considered unnecessary except in the field, were not intended, like the swords, to be worn by the men in quarters. When the regiment took the field on Staten and Long Island, it was said that the broadswords retarded the men by getting entangled in the brushwood and they were therefore taken from them and sent on board the transports."