Okay, so after procrastinating for years, I have taken the plunge and invested in a LoA 10mm 'Allied' army to be painted up as James II army from the Sedgemoor campaign.

I have a set of 'Lace Ward's rules, so Pendragon make 'Scythemen', so can anyone suggest a composition for the Duke of Monmouth's army of deluded Westo rustics,(actually, most were tradesmen, but let it go...)

Thank you all

At Sedgemoor Monmouth's army was about 600 cavalry, about 3000 infantry (in 5 regiments of 400 to 800 men and 1 independent company) and 3 small cannons.

When Monmouth arrived he brought weapons and equipment with him but there is some doubt about the exact numbers. Most likely he brought about 1500 sets of armour, 1000 muskets (probably matchlocks), 500 pikes and 500 swords. The armour was worn by the cavalry and pike men.

The army tried to gather other 'modern' weapons but probably this was not many - 100? There would also be a number of officers/drummer/NCO's armed with other weapons or no weapon - maybe 100 to 200. So of the 3000 infantry about 1500 to 1800 would be musket and pike (and 'command'). The rest (1200 to 1500) would be 'scythemen' (and command) - these also had people armed with spears, old pikes and basically anything, so you could mix in some other figures.

James' army had 700 to 750 cavalry, about 2000 infantry and 26 guns. So a few more cavalry, a lot more guns and 2/3rds the infantry.

So going on the above and the contents of the 'Allied' army pack I would get the same as the army pack for Monmouth general. But no flintlocks, just matchlocks, and add say 2 packs of scythe men - mix in some 'regular' command figures and a few ordinary 'regular' guys to change the ratio of 'regular' to scythe. For the cavalry get the same but only 1 (or none) guns.

I hope this helps.

Quote from: Hwiccee on 25 September 2016, 12:34:50 AM


James' army had 700 to 750 cavalry, about 2000 cavalry....

wtf?

I'm guessing it was infantry, so I've edited the post.

Caliver have a couple of excellent books on the Sedgemoor campaign and Flags of War have comprehensive sets for both sides and will scale them to 10mm on request.

Ralph Mitchard did a nice book "The Days of King Monmouth" a day by day account of the rebellion. Well worth a read.

http://ralphmitchard.bigcartel.com/product/the-days-of-king-monmouth

Cheers
Ian

Thanks to all for taking time and trouble on these replies, extremely informative and useful.

Just to belatedly add a couple books that I enjoyed:
Sedgemoor 1685 by David Chandler (1985)
Sedgemoor 1685 - Marlborough's First Victory John Tincey (2005)
The Caliver (Partizan Press) books - as Profjohn mentioned - are quite good and if you were to buy only one,the armies and uniforms book is the one to have (In my very humble and often wrong opinion.  )

Thanks, I have the Time book and will look out the rest!

I remembered something else!
Wargames Illustrated Digital Archive Compilation - Musket and Pike, Vol 2 includes a two part article (Nick Buxby and Richard Hattersley) on Sedgemoor done as a demonstration game. Lots of info packed into the articles along with the vast amounts of eye candy associated with WI. Really worth the look.
I have been long obsessed with Sedgemoor and may get to it one day.

Noticed the pre packed army doesn't include grenadiers, do can I ask you experts there, would they be right for the era please, and which cap would be better for the regiments at the battle. Thanks

Fur and cloth caps were probably in use in 1685. If I had to choose one it would be cloth caps as they were certainly in use. One of the earliest images of Grenadiers is a portrait of Francis Hawley who fought in the campaign as a captain of the Grenadiers of the Footguards;



That said, the grenadiers of Kirke's regiment are often shown with fur caps, I'd need to check the basis of that though (it may be from slightly later than 1685);

Thank you. An illuminating reply. Silly question probably, but that line drawing is an accurate depiction of Kirkes dragoons?

Further question, at this point in time were dragoons STILL acting in what might later be called a 'mounted infantry' role?

They were still acting as mounted infantry in the WSS, so I presume they were 20 years earlier.

The drawing of of a grenadier of Kirke's regiment of foot "Kirke's Lambs". Not sure who you mean on the dragoons, as far as I recall there's only one regiment of dragoons in the army of 1685 at Sedgemoor and that's the Royal dragoons, though there were a few independent companies knocking about too ( andScots Greys were on their way south I think).
That said the uniform is similar for both grenadiers and dragoons, save perhaps the flexible boots the dragoons wore, but they both were issued with fusils, grenade pouches (though whether dragoons employed grenades much is harder to say) and hatchets. The fur cap was used by dragoons too, but not the Royals as far as I know, and their coats would not have had "loops"; button lace.

Dragoons are very much still mounted infantry. While they do sometimes (and increasingly towards the turn of the century) go into action mounted they are more use for flank exploitation, and are probably more important off the formal battlefield in the "war of outposts", i.e. scouting, forage gathering, interdiction, and are especially useful for "ambuscade".