By damn! Those are Regulars!!

With apologies to British Major General Phineas Riall.

I finally completed the last brigade in Brigadier General Absalom Baird's 1st Division of Major General George Thomas' XIV Corps, Army of the Cumberland.  This is Brigadier General John King's 3rd Brigade, "The Regulars."  It was the only regular US Army brigade in the Army of the Cumberland, composed of the 1st Battalion, 15th US Infantry, 1st Battalion, 16th US Infantry, 1st and 2nd Battalions, 18th US Infantry, and 1st Battalion, 19th US Infantry.  Although they were part of the regular establishment, not volunteer regiments, they were no better than the volunteers who made up the vast majority of Baird's 1st Division.

King's Regular Brigade in attack column

A "bird's eye" view of the brigade

The figures are all Old Glory 15s with Warflag paper flags, mounted on Litko bases.

They are organized for the "On to Richmond" rules where the basic infantry maneuver unit is the brigade.  Each stand is approximately 300 real men.

They join the other two brigades of Baird's division, completing three of the four divisions in Thomas famed XIV Corps.  I still have to paint Brigadier General John Brannan's 3rd Division of three brigades to complete the corps.

But now I've turned to catching up my Confederate force by beginning on Major General Patrick Cleburne's Division of Lieutenant General William J. Hardee's Corps.

My American Civil War forces are from the 1863 Union Army of the Cumberland and Confederate Army of Tennessee who contested central Tennessee in the Tullahoma Campaign leading to the decisive battle of Chickamauga.

Forney's Division, CSA

The command stand for Forney's Division, CSA, was completed Friday night.  And here it is in all its glory:

Major General John Forney and his divisional flag bearer.

Each of my Union and Confederate divisions will have a mounted officer and a standard bearer carrying a flag emblematic of the division.  For the Union forces, Thomas' XIV Corps of the Army of the Cumberland, they will be the standard divisional flags for XIV Corps.  For the Confederate forces, Hardee's Corps of the Army of Tennessee, they will be more "generic" but still emblematic of the division.  Here since Forney's Division has brigades who formerly were under Earl Van Dorn's command its command stand uses a "Van Dorn" flag.

Organized for the "On to Richmond" rules, Forney's Division has two brigades and an artillery battalion.

Forney's Division with Hebert's Brigade on its right, the artillery battalion in the center, and Moore's Brigade on its left.

Only two brigades strong, Forney's Division will have to be careful when it engages the stronger Union divisions (normally three brigades strong), but I anticipate it may eventually be reinforced with a third brigade sometime in the future.

Next up to paint will be Major General Joseph Reynold's 4th Division, XIV Corps, Army of the Cumberland.  Reynold's Division only has two brigades (Robinson's 2nd and Turchin's 3rd) as Wilder's 1st Brigade is mounted and is constantly being appropriated by the army commander for special missions.  As with Forney's Division I anticipate Reynolds will be reinforced by a third brigade, probably Reeves' Independent Brigade.  Once I get Reynold's Brigade painted and based I'll be able to do some more intensive "playing" with the rules.

Hebert's Brigade and Forney's Divisional Artillery

Well it has been more than a month since my last post.  "Equipping" Hebert's Brigade was much slower than I thought it would be, but it is finally done.

Hebert's Brigade of Forney's Division has a special significance to me as it contained the regiment in which my great-grandfather, Wesley Washington Pitts, served.  The 36th Mississippi Regiment was organized shortly before Shiloh but didn't join Beauregard's army until after the battle.  They participated in the battles of Iuka and Corinth in the fall of 1862, then were assigned to the garrison at Vicksburg where they stayed until the surrender on July 4, 1863.  Reconstituted in west Alabama after being exchanged, the regiment joined the Army of the Tennessee as part of Bishop Polk's Army of Mississippi reinforcements, fighting from New Hope Church (May 1864) through the disasters at Franklin and Nashville.  It then was assigned to the garrison at Mobile where it ended the war.

In my "imagination" Civil War world, Forney's Division (Hebert's and Moore's Brigades, plus artillery) was transferred from the Department of Mississippi and East Louisiana (Pemberton's command) as reinforcements for the Army of Tennessee, joining them just in time for the Tullahoma campaign.

Hebert's Brigade consisted of the 3rd and 21st Louisiana Infantry Regiments; the 36th, 37th, 38th, and 43rd Mississippi Regiments; and the 7th Mississippi Battalion.  Represented here for the "On to Richmond" rules it has approximately 1500 men.

Hebert's Brigade in single line of battle.  Since the brigade was originally under Van Dorn's command, I gave it a "Van Dorn" style battle flag.

And the brigade in that "new fangled" reinforced battle line with about 40% of the regiments in the second line.

Forney's divisional artillery consisted of the following batteries: A Company/1st Mississippi Light Artillery, C Company/2nd Alabama Artillery, and Sengstak's Alabama Company.  Each battery only had 4 guns so with the "On to Richmond" organization, those 12 tubes are represented by one gun model and 4 gunners.  As best as I can tell, the majority of the guns in these three batteries were smoothbores.  The gun model is painted as a 12-lb Napoleon gun-howitzer.

Forney's Division artillery "battalion"

And here is a shot of Hebert's Brigade and the divisional artillery battalion deployed to engage the Yankees.

Still to be painted is the divisional command group for Forney's Division, Major General John Forney.  Hopefully it will be done much quicker than Hebert's Brigade.

All of the figures and the gun are from Old Glory 15s.  http://oldglory15s.com/

Moore's Brigade versus Reeves' Brigade (ACW)

Just some snaps of my first two 15mm ACW units facing off on the battlefield.

Moore's Confederate Brigade advances from a copse of woods.

Across the field, Reeves' Union Brigade is also advancing.

And they meet in the middle.  Moore's Confederate brigade is in a standard formation with all regiments in a single line.  Reeves' Union Brigade is in that "new fangled" reinforced line where some of the regiments are in a second line as supports.

In the "On to Richmond" rules the reinforced line has a slight advantage in close combat.  If the first line is defeated then the attacker must fight the second line immediately.  As the attacker will now be disorganized, the second line will get a small bonus.  I haven't tested this out yet on the battlefield.

The scenery is courtesy of my son's Battle Mech game last Saturday.  It is actually jungle foliage made from plastic aquarium plants that I've cut into irregular shapes.  But it worked as a backdrop for these "pick-up" snaps.

My second Confederate brigade is coming along, albeit a little slowly.  I'm hoping to have it finished by the weekend, along with the division command group and the supporting artillery.

First Confederate Brigade

I've finally completed painting my first Confederate brigade for the "On to Richmond!" (OtR) rules I'm planning on using for my 15mm American Civil War games.  It joins the Union brigade from Larry Reeves (see last post).  It only took me about three months to paint it as I had a lag in my painting mojo.

It represents the brigade commanded by Brigadier General Jonathan C. Moore of Major General John Forney's Division of the Confederate Army of Mississippi.  Although this brigade was part of the Vicksburg garrison and surrendered there on July 4, 1863, in my imagi-ACW gaming Forney's and Bowen's divisions were sent to Tennessee in the early Spring of 1863 to reinforce the Army of Tennessee.  Moore's Brigade consisted of the 37th, 40th, and 44th Alabama; the 35th and 40th Mississippi; and the 2nd Texas Infantry Regiments.  These regiments are depicted in a mix of "drab" uniforms that were common in the Western theater.  Made from undyed wool they were various shades of drab brown and gray.  A few of the figures are in the more common "Confederate Gray" uniforms and a couple have even "liberated" some Yankee pants.  The flag they fly is the Van Dorn battle flag which was originally flown by units under the command of Major General Earl Van Dorn in Mississippi and East Louisiana beginning in February of 1862.

The figures are from Old Glory 15s and are mounted on 2" x 1" Litko bases.  The flag is from an illustration of a Van Dorn battle flag that I found on the internet.

The "full frontal" view of the brigade

A high oblique view showing one of the OtR infantry formations, the reinforced line.

My next unit to paint is the brigade commanded by Brigadier General Louis Hebert which includes the 36th Mississippi Infantry Regiment, the unit in which my great-grandfather and some of his brothers and brothers-in-law served.  Hopefully this one won't take three months to paint!

15mm ACW Trial Painting

A short while ago I received my copy of the "On to Richmond" rules which Mark Severin of Scale Creep Miniatures and Flagship Games released.  After reading through it several times, it reinvigorated my long held desire to have ACW troops.  I originally had blue and gray armies using the old Airfix plastic figures but I sold them to a father who wanted to game ACW with his son.  My good wargaming buddy, Jay, already had a huge 25mm regimental-size army.  And my wargaming buddy Larry had a large 15mm regimental-size army.  So my option if I used OTR was to go with its recommended basing and organization using 15mm figures.  I requested some samples from Old Glory 15s to see if my old eyes could still paint 15mm figures.  OG15s sent eight foot figures, one mounted figure, and one gun.  And I found that I could still paint 15mm, or paint them at least well enough to look good in massed units.

I decided I wanted to see how a brigade "command" stand would look with a mounted officer on it as well as a flag bearer and some troops.  Now before you purists start having apoplexy, yes, there are both Union and Confederate figures on both bases, but remember, I was trying out my painting of 15mms not trying to build an army.  Anyway, I think substituting a mounted figure for two of the infantrymen and adding a flag will make the command base stand out.  The flag by the way is a hand-painted Van Dorn style flag used by some of the Confederate units in the Western Theater.  The gun will also look good with a full 4-figure crew, which is how OG15s bags them - 6 guns and 24 gunners.  By the way, the bases are just matte board cut to 2"x2" for the artillery and 2"x1" for the infantry.  The actual bases will probably be Litko pre-cut ones.

So all-in-all I'm satisfied with the figures, both from an ease of painting perspective and from a basing perspective.  Now all I've got to do is come up with the cash to raise the two armies - Thomas' XIV Corps of the Army of the Cumberland and Hardee's Corps (modified) of the Army of Tennessee - for starters.  This way I get 'Pap' Thomas and a brigade of regulars (by God!) on one side and Hardee, Cleburne, and the Orphan Brigade on the other, as well as modifying Hardee's Corps to add Hebert's Brigade which included my great-grandpappy's regiment, the 36th Mississippi Volunteers.

More later as this project (oh no, not another one!) progresses.