My Upper Canadian Militia - War of 1812

The Upper Canadian militia volunteers while present in many of the battles fought during the war, played a supporting role to the British regulars.  Perhaps they were more aware of their limitations than the masses of Americans volunteers who formed a considerable portion of their fighting forces.

While their uniforms changed through the various stages of the conflict, I chose the mid-war green tunic and blue trousers as it contrasts nicely with the regulars redcoat and gray pants.  The cut of the uniform and equipment worn was identical so one can merely paint a British regular to become a militiamen albeit with a stovepipe shako only.

 These are the Old Glory version.  The flag is conjectural and was kindly designed by Mark, over which I could paint as all my British War of 1812 flags are hand-painted. ( not the American, however, except for the originals )

Norfolk is a county of which is now in Ontario, Canada formerly "Upper Canada"
It is highly unlikely any flags were actually created , let alone carried.  The strengths of most of these militia "regiments" were numbered in the tens not hundreds and battalion sized units were called brigades consisting of many different county formations. In reality 'uniformity' would be hard to achieve but I like uniformity and so I have this unit in red facings and the other in the collection all in yellow facings.

One last photo shows how I covered up a fault I committed while too vigorously bending an officers sword arm to a different position -- I snapped it off!  So rather than glue the rather mangled metal limb, or throw the miniature away, I got out the 'green stuff' and created a sling for what would appear to be a broken arm? The stump I left on the figure certainly helped in the rendering.

You can see him on the right.