1/10/2023 ~ New Year's Update!

Hello everyone! Just wanted to post an update now that we have crossed over into 2023.

The TLDR for this post is lot's of progress happening behind the scenes! But take a quick read on the article below, lots of good stuff going on!

To start, we have been working on and refining what our uniform regulations are going to be. In the orderly book of Captain Stephen Badlam's Company, there is a regimental order dated March 18th 1776, in which it spells out very clearly what the uniforms were to look like. And reads as follows

"The Uniforms of the Reg. of Artillery to be as follows; The coats, blue turn'd up with white linings, the skirts as to hook back the coat to come as low as the upper knee. Buttons of the breeches, lappels and cape two inches wide. White waistcoats and breeches. White stockings and half gaitors. The field officers, two epaulettes, the captains and captain leiutenants one on the right shoulder. The leiut's one on the left shoulder."

March 18th, 1776 is day after the Crown Forces evacuated Boston following the fortification of Dorchester Heights and sailed for Halifax. Shortly after this the first elements of the Continental Army would start to relocate to New York City. I have been unable to find any documentation that any progress was made on these uniforms prior to departing for New York. However once in the city, and its surrounding environments we have multiple receipts indicating that large amount's of textiles were purchased for the making of uniforms prior to the Battle of Long Island. Using the description above and some conjecture as to the details omitted from the description such as cuff style and button layout, we have met with a tailor and started planning out what our reproduction uniforms will look like!

On to Accoutrements! We are working with our skilled leather maker to produce new artillery specific accoutrements such as artillery ammunition pouches, gunner pouches, belting, bricoles and powder horns. We expect to have these in the next month or two.

And lastly the cannon! We first made contact with our barrel and carriage maker mid summer of 2022 the timeline for a carriage was roughly 9/10 months and the barrel 6 to 8 months for completion. We recently reached out to the foundry we are going to use. They have received a higher priority project from Hollywood which bumped us back a bit but the bronze for our tube has been ordered! We hope to have the tube cast and ready in early summer! . It’s a bit of a slow process, but every single thing we will wear or use is skillfully made by hand and truly worth the wait! Stay tuned!