We Are Coming Father Abraham

Well, since my last posting, I refigured out what I will need for figures from Blue Moon.  So now, I will not have four RGTs of 880 men (22 stands), but 10 small RGTs of 9 stands or 12 stands (360 or 480 men for RF&F.)  But combining the small RGTs, minus a few stands, I can field three 760 man and two 840 man RGTs for the generic Union troops. With the Zouaves and Wisconsin RGTs, I will be able to field either one 800 man RGT or two smaller RGTs with 440 & 480 men each.  All I will have left will be four spare generic Union troops, one spare Zouave and two Wisconsin figures.  Excellent!

So with these recalculations, I made my order to Blue Moon for the first half of my Union force.  But I will still need artillery and cavalry figures.  Any of the unique RGTs with specialized uniforms, I will have to look into for the future.  Also, if I want to do a bunch of different RGTs for flags, I can pick up a pack of officers & a couple packs of standard bearers and that will get me another 10 stands to for different RGT’L flags!

Now, I should have enough to do all of the bigger battles that I want to do using a 1:100/1:125/1:200/1:250 ratio for TCHAE or F&F with all of the above for the infantry RGTs. But like above, I will need to order artillery and cavalry.

Now, all I need is to get the catalog and address for a guy that Steve H. knows that does the flag research and makes 15mm paper flags.  I plan to help him do some research on the flags for the Missouri and other Trans-Mississippi RGTs, since that is one of my interests and one of the main key things that I always get photographs at any museum that I visit.

The next blog entry should be about my trip to the 150^th Anniversary of the Battle of Wilson’s Creek with some pictures of the reenactment.  After that, I plan to get an entry on the following things (but not necessary in this order):  A review of my current book that I reading, “Nine Battles to Stanley” by van der Bijl on the Falklands Conflict; A review of a painting service that I used to paint up a bunch of 20mm figures for the Falklands with pictures;  A generic scenario for the shoot-out with the police with Bonnie & Clyde at the Red Crown Travel Court in Platte City, MO, 1933; and finally, an ‘Order of Battle’ for the Battle of Carthage, MO, July 5, 1861, with notes.

To Fight for Abraham's Daughter

Well, my American Attention Span Disorder finally kicked in...yet again.   While I am still driving forward with the 10mm Vietnam and 20mm Falklands/UK Anarchy, I am shelving my 15mm WWI project.  In it's place I am starting a new project that I have resisting up to now for the last 20+ years...the American Civil War in 15/18mm.



I have been sucked into this project for several reasons, besides my normal interest in military history.  I have always love the history of the ACW, especially west of the Mississippi River.  As a kid, I pretty much did an annual trip to the Pilot Knob battlefield for many years. On vacations with my grandparents, we always stopped at any ACW battlefields and museums.  My first unit in the National Guard carried the linage for the 1st Missouri Infantry (CSA) - (Ok, I had some trouble with that, but at least I was not serving in the Confederate army.)  When I was in college, I attend the burial of William Quantrill (I wanted to make sure the $*~#@ was dead!)  In the last 6 years, I have read a lot of ACW books.  The last two years I have been visiting a lot of ACW battlefields, museums, or monuments.  With this year being the 150th anniversary of the beginning of the ACW...I was pretty much doomed.  But the killing blows came from discussions of 15mm ACW for Regimental Fire &Fury with my follow gamers and various emails about the ACW in Missouri to a friend in the UK. 



So, here I am starting a new project!    Ok, so what are the details of this new project?



Rules:  I have ordered Regimental Fire & Fury, plus I already have Fire & Fury and Too Fat Lardies, "They Couldn't Hit An Elephant".  RF&F will be the main rules, but I would like try out TCHAE for bigger battles.  The rules all have the same frontage of 1".  So, there will be no need for different bases.  RF&F is one stand  for 40 men and TCHAE is one for 100 men or 200 men depending on  what scale you choose.



Figures:  As mentioned earlier, I will be doing this in 15/18mm.  I have some Old Glory already, but the bulk of my force will be Blue Moon, which is really 18mm.  Some units might also include Peter Pig, or Battle Honours.



Units:  I am first starting off with an Union Brigade of four 880 men regiments (22 stands with 3 figures.).   I know that 880 man RGTs for the Union are extremely rare, but due to the way that Blue Moon package their miniatures, I might might as well use them all up which will get 22 stands with 2 packs of infantry, and one pack of each of the officers, Non-Coms, flag bearers, and drummers.



This  Union BDE will not be a historical Brigade, but a grouping of some historical regiments that I like for various reasons.  Two RGTs will be generic sack coat & kepi units so I can switch out the flag stands to be another RGT.  Depending on the availability of flags, I want to make them Missouri RGTs or failing that, Illinois RGTs.  The next RGT will be the 8th Wisconsin with Old Abe on the flag stand.  I can also later switch out this flag stand and make it into another Wisconsin RGT from the "Iron Brigade."  The final RGT will be a Zouave RGT.  I have to do a little research on uniforms, but I plan for it to be the 8th Missouri.  If I am lucky, they will have the same uniform as the 11th New York so that they can double for them.  Also, I plan to do two more generic RGTs so I can re-flag all four generic RGTs to be the "Irish Brigade."



I currently have about 100 painted up Old Glory Union in mixed uniforms & civilian clothes, plus tailored green uniforms for the Fenian army for Ridgeway in 1866.  The figures wearing the green uniforms will be grouped as one or two Fenian units.  The ones in Union uniforms and mixed civilians clothing will do double duty as Fenians in 1866 and the Missouri Home Guard or the Enrolled Missouri Militia.  I am going to try to do research on the flag for the 1st Northeast Missouri Home Guard as that is the unit that I want them to mainly represent. 



Later, I want to do several other RGTs with unique uniforms, like the 3rd Missouri (3 Months), or the African-Americans, like the 1st Kansas or the 62nd USCT.



Between completing the various Union RGTs, I plan to start up some rebel units:  1st Missouri CSA and the Missouri State Guard.  I will also get the flags so eventually I can do the Bowen's Brigade.



After the infantry is complete, the cavalry will come next.  I only plan to do a RGT per side.  Any battle requiring more then one RGT of cavalry, will be done using F&F or TCHAE rules.  Artillery will be done throughout all of this.



With this, I give you two YouTube videos in the spirit of this new project...