Washington and Rochambeau at Yorktown

I found this painting on Pinterest the other day and I'm posting it here simply because I think it is a good looking painting.

I don't know who the artist was or when it was painted, but I like his realism and style.

I just recently discovered Pinterest and have been having a lot of fun searching for pictures of historical paintings and military uniforms. It is somehow related to Facebook, so I guess if you are a "friend" of Der Alte Fritz, you can also follow me whenever I add a new picture pinned to my album.

I have found this to be a useful tool for collecting military uniform information that I can use as a painting guide for figures.

Save A Battlefield in 2015

I want to bring it to the attention of my readers that the Civil War Trust has recently established a related organization that will focus on saving and preserving battlefield sites of the American Revolutionary War in the United States. The CWT has saved thousands of acres of historical land from developers by acquiring it, using donations and Federal and State matching funds. The land is held in trust and eventually turned over to the National Park Service or similar organizations. The CWT has been at the forefront in leading the fight to save valuable acres at such sites as Fredericksburg, The Wilderness, Brandy Station and Franklin, among others.

Now the aim is to use the same model to save sites from the American Revolution.  I have cut and pasted their message below. 

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Happy New Years from Campaign 1776, a project of the Civil War Trust!

Does your New Year's resolution include helping to preserve American history? Ours does! Battlefields are monuments to American valor, sacrifice, and determination. Campaign 1776 is the first-ever national initiative designed to preserve these tangible and irreplaceable links to this country's founding. Join the cause, preserve American history, and become a charter member of Campaign 1776 in 2015! http://www.campaign1776.org/battlefields/princeton/princeton-2014/

Trenton as a Wargame

Opening positions of the American forces. (click to enlarge view)

I thought that I would write down some of the elements of my Trenton wargame scenario as a template for anyone else who wants to give the scenario a try. Looking at the picture above, the road on the left is the Pennington Road; the road on the right is the River Road. In the upper right corner, you can see Assunpink Creek and the road that crosses the bridge seen on the right leads to Bordentown.

Directionals: the top of the table is South, the bottom of the table is North, the left side of the table is East, and the right side of the table is West. For all intents and purposes, the right side table edge is the Delaware River, which may not be crossed. Thus any unit that routs off the right edge of the table automatically surrenders since it has nowhere to go.

The American infantry forces each represent one of the seven brigades in Washington's army. Hamilton's New York Battery is represented by three cannon models. That gives the American players 8 elements that could be divided among two players, each having 4 elements. The Hessian units will represent actual battalions. There were only three Hessian regiments in the Trenton garrison, but I am using four battalions in order to keep the proportions correct and to give the Hessian player enough elements to move about the table. The Hessian forces could be divided into two commands.

I am using a figure to man ratio of 1 to 10, thus one casting equals ten actual men. The Hessian force is generally thought to be around 1,300 soldiers or 130 wargame figures. The American forces were thought to be approximately 2,400 soldiers or 240 wargame figures.

American Mission
You want to capture the town of Trenton and bag at least two battalions of Hessians as prisoners.

American Forces

7 units of infantry
3 artillery models

American Deployment

Hamilton's New York Battery begins the game deployed looking straight down King Street. To his left is deployed Stephens' brigade of infantry.

Fermoy and Sterling's brigades are deployed on the Pennington Road.

Mercer's and St Clair's brigades are deployed between the Pennington Road and the River Road.

Glover's and Sargent's brigades are deployed on the River Road.


Hessian Mission
It is a given that you are outnumbered and probably can not hold the town, so your mission is to escape from Trenton with at least two battalions of infantry.

Hessian Forces

1 unit of grenadiers (Rall Grenadiers)
3 units of fusiliers or musketeers ( 2 x Lossburg; 1 x Knyphausen)
1/2 unit of Jagers (12 figures at most)
2 mounted dragoon figures
2 light 3-pound artillery pieces

Optional forces: 1 unit of the von Donop regiment stationed in Bordentown.

Hessian Deployment

The Rall Grenadier regiment was the designated "unit of the day" and so they were already deployed when the American attack began.

The von Lossberg and Knyphausen regiments are in quarters at the time the opening attack begins, so these units should be scattered around the town in various houses. They will have to attempt to form up somewhere in the town once they become activated.

The jagers should be divided into two small piquet details, one deployed on the Pennington Road and the other on the River Road, both roads to the north of the town.

Optional Hessian Forces
The von Donop regiment never was notified of the attack and so they did not participate in the battle. However, we can model the possibility that a messenger could have been sent to them requesting assistance.

For this possibility to occur, I suggest the following mechanism:

1. on Turn 1, the Hessian player(s) will roll one D6 and have a 50-50 chance of successfully waking up the commander, Colonel Rall, who will send a messenger off to Bordentown (use the 2 British Dragoon figures in the OB for this purpose). So a roll of 1 to 3 = success and a roll of 4 to 6 is a failure. The Hessians only get one opportunity to wake up Rall and send for reinforcements.

2) you will need to determine how many turns it will take for von Donop to arrive, so roll two D6 dice , noting that von Donop may not arrive prior to Turn 4, regardless of the outcome of the dice. Von Donop will arrive on the Bordentown Road, which is on the south side of Assunpink Creek.

Turn One Mechanics

The American army will get the first move and first fire of the game, to represent the surprise nature of the attack.

The Hessian Rall Grenadier regiment starts the game deployed in the center of the town of Trenton. All other Hessian infantry units are scattered throughout the town at at the start of the game.

Turn Two Mechanics
The von Lossberg and von Knyphausen regiments are not activated until at least Turn 2. To activate the units, a simple ODD-EVEN on a D6 die determines what happens. Both units automatically activate on Turn 3 if they have not previously activated. They will be considered "disordered" until the majority of the unit's stands are touching base to base.

The Hessian 3-pounders are deployed on King Street and Queen Street, both facing East. The cannon on King Street may activate on Turn 1 and the cannon on Queen Street can not activate until Turn 2.


So set up the terrain and forces and give the scenario a try. I would be interested in hearing how your game turns out. Will any of the Hessian units escape capture in Trenton?

Trenton Terrain Revisions

Overhead view of Trenton - rotated 90 degrees to the left

 I spent a fair amount of time today studying the Stryker book on the Battles of Trenton and Princeton (published in 1898) and this has given me a better understanding of how the battle of Trenton unfolded. As a result, I decided to rotate my terrain about 90 degrees to the left. (see picture above for new layout).

The original Trenton terrain setup is shown above so that you can see the difference between the two tables. Note the position of the large stone house - Rall's HQ - in both pictures.

It became apparent to me that my previous terrain set up did not provide enough room for Sullivan's division, which advanced along the River Road to the west of Trenton. Glover's and Sargent's brigades would eventually work their way around the town and take up a blocking position on the south side of the Assunpink Creek.

I think that these changes will make for a better game scenario and give all the players more space to maneuver.

click or double click on all pictures to enlarge the view:

Assunpink Creek with the road to Bordentown snaking off to the right.

The table edge to the right of this picture, above, represents the Delaware River. In the back ground you can see Glover's and Sargent's brigades taking up a blocking position on the south bank of Assunpink Creek. The Bordentown Road leads to the Hessian garrison in that town comprised of the von Donop regiment, some two miles away. I want to give von Donop a slight opportunity to come to the rescue of Colonel Rall and his Trenton garrison.

Hamilton's New York Artillery battery deploys in front of King Street.

As Mercer and Sterling move on Trenton from the north, Alexander Hamilton has set up his New York artillery company in command of King Street. The large stone house is Colonel Rall's headquarters.

The view looking down Queen Street.

A view of the back yards between King and Queen streets.

Overhead view of Trenton depicting the Princeton Road.

A view down the Pennington Road towards Trenton. This is the road taken by General Washington with his half of the army as it approached Trenton early in the morning. You can see a piquet of Hessian jagers manning their post.

Glover's brigade of Sullivan's division marching down the River Road, parallel to Washington's advance along the Pennington Road. Fife & Drum Miniatures.

In a future posting, I shall start to reveal some of the game scenario rules that I am working on. These will include elements to activate Hessian infantry units, send couriers to Bordentown to summon reinforcements from von Donop's command.

The Battle of Trenton Terrain and Scenario

Trenton Overhead View

Last evening I cleared everything off of the war game table and set up my Winter terrain to depict the Battle of Trenton on December 26, 1776. This will be the first of a trio of games covering Washington's make or break winter campaign from December 25, 1776 through January 4, 1777 in New Jersey. I will also refight the 2nd Battle of Trenton (or Assunpink Creek) on January 3, 1777 and Princeton on January 3, 1777.

The game mat is a bespoke production from The Terrain Guy (sadly, no longer in business) with white flock adhered to canvas, along with a sprinkling of dark brown here and there that helps to break up the winter white look. All of the roads, winter trees and buildings were made by Herb Gundt (primarily for my Leuthen game) and the figures that we will use in the battle are all from Fife & Drum Miniatures, of course.

The Hessian soldiers are actually SYW Prussians from the Minden Miniatures figure range. In 2015, Fife & Drum will finally add actual Hessians to its range and I am looking forward to see what Richard Ansell, the sculptor, comes up with. Lt. Colonel Rall had approximately 1,350 men in his command at Trention, so that would work out to 135 figures using a 1:10 figure to man ratio. I plan to break this down into four battalions of 30 figures and an extra 15 jagers and/or artillery crewmen.

The American force is a little more difficult to pin down. The Boatner book indicates that Washington had approximately 2,400 men at Trenton whereas the Osprey Campaign book on the battle suggests that there were as many as 3,500 involved in the battle. Since there were seven Continental brigades in the army, I think that what I will do is have each brigade represented by one of my battalions of Continental figures.

So the Hessians will have 4 and 1/2 battalions of infantry and the Continentals will have 7 battalions of infantry, plus two to three cannon per side.

The game scenario will start with Washington's forces deployed as they would have been just prior to the start of the shooting, around 6:30 AM on December 26, 1776. I am not sure on what to do with the Hessian troops. Should I scatter the battalions around the town and develop some mechanism for activating each Hessian unit? Or should I just let the Hessians react once the Continentals fire the first shot?

Please feel free to scroll down and view the pictures - click or double click the pictures for an enlarged view.

British 16th Light Dragoon Vedettes on King Street

Lt. Colonel Rall's Headquarters on Queen Steet, looking south.

The Americans approach the town of Trenton at first light.

The Rall Grenadier Regiment in its quarters

The Battle of Princeton- January 3, 1777

The Battle of Trenton, by Don Troiani.

I have admired this print from Don Troani for quite awhile and keep meaning to order a giccle version on canvas and nicely framed as a present to myself. Coincidentally I have been doing some light reading on the battles of Trenton, Assunpink Creek and Princeton with a mind to fighting the battles solo and writing up a game report for this blog.

For more information about the print, please click on the link to one of Mr. Troiani's distributors in the USA

http://www.oldgloryprints.com/Troiani%20Main%20Page.htm

Troiani also has a Facebook page that is interesting to follow because he sometimes gives his followers a first glimpse at some of the commissions that he is currently working on. I can't seem to provide a link to his Facebook page, but if you log yourself into Facebook and then search for "Don Troiani Historical Artist " that should get you to the right spot.

Mr. Troiani is currently working on a painting depicting the March of Alexander Hamilton's artillery company on its March to Trenton on Christmas Eve. One of the little nuggets of information that he provided is that contrary to popular belief, many of the Continental soldiers had been re-equipped from the army stores in nearby Philadelphia just prior to Washington's Winter campaign.

Der Alte Fritz's Man Cave

The Library Room at Schloss Fritz (right hand side)

I am sitting at home today waiting for the plumber to arrive to make some minor repairs, so while I am killing some time, I thought that I would post some pictures of my Library or Den, A.K.A. where plans for world domination of the miniatures world are made. LOL!

I keep most of my better reference books in this room, but I have ten times more military history books on hand that I store in other rooms of the house. When I need to quickly find some SYW era uniform information from Bleckwenn or Menzel, this is my "go to" place. A couple of nice reading chairs and a CD to play some Mozart or Handel, and I'm ready to lock myself away for the afternoon in good spirits. The entry has a pair of sliding pocket doors, one of which you might be able to make out in the picture below, on the left - lower corner, so that I can close off the noise of the world and read or work on some of my writing projects.

The Library Room (left hand side)

The roll top desk is a mid 18th Century piece that my father bought while visiting London back in the 1970s. In fact, it is one of a pair of such desks that I inherited from him, so they have some sentimental value to me, plus they look nice and are highly functional. The television set is rarely used, but when the mood stikes me, I can lounge of the small couch and catch up on my programs.

Here is a view of one of the book shelves in the room. Early in my life, I started collecting Royal Daulton Toby Jugs, a few of which are displayed here. More recently, I have started collecting statues of Napoleon - I probably have close to a dozen in this room on various shelves. One of the Napoleons is well camouflaged - he is part of the handle on the Duke of Wellington jug on the top shelf. Further down, you can see Lord Kitchener, Winston Churchill and more Napoleon's that were cast in Germany.

Finally, a British grenadier mitre from the Seven Years War - a reproduction that I purchased from The Discriminating General store in Canada and a Ron Tunison brass sculpture of General Lee from the ACW. (I'm a Union man myself, but I couldn't pass on this sculpture so I bought it anyway).

Shelves full of Napoleonic, AWI and ACW books.

While I have SYW books scattered all over the house, most of my Christopher Duffy books and a number of German language publications are stored on these shelves, which seem to be groaning a bit from the weight of the books. I bought the John Bull statue years ago with the idea of turning him into a  table lamp, but never got around to doing it. The third shelf down contains my growing collection of Frederick the Great statues. As you might guess, I like to collect statues. Mrs. Fritz gave me the Admiral Lord Nelson Toby jug for Christmas the year we moved into this house.

Shelves for the SYW and Ancients wing of the Library

 There are also a few Ancients books on these shelves. Just to do something completely different, I developed an interest in the Late Roman Empire era (300AD rto 470AD), so I managed to collect a few of those books along the way.

That is all for now, I might come back later and embellish this post, but I have got to run off and do some errands for the family. Happy New Year everyone!