Battle Flags of the Wars for North America, 1754–1783: Foreign Armies and Regiments

“This work is far more than a beautifully illustrated coffee table book. The author has done 50 years of in-depth work on the subject and in other experts' research.”

The Seven Years' War (1756–1763) and the American Revolution (1775–1783) were global conflicts. Battle Flags of the Wars for North America 1754–1783, by Stephen W. Hill, illustrates that important point in this attractive volume of the battle flags of the regiments of France, the German states, Great Britain, and Spain (nine European states) in North America during those years.

This work is far more than a beautifully illustrated coffee table book. Hill has conducted fifty years of in-depth work on the subject and other experts' research. The author had only limited materials, a few surviving flags (sometimes with questionable restoration), tattered pieces of cloth, and sometimes conflicting written descriptions.

Hill is so precise that he even tells how extra nails would be added to French flags, attached to their un-tapered, approximately one-inch-in diameter poles, for decoration. The drapeau of the Old Regime had “very different artistic interpretations based on the biases, artistic conventions, and technical processes of the period.”

Aside from “an accurate picture of how these colours looked at the time of their use,” Battle Flags of the Wars for North America 1754–1783 provides brief accounts of each regiment. The author includes basic information on how each was formed and information on its banners.

Hill only discusses specific military campaigns with references to the standards. Including even brief military histories would have involved more in-depth research and a much thicker book. That information can be obtained elsewhere.

The author writes, "The colours of a regiment were almost sacred to the soldiers to which they belonged.” They varied, even with replacement standards, based on changing tastes and different makers. Sometimes, the best available sources do not provide all the information needed.

The British regiments' flags were approved through a complicated process. Unique badges, devices, and emblems representing legacies and other changes were made. The author details appearance, design, and material, discussing misrepresentations in standard works.

Hill seeks to know the standards as they appeared when witnessed in battle, march, or parade. Doing that research on non-British regiments is harder. Finding material on those banners, literally and scholarly, is much more difficult.

Spanish banderos, however, are better understood due to descriptions in official orders and surviving examples. They tended to be creamy, light, and white.

Additionally, French flags varied from the standard white cross for many reasons. Regiments changed names as they were “disbanded, reorganized, amalgamated, or new regiments introduced.”

Designations became more confusing for other reasons. Composite regiments were created as needed. Foreign-recruited units would have flags reflecting national origins.

Not a single fahnen from the American Revolution that returned to the German states is known to have survived, although some flags remain in America. These banners had richer colors than the French standards of bright blues, greens, reds, etc.

Battle Flags of the Wars for North America 1754–1783 is color illustrated in an attractive, slick, hardcover format. Hill includes an annotated bibliography, notes, “General Notes on the Construction of Military Colors,” “Notes on Terminology,” and “General Observations on Colors, Their Definition, and Uses.” Unfortunately, there is no index.