ACW - Confederates (FA#11)

This period was one of the first wargame periods I was taken by  - I blame Donald Featherstone and his book "The Wargame". In addition Airfix figures were available for Infantry, Cavalry, Artillery, Wagons and Civilians - and they were cheap ! I amassed a huge force of plastic ACW that were sold on many moons ago, but the joy of seeing a mostly pure Infantry conflict never left me.

1st Division, first Brigade, all Virginians

When I eventually returned to the ACW I went for 15mm metal figures from every manufacturer that was available at the time and I eventually opted for "Johnny Reb III" as my choice of rules - they seemed to me to have the ebb and flow of the ACW conflict that I had envisioned.

Unit name was on each base

My Confederate force is (iirc) Longstreet's Corps which comprises three Divisions, each of two brigades which in turn each have four or five regiments.
Each regiment has five bases with a number of figures on each representing the total strength of the regiment.

Third Regiment in the the first Brigade

 

 

 

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Two figures to a base, strength of the regiment 200, three figures 300 etc.
Some flags are paper whilst others are metal with the  figures, like the one on the left - I can't believe I painted that !

Fourth Regiment, four figures 

The whole Brigade

The brigade's storage area, colour coded !

The commanders, L to R - Divisional CO, C-in-C Corps and sample Brigade CO

Casualty markers

I used figures as markers to record casualties, when sufficient had been accumulated , a base of figures was removed, but in the meantime the "casualties" followed the regiment (known as baggage in our games),

I have a lot of casualty markers !

Each brigade has its own battery of cannon, in addition there was divisional artillery  and the Corp reserve Artillery. each battery was generally represented by two or three models, each model gun in the  battery having a mere two figures as crew.

3" Riles on the left and 12pdr Napoleons on the right.

The Corps needs a lot of Artillery ,,,

...and of course gunners (Random Selection )

I came across these two figures on the right whilst picking out the gunners, they're obviously civilians and may well be 'spillage' from my "Pony Wars" figures".
The gentleman on the left is plastic whom I suspect is the Airfix "Wagon Train", 'boy' figure.
Digging deeper amongst the gunners I found even more civilians, including at least one other Wagon Train figure whom I distinctly remember cutting down her dress by a couple of millimetres to fit in with the smaller 15mm figures. (She is the third figure from the left in the photograph below.

Woman, man, woman Shepherd with sheep (?!&*?) and man with gun.

1st Division- all Virginians

2nd Division - Georgians and Texans

3rd Divsion - Georgians and Alabanians

Unused flags - probably surplus to requirements.

I was surprised not to find the Corps wagon train in the box, but I suspect it was used for Pony Wars games and it wll be in another storage area ! Each Brigade had a wagon, each division had a wagon and the corp had a wagon too, making a train of 10 wagons. I can't remember how many were allocated for the artillery, but at least a couple ! 
As always there are surprises in my collections, the civilians above being one, but I also found this packet of flags (on the right) too:

17 x 13.5 inches of goodness.

My Love of the ACW is reflected in my Book collection, with the ACW being the most prominent and having the most expensive book I've ever bought, I have many other ACW books too, including box sets and many, what I would call, standard reference books.
I doubt any new-comer to the period would even bother with "Coggins",but it was the go-to reference book and is still a fountain of knowledge.

The state I found this drawer in !

And that's it for this week, the third remaining drawer must contain my Union Force that I'll post about next week as once more I haven't managed a single hobby-related activity over the last week.

Thanks for taking the time to visit, hopefully finding something of interest and of course your comments are both welcomed and appreciated.

ACW (AB#4 part 3)

So this week not buildings from my ACW collection but the remaining bits and pieces that were in the first of my three drawers that hold most (not all) my ACW collection.
So, fences, one of the trademark  features of ACW battles.
They came in various guises , straight bar fences, (like the ones illustrated in the first photograph, snake fences (zig-zag fences) and 'X' fence posts with cross-pieces laid on and some stonework or mounds underneath.
I have all three types, a few commercial ones, as above, which proved costly, but mostly home-made scratch-builds. 

Homemade, snake fence

Straight fences

You need a lot of fencing for the ACW

In both 6" and 12" lengths (these are all about 12" lengths)

That's more than 30 foot of fencing !

Moving on from my fencing, made from paperclips (in case you were wondering) I also found some forgotten barricades, I'd made -mostly from Airfix wagon train bits iirc. Covered in latex as molds and then cast in plaster, making the bits reusable,

Front and back of two barricades from one mold

Two more (as above) from a second mold.

Group shot, all these can protect a single regiment they're about 5" long

A smaller barricade - goodness knows where from!

I also found some tents...

...in two varieties

I have a lot of tents !

Including a paper one for some strange reason (?)

The tents are homemade from air-drying clay iirc, hence they're all slightly different sizes and shapes.
In addition to fences and  tents, I found these two gun emplacements and haven't a clue why they were built, let alone why they were never finished !

These are big too

Close up showing figure for scale, each could easily hold a regiment

Roman bits and pieces

There always something I find that I wasn't expecting whenever I look into old storage, this drawer was no exception!

Finally below is a picture of the drawer that all the buildings etc, from this post and the previous two were stored in.

One of the three ACW drawers, with ruler for size

That's it for this week; turning a box of paperclips into fences and clay into tents isn't very interesting, but it does mean I've managed another post in a week where my enthusiasm is draining rapidly.

Thanks for taking the time to visit and if anything has caught your interest, then that's a bonus and of course, as always,  your comments are both welcomed and appreciated . 

ACW (AB#4 part 2)

Another week and the remainder of my 15mm ACW buildings, unused for well over ten years.
These are all resin buildings and probably from many manufacturers, though which, I can't say for sure. I do remember that I bought them over a long period of time as, to me at least, they were very expensive. 
Though they were all bought specifically for the ACW they're obviously usable for many different eras and not just America either !
 Some of the buildings are "shells" of resin, whilst others are solid resin and all seem very tough as they have suffered very little damage over the many changes in storage locations over the years.

Stone house, but shingle roof.

Rear and side view

Another really boring grey building...

...not helped by the dull window frames and roof

A very small building

Another very small building

Still boring though.

One of th more interesting building (IMO)..

Wish I'd added matchstick porch supports

More of a barn than a dewlling,

...but a very interesting one IMO.

Log and shingles

There are some interesting features, but you have to look hard.

Looks like an 'outhouse' (wc) ...

...but probably more like a woodstore - look at the door size!

Another combination of logs and chimney

I haven't a clue why some are on bases and others are not

Another fairly boring shack...

...anyway you look at it.

Must have been a job lot on log cabins...

...but it does have a thatch/turf roof !

A huge barn (biggest building of all my ACW stuff)

Rear view (obviously)

Signal post, with AWOL signaller

Boring rear view.

"Heathcliffe...it's me..."

Finally,  a building that would probably look more at home on Ilkley Moor or the highlands in the UK rather than anywhere in the USA. Once more I have no idea of its provenance, but it has a single door and window (two at a stretch), but it is large and I find an interesting building. and further, at the time I built this collection there was very little choice !

Rear view of "Wuthering Heights"

That's it then for this week, next week, I'll be boring you to death once more with the remainder of the contents the first drawer of the three that make up my ACW  collection.

As always your comments are both welcomed and appreciated.