Colonial American Troops 1610-1774 (1) (Men-at-Arms) (Pt. 1) (ISBN 1841763241)

Colonial American Troops 1610 - 1774 (1):
Colonial American Troops 1610 - 1774 (1), is a recent Osprey Men-at-Arms (#366) by Rene Chartrand, with illustrations by David Rickman. In this book Mr. Chartrand attempts to give a brief history of the military forces within the American colonies. This first of a three-volume set focuses on Virginia, New Sweden, and the New Netherlands. Not only does Chartrand investigate the colonial militias, he is also careful to highlight the presence of Royal troops within the colonies. I found the book to very entertaining and informative, and thoroughly researched (despite the fact that he misspells my name as Tinsdale in the citations for his colour plates). It is highly appealing to see a work that touches on the seventeenth-century militias of the colonies, as these are often forgotten in the wake of works dealing with the French and Indian War, or the American War for Independence. Mr. Chartrand is obviously shrewd enough to realise that the provincial militias of the eighteenth-century cannot be fully understood without looking to their seventeenth-century origins. The colour plates show a great amount of detail, and are careful to illustrate some of the more unusual (i.e. archaic) aspects of the early military forces within Virginia, and the New Netherlands. The pictures, too, lend themselves well to the text, though I did find that those concerning the eighteenth century did outnumber those dealing with the seventeenth. However, that is forgivable, as seventeenth-century colonial America has been ignored somewhat by the public interests.

Great Books:
Reading the works of Rene Chartrand is like eating a full course meal. Well served. Well formed. No Bad Taste. The information within is well served and in good quality. And quite filling for the mind. In the five books of King Louis XV's army, the entire french military of the time period was well well served up like a Five Course Meal. In the three books of Colonial American Troops we have a similar feast of accurate well served information on the pre-revolution american soldier. Which can also be served with the revised edition of Wolf's Army by Robin May and Gerry Embleton and the two books of General Washington's Army by Marko Zlatich and Peter Copeland. For those who enjoy early american history, these three books are are an excellent find.

Good:
Although there is no way to be totally accurate on these questions of uniforms, the folks here make very good educated guesses and the quality of the plates is great.

Colonial American Troops 1610-1774:
A fine source on the militia, provincial troops, and rangers of all the original American colonies/states. The color plates are an excellent source by themselves, and depict some very colorful uniforms and characters (particularly the Highlander-Georgian Private illustrated on the first plate of the third volume). I would highly recommend these books for a casual reader or historian, or for military uniformists.