Memorial Sunday Flowers

My wife and I provided the flowers in the sanctuary of our church for this past Memorial Sunday.

And here is the entire tablescape with the Communion elements on the Communion table.

By the way, this is a Presbyterian Church, USA, congregation.

A Blast from the Past

Rediscovered this vintage wargaming photo as I started going through boxes of photographs from my late parents house.

This is a picture of a Napoleonic wargame fought in the early 1970s at my parents house.  We are in the wing that contained my two brothers and my bedrooms in the 30' x 10' "playroom" outside the three bedrooms.  It was just enough room for a gaming table.

One of our "line them all up and go at each other" 25mm Napoleonic games.

I don't remember all the participants, but Jay S. is seated on the lower left with the late Marshall Jones standing at the left rear.  Tim C. is barely seen standing on the right.

The Sword and the Flame 40th Anniversary Edition!

Just received this in the mail from Lori Brom announcing the upcoming 40th anniversary edition of  the classic "The Sword and the Flame" Victorian colonial rules.

Lori said that they are planning a release late this year, November or December.  Watch for more news!

Hardee, Cleburne, and Artillery

And some more of my 15mm American Civil War project completed.

My Confederate force is based upon Lieutenant General William J. Hardee's Corps of the Army of Tennessee at the beginning of the Tullahoma Campaign in the summer of 1863.  Here we have Hardee's command stand as well as that of Major General Patrick Cleburne and Cleburne's division artillery.

Lt Gen Hardee's corps command stand with three figures on a 40mm round base.

Maj Gen Cleburne's division command base on a 25mm round base.

Cleburne's Division artillery, consisting of Calvert's (Ark.), Douglas' (Tex.), and Semple's (Ala.) Batteries.
[Although depicted armed with rifled guns, they actually had a variety of smoothbore guns.  This will have to be changed!]

The figures are Battle Honors mounted and Old Glory 15s foot figures.  The gun is from Old Glory 15s.

Organized for the "On to Richmond" rules which calls for an artillery stand to represent approximately 12 guns.  For the Confederates, that's three of their 4-gun batteries which was the standard for the Army of Tennessee in 1863 and 1864.

Deshler's "Texas" Brigade

Finally, after many fits and starts, I've completed another Confederate brigade for my 15mm ACW forces which are based on portions of the Union Army of the Cumberland and Confederate Army of Tennessee during the spring and summer of 1863.

This one is the "third" brigade of  Pat Cleburne's division of Hardee's Corps, Army of Tennessee.  Commanded by Brigadier General James Deshler, it consisted of the following regiments:  19th/24th Arkansas, 6th/10th Texas Infantry/15th Texas cavalry (dismounted), and 17th/18th/24th/25th Texas cavalry (dismounted).  After Deshler was killed at Chickamauga, the brigade command was assumed by Brigadier General James A. Smith and later by Colonel, then Brigadier General, Hiram Granbury.

Deshler's Brigade in a reinforced line formation

 My 15mm ACW forces are organized for the "On to Richmond" rules where the basic maneuver unit is the brigade.  Each stand depicts about 300 infantry.  With Deshler's Brigade being about 1800 strong, there are six stands in it.  The reinforced line is one of the formations allowed in the OTR rules.

Here's another view showing the "Cleburne" style flag carried by the regiments of the brigade.  Even though there are three combined regiments in this brigade, I only use one flag.  The miniatures, with two exceptions, are 15mm Old Glory figures.  The two exceptions are the mounted and foot officers.

Here's a close-up of one of the stands.  I've depicted the brigade in newly issued uniforms from the Columbus, Georgia, depot.  It is a light gray/brown with infantry blue cuffs.  I used Folk Art Barn Wood as the base uniform color with Americana Uniform Blue on the cuffs.  For more information on this uniform, as well as pictures of surviving examples, see Geoffrey Walden's excellent on-line article "Confederate 'Columbus Depot' Jackets."  This uniform will also equip another of my soon to be painted Confederate brigades, Helms' "Orphan" Brigade of Breckinridge's Division.

Once More into the Yellow Sea

Last month (on March 2, to be precise) I ran a pre-dreadnought game that pitted my Russian and Japanese fleets against each other.  The scenario was a Russian breakout from Port Arthur which the Japanese were trying to prevent.

The ships are all 1:2400 scale from Panzerschiffe and were acquired as a single lot many years ago.

The rules we used were David Manley's "Broadside and Salvo" which is included in his "White Bear/Red Sun" campaign rules, available from the Wargame Vault.

The Russian fleet steams forth in three parallel squadron lines.  The closest and center squadrons are all battleships while the far squadron is cruisers.

The Japanese commanders plan their encounter.  They also had two squadrons of battleships and one of armored cruisers.

One of the Japanese battleship squadrons alters course to bring more guns to bear.

Damage is taken by one of the Japanese armored cruisers.

Russian cruisers (center) get into knife range of Japanese battleships and cruisers -- not a good place to be.

And the lead Russian cruiser pays the ultimate price, exploding in a tall plume of smoke and fire (courtesy of Litko).

A second Russian cruiser joins his mate in Davy Jones' locker.

The Russians begin to break off the action, returning to Port Arthur with their tails between their legs.

Although the Russians lost, both sides had a good battle.

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.