The Ongoing Civil War

It has been a busy week. Last Wednesday was the first day back after my forced holiday and straight into redundancy discussions. 

Saturday was ANZAC Day (our Remembrance Day) and with all the social distancing regulations all remembrance services were cancelled and instead we were asked to stand in silence at our gates at dawn. In out little street of maybe 20 houses I think every household participated. We stood there in silence at 06:00 on a cold morning as the sun rose while from the local Returned Serviceman’s Association hall, maybe a mile and a half away, the notes of the Last Post echoed eerily between the houses. It was a strange yet moving moment.

Between the redundancy talks and ANZAC day I have managed to push through three more ACW units.  First is a Confederate gun set. I really like these plastic gun sets. The variety of poses you can get by mixing and matching arms and bodies is superb and the resulting sets look so natural.

Next is a Confederate infantry unit

And finally a Union regiment from the original Perry plastic set. While this set is excellent, the later sets have just become better and better. I am a huge fan.

Still More ACW Figures

With nothing else in the lead/plastic pile to paint here are two more ACW units.

A Confederate regiment...

And a Union regiment...

And then there is a repeat of a previous post, well not quite a repeat, but these two Argentine battalions for the Great Paraguayan War had to be rebased because their cardboard bases curled up severely. They now stand anchored to some more sturdy plastic bases.

I really want the lockdown to end soon so that more stock (with a bit more variety) can be ordered.

American Civil War Campaign Turns 2, 3, and 4

Following on from Turn 1 - Spring 1861 of our strategic campaign game of the American Civil War, turns 2 (Summer), 3 (Autumn or Fall) and 4 (Winter) have been completed.

Summer 1861

Reinforced, the Union players planned to strike at Norfolk and in the far west to gain control of Missouri and the Indian Territory. Sadly the army in the east failed to activate, but in the west Missouri was secured.

Similarly reinforced the Confederates retreated back into Arkansas and fortified their frontiers. Some of their ports were fortified, but crucial forces on the south coast failed to fortify.

Kentucky remained neutral and neither side was prepared to break it.

Autumn (Fall) 1861

The Confederates continued fortify while west of the Mississippi they fell back onto Little Rock and dug in.

The Union continued to press forward in the west, occupying the Indian Territory and entering Arkansas. The forces on Cairo and Cincinnati decided to stay put, but in The east the Army of the Potomac attacked Richmond...and was repulsed.

Kentucky remained neutral.

Winter 1861/1862

The Confederates fortified most of the Gulf Coast and held elsewhere.

The Union consolidated their position in the west, occupying most of Arkansas. The Army of the Potomac retreated to Washington.

Kentucky remained neutral.

As winter closed, the attrition calculations found that the Confederates had three more brigades than could be supported by their supply grid and had to eliminate them.

As we enter 1862, Kentucky sides with the Union and reinforcements are due to both sides. What the campaign will the year hold?

Cavalry and Artillery

The American Civil War expansion continues today with the completion of two Union cavalry units and the first of two Confederate gun sets.

First, a small cavalry unit...

Then a normal sized unit...

Both units together...

And the gun set firing...

146th New York

Over the years I have built four American Civil War armies.

• In the early to mid-1970s I had a large Airfix 1/72nd collection
• In the late-1970s to early 1980s I had a huge 15mm collection.
• In the early 1990s I built up a very small 25mm Dixon collection
• In the early 2000s I built up a large 28mm collection, to which I have been adding recently 

In all but the most recent collection I deliberately avoided specialist units such as the Iron Brigade, the Stonewall Brigade, Hood’s Texans or zouaves for that matter. Then when I saw that the Battle in a Box set that I bought a couple of months contained 24 zouave figures, the die was cast that I had to do a couple of units.

The first unit, the 5th New York was posted a week ago (link), but the unit presented here, the 146th New York, is perhaps my favourite American Civil War zouave unit because its uniform is modeled on that of the Tirallieurs Algériens, my favourite unit from the French Second Empire. Strangely the history of this regiment was deeply intertwined with the 5th New York to such an extent that the two regiments could never appear in the same order of battle.

Mustered in October 1862, the regiment was alternatively known as the 5th Oneida Regiment or the Halleck Infantry. It did not enter service in a zouave uniform and in the standard New York State uniform served at Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville. After the latter battle the remnants of the 5th New York were merged with the 146th and the regiment adopted a zouave uniform in June 1863. The regiment went on to fight at Gettysburg, where as a part of Weed’s Brigade it helped defend Little Round Top.

Further honours followed at Williamsport, the Wilderness (where they were all but decimated in Saunders Field), Spotsylvania, North Anna, Totopotomy Creek, Cold Harbour, Petersburg, Weldon Railroad, White Oak Ridge, Hatcher's Run and Appomattox.

The regiment was mustered out of service on 16 July 1865.

Confederate Infantry, Union Artillery

So Easter is upon us. What a strange Easter it is this year. In our house it was a quiet Good Friday....a couple of walks around the local park, watching the local family groups fly kites in the brisk southerly breeze, repointing a section of the roof and starting painting a couple of new units.

But in the pantry cupboards something was happening...

...strange there were only two this morning!

Off the painting table have come new units, again using the Perry plastics:

A Confederate infantry regiment

And another Union gun set

Two More ACW Units

Day fourteen of the lockdown. Technically I’m on holiday...well more a working holiday since I am still on call and three hours of my first “day off” has been at work.

I managed to get out yesterday to the supermarket. While I waited in the queue to get in, respecting social distancing, a young supermarket worker came up to me and asked if I wanted to go to the head of the queue. For the briefest of moments I thought that this was some sort of  “lucky shopper” idea and being the fair minded chap I am, I declined. Then it dawned on me that this was allowing older people into the store more quickly. “My God,” I thought, “do I look that old!...I’m only 61!” Anyway, I did my shopping and was queued at the checkout, when the same chap came to me and took me to a special checkout...this time I didn’t decline. I figure sometimes there is an advantage to having some gray in your beard.

But back to the toys...and completed today are two ACW units...

. ..a Union gun set and...

... the 5th New York infantry, on their temporary base.