American Revolution
British 34th Regiment of Foot Soldier's Pewter Cuff Button
c. 1775 Revolutionary War Period, British 34th Regiment of Foot, Enlisted Soldier's Uniform Pewter Cuff Button, 17 mm, with Partial Shank / lacking loop, Very Fine.
This attractive Pewter Button measures almost 17 mm across. The surfaces are very well preserved and lack the heavy corrosion seen on buttons that have spent centuries in the ground. The design is plain with a simple number "34" surrounded by a circle of leaves. Much of the original shank remains but it lacks the loop though which thread would have gone to attach this button to a coat. The 34th was attached to Major General Burgoyne's army landed in the spring of 1776 and saw extensive action throughout the American Revolutionary War.
The 34th Regiment of Foot was an infantry regiment of the British Army, that serrved in the American Revolutionary War. This unit arrived with Major General Burgoyne's army (which the 34th was a part) landed in the spring of 1776 with the breakup of the ice on the St Lawrence River. Participating in numerous small skirmishes the force drove out the American "Rebels" and pushed them down through Lake Champlain.
Lieutenant General Guy Carleton, the commander at Quebec for reasons still debated did not follow up his success and allowed the rebel forces a year to regroup.
In late July 1777 a detachment of the regiment took part in the Siege of Fort Stanwix while under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Barry St. Leger, also commanding the 34th Regiment of Foot. The force, consisting of at its very highest 1700 men, comprised British (100 8th, 100 34th), Canadian (65-100), German (350), Loyalist (400) and Native American troops (possibly up to 700).
In early August the rebels of Tryon County dispatched a force of militia to reinforce the besieged Stanwix defenders but a Native American force and the King's Royal Regiment of New York under the command of Chief Joseph Brant, ambushed the Americans successfully at the Battle of Oriskany, inflicting over 400 rebel deaths.
The fort itself was heavily defended and newly repaired and prepared for a siege. The besiegers on the other hand were too few in number and the guns and mortars brought along too light to make any real damage. During the time the ambush was taking place, a sortie by from the forts defenders swept out unopposed capturing much of the Loyalist and Indian camp and supplies. A few weeks later the siege collapsed with the disappearance of the dispirited native allies.
Captain Alexander Fraser of the 34th Regiment of Foot, a veteran of the French and Indian War, commanded what became known as the Company of Select Marksmen during the Burgoyne campaign at the same time in 1777. The Marksmen, sometimes known as British or Fraser's Rangers, were to consist of two good men from each company of the regiments then in Canada: the 9th, 20th, 21st, 24th, 29th, 31st, 34th, 47th, 53rd and 62nd, excluding the 8th (or King's) Regiment.
This company, acting as scouts and light infantry under Capt Fraser did much good work participating in the battles of Hubbardton, Bennington (were they were badly mauled but soon reformed) and Saratoga. Capt Fraser either escaped or was one of four British officers given passports from Saratoga with General Burgoyne's papers, returning through Fort Ticonderoga and Quebec with news of the defeat. Alexander Fraser continued fighting and raiding throughout the Revolutionary War, commanding at Carleton Island and Fort Schlosser and afterwards becoming the commanding officer of the 45th (Nottinghamshire) Regiment in 1795.
Throughout the war, under command of Lieutenant Colonel St. Leger, the Regiment garrisoned numerous forts in the St Lawrence and Lake Ontario, conducted raids and acted as marines on gunboats. The Light and Grenadier companies which had been part of the composite Light and Grenadier Battalions on the Burgoyne Campaign were reformed and reinforced after surrendering with the army at Saratoga and becoming part of what was infamously known as the Convention Army.
In autumn of 1778 a member of both these companies escaped captivity and managed to make their way back to Quebec to rejoin the battalion. Lt Bright Nodder of the Light Company was exchanged in 1782 and a year later took a captaincy with the 84th (Royal Highland Emigrants) Regt. Capt Harris (Grenadier Company), Capt Ross and Lt Richardson (Light Company) were all wounded at Hubbardton and invalided back to Quebec, thus evading capture.
The greatest single loss of life affecting the regiment was the disappearance of the brig-sloop HMS Ontario during a violent storm on October 31, 1780. Lost somewhere east of Fort Niagara on Lake Ontario with all hands, 80 souls perished. The 34th that day lost 1 officer, 2 sergeants, 1 corporal, 1 drummer, 30 privates, 4 women and 5 children. The resting site of the HMS Ontario remained a mystery until 2008 when the nearly pristine brig "was discovered resting partially on its side, with two masts extending more than 20 metres above the lake bottom", in approximately 150m of water "off the southern shore" by shipwreck enthusiasts Jim Kennard and Dan Scoville. Other losses in that vessel were 31 Royal Navy, 3 Royal Artillery, 4 - 8th Regiment, 2 Rangers, 1 Passenger and 4 Mohawks. 1782 saw the Regiment granted the county title as the 34th (Cumberland) Regiment of Foot returning to Britain in 1786.