Steve's Random Musings on Wargaming and other stuff...

Saturday, June 21

"Firing into the Brown" #83 - last of the gates and stuff..

"So Carnehan weeds out the pick of his men, and sets the two of the Army to show them drill and at the end of two weeks the men can manoeuvre about as well as Volunteers. So he marches with the Chief to a great big plain on the top of a mountain, and the Chiefs men rushes into a village and takes it; we three Martinis firing into the brown of the enemy".

Kipling "The Man Who Would Be King"

Time for another update.. too damn hot in the loft so time to get out on Gertrude

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...and so we come to the very last of the four gates that allowed access to the old/original Portsmouth, and also, alas, to the end of this most enjoyable little mini local history project.. it's been great fun.. be quite sad to see the end of it, but I don't doubt the odd rabbit hole will present itself going forward.. 😏

So the last gate, the King William's Gate, is also the last in other ways actually - as it was the last of the four gates to be built, not being completed until 1834 - and having built it, it was demolished with the rest of the fortifications only 40 years later (1876'ish)

Starting with a map to orientate ourselves:

The gate is ringed - you'll note that it was protected by it's own ravelin (long long gone and no signs of it now) and was in the southern quarter of the old town - adjacent to Kings Bastion (which we have been to already [clicky]). Note also the Guard House just inside the gate..

Some period pictures and photo's.. no date on the following, but it shows the outer face of what was clearly quite a utilitarian gate, no monographs, balls, crowns, entablature (still like that word!) or globes, and not a bit of gilding to be seen. A veritable "Tesco Blue stripe" kind of a gate... 😏

..the one following shows the view into the town, I suspect not long after the gate was demolished - it's not clear but that looks like rubble on the slope just in front of the guard house (left centre - two chimney pots) previously mentioned, which is also now visible..

There's a tiny picture in the "further reading" link, but I thought this painting of the inner side of the gate was good.. I suspect it is of the time, but unfortunately there is no dating information.. again - note the guardhouse, but also note the railings.. 😁

...and here's the gatehouse (following) as of yesterday.. the actual gate and wall would be left of picture.. note also the fences which may be original - it's a school playing field now but it's also the grounds for the Royal Garrison Church..

...the line of the old fortifications.. this footpath runs directly to Kings Bastion and would have followed the line..

..following - the bit on the side is clearly newer.. I think the inside of the wall and gate would have butted up to the wall the alarm is on..

..following - the other end of the footpath, wonder whether some of those stones have been re-used from the demolition of the original walls? The plaque by the way, is a remembrance of a previous noteworthy's favourite horse...

...and last of all a view to what would have been the inside of the gate 150 odd years ago...

Last of all though I'll leaved you with this one, which is a cracker... click to embigen.. we've visited the volunteer reviews before [clicky]


	"The Volunteer Review at Portsmouth: The Defending Force Concentrating at King William's Gate UK 1869" - Illustrated London News

Sunday, June 15

"Firing into the Brown" #82 - Forsyth, the dark side of the shed(s) and stuff...

Kipling "The Man Who Would Be King"

Time for another update..

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It would ill behove me not to mention the recent passing (reported this week) of that monumental story teller Frederick Forsyth..

Steve the Wargamer has been reading Forsyth repeatedly (since all books should be considered as friends and revisited frequently, and preferably also taken to the pub 😏) since his early years and for the huge amount of enjoyment Mr Forsyth has given me I'd just like to say "thank you"..

The 'triumvirate' of Dogs of War, Odessa File but most of all Day of the Jackal are for me in the top 10 thrillers of all time, Jackal would be in my top 3, and his other later books were no slouches either (Fourth Protocol especially).. with those three books, written in the early 70's, he undoubtedly influenced generations of future authors to adopt that same procedural, detail driven genre of thriller..

I'll be raising a glass to him later.. thanks, sir.

Saturday, June 7

"Firing into the Brown" #81 - Camber Bastion, Orkney's and stuff...

Kipling "The Man Who Would Be King"

Time for another update..

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Whilst getting the pictures for the post on the King George (or Quay) Gate the other week I happened to notice this on the side of a very new shed like building on the estate between where the Quay and King James Gates would have been..

...and then I noticed this on the side ..

..by way of orientation - the bastion would have been here - the year dates it to the de Gomme fortifications.. the positions of the two gates are highlighted..

..this picture following is from that post on the King George/Quay Gate.. the bastion would have been just out of picture on the left..

The Inner Camber - the King James Gate location is off to the left behind the row of houses/flats in the distance - best guess the two pointy roofed one's.. the front face of the King George or Quay Gate would have been behind me..

...and then I found this in the British Museum Online Gallery

"A VIEW of the NEW MAGAZINE on ye CAMBER at PORTSMOUTH as taken from ye POINT GATE Ano 1716"

Two things about that picture... first, the "Point" gate they refer to in the inscription would have been the King James Gate, the engraving pre-dates the King George (or Quay) Gate by about 18 years, but the Elizabethan sally port/arch would have been up there near the fences top left (behind the boat), and second, the monogram that kicked off this little rabbit hole can be seen next to the square opening in the camber outer face.. 😊

So.. built in 1687, it was basically a triangular limestone gun platform which projected into the Camber - by the early 1700s the garrison magazine was built in to the landward end of the bastion (I think that's the large square building in the engraving) but that became redundant by the middle of the 1700s when it was relocated further out of the city (I suspect the citizens of Pompey would have been quite happy about that - it would have made a big bang if it had gone off! 😁).

By 1865 the bastion was in use as the garrisons out-pensioners* establishment (which would have saved it from the general demolishment of the walls going on at the time) but was then redeveloped as a military hospital which remained in use until the early 1900s. The bastion was eventually demolished in about 1935 which may explain why we still have those monograms..

History's all around us.. 😀

* now here's a thing I didn't know.. historically, all British Army pensions were administered by the Royal Hospital Chelsea, any veterans in receipt of this payment were known as Out-Pensioners but those accepted for admission to the actual Royal Hospital surrendered this payment and were known as In-Pensioners.

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George Hamilton, 1st Earl of Orkney - Colonel
of the regiment from 1692 to 1737!

Another in the occasional "regiments of renown" series featuring the histories of various regiments painted in haste at the beginning of a project but which were not documented here for posterity.. so we come to British infantry regiment "Lord Orkney’s Regiment of Foot", part of my War of the Spanish Succession collection

There is a very (very) good potted history of this regiment on the Kronoskaf WSS site (link below) so there's little point in me repeating the (huge amount of) good work completed there (and there really is, it's one of the most comprehensive regimental histories I've seen on this excellent site), but by way of a framework to hang some 'rabbit holes' on (and I do love a rabbit hole😏) the regiment was first raised for French service* by a Royal Warrant dated March 1633 awarded to Sir John Hepburn, who was their first colonel. They were known in French as “Regiment d’Hebron” and at one time numbered almost 8,000 men!

*(Charles had married Henrietta Maria, a princess of the French Royal family, in 1625, and the marriage treaty that was signed with it meant a fair few British military resources were then loaned to the French King to be used in his wars against the Spanish)

The formation date certainly makes this one of, if not the, oldest regiments of the line in the British Army. It then existed in its own right (as the 1st Foot after the organisation of 1751) right up until 2006, when it amalgamated with a number of other Scottish regiments to form the Royal Regiment of Scotland - which may explain why their nickname in the British Army is "Pontius Pilates Guard" 😁

Seniority is more complicated (as you'd expect it's a fairly touchy subject!) but I think they would be ranked as the most senior of the foot regiments of the British army, just behind the Guard regiments who differentiate, and are senior, by the fact they are.. errr.. Guards.. 😏

Cutting to the chase... during the War of the Spanish Succession it's fair to say they had a busy war, not the least, serving in all four of the major engagements..

Sir John Hepburn

1701, one of the first thirteen British battalions (or rather in there case two, as uniquely the regiment sent both battalions to the war - most regiments would have kept one back as a training cadre and source for reinforcements) William III sends to assist the Dutch Republic in support of the Treaty of The Hague
1702

siege of Kaiserwerth and then the regiment along with the Foot Guards and other British units formed the rear guard during a French relief attempt
siege of Venlo
one battalion of the regiment was detached for the siege of Stevensweert
siege of Liège

1703

first battalion of the regiment brigaded with the Foot Guards and the regiments of Stewart, Howe, Ingoldsby, and Marlborough, under Brigadier -General Withers
second battalion and the regiments of North and Grey, Derby, Row, and Ferguson, under Brigadier-General the Earl of Derby.

1704

part of Marlborough's march to the Danube,
Battle of the Schellenberg where they charged three times before storming the Bavarian entrenchments.
siege of Ingoldstadt
Battle of Blenheim
siege of Landau.

1705

recruits from Scotland
first battalion siege of Huy
part of the force to attack the fortified lines of the French

1706

Battle of Ramillies where it was initially deployed near the right of the first line, on the heights of Foulz
sieges and captures of Dendermonde, Ostend and Menin.
one battalion of the regiment was detached for the siege of Ath

1707

first battalion was brigaded with the Foot Guards, Godfrey's Foot and Sabine's Foot under Brigadier-General Meredith
second battalion was brigaded with Webb's Foot, Ingoldsby's Foot, Tatton's Foot and Temple's Foot under the command of Brigadier-General Sir Richard Temple.

1708

following the threat of a possible French invasion of Britain the regiment with several others was ordered to return to England. Following the failed invasion attempt the regiment was sent back to Flanders.
Battle of Oudenarde, where it formed part of the division commanded by the Duke of Argyle.
siege of Lille
part of the force which advanced to relieve the French siege of Bruxelles
siege of Ghent where a detachment of the regiment formed part of the forlorn-hope

1709

more recruits from Scotland
siege of Tournai
battle of Malplaquet, in the division commanded by General Count Lottum, engaged in the assault of the entrenchments in the wood of Taisnière.
siege and capture of Mons

1710,

siege Douai
siege of Béthune
siege of Aire

1711

siege of Bouchain

1712

siege of Quesnoy
preparatory to a general treaty of peace, the agreed to deliver the city of Dunkerque into the hands of the British as a pledge of his sincerity The regiment was part of the garrison and remained in the city nearly two years.

1713, a treaty of peace having been concluded at Utrecht, the British troops were ordered to return from Flanders.
1714 went into garrison at Portsmouth (I'm guessing Gosport? No evidence to suggest it was actually in Portsmouth itself) and Plymouth.

These are Dixon's and painted and based by me some time pre-2006, probably one of the first regiments I painted - the flag is new as of this post [clicky - thanks again for your work David!] as the old one was decidedly battle damaged.. 😏

I chose to depict them with blue facings (which I think they were got at the end of the 17th C) but most pictures/references for the period still show them in the older grey/white facings..

R.J. Marrion’s illustration of a man of Orkney’s Regiment of Foot (from the Charles Grant book cover).

Further Sources:

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"Laters", as the young people are want to say...

Saturday, May 31

Shootout at the Sierra Corral - Preamble, Setup and Game

Time for another update.. a game report for a change..

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Preamble..

As the sun rose over a sleepy Cedar Gulch and gradually lit the Sierra Corral and its sales office, the inhabitants of the (normally) sleepy town little knew what a rude awakening they were about to experience..

Wes Alsop, the owner of the Sierra (which was situated just outside the town), had taken delivery the day before of some new horses for the local ranch, the "Lazy C". Chaz Bishop, senior hand on the ranch, had taken the opportunity to ride over to pick the horses up, and at the same time have a coffee and a yarn with his old friend.

As they sat there in the office, the rich smell of coffee filling the air, neither of them knew that they were to be the cause of their local citizens rude awakening, for unbeknownst to them, the horses had also attracted the attention of some of the local bad men.

'Deadeye' Cooper and Fred Early had been in town the day before drinking in the 'Silver Dollar' ("Whiskey, Beer and Rooms") when someone had happened to mention the arrival of the horses. Looking out the window at their own beaten up old nags, the victims of one too many escapes and hard rides, the looked at each other and words unspoken, lifted their glasses to each other in salute. As the evening went on they got into conversation with Gus Farley, a saddle tramp, who also invited himself in on the "party". One more gun would never go amiss...

Dramatis Personae

The number is the characters toughness rating - the lower the number the tougher the hombre..

Table and Scenario Specific Rules:

I'm using Ruthless [clicky] again - Ruthless-Fastest-Rules-in-the-West-3.pdf (fireballforward.com) [clicky] ..they're free gratis, but more importantly they drive a fantastic narrative
Top of the picture following is North

Deadeye enters at 2/.
Fred and Gus at 1/.
Wes and Chaz are in the front of the office come bunk house at 3/.

Neither Wes or Chas can react until one movement in view of any of the bad guys, and even then Wes is cursed with a sense of fairness and won't open fire until shot upon
The horses are unsaddled and in the Corral, and for any of the bad guys to get them away they need to expend 4 actions/two complete turns doing absolutely nothing else - after that they move at foot rate in any direction the bad guys wishes to take them (there are gates in the fence so I'm not going to make it any more difficult for them than it already is 😏)
Winner is the side that either has the horses in (the good guys) or out (the bad guys) of the Corral
The "Skeddadle" dice is a D6 rather than a D10 due to the small size of each group
Any move that includes shooting will result in the horses moving D6" in a direction decided by a direction dice
All ground is good going except rocks, hills, fences, scrub/inside building which counts as rough. Scrub/fences count soft cover, building/logs/rocks hard cover. Hills/rocks/building block line of sight

The Game

[Move 1]

Start of move..

As the sun slowly rose over the horizon, and a new day burned its way into the retinas, at the far end of town Wes and Chaz, breakfast over and coffee in hand, are chatting, laughing and reminiscing about previous misdeeds, narrow escapes, ladies loved and lost, the best brands of sipping whiskey and the favourite horses of their respective youths [their cards are discarded as they require one full move to react to any sighting].

Across the way Fred gets the drop on his compadres and runs across the open ground to join up with Deadeye who moves into the cover of the fallen logs closer to the office. Gus, the most trepidous of the three, moves to the cover of bushes north of the corral.

The horses snicker and move nervously [no shooting so no movement].

Skeddadle dice not required (no casualties/unconscious or lily livered... yet... 😏)

[Move 2] Wes spots Fred running across the clearing the other side of the Corral and something about his furtive manner makes him drop his coffee cup, pull his iron and drop down to get the full cover of the window shouting a warning to Chaz.

Deadeye, cursing the stupidity of his partner at being seen so soon, sprints to the side of the cabin nearest him coming to a rest next to the window, back to the wall while Fred runs to the fence line, using the horses to cover him from the cabin. Gus, screwing up his courage, runs to the scrub at the north east corner of the Corral.

Chaz is slow but pulls his iron drops down to the other side of the window and snaps off a shot at Gus. [One shot only to allow for the other actions - not aimed - can ignore long range - target in soft cover - but not surprisingly perhaps he misses]

Sitrep End Move 2 before horses move

The horses snicker and move nervously towards the cabin [dice(s) give 3" to the East]

Skeddadle dice again not required (yet.. 😏)

[Move 3] Gun still in hand, and Gus still visible, Chaz takes advantage aims and squeezes off another shot at him across the way [long range but that be ignored because of his character trait, soft cover but the aimed shot counters that] and is rewarded with the sound of a shout of pain from Gus - "hit 'im" he grunts to Wes.. better.. he's fairly sure Gus is going nowhere soon [he was right - Gus failed his subsequent morale test and becomes "lily livered".. 'shaken' in other words] but his optimism is rudely rewarded with a couple of shots in return from the wounded Gus, splintering the wood work around the window but doing no other harm..

Across the corral, Fred jumps the fence and moves towards the horses, still keeping them between him and the office. At the side of the office Deadeye turns and jumps to the side window intending to fire off a shot at Wes in the room. out of the corner of his eye Wes sees him and quickly snaps off a shot at him before he can fire. Deadeye grunts in pain and drops out of sight - shot untaken.[Interesting passage of play from a rule perspective and shows their flexibility - so Deadeye had the initiative, but the rules allow a character who is about to be fired at, but who hasn't activated yet this turn, to "get the draw" - overwatch if you like. Wes tested (at -1 as I allowed Deadeye his "stealth" bonus), but won, and managed to get a successful shot off before Deadeye could shoot - Deadeye then failed his subsequent morale test so I adjudged that the wound - which was serious - plus the failed morale test would have meant him dropping out of sight pronto]

End Turn 3 - just prior to the failed "Skedaddle" test - yellow pins indicate "lily livered"/shaken

Fred shouts "I'm getting out of here!" and runs for cover (and the town), and is swiftly followed by both Deadeye and Gus.. looks like the beaten up old nags are going to have to suffer yet another hard ride.. [with two characters now on failed morale the bad guys needed to get over 2 on a D6 or fail the skedaddle test - needless to say they threw a 2 😏]

Post Match Analysis:

Short, sharp and sweet - like a good Tequila (or so I understand... 😀) - but another fantastic short story delivered by this set of rules.. you can just smell the heat, the dust, the sweat and the cordite when you play...
Not a lot of lead thrown, but Wes and Chaz were very accurate, both hitting and hitting hard with their few shots..

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"Laters", as the young people are want to say...

Saturday, May 24

"Firing into the Brown" #80 - King George (or Quay) Gate, Appearances and stuff...

Kipling "The Man Who Would Be King"

Time for another update.. and another gate.. 😏

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"...to the Quay or King George's gate a noble structure in the rustic style adorned with massive pillars and entablature [we like that word! 😀] of grand proportions. Above are various apartments formerly the offices of the Governor and on the inner side a large Guard house, a lofty stone wall completes the circle of defence. Before the erection of the present Quay gate sixty years since the entrance was through an open arch in the wall twelve feet southward towards the Cage traces of which are still discernible, and at the extremity of Crown street was a small wicket now closed by stonework but the shape of which may be still discovered...." from "The Chronicles of Portsmouth" written by Henry and Julian Slight and published in 1828.

First a little orientation... the King George Gate (for that is our topic) is ringed red in the map following, and labelled "Quay Gate" (which is it's earlier name, as a gate/opening had been there in one form or another since Elizabethan times). The King James Gate (our last topic) is ringed blue to show how close it is..

What it shows us is that the whole of the Point (the name of the finger of land with the Cambers on one side and the Harbour on the other) was in effect totally separated from the city/Portsea by these two gates - there are a few defences on the Point but clearly the thinking was that in the event of a landing it was seen as largely sacrificial.. possibly not enough room there to construct significant defences??

In the 17th/18th and 19th Century of course, being a Naval town, the Point was where the pubs, taverns, eateries and brothels were..

"Portsmouth Point", an etching by Thomas Rowlandson.. "You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy"... indeed.. 😏

..it may well be though, that one, the city authorities quite liked the idea of some gates between them and the lawlessness of the Point, and that two, maybe they thought the good ladies of the Point might put up a far better defence against any invading Frenchman than a few extra 64pdr Armstrong's.. 😁

There had been just an opening there in Elizabethan times..

..but this was supplemented when they built the Quay Gate in 1734 - so both coexisted until the fortifications were completely removed in the mid 19th Century

Engravings perspective is of the frontal aspect.. so harbour/Camber behind the artist.. you can just see the Cathedral tower in the background with the older Elizabethan opening in line with it..

I can't find a decent engraving or photograph of the landward side of the gate but the 3D Model project gives a pretty good impression and a much clearer idea of what the Governors offices and apartments would have looked like..

...and here is the front in all of it's glory.. long, long gone.. they didn't even bother trying to save this one unlike the King James and Landport Gates as it's a glorious aspect..

Copy of a photograph. Ref: Gates,W. City of Portsmouth Corporation Records 1835 - 1927" - photo probably taken 1850's..

So all these photo's would have been taken from the outer/seaward side.. the artists/photographers would have had the swing bridge and Camber behind them

King George's Gate (Quay Gate)
by Edward Robins (1854–1909)
Image Credit Portsmouth Museums and Visitor Services

...and all of it long gone now - though there are hints - but we still stand in the footsteps of our forebears even when it's currently a fish market.. 😏

The junction of King Street and Lombard Street - a square now and indeed as it was then - the inner side of the gate would have been just behind me

...and this is where the Gate would have been - 175 years ago I would have been looking through the opening of the gate, to a swing bridge, and wondering if the Bridge Tavern was open for a beer.. as you can see it's still a working fishing port which is a good thing.. the big modern building in the middle by the way is Ben Ainslie's America's Cup HQ (or was 😏)

..the swing bridge would have been here, between the two sides - the pub is named for it, and the Outer Camber is just round the corner (where the ferry is)