Looking For Some Cee-gars At Antietem

 

Burnside's Bridge at Antietem Creek

We left Gettysburg after a two night stay and moved southward towards Sharpsburg, MD to visit the battlefield of Antietam. I am not going to present a potted history of the battle; that can be read Here . Antietem is probably the most complete and protected Civil War battlefield in the USA and because it is a bit off of the beaten track, is never crowded with visitors as compared to Gettysburg. The visitors' center is under construction so the only part open is the well-stocked book shop. I managed to find a treasure or two or five during the shopping phase of our visit.

Antietem National Military Park in Sharpsburg, Maryland.

We spent the night at a fine local Bed and Breakfast place called The Inn At Antietem

Lelia enjoying breakfast at the Inn At Antietam.

The breakfast was awesome (an over used word, but apropos in this case); consisting of Eggs Benedict with asparagus and sausage for the main course, grapefruit with maple syrup/brown sugar carmelized on the surface, and exquisite baked goods such as blueberry scones and mini-pecan squares.

We were well nourished for our tour of the battlefield in the hot sun. Remember to bring a bottle of water when you visit Antietam or any other battlefield. It seems like it has always been around 90-degrees Fahrenheit every time I visit this place.

We started our battlefield visit at the small visitor's center in the park. The facility is undergoing extensive renovation and enlargement so there is no overview film to watch for the first time visitor. A park ranger does give a 30 minute presentation outside the visitors' center and this proved to be very helpful. The visitors center is located on the high ground in what was the center of the Confederate battle line, so there is a very good view of all of the important features in the park. Across from the visitors center is the famous Dunker Church, seen below in the Gardner photograph and in situ present day.

Antietam Visitors Center display.

The Dunker Church at Antietem

After poking our noses into the Dunker Church (not much to see other than some church pews), we got into our car and drove to the north end of the battlefield where General Joe Hooker commenced the battle early in the morning with his I Corps attack through the Miller Cornfield.

The starting point of General Joe Hooker's First Corps attack from the North Woods into the Miller Cornfield

The Miller Wheatfield?
This plot of land is next to the famous cornfield. The East Woods can be seen in the center distance.

Our self drive tour of Antietem started in the northern section where Hooker's I Corps attacked. We made a stop at the famous Miller Corn Field, not much in the way of grown corn this time of year. We moved on to the East Woods and the Mumma Farm where Mansfield'd XII Corps assembled to attack the Confederate center.

Battlefield interpretive marker. American battlefields are well marked in this regard.

The Sunken Road in the Confederate center.

Confederate center looking towards the Sunken Road (located near the tower on the right).

The Sunken Road

The Sunken Road position. Note how the rise in the ground on the other side of the
fences rises and could hide the advance of Union soldiers marching towards this position.

You cannot see the "sink'" in the Sunken Road in this picture. The hollow lies between the two rows of snake rail fencing and runs all the way to the observation tower in the distance. Unfortunately the tower was closed.

This portion of the tour covered everything but the area where Burnside's IX Corps attacked the Confederate left flank at the bridge that now bears his name: Burnside's Bridge. We visited the bridge the next day and then moved on to visit Harper's Ferry, West Virginia.

NEXT UP: Harper's Ferry and Washington DC

We Found The High Ground At Gettysburg

 

McPherson's Barn atop the ridge of the same name.
This was the first thing we saw as we drove into Gettysburg.

GPS and Siri difficulties not withstanding, we rolled into Gettysburg on a tuesday evening and checked into our hotel, The Inn At Cemetery Hill. The accommodations were a bit better than expected and the hotel was within a block of the intersection of Steinwehr Avenue and Baltimore Pike. In other words, smack dab in the middle of things.

Our initial approach march into Gettysburg came from the west, along the Chambersburg Pike, following the path of the unfortunate Confederate General Henry (Harry) Heth. Lelia was absolutely gobsmacked when we drove over the ridge and there in front of us lay McPherson's Ridge and Barn and the full view of the ground where the first day's battle was fought.

View of Gettysburg looking from west of town on the Chambersburg Pike.

After we unpacked our bags from the baggage train, we did a little exploring of the town and it quickly became apparent to me that there was a noticeable lack of places to have breakfast on the next morn. There appears to be a business opportunity here for some enterprising individual. Fortunately, Lelia had spied the Lincoln Diner on our way through town and after taking another look at the place, it looked to be a suitable site for some morning grub.

The next morning we arrived at the Lincoln Diner and both had a breakfast of fried hardtack with pork fat. Ok, we really had French Toast and Bacon and some Diet Pepsi for our morning serving of caffeine. I highly recommend coming here for breakfast if you happen to be staying in Gettysburg.

The Lincoln Diner

 

Dad and Lelia at the Lincoln Diner

After breakfast, we headed over to the Gettysburg Vistors' Center, figuring that it would be a good start for Lelia so that she could get a summary overview of the battle and to view some of the artifacts in the museum. We watched a short film and were ushered upstairs for a viewing of the famous Gettysburg Cyclorama. I was trying to find the Visitors Center in its old location on Cemetery Hill, but then later realized that it had been razed and moved to a new site in 2008. My last visit had been in 2007. The building is nicely rendered in an octagonal shaped structure that calls to mind some of the octagonal barns that one sees in this part of Pennsylvania.

The new (for me at least) Gettysburg Visitors' Center

We met this gentleman sitting outside the Visitors Center

One of the panels of the Cyclorama painting. The 3D effect of the mural is amazing.

Here are a few of the thousands of artificts on display at the museum .

Assorted artillery munitions used during the Civil War.
The size of the grape shot in the canister cone amazed me.

Believe it or not, most of the musical instruments in the display are saxophones of various types.

Various Civil War era carbines typically used by cavalry.
I later purchased an 1860 model Spencer Carbine for my collection.

After viewing the museum and the Cyclorama painting, we drove over to Cemetery Ridge to look at the monuments and kill some time whilst waiting for a park ranger tour of Little Round Top at 2PM.

Lelia met a couple of Parrots on Cemetery Ridge

I taught Lelia how to spot the difference between a 10-pound Parrot, a 12-pound Napoleon, a 12-pound Howitzer and a 3-inch Ordnance Rifle.

Lelia climbed to the top of the Pennsylvania monument (against my better judgement)
to get a better view of the battlefield.

There was no holding back of Lelia when we reached the massive Pennsylvania monument on Cemetery Ridge. She was determined to climb the steep spiral staircase inside that leads to the rooftop terrace of the monument. Given her Cerebral Palsy, I wasn't sure that she could make the climb, but she soldiered on and made it to the top with relative ease. I was more worried about the stairs than she was - well, actually, she wasn't worried at all about the staircase.

The climb to the top rewards your effort with some magnificent views of the entire battlefield. The pictures below start with the view north towards Ziegler's Grove and panning south towards the two Round Tops.

Cemetery Ridge as seen from the top of the Pennsylvania monument.

The view of the Codori Farm in the middle distance.
This is part of the ground  crossed by Picket's Charge on the third day of Gettysburg.

Looking towards the Peach Orchard (upper right corner).

Views of Little Round Top (left) and Round Top (right)

It was getting close to 2PM so we descended the spiral staircase and hopped into our car for the short drive to Little Round Top. A park ranger was scheduled to give a talk and one hour tour, starting at 2pm. If you are ever at Gettysburg, take advantage of the free park ranger tours. You can also hire a licensed battlefield guide for a fee and spend several hours up to all day on this type of tour.

Gettysburg Park Ranger leads a one hour tour of the fighting at Little Round Top.

The left flank of the Union line on Little Round Top. This is where the 20th Maine earned some glory.

A view of Little Round Top from the Valley of Death along Plum Run.
Click on the picture to enlarge. The little white specks near the monument on the left are people. 
This illustrates how hard it would have been to make targets out.

Devil's Den, just below Little Round Top. The site was covered with trees and brush at my last visit in 2007. The area has since been cleared of underbrush and trees that were not there in 1863.

One of the little factoids that I learned from the Park Ranger was that the fight of the 20th Maine did not play out like Hollywood depicted it in the movie "Gettysburg". Of course I knew that; I just didn't know how. We are all led to believe that the 20th Maine was in a death match with the Alabama brigade to see who could control the hill and win the battle. What really happened was that the 15th Alabama was exhausted and fairly well knackered by the time it made its last ascent of Little Round Top. Unlike the movie, there were actually something on the order of 3,000 Union soldiers atop Little Round Top fending off the 300 or so Alabamians and the outcome was really never in doubt. Furthermore, Jeff Daniels (I mean Colonel Chamberlain) did not lead a dashing charge down the hill to demolish the hoards of Confederates teeming at the bottom of the hill. The 15th Alabama was out of water, nearly out of ammunition and already at the break point when they heard the clatter of bayonets being affixed to the muskets of the 20th Maine regiment. They knew what that sound meant. That was enough for them (the Alabamians that is) and they skedaddled before the 20th Maine even started moving down the hill.

It was an interesting tour and I enjoyed watching Lelia's reactions as we explored the various parts of Gettysburg battlefield. We were getting very thirsty and sun burned by late afternoon, so we went back to the hotel to chill for awhile (literally chill in the air conditioning). We had dinner that evening at the Dobbins House, which was directly across the street.

After dinner, it was still light enough to drive around the park and see more sights. We ended up driving down the Emmitsburg Road and pulling the car off the road in a turn off that was opposite the Copse of Trees that were the focal point of Pickett's Charge. We made the walk from the road all the way up to the small rock wall and had a little bit of difficulty negotiating our way over the wall.

The Emmitsburg Road around 8PM.

A path leading up from the Emmitsburg Road to the Union lines atop Cemetery Ridge.

The view from the Confederates' point of view.

The site of Cushing's Union battery at the Angle.

The Emmitsburg Road looking south.

The same view rendered in black and white.

We had conquered Cemetery Ridge by about 8:30PM and decided to call it a day. A couple of gentlemen helped Lelia climb over the stone wall (thank you fellows!) and we returned to the hotel. We made one more little stop, at an ice cream store, for a well deserved treat at the end of the day.

Fredericksburg Is A Hard Road To Travel

 

This was Lelia and I after sitting in traffic somewhere in Northern Virginia.
(Day of the Dead candles from a Mexican restaurant in Shepardstown, WV)

Last evening my daughter Lelia and I returned home from a week long visit to Civil War battlefields in the Eastern United States. It was a great way to have some father-daughter time together. It was even more joyful to see how Lelia looked at things for the very first time, such as the Gettysburg battlefield or the nation's capital building and mall. She had never been to Washington DC before.

Along the way there were many moments of fun, but also a few moments of terror, desperation and frustration. The terror consisted of driving through the mountains of Pennsylvania, along the Pennsylvania Turnpike, in a blinding rain storm with limited visibility. The desperation was fighting our way through the horrible traffic around WDC and Fredericksburg. If I never see Fredericksburg again, I'm good. Drivers in Northern Virginia seem to take great delight in such things as forcing you off of the road in a lane merger or speeding up to prevent you from changing lanes.

The frustration was sitting at a two hour dead stop somewhere in the middle of Ohio, waiting for a vehicle accident to be cleared away. Frustration was also symobolized by the idiotic GPS system that kept sending us back to Jumonville Glen over and over and over and over again. Sheesh! At one point the GPS tried to steer us onto I95 heading north from Fredericksburg towards WDC on a late Sunday afternoon. I knew enough not to get into that one, but I still got stuck in a 45 minute wait to travel the one mile needed to get onto US17 and freedom.

Flippin' Jumonville Glen

We made it a two day drive from Chicago to Gettysburg, stopping near Cleveland, Ohio at the end of the first day. One the second day, I thought that it would be a good idea to visit Fort Necessity and Fort Ligonier for a couple of side trips along the road to Gettysburg. 

I should mention that my car has its own GPS navigation system that works just fine, but it has a feature called Apple Car Play that allows the evil Siri to take over the navigation system and inflict her own sense of macabre evil on us unsuspecting travelers. Once Siri and Google Maps takes over, it is seemingly impossible to turn it off and get back into the onboard vehicle GPS system. It might work out OK other than the fact that Siri decided, quite frequently, that "something is wrong, please try again". After hearing this for the umpteenth time, I very nearly chucked my iPhone out the window.

So the first indication of trouble came when I decided to get off of the Penn Turnpike and visit Fort Necessity. The national park has built a reproduction of George Washington's ramshackle fort and has a good visitors' center. I thought that this would serve Lelia as a good introduction to the French and Indian War. Apparently, Jumonville Glen is a part of the Fort Necessity National Battlefield Park and no amount of coaxing or persuasion could compel Siri to give us directions to Fort Necessity. We kept going around and around and ending back at Jumonville Glen. OK JG, I'm done with you (as Joe Pesci might say).

Lelia and I after waiting all afternoon to get proper directions to Fort Necessity.

Finally I decided that enough is enough and gave up on finding Fort Necessity and move on to Fort Ligonier. Guess what? We had wasted so much time trying to find the former that the latter would be closed by the time we got there (at 3PM according to my iPhone). As it turned out, the actual closing time of Fort Ligonier was 5PM and we could have made it with time to spare.

I didn't need Siri to find my way back to the Pennsylvania Turnpike so there we went and had fun driving through all of the tunnels. The next mission was to exit the turnpike at the road to Chambersburg and then on to Gettysburg, where we would spend two nights and three days. I made the right exit, but the evil Siri (Siri, I hate you) told me to take a left turn off of the turnpike rather than a right turn. My sense of direction told me that I should make a right turn, but then I hadn't yet become wise to the teasing and taunting ways of Siri.

So against my better judgement, I took the left turn instructions, and after several miles on some small country road, the GPS directed me to turn into a residential neighborhood and make all manner of twists and turns. Ultimately Siri sent me back to the Pennsylvania Turnpike. Well I might not be the sharpest knife in the drawer, but even I could figure out that it was time to implement the George Costanza Method of GPS Travel. If Siri told me to go in one direction, I would go in the opposite direction. If she told me to make a left hand turn, I would continue to go straight on down the road.

My sense of direction got us to Chambersburg with relative ease now that I was no longer listening to Siri. Chambersburg is a larger city than I remember and I kept thinking that it was about time that we reached the intersection with US30, which runs directly into Gettysburg as the Chambersburg Pike. Lelia was sure that I had no idea of what I was doing, but I held my ground and told her that I was driving south no matter what because eventually the road had to intersect with US30, and it did. The lesson here is to follow your instincts and your familiarity with the history of the battlefield. Siri is not your friend.

We finally crested one of the ridges to the west of Gettysburg and this is what we saw:

McPherson's Ridge and Barn. The ground of the first day's battle of Gettysburg.

Hall's Maine Battery and the equestrian stature of General Reynolds.

The statue of Sam Elliott, erm, I mean John Buford

The Chambersburg Pike at McPherson's Ridge.
It was the best damn ground that I've seen all day.

Seeing McPherson's Ridge at last, I turned to Lelia and said, "this is good ground to fight." She replied, "it's the best damn ground that I've seen all day."

Oh, I forgot to mention why Fredericksburg is such a pain in the neck to drive through. We were doing the Four Battlefields In One Day Tour (Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, The Wilderness and Spotsylvania Courthouse) and at the end of the day I decided to retrace my steps and return to Warrenton (where we were staying) via US17. 

Bad move Bonzo.

Had I looked at a map, I would have driven west on the Orange Turnpike to Culpepper and then jogged north into Warrenton, probably an easy 30-minute drive. We would have passed through Brandy Station along the way too. Not only was it more distance to go back to F-Town to pick up US17, but we also got stuck in a traffic jam trying to cross the Rapahanock Bridge. A simple one mile distance took us 45 minutes to traverse.

Still, we had a lot of fun and that's what it is all about. I will post four or five more posts about our trip so that I can devote individual posts to our visits to the respective battle field sites.

The Freeman's Farm Table Top Is Set And Ready To Go

 

Battle of Freeman's Farm table top. Two British commands enter the table in the center.
Morgan's riflemen await in the woods.

Click on all pictures to enlarge.

After quite a few adjustments to my Freeman's Farm table top terrain, I have finally settled on what looks right to me. This is the game that I will be hosting at the upcoming Seven Years War Association Convention on August 5th through 7th, 2021 in South Bend, Indiana.

I usually make a first pass at setting up my game terrain and lay out the troops to make sure that the terrain is playable - that is, it has sufficient room to maneuver the troops without causing traffic jams. I might find that there is not enough flank space to move the figures or there might be too many building or terrain obstacles to use in a game. Sometimes what looks good in a static display does not translate very well into a playable game. Playability is important in any wargame, but it is even more so when one is designing a game to host at a wargame convention.

One key element to consider: if you plan on having some troops arrive on the table several turns down the road, you want to make sure that the movement rates in the rules allow enough time for the troops to actually close with the enemy and have it on the table top. It does not make for a good game experience for a player. 

Another consideration is that there are enough troops to spread around for each player to game with. Freeman's Farm is a relatively small battle. For example, if there are 10 units per side it will be difficult to divide the units into four commands on one side. In this example, I would divide the troops into three commands consisting of one command with four units and two more commands of 3 units plus one cannon.

You may recall my theorem called "Jim's Rule of Fours" which states that the maximum number of combat units that a wargamer can comfortably handle is four. An experienced player can probably handle more, but if one player has six units in his command and the other players have four elements, then the game pace will slow down because the one player is moving more stuff each game turn than the other players. So I try to keep wargame player commands at no more than four combat elements. Elements are regiments of infantry, cavalry and batteries of artillery.

With all of this in mind, let's take a look at the British commands in my Freeman's Farm game.

The center of Burgoyne's army at Freeman's Farm was commanded by Brigadier General Hamilton and consisted of four British regiments: 9th, 20th, 21st and 62nd; two batteries of Royal Artillery, and some small groups of chosen men to act as sort of skirmishers to scout ahead of the brigade. 

The British left wing of the army consisted of ALL of the elite troops in Burgoyne's army: converged grenadiers and light infantry from the British regiments, converged Brunswick grenadiers and a light battalion, and various units of scouts or chosen men.

I could probably divide the entire British army into two commands for the game: Fraser's and Hamilton's brigades, but then I end up with a game that has a 12 foot long table  and only four or five players in the game (2 British and 3 American players). However, I am sure that the convention manager would not appreciate allocating a 12 foot by 6 foot table to a game that only allows for four players,

So some adjustments are necessary for this convention game.

I decided to divide Hamilton's brigade into two regiments of British infantry (larage 40 figure units) and a cannon model and a handful of light infantry scouts. That gets me to four elements for the two players that command Hamilton's brigade. 

Simon Fraser's Advance Guard has two large elite battalions of 48 figures each: British grenadiers and light infantry that were converged from their parent regiments. Both battalions are large enough to be divided into two sections of 24 figures, thus giving this player 4 elements. There were also some Indians and Canadian light troops that I could add to each command, but I am running out of space on this flank to employ all of those troops. This means that I will have to shift the terrain in the center to the British left which will create more space for Fraser's brigade on the right side of the British army.

This gives me three players on the British side, so far. There were also some Brunswick troops involved in the battle, but they were late arrivals to the battlefield and I wouldn't want to give the Brunswick command to one player, and then have that player sit around for something like six turns before he could start moving troops.  One thought is to feed some of the Brunswick regiments into the battle when the British players start losing regiments due to battle attrition. This isn't quite how Freeman's Farm was fought, but the idea makes for a more playable wargame.

Simon Fraser's advance guard of grenadiers and light infantry arrive on the table on the left flank of the British army.

A part of Hamilton's British Brigade

The other half of Hamilton's British Brigade

The American army has some similar problems with regard to breaking it up into "wargamer commands" and I will dwell on this in another blog post, shortly.

I will likely end up with six players in the game, three per side, and then feed in fresh units to players whose commands get all shot up and depleted, or rout. I might be able to stretch it out to four players per side, but this would be difficult to pull off and still give each player 3 to 4 command elements.

What do you think? Comments are appreciated.S

2nd New Hampshire Regiment At Saratoga

 

The 2nd New Hampshire Regiment at Freeman's Farm.
Fife and Drum Miniatures.

Click on all pictures to enlarge.

The Saratoga Project continues to advance at a rapid pace with new units being added at a pace of one week for each new regiment of figures. The British and Brunswick contingents are largely completed and so I am now pointing my brushes towards the American side. This past week I finished the 30-figure 2nd New Hampshire regiment.

The 2nd NH Regiment in a more bosky setting surronded by trees.

Close up view of the regiment. Click the picture to enlarge the view. Look closer at the second stand from the left and notice that in the front rank the officer, drummer, and soldier in the "at the ready" position have all had head conversions to give them round hats instead of tricorn hats.

On the third stand from the left, in the second rank, the figure with the ram rod is a head conversion. The gentleman in the red waistcoat is from the Armed Civilian pack. In the front row, the soldier biting the cartridge is a conversion of one of the British light infantry figures.

Some of the other figures in the regiment include those from the American Militia CA-001 pack wearing round hats; British Guards skirmishers wearing round hats with feather. I wanted approximately half of the regiment to wear round hats.

2nd NH Regiment standing in front of a Grand Manner log cabin and a blacksmith shop scratch built by Ed Phillips.

The 2nd New Hampshire Regiment is missing its colors, which will be supplied by GMB Designs (the best looking flags bar none - of other commercial or professionally-painted flags). The regiment actually lost its colors earlier in the Saratoga Campaign when they were captured by the British at Fort Ticondaroga in 1777.

Here are some pictures of the colors carried by the 2nd New Hampshire during the 1777 campaign season. Thanks to Bill Nevins and Ken Marshall for creating these flag images. Please feel free to download and use these flags on your regiments.

I have been on a head swap frenzy these past several weeks. I wanted to have more round hats in my Continental regiments because this style of headgear was commonly used. I liked how they look so much that I will be adding Continentals in Round Hats to the Fife and Drum Miniatures range in the near future, avialable in both regular uniform coats and hunting shirts. Stay tuned to my blog for more information about these new figurs.

Next on the painting table: the 1st New Hampshire Regiment in dark green coats and overalls, with red waistcoats and facings. They are a rather smart looking regiment.

Another Head Conversion

 

The officer from the CA-002 Armed Civilians pack gets a new chapeau.

Click the pictures to enlarge.

I needed one more officer for the 2nd New Hampshire regiment that I am painting for my Freeman's Farm game at this year's Seven Years War Association convention on August 5th through 7th in South Bend, Indiana.

Side view of the converted figure.

The officer holding a pistol, from the Armed Civilian pack, looked like a good candidate for a easy head swap. When the head is sort of out there by itself, with no weapons or hat or pole arms to complicate things, then it is very easy to do a head swap.

As stated in the previous post, I used an Exacto fine tooth mitre saw to do the surgery and a small pin vise to drill holes in the torso and the new head. A pin was cut from a piece of wire and inserted into the torso, adding a small snake of green putty around the pin to secure the join and to make a neck if needed. Any excess putty is scraped off and then Bob's your uncle, you are finished.

The 2nd NH regiment is completed, save for the terraining of the base and the addition of a GMB Designs flag. The flag is on order so the regiment will have to operate without its flag for awhile. My recollection is that they lost their flag at Fort Ticonderoga when the British captured the fort (and some flags).