Right from the start of the revolution, many Americans volunteered to help the government suppress it, forming many loyalist units that either operated alongside the British regulars, or else provided garrisons and policing that released regulars for duty in the field. Some of these were militias, but many were light infantry, and a few were light cavalry, which was of particular help to the British in operations in the South, where the more open country allowed a greater role for mounted troops. British forces were often short of such troops in this theatre, and so made good use of the loyalist cavalry, including converting infantry to the role, but all loyalist units were particularly useful when operating in an area they knew well. Many tens of thousands of Americans served the Crown in this way, and although some arrogant British officers sneered at these units, their role was an important one, reminding us that not all the colonists wished to see a break with the mother country.

You may be wondering why we have introduced loyalist units in a review of British cavalry, and the answer is simple – this set does not contain British cavalry! British cavalry did serve in the American War, and a nicely presented set of them can be found in the Italeri British Light Cavalry, but neither of the two regiments that served looked like the figures in this set. Instead, what we have is light infantry and cavalry from the loyalist units, as clearly depicted both in the figures and on the box. To begin with, we have the mounted men in five poses, mostly holding a sword but with one man using his pistol. The sword poses are pretty good, but we particularly liked the pistol pose as he swivels in his saddle and fires to his right. The men all wear a crested leather cap that would soon be named after the most famous of the commanders of loyalist troops, Banastre Tarleton, and they also wear short, tailless, double-breasted jackets, breeches and boots. Details of many loyalist uniforms have not survived, but this one closely resembles that worn by several units such as the Queen’s Rangers, British Legion, and De Lancey’s Refugees, so is accurate (given the usual discrepancies and adaptations when actually in the field). The men’s kit consists of a sword held by a belt over the right shoulder, and a cartridge pouch at the front of the waist belt. All the horses have a brace of pistols, or at least the holsters for them, since in 1780 a London newspaper printed a description of the British Legion light dragoons which mentioned that they only had one pistol each – the other holster contained their bread and cheese!

One of the many peculiarities of this cavalry set is the inclusion of two infantrymen. These are both light infantry, and again are probably from one of the loyalist units, although they could equally serve as British or American with a suitable paint scheme. Both wear a typical light dragoon helmet, as many light infantry did, and the rest of their clothing is also typical light infantry, including a short-tailed coat, waistcoat, breeches and splatterdashes. Their equipment is standard infantry issue as provided by the British, but is equally suited to any army, making these highly versatile figures. One man holds his musket with bayonet facing forward, and the other is biting a cartridge, so while two poses can hardly be described as covering the subject adequately, these are both very good.

The horses in the set are all equipped in fairly typical style for the day, and the poses are good too, without any of the dramatic but unlikely charging animals we so often find. However, the main feature of the horses is that there are only nine of them in each set, yet there are 15 mounted men. This is very strange, and speaks of a lot of confusion when this set was designed – each box has the quantities obscured by hand!

The sculpting is fair but detail is very vague and ‘soft’, so while the faces are adequate, the hands are more or less just blobs for the most part; these are not great to look at too closely. There is some flash in places, but nothing too terrible, and only a few places where excess plastic is apparent, so they won’t require a lot of tidying up before going into action. The riders fit their mounts easily, but will require gluing to stay in place.

This set is peculiar in several ways. Why are there only nine horses for the 15 riders, why is there infantry in a set of cavalry, and why are they described as British when they are American? Perhaps the makers felt giving them an accurate name like ‘Loyalist Troops’ would confuse some customers, and they can point to the fact that some loyalists were incorporated into an ‘American establishment’ in the late 1770s and early 1780s, which gave them certain privileges, and were moved to a ‘British establishment’ on 25th December, 1782, but by then the fighting was almost over. These men were Americans, so while the figures are very useful, and accurate if used correctly, they are not what the title claims, and this seems to have been a very muddled project that has been badly implemented.