Hello everyone!
I've been a member for some time now, I posted on the introduction section a long time ago and since then I don't think I've posted anything else or even logged in for that matter, truth be told I've been busy and dealing with some personal issues of which I will not go into detail, nevertheless I thought today would be a good day for a very late first post and what better topic than something I love, history and re-using old uniforms and turning them into something else.
In this case these old soldier of the world uniforms have been turned into those worn by the colonial forces of Spanish Puerto Rico, specifically the Fixed Regiment, the Professional Militias and the Urban militias (tho they didn't really have a uniform). All of the figures I will post here are of the 1770's or later, they are the result of military reforms enacted by Alejandro O'reilly on his visit to Puerto Rico, the island's defenses before his reforms fell entirely on the hands of the Spanish Army that would be stationed in San Juan (and nowhere else), a position that was rotated between different companies of the Spanish army, tho there was a fixed battalion by the time O'reilly came to the island it was considered to be almost entirely useless due to the age of the men, the fact that many where injured and thus unfit for service, lack of uniforms, barracks, armories and the acceptance of anyone into the force, this was also made worse by the fact officers of the fixed battalion where the ones in charge of paying these men. O'reilly reformed this fixed battalion into the Fixed Regiment, he also went on to create the Professional Militias as a means to provide the rest of the island with some military presence by professionally trained men.
Pictured here a member of the Compañia de Morenos Libres, an all black and mulatto company of around 110 men formed under O'reilly's reforms, their uniform was later on changed, the blue coat was stopped being used and their leather hats, considered to be too hot for the tropics where replaced with the typical tricorne hats used at the time. The man in the middle is a member of the Regimiento Fijo, their uniforms just like those of the man on his left where required to be white and of good quality so that the men would have to wash them regularly, and also because of the tropical heat and lastly a member of the Compañias de blancos y pardos, unlike the fixed regiment which required all men to present proof that they where the sons of spanish born parents the company of whites and pardos did not have that requirement, instead the men where only required to be whites or at the least have one native parent, usually their mothers.
And lastly an often time overlooked part of Puerto Rico's defenses from before the reforms, the Urban militias trace their origin back to the earliest days of colonization, comprised of locals and free men these militias where often times the first and last line of defense of the small towns and villages at the time, their armaments would have been comprised mostly of swords and spears. The Urban militias played important roles on all of the acts of defense, often times working on the rearguard, freeing professionally trained soldiers from mundane tasks but also sometimes being the only thing capable of defending a town such as the case of the British attack on Arecibo where the town's militia fought against a small landing force of british troops and won, or perhaps in a case of early guerrilla warfare when in 1797 a british invasion fleet lead by Ralph Abercromby and Henry Harvey tried in vain to wrestle the island from Spain, at that time the urban militias from Loiza (a historically black municipality of Puerto Rico) where among the first to race to defend the island, the urban militias engaged in guerrilla tactics, harassing the supply chain and forcing the british to strengthen them.
A small collage of the uniforms and to whom they belonged, I tried to be as accurate as possible while also keeping the aesthetics of the SOTW figures which I love, I also tried to give that guy the golden/yellow brim on his hat but I failed miserably at making it look good. I hope I didn't bore any of you with this long post but I felt it was important to share a bit of the history behind a part of Puerto Rico's history that is not often shared and shown, specially online where finding information about it can be a bit tricky.
Anyway, thanks for looking and I hope to post some more stuff soon enough, I got plenty of figures that just need to be photographed.
I've been a member for some time now, I posted on the introduction section a long time ago and since then I don't think I've posted anything else or even logged in for that matter, truth be told I've been busy and dealing with some personal issues of which I will not go into detail, nevertheless I thought today would be a good day for a very late first post and what better topic than something I love, history and re-using old uniforms and turning them into something else.
In this case these old soldier of the world uniforms have been turned into those worn by the colonial forces of Spanish Puerto Rico, specifically the Fixed Regiment, the Professional Militias and the Urban militias (tho they didn't really have a uniform). All of the figures I will post here are of the 1770's or later, they are the result of military reforms enacted by Alejandro O'reilly on his visit to Puerto Rico, the island's defenses before his reforms fell entirely on the hands of the Spanish Army that would be stationed in San Juan (and nowhere else), a position that was rotated between different companies of the Spanish army, tho there was a fixed battalion by the time O'reilly came to the island it was considered to be almost entirely useless due to the age of the men, the fact that many where injured and thus unfit for service, lack of uniforms, barracks, armories and the acceptance of anyone into the force, this was also made worse by the fact officers of the fixed battalion where the ones in charge of paying these men. O'reilly reformed this fixed battalion into the Fixed Regiment, he also went on to create the Professional Militias as a means to provide the rest of the island with some military presence by professionally trained men.
Pictured here a member of the Compañia de Morenos Libres, an all black and mulatto company of around 110 men formed under O'reilly's reforms, their uniform was later on changed, the blue coat was stopped being used and their leather hats, considered to be too hot for the tropics where replaced with the typical tricorne hats used at the time. The man in the middle is a member of the Regimiento Fijo, their uniforms just like those of the man on his left where required to be white and of good quality so that the men would have to wash them regularly, and also because of the tropical heat and lastly a member of the Compañias de blancos y pardos, unlike the fixed regiment which required all men to present proof that they where the sons of spanish born parents the company of whites and pardos did not have that requirement, instead the men where only required to be whites or at the least have one native parent, usually their mothers.
And lastly an often time overlooked part of Puerto Rico's defenses from before the reforms, the Urban militias trace their origin back to the earliest days of colonization, comprised of locals and free men these militias where often times the first and last line of defense of the small towns and villages at the time, their armaments would have been comprised mostly of swords and spears. The Urban militias played important roles on all of the acts of defense, often times working on the rearguard, freeing professionally trained soldiers from mundane tasks but also sometimes being the only thing capable of defending a town such as the case of the British attack on Arecibo where the town's militia fought against a small landing force of british troops and won, or perhaps in a case of early guerrilla warfare when in 1797 a british invasion fleet lead by Ralph Abercromby and Henry Harvey tried in vain to wrestle the island from Spain, at that time the urban militias from Loiza (a historically black municipality of Puerto Rico) where among the first to race to defend the island, the urban militias engaged in guerrilla tactics, harassing the supply chain and forcing the british to strengthen them.
A small collage of the uniforms and to whom they belonged, I tried to be as accurate as possible while also keeping the aesthetics of the SOTW figures which I love, I also tried to give that guy the golden/yellow brim on his hat but I failed miserably at making it look good. I hope I didn't bore any of you with this long post but I felt it was important to share a bit of the history behind a part of Puerto Rico's history that is not often shared and shown, specially online where finding information about it can be a bit tricky.
Anyway, thanks for looking and I hope to post some more stuff soon enough, I got plenty of figures that just need to be photographed.
