Fusilier Regiment Erbprinz joins the ranks..

This unit has been awaiting completion since I got the figures through a private sale back in 2008.. (sorry for the delay, Jim! 😏)

They were partially painted so in this case only required some touching up - some blue ink on the coats, flesh wash, re-painted the gun barrels, and I decided to colour the wigs a more natural colour as I assumed they would soon have "lost" the originals on campaign...  that and a base makes all the difference...

I've taken a bit of a liberty as this regiment became a musketeer regiment in about 1780 (so just before the Yorktown campaign which is my "timestamp" for the AWI project) but as I had the fusilier figures, and the uniform colours were correct for Erbprinz, I decided to go with it anyway...

This regiment was one of four fusilier regiments (the others being von Ditfurth, von Knyphausen and von Lossburg) from the German state of Hesse-Kassel. They were also known as the Prince Hereditaire Regiment. I have not managed to find any difference in function, or equipment, between the fusiliers and more normal musketeer regiments other than the distinctive fusilier cap..  any difference would have been lost in time, traditionally the fusiliers would have been the men who guarded the artillery - I suspect like many regiments they would have guarded the outward signs of their difference jealously, and hence they were still wearing their caps in America..

Each Hesse-Kassel musketeer or fusilier regiment had five line infantry companies and a grenadier company of about 135 men each; the grenadier companies however, were detached before leaving Germany and were formed into four composite grenadier battalions.

The Regiment arrived in America in August 1776 and saw it's first action in the New York area. The regiment arrived in Virginia in March 1781 where it was under the command of British Major General William Phillips. When Phillips died, the unit was temporarily under the command of Brigadier General Benedict Arnold, who was commanding troops in the British army by then.

A week later the unit came under the command of Cornwallis during the Virginia and Yorktown Campaigns.

As above the field strength of the fusilier and musketeer regiments were supposed to be around 500-600 men, but during the Siege of Yorktown Erbprinz consisted of approximately 400 men - during the siege they lost an estimated 23 killed, 57 wounded and 16 missing. The regiment was commanded throughout by Lieutenant Colonel Mathew Fuchs.

My reading/research would indicate that by the time of Yorktown, the fusilier regiments Erbprinz and du Corp, and musketeer regiment Trumbach, were superior in quality to the other musketeer and fusilier regiments from Hesse-Kassel. They were better trained and had higher morale.

The figures are Minifigs 25mm - and splendid they are! Base no. 48 & 49.. and coincidentally the 60th unit in the American War of Independence project!

The fusilier regiment as they would have looked prior to being designated a musketeer regiment and painted by the inestimable Mr Troiani

NB. As per my previous post [click here] this regiment will replace the existing unit with the same august name - the old unit will become either Grenadier Regiment von Rall or one of the other Fusilier regiments; in the previous post I said I'd need to summon up enough nerve to have a go at the red stripes of the von Rall trousers - following the recent successful experiment with the Tiger Zouaves and a fine drawing pen however, and I think I may have the tools at hand...

CSS Virginia

..part 2 of my, not so secret any more, purchase at Colours was this.. the CSS Virginia......

Sometimes (incorrectly) known as the "Merrimack" (for reasons I'll explain later) like the USS Monitor, the CSS Virginia was also a "first" as she was the first steam-powered ironclad warship of the Confederate States Navy.

Virginia was a casemate ironclad which was a new term to me, but means that rather than have its cannons in a gun deck (armoured or otherwise, but think HMS Warrior, HMS Victory etc.) it has an armoured structure (the casemate) on the deck with the guns inside that. These ironclads were seen as the intermediate step between traditional, Napoleonic style, ships (albeit ironclad) and the battleships of later years with their guns in turrets (of which Monitor was the precursor).

Why casemate?? To a very great extent this design decision was driven by what basic building blocks the Confederates had to use at the start of the war.

When Virginia seceded from the Union in 1861, one of the main military establishments that fell into Confederate hands was the Union Naval Base at Gosport (that's the Gosport in Virginia as opposed to my local one here in the UK ). The Union forces planned to destroy everything before it fell into Confederate hands, but for one reason or another this was bungled with the USS Merrimack (that's her to the left), and although burned to the waterline, she was found to be salvageable - not much of a basic building block but when it's all you have, ingenuity will find a way...

The Confederate ship builders cut out all the burned timber, and on top of this built a new deck with the casemate for the guns.

The deck comprised 4-inch thick iron, the casemate was built up of 24 inches of oak and pine in several layers, topped with two 2-inch layers of iron plating oriented perpendicular to each other, and angled to deflect hits (yee gods - can you imagine how heavy she must have been?!). I thought that was massive overkill, but actually HMS Victory had the same thickness at the waterline, but less the 4" of iron...

Unusually she was also equipped with a ram as the designers were well aware that the Union Navy had not stood still while they were designing Virginia, they were designing their own ironclads and that it was unlikely that Virginia's guns would be able to sink another ironclad. The problem was that whereas the old triremes would have relied on speed to drive their ram home the engines in Virginia, inherited from Merrimack, although working were not good (that was the reason Merrimack had been in the yard in the first place!) - after first sea trials Virginia was found to have a turning radius of a mile (!) and a top speed of only 5 to 6 knots. The not inconsiderable draft, a consequence of the choice of hull, was also a shortcoming and would inhibit her operations in what was mostly a fairly shallow river..

So what about armament? The casemate had 14 gun-ports, three each in the bow and stern, and four on each side. The battery consisted of :

1. Four muzzle-loading single-banded Brooke rifles:
• Two of the rifles were 7-inch calibre firing a 104-pound shell, these were on a pivot and could fire out of any of the three ports in the the bow and stern..
• The other two rifles were 6.4-inch, one in each broadside.
2. Six smooth-bore 9-inch Dahlgren guns, mounted three on each side, and firing a 72.5-pound shell up to a range of 3,357 yards; the gun on each side nearest the furnaces was also fitted for firing heated shot
3. She also had two 12-pdr howitzers

 

Vital Statistics:

Displacement:	about 4,000 long tons
Length:	275 ft
Beam:	51 ft 2 in
Draft:	21 ft (23ft after further work later in her life)
Speed:	5–6 knots
Complement:	about 320 officers and men
Armament:	2 × 7-inch Brooke rifles 2 × 6.4-inch Brooke rifles 6 × 9-inch Dahlgren smoothbores 2 × 12-pounder howitzers
Armor:	Belt: 1–3 inches Deck: 1 inches Casemate: 4 inches

Like the USS Monitor unfortunately CSS Virginia was not destined to make 'old bones'.

In May 1862 advancing Union troops occupied Norfolk and since she was not an ocean going vessel, and was unable to retreat further up the James River due to that deep 22-foot draft - her commander decided to blow her up after running her aground and removing all her guns. Early on the morning of May 11, 1862, fire reached her magazine and she was destroyed by a great explosion.

Ignominious ends for two ships that had served so well, but rich fodder indeed for a wargamer looking for his first scenario - stay tuned for a post on the Battle of Hampton Roads, which in turn should precede my first table top action... all I need to figure out is what rules to you use!

Further Reading:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CSS_Virginia

http://cssvirginia.org/

USS Monitor..

"...a cheesebox on a raft"

...and so the secret is out.... 😀

Meet the USS Monitor, steaming across your screen from right to left (bow on the left of the picture)....

So there I was wandering around Colours when I happened to spot a demonstration game by the side of the Peter Pig stand - they were demonstrating "Hammerin' Iron" their American Civil War riverine naval rules using their own models, and I was immediately consumed by the need to recreate some American Civil War naval gaming that I did as a child.

Back then I used home cast scratch built models; I made the models from plasticine, made a plaster of paris mould, and then cast the ships in lead - perilous, but hugely enjoyable, fun. Those little ships (from memory) were about an inch long as I think I used a tray from a matchbox as the base of the mould, this however is 1/600th scale, and is about 3" long...  perfect for a little American Civil War side project...

So first a short history, USS Monitor was the first ironclad warship commissioned by the Union Navy during the American Civil War. She is most famous for her participation in the Battle of Hampton Roads on March 9, 1862, the first-ever battle fought between two ironclads (and that's a major clue as to the other element of this side project..)

Monitor was designed and built as a direct consequence of the Confederate navy building their first ironclads. A board of three naval officers reviewed designs and three ships were accepted, Monitor was one of them.

She was designed by Swedish-born engineer and inventor John Ericsson (to whom the quote above is attributed - clearly there was no love lost!) and among a number of "firsts", she was not only the first monitor class, but she also had the first ever 360 degree rotating armoured gun turret, the hull was completely underwater, and she was protected by an overhanging armoured deck and armoured "belt".

Monitor had a heavy round revolving iron gun turret on the deck, housing two 11 in (280 mm) Dahlgren guns side by side, the turret walls were made up of eight layers of 1 in plate, bolted together, with a ninth plate inside to act as a sound shield. Originally the guns were protected by metal shutters when reloading, but the crews resorted just rotating the turret opening away as it was quicker and easier. Despite it's size the turret moved so quickly & easily (it was separately powered by it's own steam engine), that Monitor's gunners used to fire while the turret rotated past the target (!) Apparently it was accepted that accuracy suffered, but the ranges she was expected to engage at were so close it wasn't expected to be a problem... (they fixed this issue on later monitors by the way)

Other than the turret, the only things that stood proud of the deck was a small box pilothouse (in the picture above it's the small square feature near the bow - that's the point nearest the top of the picture for the non-sailors.. ); the chimney was detachable (as is the case on this model, that's the pair of box items closest to the turret in the picture above) so the bulk of the ship was below the waterline - perfect protection. Armour was 4" on the hull, and 1" on the deck.

Vital Statistics:

       Length: 172 feet
       Beam: 41.4 feet
       Draft: 9.5 feet
       Displacement: 1,038 tons
       Speed: 8 knots (9.2 mph; 15 km/h)
       Complement: 59 officers and men
       Armament: Two eleven-inch Dahlgren guns

Her keel was laid on October 25, 1861, and she was launched in just 118 days later (hmmm..  maybe BAE could learn a little from this...  our latest aircraft carrier is going to take 11 years from start to commission!), though she was not destined to make old bones. After the battle she was only engaged one more time (as part of McClellan's campaign against Richmond) where she was unable to assist due to the fact that her guns would not elevate enough....  later that same year, she sank whilst under tow - clearly the low freeboard whilst effective in defence, did not make for a very seaworthy vessel.

Stay tuned for part 2 of the now semi-secret project..

Further Reading:

www.cityofart.net/bship/monitor.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Monitor

Brunswick Jaeger Companys

Triggered by the awesome plate in the Osprey book on the British Army in North America (that's it to the left - painted by the inestimable Gerry Embleton) I decided that for my next mini-project I'd tidy up and base some Jaeger that I bought ready painted a long time ago (in 2007 I think) from a fellow member of the Old School Wargame forum (Hi Jim - sorry about how long it took! )

The more I read about the Jaeger's, the more I realise that my original basing (see below...) which was based on my very poor knowledge of the war at the time, was incorrect - you can see that I've based them as close order troops, when in reality they were light infantry, so this time I'd base them as lights, to be used in that role for skirmishing against the flanks of formed troops.

Brunswick (or more properly Braunschweig-Wolfenbüttel) was the first of the German state-lets (it was actually a Duchy) to agree to provide George III with soldiers to send to the colonies. Karl I (the Duke) agreed to send 4,000 soldiers: four infantry regiments, one grenadier battalion, one dragoon regiment and one light infantry battalion all to be commanded by General Friedrich Adolf Riedesel.

These soldiers comprised most of the German regulars under Burgoyne in the Saratoga campaign of 1777, the Brunswick troops were known for being especially well-trained. At Hubbardton they made a notable presence, singing a Lutheran hymn while making a bayonet charge against the American right flank, which may have saved the collapsing British line!.

After Burgoyne's surrender, 2,431 Brunswick'ers were detained until the end of the war. In total 5,723 troops went to North America, 3,015 did not return in the autumn of 1783 (but many of those would have been deserters choosing to stay and live in America).

Among the troops being sent was one company of Jaeger's (under the command of Captain Carl von Geyso) - probably four platoons [total 4 officers and 120 combatants]; the company was part of the Light Battalion, nominally its 2nd Company, but often operated separately.

Jaeger's were typically recruited from amongst the huntsmen and foresters, they were often "middle class" in background or even lesser nobility. As professionals or semi-professionals they were skilled in weapons and horses, and were primarily used for reconnaissance, skirmishing or screening bodies of heavier troops.

"Jäger were not just skilled riflemen, they were also able to handle and maintain delicate, accurate rifles in an age when very few people had any mechanical skill.

Jäger were excellent snipers able to inflict heavy casualties among enemy officers. Their ability to lay exceptionally accurate rifle fire also made them good for providing covering fire for other more vulnerable troop types such as sappers or engineers constructing forward trenches. For fights in close quarters the Jäger carried a straight-bladed hunting dagger (Hirschfänger), a short sabre or a falchion" (from the Perry website which is just a mine of information)

These are (of course) Minifigs 25mm and are base no's 46 & 47 (and the start of box no. 3 of AWI British and Allied troops!)

The First Louisiana Special Battalion: Wheat's Tigers.

..“the lowest scum of the lower Mississippi...adventurous wharf rats, thieves, and outcasts...and bad characters generally”...
It has been, without a shadow of a doubt, a very poor year for painting. I'm not sure why - clearly a "painting funk" - but part of the problem has been to much other stuff to do.. I have a family, I have a job, I have a boat, and there's only so much free time to be had before people start making "observations"...

Happily though, I sat myself down and bashed out these in fairly short term - I reckon no more than 4 or 5 hours tops? So OK, they're my usual standard (ie. painted while drunk and wearing boxing gloves), but I'm happy - I particularly like the trousers*! As usual with this project these are 20mm, by Newline Designs [click here]

So where did they get their name? Unit histories indicate that it originated from the "Tiger Rifles," a volunteer company raised in the New Orleans area as part of Major Chatham Roberdeau Wheat's 1st Special Battalion, Louisiana Volunteer Infantry (2nd Louisiana Battalion) - that's Wheat to the right.

The Battalion as a whole had it's origins with a recruiting poster Wheat published in a New Orleans newspaper on April 18, 1861 - Wheat's company was to be called the "Old Dominion Guards" and soon numbered 50 men. Wheat (apparently a fairly charismatic man) was then able to talk the captains of four other recruiting companies to his unit, these were Harris’s "Walker Guards", White’s "Tiger Rifles" (that's them), Gardner’s "Delta Rangers", and Chaffin’s "Rough and Ready Rangers" (brilliant names one and all!). As a Mexican War veteran, a Southern partisan, a former assemblyman, and a general officer in two foreign armies there was also no doubt a belief that Wheat would get the choice assignments and equipment.

The battalion were an "interesting" and "select" bunch of people - largely foreign-born, particularly Irish Americans, many from the city's wharves and docks. They must have known how to fight as many men had previous military experience in local militia units or as filibusters [click here - an interesting term that I'd heard of but didn't know the definition of before I read this.... I thought they were something to do with pirates!]. One observer is reported as saying that many of Wheat’s recruits were “the lowest scum of the lower Mississippi...adventurous wharf rats, thieves, and outcasts...and bad characters generally.” Lovely!

Originally, only Wheat's Tigers (who were company B) wore the zouave uniform - they wore straw hats or red cloth fez's, blue-striped chasseur-style pantaloons, and short dark blue jackets with red lacing (apparently they wore the fez in camp and the straw hat while in the field... oh well... )

At the beginning of May 1861 Wheat moved his volunteers to Camp Walker in the centre of the city. On May 10, Wheat was elected major by his fellow company commanders, and state officials officially recognized his battalion.

On May 14th, the battalion was moved eighty miles north by rail to Camp Moore near the town of Tangipahoa and the Mississippi border. The encampment was the central depot for organizing, training, and mustering Louisiana volunteer units for Confederate service.

Upon arrival, the battalion were issued belts, cartridge boxes, cap boxes, knapsacks and weapons - either M1842 muskets, or old M1816 conversion muskets with socket bayonets. The Tiger Rifles company were Wheat’s chosen skirmishers, & they were issued with the M1841 “Mississippi” Rifle.

On or about June 8th, and as a result of various political wrangling and promotion disappointments, Captain Jonathan W. Buhoup’s company (the splendidly named "Catahoula Guerrillas") voted to throw in its lot with the Tiger Battalion which must have been quite interesting as the histories show that this company were men of more refinement - "sons of native-born planters or were doctors, lawyers, farmers, overseers, or artisans". I'd love to have seen what happened in camp the first night they joined!

The battalion was now up to 6 company's - but Wheat was still a major (he was working hard for a colonelcy!) and the Tigers were still not recognised formally as a regiment - they were under strength and the poor discipline record wouldn't have helped. In the meanwhile Louisiana had sent 6 other regiments to the war.. I think Wheat knew that time was a wasting....

On June 13, 1861, Wheat loaded the battalion aboard a freight train to Manassas Junction (the major staging area for the Confederate army in Virginia) abandoning becoming a colonel on the hope that he could win the chance on the battlefield. The unit was officially recognised by the state of Louisiana, but only as the “2nd Battalion, Louisiana Volunteers” - unofficially they were known as the Tigers..

The battalion saw it's first action at First Manassas, where Wheat was injured badly but the regiment distinguished itself in a number of attacks. During the weeks after the battle the battalion did picket duty "it was during this time that the Tiger Rifles, upset that they had borne the brunt of friendly fire not only on Matthews’ Hill (their position during First Manassas), but also while on dangerous picket duty, decided to bleach out the indigo blue dye from their jackets, making them take on the colour of a “rotten peach”" - interesting, eh?

During the same period all of the Louisiana infantry regiments were assembled into one brigade, the “Louisiana Brigade,” and put under the command of Brigadier General William H.T. Walker. The Louisiana Brigade was assigned to Major General Richard Ewell’s division (apparently he was known as “Old Baldy”!).

Probably not helped by the boredom of being in camp, and the fact that Wheat was not present (he was off convalescing from the wound he got at Manassas) the poor discipline that had dogged their existence practically from day one continued.. to compound issues, fed up at not being promoted, and disappointed that the battalion had still not been recognised formally as a regular regiment, Buhoup took his company off to the 7th Louisiana. Eventually two men from the battalion were executed following court martial and things started to calm down.

At the end of the year (early 1862) they received a uniform issue, and for the first time the entire regiment was dressed the same, except the Tiger Rifle company who kept their zouave uniform.

Shortly after the battalion was assigned to Brigadier General Richard Taylor's First Louisiana Brigade in the army of Stonewall Jackson. They participated in his 1862 Valley Campaign, too late for Kernstown but at the battles of Front Royal (May 23rd - with the 1st Maryland they lead the successful attack on the town), Winchester (two days later and part of the assault uphill on Bowers Hill), and Port Republic (June 9th - down to 150 men, and the centre of Jacksons line again with the 1st Marylanders). All my reading of the events in the campaign indicate that Jackson recognised the battalion as a hard fighting one, he invariably used them when he needed shock troops...

In late spring, Jackson's force was sent eastward to participate in the Peninsula Campaign where Wheat was killed leading the Louisiana brigade at the Battle of Gaines' Mill.

"..Ewell began his attack immediately, around 3:30 p.m., without waiting for his entire division to come on line.... He sent in his lead brigade, Louisianans under Colonel Isaac Seymour, commanding in Major General Richard Taylor's absence for medical reasons. Seymour was relatively inexperienced and his troops became confused in the woods and bogs of Boatswain's Swamp. Their confusion increased when Col. Seymour was killed by a Union rifle volley. Major Roberdeau Wheat, the colorful leader of the Louisiana Tigers Battalion, moved to the front to lead the brigade, but he was also killed with a bullet through his head. The Louisiana Brigade withdrew from the battle."

With only 60 officers or men left (under Captain Harris), the battalion was merged with Coppens' Zouaves (the only full regiment of Zouaves in the Confederate army) within the Army of Northern Virginia.

The combined unit took heavy casualties during the Northern Virginia and Maryland Campaigns, and Coppens was killed.

The amalgamated battalion was disbanded shortly after the Battle of Antietam and the men dispersed among other units - and there ended a short, messy, but glorious and illustrious career.....

...and for the nay sayers....

1. I am well aware that there is controversy over whether these guys actually wore a brown jacket - there is speculation that the blue dye in their jackets was poor and ended up a brown colour, as you've read above there's a possibility that they actually bleached the jackets following some friendly fire instances, but there is also speculation that that is not the case and they wore blue jackets (as did Coppens) - I went with brown (rotten peach!), as in my minds eye these guys wouldn't look right in anything but brown - I used the guy centre front in the uniform reference above, as my model
   
2. I am also aware that the Louisiana Tiger Zouaves were probably only company strength and that the rest of the battalion would have been more normally accoutred - I don't care - they're my wargames unit, and I'm making them regimental strength!
   
3. Rant mode off...

* Painting tip - Steve the Wargamer says don't try to paint stripes - unless you're as ridiculously skilled as some of my fellow bloggers you'll only come a cropper... for the trousers on these guys I used one of these:

Cost me £3 from the local art shop - Royal Blue, permanent ink, and most importantly fibre tipped - a roller ball would scratch the paint... mine was a 0.1mm one - Steve the Wargamer rates it as damn near perfect, but barring further testing it clearly works best only on a very light background, and being almost completely opaque, I'm guessing results will be best on whites and creams....

Review - "On His Majesty's Service" - Allan Mallinson

The long wait is over (3 years!) and the latest Matthew Hervey novel, the eleventh, is set in the Eastern Balkans...

With no war on the horizon, Hervey's ambition's to finally command his beloved Light dragoon regiment are kicked into touch as the government of the day announces budget cuts that impact deeply on the army (sound familiar?? 😏) and in particular his light dragoon regiment, who are to be reduced considerably, to the point where a colonel would be wholly inappropriate... as a sop, Hervey is offered command of a regiment of foot currently based at Gibraltar, but while he makes his mind up, is seconded as an observer to the Russian forces currently at war (Russo–Turkish War of 1828–1829) with the "sublime porte" (Turkey) in the Balkans.

Not surprisingly, Hervey and his compatriots are soon in the thick of it and despite being an impartial observer and a neutral, is more active than perhaps he should be.. directly leading to other possibilities for Hervey, and the offer of promotion and a command within the Russian forces. I get the distinct impression Mallinson would very much have liked to serve with a Cossack regiment himself as the parts of the book dealing with them are particularly good.

End to end excellent, and some very good news to finish - but I do wish I could give him a good slap and bring him to his senses with regard to the current Mrs Hervey!! 

Steve the Wargamer rates this 9 out of 10 - if only because it allows for the possibility of improving on perfection!
=======================================
Separately, the WWII re-basing project is complete, and has provided a welcome filip to the painting totals for the year - I thought long and hard about it but given the amount of effort that has gone into the activity (158 bases!) I felt it only right to give some token value to the activity - one point per base seems "right"...

I've also cleaned up and prepared the next American Civil War regiment - just need to undercoat them and get on with applying the brush... this regiment will represent Wheat's "Tiger" Zouaves, and I give due warning that I'm really not interested in comments and posts that the Tiger Zouaves were only ever company strength, not regimental, and that they didn't really have brown coat, etc etc etc. 

I'm a hopeless romantic, and no American Civil War project of mine would be complete without the little brown jacketed fellows.. besides, unlike the Union army, from what I can tell the Confederacy only had one regimental strength unit of Zouaves (Coppen's), and their uniform is just too similar to the Union regiment I've just completed, case closed...  I only hope that when they are finished they look even half as good as these...

ACW baggage and WWII re-basing proceeds..

The paint brushes have continued to whirr in Steve the Wargamer's loft and the latest efforts for these are posted further below...

...before we do that however, I also mentioned that I was re-basing my WWII 12mm units as I was unhappy with the old basing now that I'd come up with a better method for the Sudan units..

The following shows the difference between old and new style... this is old style - what I don't like... thin plastic card bases - it warps and you also can't get hold of it, I also don't like having the identification number on the top as I don't need it for Blitzkrieg Commander games, I also don't like the flock I was using....

...and this is the new style - I'm standardising as much as possible on my standard 30 x 30 (mm) bases for the infantry and support weapons (MG's, mortars, flame-throwers etc.) and 50 x 30 for the AFV's, transport and anything that won't fit on a 30 x 30. I'm using builders sharp sand straight from the bag for the scenic texture - no colouring required. The bases are also thicker, so easier to pick up.. The identification number has been put on the bottom..

..and a comparison of both - the new is a big improvement. All I need to do now is push on and finish the British, then start the Germans and the Italians and the transport.....

The paint brushes I mentioned, were working on these which I picked up at the Warfare show in Reading last November... these are destined to provide some baggage from my American Civil war forces. They are by Britannia Miniatures and are from their German WWII range...

All I did was (badly) file down the field caps that the crews were wearing to an approximate appearance of a kepi (very approximate!) after that it was just a paint conversion - with one wagon being painted with Union crew...

and the other Confederate.

..the wagons are outstanding - I should have spent a little more time on the crews, or even shopped around for some purpose made figures.

I'll bear this in mind as I hope to pick up another couple at Salute in April - you can never have too much baggage...

"The Fort" by Bernard Cornwell and some American Civil War command...

That has to be one of the longest blogger titles in history, but it sums up the content of the post nicely... 

First off though, those officers...

You may remember that I picked up some Kennington Miniatures (who are now owned by SHQ) officers as 'size samples' at the Warfare show just before Christmas - I wanted to see how they compared to the Newline designs figures that make up the bulk of the project.

These are now painted (and a very enjoyable experience it was as I haven't picked up a brush in some time) and are ready to join the forces of the Union and the Confederacy respectively..

In "Regimental Fire and Fury" terms I plan to use these guys as either brigade commanders, or even commander in chief (for multiple brigade games) as they have a certain gravitas!

Ideally they should be mounted, but I can live without that.. my favourite is definitely the Confederate commander, I managed to carry the beard off quite well. The Union commander is OK, but I was a little too heavy handed with the white damp-brush undercoat, so his coat (I use inks) has come out quite light...

The bridge they are pictured on by the way is the second oldest piece of wargames terrain I own - it's a venerable and vintage Bellona bridge and I reckon it must be at least 38 years old and still doing sterling service... I wonder how many little metal men have died while storming over it, and how many daring outflanking manoeuvres have been launched across it... vivid stuff!

Which brings me on to "The Fort" the latest offering by Bernard Cornwell, who has to be the wargamers favourite author...

This one marks a very welcome return (for me anyway) to the American War of Independence (or the American Revolutionary War for my US readers.. ), a theatre of war that he hasn't visited since he wrote "Redcoat" back in 1987 (blimey - was it that long ago..)

I thought the book was good, definitely worth reading, but I had such high hopes of it that I think the reality may have resulted in a slight disappointment when I actually read the book..

The book is about a fairly small and unknown expedition (well I'd not heard of it) that the British sent to Penobscot in 1779. The British sent two regiments of foot (all Highlanders!) and some Royal Artillery, in three small ships to build a fort at a place called Majabigwaduce (now known as Castine), in Maine. The intent was that it would then serve as a base for British naval forces to operate against American privateers operating out of Boston...

Clearly the Americans were not going to settle for this and the State of Massachusetts sent a fleet of forty ships, with militia and artillery to "captivate, kill and destroy" the British. The book is about what transpired, and more than anything is a story of lost opportunity (on the American side).

The cast of characters is excellent (everyone in the book is based on an actual person except for those who have a surname beginning "F" - which I thought was a very clever idea!). I particularly liked the depiction of the British commander (General Francis McLean), the very young Lieutenant John Moore (later to be Sir John Moore the originator of the light division in the Napoleonic War) and on the American side General Peleg Wadsworth. Rounded characters all of them, and immensely likeable... but don't get me started on the American commander Lovell, the American naval commander Saltonstall or Paul Revere (yes, him..).. It's clear where Cornwell at least thinks the failure lay...

So is it worth getting - absolutely "yes" - a good read despite my slightly disparaging comments above...

From the wargaming perspective this absolutely screams out to be a wargame campaign - naval and land is covered, limited numbers of troops, small actions, fairly small theatre of operations - I will definitely be doing it.

Steve the Wargamer gives this one a very solid eight out of ten - nine if you count in the clear wargaming potential..