Rising Tides and Turning Tables

Shortly after moving to our house in 1987, I set up my wargames table. It was supported by 2 Ping pong tables, and on top of that sat multiple frames made of 2x4's, and topped with 3/4" plywood, painted blue for naval battles and as the base layer for GeoHex. The total table was 20 feet long by 6 feet wide. Ove the years it became evident that I never used more than 12 feet of the length, and that the 6 foot width was becoming more challenging to reach across as well. Finally, a few years back, one of the tables tubular legs bent and had to be repaired with duct tape! Thus, almost a year ago, I purchased four 2.5 by 6 foot tables to replace the aging structure. Those tables sat folded up in the garage, as in order to install them in the basement, first the immense pile of clutter on the far end had to be sorted and moved, and then the very heavy components had to be removed from the basement to make room for the new; a two man job at minimum. Thus nothing happened... until 2 weeks ago. That Saturday morning we awoke to find a good inch of water in the basement following some heavy rains. Now, we haven't had anywhere near that much water (usually 1/8" at most in a portion of the basement with really heavy rain) since we installed a sump pump following a real flood of about 3 inches of water. 

Well, it turned out the old pump had burned out. That lead to about 6 hours of pumping water out of the basement while a new sump pump was installed. We had already started clearing out unused items form the basement the week before, and thus I took advantage of the opportunity to have Louis,  the guy who was helping us, assist me with hauling the old table out and bringing the new tables down. 

 

The result - a new, smaller but much lighter, more mobile, and flatter tabletop!

Doing all that took the better part of the weekend; consuming the time I had mentally assigned to getting everything finalized for the 3rd and biggest of the three games that I ran at HAVOC outside of Boston, MA, this past weekend. I planned to leave bright and early Saturday AM (6:30), so that I could arrive at the convention hotel before 9 AM. My schedule then included playing in my freind Mark's "Concord Bridge North"  1775 AWI game at 9AM, setting up running, and taking down my Battle of White Plains October 1776 game at 2:30, taking it down,  and setting up for my Punic Wars Battle of Geronium game for 7:30 PM, and then running 2 Napoleonic scenarios from Neil Thomas' One Hour Wargames using Square Eagles at 10:00 AM on Sunday. Needless to say, I was happy to have the nerw tables installed and the old ones removed, but that placed a real crimp on the planning and packing needed for less than a week following. 

Here's the terrain set up for White Plains laid out on the new table

That's the Bronx River. which flows into the Hudson river, which is just a little ways off the left of the picture. The marshy ground supposedly accounts for the Indian name of the area, translated as :"White Plains", because of the frequent mists arising therefrom. 

The buildings represent the village of White Plains. Like new England, the ground in New York is full of rocks left by the Glaciers during previous ice ages, and thus stone walls are everywhere; they had to have place to put all the damned rocks encountered when trying to farm the land. These walls are cast resin I had acquired perhaps 10 years ago and started but never really finished; those were finished in the 5 days after the flooding. 

With this battle taking place in October, I wanted a bunch of trees with fall foliage; These are from a 14 tree pre-made Woodlands Scenics Fall Forrest I received a week or so before the show. They still had to be based, the trunks dry brushed, the bases flocked, and I then added a second contrasting flock color to all of them suing loose flock and sprayed scenic adhesive. 

OK, let's add the troops! The key position of Chatterton Hill is in the foreground

View from the White Plains side; the British (and Hessians) are to the left, and the Patriots to the Right. 

This battle is why all of the AWI troops have been leaping off the painting table (and the planned Battle of Brandywine, 1777, for Historicon in July). 

Patriots behind a line of stone walls. They tried to dig entrenchments, but the rocky ground made it very difficult to do with any speed. 

The Hessian command is in the foreground; they played a key role in the historical battle. 

Chatterton Hill, with a few Patriot Reinforcements off in the distance. 

Green Mountain Rangers - AWI

The territory that makes up the modern day State of Vermont was a hotbed of controversy from the years preceding, during, and after the American Revolution. The colony of New Hampshire issued land grants in the area between the Connecticut River and Lake Champlain. This are became known as the New Hampshire grants. Subsequently, the British crown decided in favor of the colony of New York's claims to this land, and New York issued grant to land in the are, happily ignoring those previously made by New Hampshire! 

The majority of the population rejected the claims of New York, and that led to the establishment of a local militia, known as the Green Mountain Boys, lead by Ethan Allen, his brother Ira Allen, and their cousins Seth Warner and Remember Baker. By the 17700's , they were several hundred strong and were the defacto rulers of the area. 

In 1775, a body of the Green Mountain Boys joined with Connecticut Militia Colonel Benedict Arnold to seize control of Fort Ticonderoga and Crown Point on Lake Champlain,. before advancing on as far as Quebec and Montreal, where their attempt to take the city during the winter failed. 

In the summer of 1775, they became the basis of the Green Mountain Rangers in the Continental army, famously fighting at Bennington in 1777. 

Vermont then declared itself and independent Republic. The Continental Congress chose to ignore the issue to avoid conflict between New York and New Hampshire, and it was not until 1791 that Vermont became part of the new UInited States as the 14th state. 

The flag of this unit is well documented, with remnants still existing. 

Hessian Musketeer Regiment Von Trumbach

This regiment was first raised in 1701; in 178 its colonel changed to GM Carl Ernst Johann von Bose, and it was thence known as Musketeer Regiment von Bose. 

The regimental uniform had white collar, cuffs, lapels, waistcoats, and breeches. 

Drummer's uniforms had yellow lace with a narrow red stripe, and the drum hoops were red and white with a narrow blue stripe. 

The regimental flag is by Flags of War. I actually think I have accidentally reversed the flags between this unit and Musketeer regiment . Considering the small difference between white and paille, I don't think I will worry about it! 

The regiment fought at the battles of Forts Clinton and Montgomery, Connecticut Farms, Springfield, Guilford Courthouse, Green Springs, and Yorktown.

These are Perry figures once again. 

After the Battle of Guilford Courthouse, General Lord Cornwallis wrote the the regiment "deserves my warmest praises for its discipline, alacrity, and courage...". 

Yes, this regiment has a re-enactor group.

Hmm, I may have to try adding that red line to the drummer's lace!

Grenadiers of the Regiment von Bose/von Trumbach in the snow!

2nd New Hampshire Regiment

This regiment was first raised in the winter of 1776, and served until 1782. 

We're not sure if more than one company wore the light blue uniform with red facings, but in my army they do!

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These were "State" line troops, not Continentals or militia. 

These are Brigade Games figures. 

The flag is printed from internet sources; the original was captured by the British when they took backl control of Fort Ticonderoga in 1777. 

Aside from "NH, 2nd Regt" on the shield", the scroll reads "The Glory not the Prey". 

Hessian Musketeer regiment Von Donop

This regiment traces its origins back to 1687.

It fought at the Battles of Long Island, Fort Washington, Brandywine Germantown, Monmouth Courthouse, Connecticut Farms, and Springfield. 

The regimental flag is by Flags of War in the UK. 

The regiment had paille (off white) collars, cuffs, lapels, waistcoats, and breeches.

These are Perry figures. 

Drummers had yellow lace with a red stripe, and red and blue drum hoops. 

1st Continental Light Dragoons

The first regiment of Continental Light Dragoons had ist origins as Bland's Virginia Horse, and joined Washington's army at Morristown, NJ, in December 1776.

At that time, it was recorded as having two different uniforms, one blue faced red, and the other brown faced green; I have depicted them in the later. 

They officially became the 1st Continental Light Dragoons in March of 1777. 

Reversed colors for the trumpeters (green faced brown) were documented by Bland in the Spring of 1777, along with many other details of rank distinctions.

This uniform is depicted in both Mollo and Leffert's works. Lefferts shows a lighter, orangish brown, which I have copied, while Mollo shows dark brown coats.  

The flag is by Adolfo Ramos; it  appears there may have been several flags carried, all with the same design, but with red or green ground colors instead. This flag is by Adolfo Ramos. 

The legs on the horses of these Perry figures were kind of disaster - quite bent and fragile; I straightened them as much as I dared!

British 16th Light Dragoons - American Revolutionary War

  

The regiment was raised as the second of the new regiments of light dragoons in 1759, as the 16th Regiment of (Light) Dragoons, also known as Burgoyne’s (yes, that Burgoyne, then a Colonel) Light Horse. In 1766 they were renamed after Queen Charlotte as the 2nd (or The Queen’s) Regiment of (Light) Dragoons, the number being an attempt to create a new numbering system for the light dragoon regiments. However, the old system was quickly reestablished, with the regiment returning as the 16th (The Queen’s) Regiment of (Light) Dragoons in 1769. It saw action during the 7 Years War, supporting Britain's ally, Portugal. 

The 16th Light Dragoons arrived in New York in September, 1776. They were involved in fighting at White Plains (1776) Brandywine (1777), Paoli (1777), Germantown (1777) and Monmouth Court House (1778). 

By December, 1778, the regiment was so depleted that the remaining men were drafted into the 16th Light Dragoons, and the officers returned to Britain to recruit. 

The regiment originally had black facings, but changed to dark blue with the change to the "Queen's" title.  In 1784, the regiment changed to Dark blue jackets along with the rest of the British Light Dragoons, in their case with scarlet facings. During the Napoleonic Wars, it fought at Talavera, Ciudad Rodrigo, Bussaco, Sabugal, Salamanca, Burgos, Vittoria, San Sabastian Nive, and Waterloo!

The unit was converted to the 16th Lancers in 1816, wearing a dark blue Lancer uniform until 1832, when a scarlet coatee was authorized for service in India. When the unit returned to England in 1846, it petitioned to retain the scarlet uniform when all the other Lancer regiments were ordered to return to dark blue; it thus  was unique in wearing a scarlet uniform (faced dark blue) until 1914!