Brigades and Regiments at Jockey Hollow

A regiment without a musician or a flag was a hardly a regiment at all; the sound of the drum and sight of the flag helped keep the men organized in the midst of battle and on the march.

NPS

The Continental Army, patterning itself after the British, organized itself into brigades, usually formed of several regiments or battalions. The regiments were themselves comprised of eight companies, and those companies each had roughly 90 officers and enlisted men in them at full strength. When including other officers at the regimental level, a regiment's full strength was 728 officers and enlisted men.

This, of course, does not include the various other people attached to the army and in camp, such as women and children.

With 11 brigades represented at Jockey Hollow, a full strength army would have as many as 30,000 men camped out in the woods, and nearly three thousand huts. That would have been the ideal situation according to the math outlined above. In reality, between ten to twelve thousand men were in camp at Morristown during the winter of 1779 - 1780. Why the discrepency?

The actual number of companies in each regiment varied throughout the war; eight was a guideline not always followed, and states differed from one another in what they considered a full strength company. Beyond accounting disagreements, armies were made of men, and these men were not always ready to fight. Regiments and companies continued to operate with some men wounded, sick, or otherwise out of action, but still on the rolls until they recovered. Officers did well to track how many men were actually fit for duty, compared to those merely present and accounted for. FInally, men who were missing, captured, killed or deserters from the army naturally reduced a company's strength, along with the expiration of a soldier's term of service and discharge from the army. When such losses grew to an unsustainable level for a unit to maintain cohesion and integrity as a fighting force, the companies and regiments would reorganize.

Use the drop-down menu to navigate by brigade, or scroll through each one in turn.

 

 

First Maryland Brigade

Commander: Brigadier General William Smallwood

• 1st Maryland Regiment: Lt. Colonel Comd. Peter Adams
• 3rd Maryland Regiment: Lt. Colonel Comd. Nathaniel Ramsay
• 5th Maryland Regiment: Lt. Colonel Comd. Thomas Woolford
• 7th Maryland Regiment: Colonel John Gunby

 

Second Maryland Brigade

Commander: Brigadier General Mordecai Gist

• 2nd Maryland Regiment: Colonel Thomas Price
• 4th Maryland Regiment: Colonel Josias Carvil Hall
• 6th Maryland Regiment: Colonel Otho Williams
• Hall’s Delaware Regiment: Colonel David Hall

 

First Connecticut Brigade

Commander: Brigadier General Samuel Parsons

• 3rd Connecticut Regiment: Colonel Samuel Wyllys
• 4th Connecticut Regiment: Colonel John Durkee
• 6th Connecticut Regiment: Colonel Return Jonathan Meigs
• 8th Connecticut Regiment: Lt. Colonel Comd. Issac Sherman

 

Second Connecticut Regiment

Commander: Brigadier General Jedediah Huntington

• 1st Connecticut Regiment: Colonel Josiah Starr
• 2th Connecticut Regiment: Colonel Zebulon Butler
• 5th Connecticut Regiment: Colonel Philip B. Bradley
• 7th Connecticut Regiment: Colonel Heman Swift

 

New York Brigade

Commander: Brigadier General James Clinton

• 2nd New York Regiment: Colonel Philip VanCortland
• 3rd New York Regiment: Colonel Peter Gansevoort
• 4th New York Regiment: Lt. Colonel Comd. Fredrick Weissenfels
• 5th New York Regiment: Colonel Jacobus S. Bruyn

 

Hand's Brigade

Commander: Brigadier General Edward Hand

• 1st Canadian Regiment: Colonel Moses Hazen
• 2nd Canadian Regiment: Colonel James Livingston
• 4th Pennsylvanian Regiment: Colonel William Butler
• 11th Pennsylvanian Regiment: Lt. Colonel Comd. Adam Hubley

 

First Pennsylvania Brigade

Commander: Brigadier General William Irvine

• 1st Pennsylvania Regiment: Colonel James Chambers
• 2nd Pennsylvania Regiment: Colonel Walter Stewart
• 7th Pennsylvania Regiment: Colonel Morgan Conner / Lt. Colonel Josiah Harmar
• 10th Pennsylvania Regiment: Colonel Richard Humpton

 

Second Pennsylvania Brigade

Commander: Brigadier General Anthony Wayne / Lt. Colonel Francis Johnston

• 3rd Pennsylvania Regiment: Colonel Thomas Craig
• 5th Pennsylvania Regiment: Colonel Francis Johnston / Lt. Colonel Francis Mentges
• 6th Pennsylvania Regiment: Colonel Robert Magaw
• 9th Pennsylvania Regiment: Colonel Richard Butler

 

Stark's Brigade

Commander: Brigadier General John Stark

• 2nd Rhode Island Regiment: Colonel Israel Angell
• Sherburne’s Connecticut Regt.: Colonel Henry Sherburne
• Webb’s Connecticut Regiment: Colonel Samuel Webb
• Jackson’s Massachusetts Regt.: Colonel Henry Jackson

 

New Jersey Brigade

Commander: Brigadier General William Maxwell

• 1st New Jersey Regiment: Colonel Matthias Ogden
• 2nd New Jersey Regiment: Colonel Israel Shreve
• 3rd New Jersey Regiment: Colonel Elias Dayton
• Spencer’s Regiment: Colonel Oliver Spencer

 

Artillery Brigade

(located near Morristown)

Commander: Brigadier General Henry Knox

• 1st Continental Artillery: Colonel Charles Harrison
• 2nd Continental Artillery: Colonel John Lamb
• 3rd Continental Artillery: Colonel John Crane
• 4th Continental Artillery: Colonel Thomas Proctor