Cedar Mountain - Union Victory!

The Cedar Mountain game on Sunday resulted in a (surprising to me, at least) Union victory. Although Scott, as Banks, lost half of Crawford's brigade to Confederate artillery on the approach to the Wheatfield, the remainder of Williams' division pushed Winder back from the Wheatfield with Ronald and Garnett retiring nearly one mile to the west. In the center, Banks' batteries dealt death onto Early and Taliaferro. Even in the south, the Federal battery hugging Hudson House inflicted huge casualties upon Ewell before being overrun. A.P. Hill arrived along the Culpeper Road and pushed his brigades into the fight in a piecemal fashion in an attempt to stabilize the situation. At one point, three Confederate divisions had panicked. With the arrival of darkness came Ricketts, and the game was halted with a Federal tactical victory.

Well done, Scott!

Cedar Mountain Scenario Preparation

April is shaping up to be a dreadful painting month. The painting mojo has vanished and painting limbers and teams does not spark much inspiration. The good news is that my OR class ended this week and I have no travel planned until the end of May. With six ACW limbers/teams complete, work begins on four battalions of 15mm Piedmontese.

Work continues on the Cedar Mountain scenario before Sunday's game with Scott. Scott expressed interest in commanding the 'good guys' so I guess he'll be taking on the role of Gen. Banks. The victory points are set in such a way as to prod the Federals into duplicating their historically aggressive opening moves. If Winder's division can be neutralized before Hill's reinforcements begin trickling onto the battlefield, Banks will be off to a reasonable start.

Projects Update

With travel, work, and class, March (and much of April) passed quickly without an update. Travel included a week-long, ACW battlefield tour whose original intended goal was to duplicate the 1862 Antietam campaign. As in combat, no plan survives contact with reality and Paul and I took diversions to the Wilderness-Spotsylvania-Chancellorsville battlefields on the eastern approaches to the 1862 campaign corridor. We also expanded our tour to the west to include battlefield stops at Port Republic, New Market, Cedar Creek. Battlefield stops on our original 1862 itinerary included: Cedar Mountain, Brandy Station, Thoroughfare Gap, 2nd Manassas (and 1st Manassas), Harper's Ferry, and Antietam. I took many photos, some of which will be posted once I organize them.

Following the trip and reading Krick's Stonewall Jackson at Cedar Mountain, my plan is to refight Cedar Mountain after revising the OB from my earlier scenario. Below is a shot of the initial dispositions looking west with Cedar Mountain in the lower-left.

18mm 1799 Italian Project:
Attention returned to the early Napoleonic campaign and five French battalions crossed the painting table.

15mm Second War of Italian Independence Project:
Work on the 1859 project included the completion of the first Austrian regiment by adding the grenadier battalion for IR#11. Also making it off the painting table was Battalion 2 of the 4th Grenz Regiment.