Talk:76th Regiment of Foot (MacDonald's Highlanders)

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Reference verification assistance

I have removed the following reference:

Taylor, James Williamson; Good, Alexander (March 12, 2007). "A True History of the 76th Regiment of Foot - The Macdonald's Highlanders 1777-1784. The Battle of Black Swamp". 76th Foot Re-enactment Group: 96–98. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)

There is no online trace of this publication or indeed of the 76th Foot Re-enactment Group; for a genuine journal article published in 2007 I find this highly implausible. The editor who added the reference has been blocked for disruptive and incompetent editing. Any editor who can verify the reference and believes that it is reliable is very welcome to add it back in (but please fix the "Cite journal requires |journal=" error when you do so). Thanks, Wham2001 (talk) 19:06, 23 July 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Hi, I do have the above publication by James Williamson Taylor. He sent it to me after I contacted him through the 76th Regiment of Foot, MacDonald's Highlanders Facebook page which you can find at the top of these Google search results: [1]. I think it is a reliable source whereby they have transcribed original contemporary documents found in the archives, mostly from the The National Archives (United Kingdom) in Kew, London. It has some documents transcribed from other archives as well and also quotes published books for its information on the regiment. It is 225 pages long. It has been most useful in my research. QuintusPetillius (talk) 19:20, 23 July 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Thank-you for the speedy reply! That sounds much better than I'd expected. Has the document been published such that it can be used as a source on Wikipedia? Best, Wham2001 (talk) 19:24, 23 July 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Hi, I was only sent it in Microsoft Word format. The Battle of Black Swamp is detailed on pages 104-106. I'll copy and paste one key paragraph:

Dohla in his diary relates that on 26 June 1781 “ a command of three hundred men, English, Hessians, and some of our regiment (76th), under the command of Brigadier Flywalks of the Green Scots attacked and captured the enemy defenses at Black Swamp, about thirty miles from Greenbridge.” “During the capture none of our troops were killed, because the rebels, numbering about six hundred men of the Virginia militia, under the command of General Kreeckely, fled without firing a shot and abandoned the position, in which there were four iron 6-pound cannon as well as a small amount of ammunition and provisions.” According to Dohla’s diary twenty-one rebels were taken prisoner, including a captain and an ensign. The four cannon were spiked rather than carried back because of a shortage of horses and the condition of the roads, and, on the return march, about fifty head of cattle were confiscated.

It quotes as source: Johann Conrad Dohla, translated and edited by Bruce E. Burgoyne, A Hessian Diary of the American Revolution, (Oklahoma: University of Oklahoma Press, 1993) pp. 153-154.

As I say it is only a Microsoft Word document and as far as I know it has not been published in a book but I would say it is definitely reliable and very well sourced.QuintusPetillius (talk) 19:35, 23 July 2023 (UTC)[reply]

If it hasn't been published then it surely can't be used as a source, since it can't, by definition, be verified? The very first sentence of the guideline on reliable sources says Wikipedia articles should be based on reliable, published sources... On the other hand given your assessment of the quality of the research work that has gone into it perhaps we can cite the sources that it's based on? I can't see the content at this gbooks url but perhaps you can, or you have some other access to it? Best, Wham2001 (talk) 19:42, 23 July 2023 (UTC)[reply]

If I do a search for Black Swamp it shows it in the index so it appears to have some coverage of it and it also shows the same pages numbers quoted in James Taylor's research (153-54): [2]. So I think it is fair to add this book as the source with the page numbers. Cheers. QuintusPetillius (talk) 20:00, 23 July 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Sounds good! I've made that change. Thanks very much for bearing with me

Wham2001 (talk) 05:31, 24 July 2023 (UTC)[reply]