Keep Your Powder Dry

Here's the third of three Irish regiments of foot; Colonel Manus O’Cahan’s Regiment of Foot. Not much is known about O'Cahan (prononunced O'Kane) or his men. An experienced soldier, both he and his Regiment had been recruited from Owen Roe O'Neil's Northern Army of the Irish Confederation in the early months of 1644. Captain Mortimer’s company of dragoons grew out of the Regiment: musketeers started being provided with horses for scouting and raiding parties, eventually becoming classed as dragoons in March 1645. O'Cahan's was made up of seven companies which were formed along a sectarian divide: five companies of Protestants, and two made up of Catholics. This sectarian divide would provide grounds for confusion and inter-regimental fighting (and I don't mean not so friendly fisticuffs). Shipped to Scotland in the first half of 1644 they fought at  Kinlochaline Castle; Tippermuir, where they fielded 400 men; Aberdeen; Fyvie; raided Inverary; Inverlochy,...

Alexander MacDonnell was the brother of Randal MacDonnell, 1st Marquis of Antrim. The family was a branch (technically called a sept) of the Clan Donald, an historic clan with claims to the title Lord of the Isles. Randal would die without producing an heir and Alexander would go on to become the 3rd Earl of Antrim (Randal was 1st Marquis, 2nd Earl in case you are wondering why it seems as though I have poor numeracy skills). The good thing about taking pictures of 15mm figures and looking at them on a big screen is noticing mistakes - the errant pike (back row, left hand side as we view it) has now been repaired. Alexander had been travelling around Europe on his Grand Tour (think seventeenth century Inter-Railing) and returned to Ireland as the Irish Rebellion was beginning to gather pace. He sided with the Confederate rebels and was given command of a Regiment in 1642 by Eoghan Ruadh O'Neill. When the Regiment was sent to Scotland in 1644, as part of the Irish Brigade, Alexander...

Written histories of the Irish Brigade tend to have been fabricated by the Victorians who littered this history with romantic frilly nonsense.  Little is actually known about the 1,500 men of the Brigade. The Irish Brigade were sent to Scotland in order to support Montrose by the Earl of Antrim. Three regiments made up the Brigade, this regiment was commanded by Colonel James MacDonald. Not much is known about James, he is quite possibly the illegitimate son of the Earl of Antrim, but that is by no means definite. The Earl had three sons prior to getting officially married - James is most likely the youngest of the three. Raised in 1644 they were shipped over to Scotland and almost immediately took to the field at Tippermuir where they mustered 400 men; they then fought at Aberdeen; by February 1645 at Inverlochy their numbers had halved to 200; they fought at Auldearn, Alford and finally Kilsyth. What remained of the regiment is unknown, but we do know that James returned to Irela...

 So I have pontificated about clothing colours (in general)... What Colours To Use? What Colours To Use Part 2: Paint ...regimental coat colours (or not)... Coat Colours Part 1: Parliamentarian Regiments of Foot Coat Colours Part 2: Royalist Regiments of Foot Coat Colours Part 3: The Scots Coat Colours Part 4: Others - NMA, Dragoons & Horse The Trained Bands ...and equipment... Painting Guide - Equipment Only time before I looked at artillery. So here it is. A re-enactors' cannon ready to be fired Artillery pieces were expensive to produce, heavy and difficult to move around. The idea of using artillery in battle (rather than in a siege) was still in it's infancy. Guns were placed before the battle and pretty much stayed there win, lose or draw. Gunners were highly skilled individuals, many having learned their art on the continent during the Thirty Years War, and were often described as mercenaries employed by whomsoever paid the most rather than whose cause their hearts s...