another web site

If you haven't seen this site before it's worth a look. This is a webcam looking West towards the McPherson's Farm at Gettysburg. The camera is located on Seminary Ridge so you get an idea of the distance between the two ridges. The Chambersburg Pike is on the extreme right of the frame. The white rectangular thing on the right-center horizon is the McPherson's barn and the clump of trees to the left of the barn are the woods where the Iron Brigade fought. There is a traffic light at the top of the rise to the ridge in case you were wondering what that was.

There used to be a MUCH sharper camera located there but someone stole it and it was replaced with one a bit fuzzier. The picture is updated every 15 minutes. It is interesting (at least to me anyway) to see the changing weather conditions and the day light changing over the field.

Click on the title of this post to get to the site.

nice website

Hey... check out these websites. There are LOTS of cool stuff in there. There is a wealth of info on the website and the blog is very good as well. I bought the two books and they are very good (Union & Confederate). There is a CDV and a page or more on the person shown on the CDV. Some great stories and some very very sad ones too.

http://facesofthecivilwar.blogspot.com/

http://www.facesofwar.com/

Don

Books and lists

Last year a list came out of the top 50 ACW books. It was compiled by a CW Round Table. Below is part of their list and I've added my own. Their list is good but… it misses others that are invaluable to gamers and bunch more that it chock full of fun reading. I have chopped out what I thought is ‘okay’ but doesn’t deserve to be that high on the list. The order has not been arranged in any particular order so ignore the numbers.

Two books that I added deserve a special note. First is Corporal Si Klegg and His "Pard" - Wilbur F. Hinman. It's in paper back now so it isn't as expensive when I bought an original for $125!!!! Damn! This book is quite different than the others. Hinman was a veteran from the CW. He wanted to write his auto bio of the war but decided against it. Instead he made up a character that was just like him and went through the same experiences that he did. Si Klegg enlists in the war and is mustered out at the end of the war. Many of the stories in the book are very funny and also very sad, just the thing a soldier would have gone through. Hinman describes everything about a soldier's life through this fictional character and fictional events. The B&W drawing in the book are VERY good too.

The other book is The Bloody Crucible of Courage - Brent Nosworthy. This book is a what/how/why of strategy, tactics, supply, logistics, infantry, artillery, cavalry, navies, guns etc and all the rest of the nuts and bolts of the war. He explains how the equipment and tactics evolved into what happened in the war. He describes in detail the advancement of weapons and tactics which went back 30 years before the CW. This is really good stuff but not an exciting battle book although he does speak of battles but how it relates to development of the above systems, they are more examples to illustrate his points. If you have the CW written by Paddy Griffith you can throw Paddy's stuff away or burn it. Your choice. It's junk and he gets his numbers and facts wrong.


2. Battle Cry of Freedom – James McPherson
4. Lee's Lieutenants – Douglas Freeman
6. The Gettysburg Campaign – Edwin B. Coddington
7. Co. Aytch – Sam Watkins
8. A Stillness at Appomattox – Bruce Catton
10. Fighting for the Confederacy – E. Porter Alexander
11. Landscape Turned Red: The Battle of Antietam – Stephen W. Sears
14. Gettysburg: The Second Day – Harry W. Pfanz
15. Generals in Blue – Ezra J. Warner
16. Gettysburg: A Journey in Time – William A. Frassanito
17. Team of Rivals – Doris Kearns Goodwin
19. Centennial History of the Civil War – Bruce Catton
23. Confederates in the Attic – Tony Horwitz
25. This Terrible Sound: The Battle of Chickamauga – Peter Cozzens
28. The Life of Johnny Reb: The Common Soldier of the Confederacy – Bell Irvin Wiley
33. The Official Records of the War of the Rebellion – Participants
34. Antietam: The Soldiers' Battle – John Michael Priest
38. Personal Memoirs of Ulysses S. Grant – Ulysses S. Grant
39. Hardtack & Coffee – John Billings
43. Generals in Gray – Ezra J. Warner
44. Battles & Leaders of the Civil War – Various
47. Three Years in the Army of the Cumberland – James Connolly

That’s the list chopped down. Now, I would add these few right off the bat:

Corporal Si Klegg and His "Pard" - Wilbur F. Hinman

The Bloody Crucible of Courage - Brent Nosworthy

The Gettysburg Companion - Mark Adkin - this does have a few errors but decent primer

Gettysburg: A Testing of Courage - Noah Andre Trudeau

Reminiscences of the Civil War - John B. Gordon - great fun read by a CS General in the middle of it all

Civil War Artillery At Gettysburg - Philip M. Cole - nuts and bolts of art. and some history. this book will actually make you a better artillery battery commander in the game!

The Artillery of Gettysburg - Bradley M. Gottfried - history of the battle via artillery. a look inside a glanced over topic

Maps of Gettysburg

Maps of Chickamauga

Drummers anyone?

The picture above is from the web site of Co. H, 119th NYSV Historical association. You get an idea about what the drums and drummer boys might have looked like.

I've had questions about drummer boys and drums before. I had this discussion with a friend of mine (Mike E.) and decided to just cut and paste it here to save myself the trouble of re-doing it. Why go through all the trouble again and reinvent the wheel?!

Different companies made the drums. You could have special stuff painted on the side... or not. Usually an eagle was there but sometimes a state emblem.


"Then I shall pose the question: did they actually use drums on the battlefield or were they "little drummer boys" who got sent off the field (I think that there is a reference in "Stillness at Appomattox" that the drummer boys were sent from the field prior to Petersburg)."

----Many Companies when they formed recruited drummers and fifers. Once the regiments were formed they pooled all these into one big 'field music' unit. They could be boys or men; it all depended but no requirement. In times of battles they would normally be stationed well back of the firing and many times detailed to aid the wounded. They NEVER ever were with the Color Guard, never! Many were kids and they didn't want them killed or wounded. NO ONE wanted to write a letter home to little Johnny's Mom telling her 14 year old boy took a bullet in the head. The kids were their neighbors.

---------Gamers mistakenly use drummers and officers in the Color Guard. I can go with officers because even though they were not assigned to the Color Guard there would be officers right near them but never drummers or fifers. You know… very very few companies make models of fifers. Okay so what are you NOT going to do? Yes, never put drummers in the Color Guard... EVER!!!!

"Let me guess - at the start the drummers were men who took the field. As they all got shot they were replaced by boys who did not take the field."

---No, they could have started as kids or adults. One drummer boy in Co. H, 119th NY, G. Mott was 15 years old and was killed at Chancellorsville.

****We had a discussion about the Perry plastics and the drum in the box set of infantry:

----You can give the plastic drummer guy a rifle instead of the drum. I did that with mine. Take the plastic drum out to the driveway. Take a hammer and smash it so no one can use it ever again. It is WAAAY too big and it hangs wrong on the model. The Perrys messed up this in their set. Not enough research.



Links of drummers and drum pics.

Here’s a link to a drum at an auction. The dark color would have been a dark blue surrounding the middle.

http://www.fielddrums.com/2008/05/metal ... -drum.html

http://www.ccboe.net/ece/5thGrade/image ... 320CA2.jpg

http://www.civilwaracademy.com/images/C ... r-Drum.jpg

http://www.fontainesauction.net/Civil-W ... 0photo.jpg

http://www.antiquetrader.com/upload/con ... 0ItemA.JPG

http://www.civil-war.tv/images/photos/B ... -14-04.jpg

http://www.nga.gov/collection/iad/image ... ardrum.jpg

http://www.97thpvicoa.us/image/766px-Ci ... ndDrum.jpg


http://www.5thalabamaband.org/CWdrums.JPG

http://www.corbisimages.com/images/IH07 ... 415B0A6636

http://z.about.com/d/712educators/1/0/F/9/sold2.jpg

http://www.cwurmuseum.org/pages/collect ... /music.htm

I just double checked and some of these links got messed-up by this blog thingie. Sorry about that. You might have to click on additional links if it seems to drop you at a main/home page. Drats!

more pics

Even more pics

Action Front title

A few people are a bit puzzled by the name or term Action Front. It actually comes directly from the U.S. War Department's drill manual, Instruction For Field Artillery, originally published in 1861. On page 313 there is a section for "Formations in Battery". Number 530 is written when pieces are in line, to form in battery to the front by throwing the caissons to the rear. Basically what that means is your battery is already halted and you want to unlimber and get ready for action to the front. It's business time!

I had read many years ago that the 9th Massachusetts battery (led by Captain Bigelow) at Gettysburg was facing the Wheatfield Road (just east of the Peach Orchard) waiting at the halt for further orders. The command was shouted and the battery sprang into action. Limbers would have been moved forward and turned around to unlimber the guns. Artillerymen spring to their assigned posts ready for action. Section commanders order the targets to the Gunners and the Gunners in turn choose the appropriate rounds to be loaded.

The NPS had a sign posted along the road with a drawing of the action above with the 9th Massachusetts. Of course the battery would cover themselves with glory fighting later that day at the Trostle farm. I tried finding it this trip and it's gone. It could have been removed a few years ago, I don't know for sure. Anyway, the words "Action Front!" written on the plaque has stuck with me all these years.

There it is... the title.

Pics from Gettysburg

Here are but a few of the pics I took last week. Hope you like them. They are from various parts of the field.