A Reenactor's Privilege

As a War of 1812 reenactor, I get to "play" a lot in a reproduction uniform, fire a reproduction musket and make a lot of noise and smoke, learn the drill of the time, and generally spend some of my day in the 19th Century.

However, once in a great while, my comrades and I get to do something real. 

This past Saturday, March 8, a group of us (Nick, Jared, Justin, Jeff, Beth, and myself along with Jon who came to take photos) went to Wardsville, ON to take part in the Battle of Longwoods Bicentennial Commemoration. This was put together by the Upper Thames Military Reenactment Society as a way of commemorating the battle on the actual site. On March 4, 1814 in about 30cm/12 inches of snow, a detachment of the 1st Regiment of Foot - the Royal Scots - attacked an American raiding party consisting of troops of the US Army and the Michigan State Militia at a hillside now called Longwoods. The attack was repulsed with 16 dead from the Crown forces and about 50 wounded and 5 dead and a number of wounded on the US side. Both sides withdrew without burying the dead, and the US commander forbade his men from looting the dead and wounded of the Crown forces as a tribute to their bravery.

The dead were not buried and received no funeral. The local militia came out later in the spring and burned the remains, which had suffered from being left to the wild animals.

On March 8, 2014, those dead received their proper funeral with military honours.

Reenactors from Canada and the US met on the field and reenacted the battle. This was followed by a military funeral with the reenactors in attendance as well as a unit of 31 Combat Engineering Regiment ("The Elgins"), a Canadian Reserve Force unit, a colour guard from the Kentucky National Guard, chaplains from the reenactors and the Kentucky National Guard, representative of the First Nations bands on whose land this took place, some local politicians (who did not speak), and the public. Following the drum-head service, a new monument was unveiled and a reception was held. There was a dinner and dance later in the evening, but the bunch of us preferred to go home.

It seemed right to my wife and I that we should be part of this historic occasion. It was a true funeral, not a reenactment. Troops whose heritage reaches back to this battle and war stood together as allies along with reenactors from both nations who work to keep the memory of this conflict alive without being in conflict.

It was a good day.

(All photos courtesy of my wife, Laughing Devil Photography, Dave Westhouse and the Royal Scots Light Company)

British advance picquet

The US line - Nick is all wrapped up in the middle and Jeff is next to him in the grey greatcoat

The Scots advance

The US Army replies

The advance continues over a small bridge. This is the EXACT spot of the battle.

The troops advance up hill. The sergeant in the foreground is a reenactor of the Newfoundland Regiment. Almost all of them had those fur "Mad Trapper" caps. They were prepared for the weather... lucky devils!

Captain Johnstone falls (Dave Westhouse at his theatrical best)
The US side says very few Crown reenactors fall - especially officers.
This is photographic evidence that that slander is not true!

"He'd dead, Jim." (Isn't that what red-shirts are for?)

Two US Marines drag off the Scots' bugler as a captive. I  never saw him again.

The Crown forces keep up a hot fire.

... even as they retreat down the hill.

Somehow I looked over at the camera as I tended an index finger cut by my flint. It bled for two days.

Our good friend, Major Marty Land from Fort Meigs, OH, as he surveys his wing. 

Marty's wife, Tammi, smiles for the camera... without knowing the camera was there.
The Fort Meigs crowd portrays the 2nd Artillery, Cushing's Company, but often serve as infantry.

The 17th US Infantry, Croghan's Company in the column as we march off to the hollow square.
Jeff in the great coat, Nick in the cap and scarf, myself with my mouth hanging open, Jared behind me,
and Justin just behind Jared.

Our friends from the Tennessee Ranger (aka The British Indian Department)
Roy, I still owe you your Snickers® bar!

Colonel Rob Trumbull and his commanding presence.

The altar of drums is prepared.

The Rev. Brian McKay, Fr. Mark Sergent, and Chaplain Major Bill Draper, Kentucky National Guard led the service.
Brian is a reenactor and a pastor, Fr. Mark is a Catholic priest and a retired Canadian military padre, and Major Draper serves in the National Guard. 

Lt. Col. Smith of the Elgins receives the salute of the Sergeant Major and takes command of the parade.

Chaplain Draper lays the Flag of the United States on the altar of drums.

The First Nations counsellors in attendance.

Justin served as sergeant for the 17th.

Nick kept as warm as possible. He said the backpack helped.

Chaplain Draper

Don't kid yourself. It was a cold day...

... and it was quite a hill.

Names of the Deceased:

     British casualties:                                                      U.S. Casualties:

Captain D. Johnstone                                                       Pvt. Philip Beard

Lt. P Graeme                                                                   Pvt. Levi Brunnell

Sgt. James Savage                                                            Pvt. Joseph Donahoe

Pvt. John Bunn                                                                Pvt. Thomas Watkins

Pvt. William Shaw Condon                                                Pvt. Eri Wooden

Pvt. Thom Connors

Pvt. John Hazeldine

Pvt. James Hogan

Pvt. Thomas Jones

Pvt. Thomas Murphy

Pvt. Wm Shaw

Pvt. James Sheldon

Pvt. Alex Smith

Pvt. Abraham Taylor

Pvt. Uriah Trimm

Pvt. Lawrence Wall

The Laws of Wargaming

As I'm sure you all know, humans need laws in order to 1) deter damaging and/or anti-social behaviour {I almost wrote "criminal", but without law there can be no crime since crime is the breaking of a law. I know that tortes are "legal, civil wrongs" that are not necessarily actionable as crime, but I digress.} and 2) to delineate what a society might consider "right." This gobbledee-gook is one way of considering law. There are also scientific laws like "For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction." or "A body in motion tends to remain in motion, unless acted upon by some outside force." We humans love our laws. Did you know it's illegal to walk whistle while walking backwards during the showing of a movie in one small town? Did you know it is illegal to be homeless in Columbia, South Carolina, USA? {Again I digress.}

All of us who play wargames know that there are laws governing the playing of the games that have NOTHING to do with the actual rules of the games. I'm taking it upon my self to draft an incomplete list of such laws and I request that my reader add to the list. Most if not all of these "laws" are corollaries of Finagle's or Murphy's First Law: "ANYTHING THAT CAN GO WRONG, WILL." Here goes, starting with my favourite:

• A newly painted unit will always rout/be destroyed/surrender in it's first time on the table.
• You opponent will attempt to place the figures out of your reach in the place "that will be to your best advantage."
• A important and distinctive item/unit/general in your force -one you can not do without- will serve as an "missile-attractor" i.e. The Ark of the Covenant in an Israelite Ancients army will draw the bow-fire of EVERY enemy bowman in range... and out of range... and on other tables... in other time zones... and periods. The USS Enterprise will be the target of the entire Klingon fleet. 
• Your elites aren't.
• Fast troops will not move and always at the most inopportune time.
• Your artillery will usually be masked when most needed.
• Dice are perverse... at best.
• Your best-painted troops will lose in melee to your opponent's badly-painted/barely-primed/unpainted figures mounted on hacked cereal box stands. 
• Tying up your opponent's guard or elite troops with some sort of irregular light cavalry or scum skirmish infantry will lead to recriminations and strained tempers.
• Reinforcements will arrive at the farthest possible point to be of any help to you and will be late.
• Gaming will go better if there's beer.
• Good gamers learn from their defeats; mediocre gamers learn SLOWLY from multiple defeats; poor gamers learn to whine about their defeats.
• Lefebvre's Law or Hohn's Law: Any day you get to throw dice and push figures is a good day.

Here's a few visual versions of these and other laws. Please feel free to add more as comments.

M

A crater is a crater, no matter where it came from.

Fanatics aren't.

Compared to the "real world", our arguments are laughable.

"Able Fox Five to Able Fox. I got a target but ya gotta be patient."
Timing is everything.

Campaigns in Libraria: The Battle of Glockenspeil Pioneer Village -- 22 February 2014

For the second week in a row, the armies of Libraria marched. The disciplined, iron-shod legions of the Electorate of Saxe-Freedonia joined the wild and wooly clans and troops of Galifrey to meet the regiments of the Principality of Frankenschwein and the Serene Republic of Rationalia. This means that Beth and I aided by Kevin faced Andy, Martin, and our special guest, Mike "The Mad Padre" who accepted our gracious invitation and came down for the day from Kitchener/Waterloo where he is on an educational sabbatical.
It might have been "Dirty Tricks Day" but such is life. Everybody set up ahead of Beth and I which meant we saw their deployment and took advantage of it while they went to lunch. We shouldn'ta oughta done it, I suppose, but the opposition took it well. Martin had recovered from last week's attack of Brain-Fade-From-Writing-My-Thesis, but Andy had shovelled too much snow this week and had thrown his back out. He was in a lot of discomfort. Well, we probably won't take such advantage of our opponents again.

Maybe.

In any event, the field was cut at about the 2/5th line by an unfordable river that had three crossing points. Kevin held our left with two militia battalions, a regular battalion, a regiment of dragoons, and two guns, one medium and one heavy. Beth was in the centre with 5 "clan regiments" of Jacobite-ish Scots, two regular battalions, and a regiment of dragoons. I was on the far right with 4 regular infantry battalions, two grendier battalions, a regiment of dragoons, a regiment of heavy horse (Dragoons with improved morale) and two gun, one medium and one heavy.

Dragoon Regiment Scungili and Regiment of Horse Firefly on the Freedonian side

Martin's Rationalian dragoons and infantry

Rationalian cannon and Marine Corps troops

Appearing for the first time, Colonel Pepper's Lonely Hearts Dragoons
A mercenary regiment --painted at my daughter's request -- like the cover of the Beatle's album
Colourful and plastic (models by Zvesda -or something like that-  in 1/72)

The Clan regiments of Galifrey - lots of plaid and pointy, cutty, sticking things carried by screaming Celtic maniacs.
My kind of people!
Beth has a t-shirt that says "I can't keep calm! I'm Scottish!"

Frankenschweiner regulars with the Archbishop's Own Regiment in the centre.
Since I named the Mad Padre as the Archbishop-Metropolitan of Freedonia, it seemed appropriate to have his own regiment. They turned coat for this game, but all is forgiven! They're back in barracks in Freedonia and his Beatitude, the Archbishop is forgiven his momentary insanity!

We had to advance since the Scots are none too good at defending a position and Martin had already ensconced himself on a ridge line. Mike menaced Kevin's flank and Andy hurriedly shifted his troops to the other side of the river through a ford in their deployment area. I sent my troops forward and my dragoons and horse met Martin's dragoon and armoured horse in a head-to-head cavalry battle. My dragoons met his armoured horse and his met my horse with the expected results. The Scungili Dragoons took off in a rout, although they shaped up off-board and would have come back had night/curfew not fallen. My heavy horse regiment hit Martin's dragoons and drove them back disorganised. I was later to fall back myself. My infantry never really got into range to even fire their muskets. One grenadier battalion kept an eye on Martin's armoured horse as it tried to turn the flank and actually got behind my troops.
The big show was the assault by the clans in the centre.

Beth's "Cossack-y" Dragoons before their ill-fated charge against Martin's guns.

Ill-fate in person. The sideways stands are casualties. The figures are WWII Cossacks painted all fancy for the SYW period. Warfare in the Age of Reason has rules for true Cossacks but they're REALLY irregular and mounted individually. We use those rules for Robby's irregular First Nation's Cavalry.

The Charge of the Clans. Four Clan regiments hit Martin's grenadiers and marines. The results were about even. Some of the line held and continued to melee, while the unit hit by two clans routed. The Clans are not a guaranteed thing but they ALWAYS charge and all that plaid and broadswords and targes is scary.

These lads had to charge up-hill. The figures are old Thistle and Rose figures sculpted and marketed by the late Jamie Fish. I always liked the figs which were "muscular" (read large) 15mm.

The white drapery rings are casualties.

Off on the left flank, Kevin and Mike glared at each other over the stream. Mike threw a light cavalry regiment over the ford only to have it hit by two cannon which did a fair number of casualties and caused an high speed return to their starting point. Pepper's dragoons took quite a few casualties from cross-river small arms, but Kevin was doing exactly what he was tasked to do - hold the river line and secure that flank for the entire army.
Beth sent her dragoons to take Martin's artillery out of the game, but she got the short, dirty end of the stick and had to fall back. When her clans charged - with much whoop and hollar as well as bagpipes - they hit the Rationalian line hard. Two clan regiments were held while the two others chases off a battalion of grenadiers which led to a break-through charge onto another Rationalian unit.
Soon after that - at the end of 7 turns - we called the game or as we say in Libraria "Night fell." The results were inconclusive and arguable. Andy was hurting pretty bad and Mike had an appointment with a local hobby store. (as his blog reported - see http://madpadrewargames.blogspot.ca/2014/02/saturday-painting-table_22.html) I hope he enjoyed himself and that he'll join us again in the future.

There are always lessons to be learned. (One of Finagle's Laws hold that no experiment is complete failure; it can always be used as a bad example.)

• We need to either draw maps and deploy on paper first or hang a curtain... which is not a realistic thing.
• We need to determine objectives; it'll make for a better game since battles aren't fought in a vacuum. Glockenspiel Pioneer Village was the only feature on the board and we all ignored it. Martin called it "Dutch Wonderland" which is actually a real amusement park in Lancaster, PA. It isn't a true Amish Disneyland since they have electricity and a monorail. I've never been there; it's across the highway from the site of HISTORICON! I mean, really.
• The point system Andy developed works rather well. It allows for a balanced force with many choices. I've thought of taking an all-cavalry force and calling it a raid. It could be fun.

Frankenschweiner light cavalry of Mike's brigade coming up on the river.
(FP&B castings AWI British Light Dragoons)

Frankenschweiner artillery - a medium gun (FP&B AWI "German" gun and crew)

The commander of the Galifreyan forces with his conveyance and his faithful companion.

Another view to show off the scarf. (Black Tree Design figures in 25mm)

Martin's armoured horse regiment does an end run over my Traveller dice while the grenadiers of Battalion Pooka keep a watchful eye. (Yes, I play Traveller and thoroughly enjoy it.)

Martin's personal command stand. I can't remember the manufacturer. A lovely Sedan chair with associated hangers-on.

Colonel Pepper's dragoons after having been shot up rather badly. Still they hung on to the bitter end.
They must be immune to the "new unit curse."
(One of the laws of wargaming states "Freshly painted units will die or rout in their first outing on the table.")

His Beatitude, Michael, Archbishop-Metropolitan of Saxe-Freedonia, Hereditary Sandwich of Monte Cristo,
and Saxe-Bariton Curling champion.

Mitzi, the major attraction at Glockenspiel Pioneer Village.
Open daily March through November.
Only 3 ducets for an all day family pass.
Free bratwurst for the kiddies.
Tell them Andy sent you.