page_title: British Army during the American Revolutionary War
section_title: Loyalists
hierarchical_section_title: British Army during the American Revolutionary War / Infantry / Loyalists
caption_attribution_description: Depicted person: Joseph Brant
context_page_description: The British Army during the American Revolutionary War served for eight years in campaigns fought around the globe. Defeat at the Siege of Yorktown to a combined Franco-US force ultimately led to the loss of the Thirteen Colonies in eastern North America, and the concluding Treaty of Paris deprived Britain of many of the gains achieved in the Seven Years' War. However several victories elsewhere meant that much of the British Empire remained intact.
  In 1775 the British Army was a volunteer force. The army had suffered from lack of peacetime spending and ineffective recruitment in the decade since the Seven Years' War, circumstances which had left it in a dilapidated state at the outbreak of war in North America. To offset this the British government quickly hired contingents of German auxiliaries alongside the regular army units in campaigns from 1776. Limited army impressment was also introduced in England and Scotland to bolster recruitment in 1778, however the practice proved too unpopular and was proscribed again in 1780.
context_section_description: Large numbers of scouts and skirmishers were also formed from loyalists and Native Americans. The renowned Robert Rogers formed the Queen's Rangers, while his brother James Rogers led the King's Rangers. Loyalist pioneer John Butler raised the provincial regiment known as Butler's Rangers, who were heavily engaged in the Northern colonies during which they were accused of participating in massacres at Wyoming and Cherry Valley. The majority of Native Americans favoured the British cause and Mohawk leader Joseph Brant commanded Iroquois and Loyalists in campaigns on the New York Frontier. Colonel Thomas Brown led another group of King's Rangers in the Southern colonies, defending East Florida from invasion, raiding the southern frontier and participating in the conquest of the southern colonies. Colonial Governor John Murray, 4th Earl of Dunmore raised a regiment composed entirely of freed slaves known as the Ethiopian Regiment, which served through the early skirmishes of the war.
  The loyalist units were vital to the British primarily for their knowledge of local terrain. One of the most successful of these units was formed by an escaped slave, and veteran of the Ethiopian Regiment known as Colonel Tye, who led the so-called Black Brigade in numerous raids in New York and New Jersey, interrupting supply lines, capturing rebel officers, and killing suspected leaders. He died from wounds in 1780.
caption: Joseph Brant led Native Americans and Loyalists in the North.
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