Colonial Faire At Longfellow's Wayside Inn

  I guess it is officially fall here in New England. How do I know this?  Because Saturday was the annual Colonial Faire and Fife and Drum muster at the Wayside Inn in Sudbury.  This event is something we look forward to each year.  A chance to get together with friends, enjoy the fall weather,  hear lots of very good Fife and Drum music and have a couple beers. This event has been going on since, well I do not know.  I have been going since the mid 1970's and it was an annual event then.

  What happens?  There are about 30 different Fife and Drum bands. Some are very small, only about a dozen members.  Others very large with 30 or more.  Costuming (this is not where you go for authenticity) ranges from colonial type dress to 19th century band uniforms and everything in between.  There are bands that have been together performing for decades; and other started just last week.  But each groups get a time to appear on stage and perform. At the end off the day lots of people get together to jam.

  In addition there are craft persons selling their wares.  Blacksmiths and artist and basket weavers.  Individuals selling reproduction colonial clothing.  This year there were a farm that raises Lama and sells their wool. Our dog Fritz was most puzzled by what these strange animals were!

Fritz meets a Lama!

  One group we look forward to each year are the Middlesex County Volunteers.  They are one off the larger and very professional groups out there.  They have multiple CD's out there and they travel across the country performing.  This year they were at The Edinburgh  Scotland at the muster there.

   In the past they have been dressed in 1779 type continental line musician uniforms.  Reversed coat of white with blue facings.   But this year they are trying out a  War of 1812 type uniform of trousers, short coat and round hat.  Really smart!

  All in all a very fun day!

Hessian Jager company 1776

  It was recently that I discovered I have been so busy painting American line infantry I had neglected my crown forces. Yes, I have some British line and guards and Highlanders but few loyalist, no Grenadiers and a single Hessian battalion.  Time to correct this.

  To get started I painted up a small group of 12 Jagers.  Inspired by reading Captain Ewalt's journal years ago I find that Jagers are ubiquitous and turn up in almost every battle.  So they will be super useful troops.  Their plain uniforms were easy to paint and I did these in a couple of days. I am experimenting with different basing for skirmish type troops.  Single based figures just do not look right to me.  So now I am trying a longish thin base to look like a skirmish line.  After a couple games we will see. Figures are from Minden miniatures and although from the Seven Years War period will not look out of place on my American Revolution battlefields.

Game night: Sharp Practice Great Northern War

Swedish commander gazes over the battlefield.

  Friday was club game night.  There were three great games;  Great Northern War, World War Two and Romans vs Gauls.  All looked great and sounded fun. Others will be reporting ion the other two games in their blog reports.

Village defended by Russians on right.

Glorious Russian line infantry.

The village which was the object of the battle.

Glorious Swedes led by cautious commanders.

My drunken Cossacks preparing to cause grief and mayham to the Swedes.

   I played in the Great Northern War.  Greg out this on and we used the rules Sharpe Practice.  His figures are outstanding and his terrain is beautiful.  He also is one of those individuals who put on great games and it was an honour to play in it.  They are usually well balanced and great fun.  And this game was great fun.

  The Russians were by a village which they had to burn to prevent the Swedes from capturing it.  there was a swamp to their right and a fashioned fortifications to their front.  Across the board was a river.  But it was July and both the river and swamp were dried up so posed little movement difficulty.  To set fire to the village the Russians had to get 18 points from rolling one D6.  Each turn that a certain chit came up they could roll the dice and accumulated points.  So it would take a while.  During that time the Swedes had to capture the village.

  Game started with the Swedes moving forward against the village with two battalions and some skirmishers.  They also sent another battalion and two skirmishes groups through the swamp.  The Russians threw there skirmishes forward to fire at the Swedes while the line infantry moved up to the gabbions.

  My group of Cossacks proved very annoying  to the Swedes.  Each time they fired they caused no casualties except to knock down the officer of the group they fired at. In game turns I believe this causes temporary  disruption.  Anyway it caused great fun for us and grief to the Swedes!

  For some reason the Swedish commanders in front of the village moved their line up to the dried up river and then stopped.  For the remainder of the game they stood there and traded shots with superior numbers of Russians.  Although the Swedes in the swamp pressed on it was hard going and soon the Russians moved two skirmishes groups to snip at them.

  In the end the cautious Swedes gave the Russians more then brought time to build a fire. Once the fire started the game was over and the Russians victorious.  A most entertaining and fun game was held by all.

Back from vacation

   While it appears I have been most busy painting and posting blog entries I have been in fact on vacation.  Due to work, both at the airport and at home I have had little time to write up any posts. Work has been especially taxing due to too numerous to count delays due to the weather in Florida.  Good for over time, not good for painting time.   So my last five posts were done while relaxing on vacation.  All pictures were taken ahead of time.  We planned to go up to Maine  and hear some music and visit Acadia National Park.  Unusual for us this was a driving vacation rather then flying to some location.

 We started with a blue grass festival at Thomas Point Beach in Brunswick Maine.  We camped over night; something we have not done in too many years.  The music was great.

   On the way up to Arcadia National Park we stopped in Bangor Maine.  This was of course to see part of the USS Maine.  But we also stoped by Steven King's house (wore my Miskatonic University hat in his honour), and the Bangor Police station to see the famous "Duck of Justice."

https://downeast.com/duckofjustice/

  Then it was on to Acadia National Park.  We stayed in a time share in southwest harbour.  The view from our balcony was beautiful.

During our stay we explored the island and got out each day.

Walked across the bar in Bar Harbour to an island at low tide.  But plan carefully since you do not want to be caught by the  tide on the wrong side.

Couple hours later,  at high tide the bar is under 10 or more feet of water!

After hiking through the woods we arrived at the ocean.

Ricky coast by Bass Harbour light house.

Hiked up to a old fire tower.

View from the fire tower.

Astronomy night  at the Seawall.

Rewarded with a spectacular view after a hike.

Atlantic brewery craft beer

A most wonder time. We did a lot of hiking; both up the hills and through the woods and along the rocky coast line.  Beautiful views and scenery everywhere.  In addition we went on a bird watch hike, took a harbour cruise to see seals, porpoises and sea birds.  Went to a astronomy night program and saw the Milky Way and Saturn's rings.  We are already planning to return next year. But for now it is back to work until our next vacation.

Glover's Brigade 1776

  Here is the brigade commanded by General John Glover during September and October 1776.  It was this brigade that fought a text book rear guard action at Pell's Point New York on 18 October 1776.  The brigade was made up of the 3rd (Learned),  13th (Read), 14th (Glover), and 26th (Baldwin) Continental Regiments.

Figures are mostly RSM minuatures, with the 14th from Eureka minuatures.  The flags are ones printed off the internet, with two flags provided from The Flag Dude.

  With the completion of this brigade I now have right infantry battalions for my Armerican army in 1776.  I still need to complete a Militia battalion and two artillery stands;  both of which are on the painting table.  I will be taking a slight break from Americans at this point to complete some Jagers and British Grenadiers.  Stay tuned for more to come!

McDougall 's Brigade 1776

 General Alexander McDougall 's brigade during the campaign around New York city and Westchester county.  The brigades  main action was 28 October 1776 at the battle of White Plains New York.   The brigade was made up of the 1st and 3rd New York Regiments, Smallwood's Maryland Regiment and the 19th Continental Regiment.

   Figures for the Brigade are mostly from  Fife and Drum miniatures with one battalion from RSM ministures.  These mix very well together in size and style.  They also paint up very quickly.  Flags are from either GMB or copies sent to me from Bill from King 's  Mountain miniatures which My friend George has printed. 

   My wargame armies are based around historical orders of battles for campaigns or battles.  When I paint up regiments I try and use historical brigades of usually three to four regiments.  This gives a nice table top command for a player.  I do not worry about actually strength of the regiment.  All my regiments are usually of a common size.  Infantry regiments are usually 24 or 30 figures.  I do this to prevent larger units being too powerful in my games. A bad experience I had years ago involved  a very  large militia battalion walking over a grenadier battalion just because it had more figures.  If fighting a historical battle I will use historical strength per regiment.

British Light Infantry battalion

   On Jim Purkey's Fife and Drum forum one of my favorite writers, Ed mentioned that having British Grenadier and Light Infantry battalions was the sweat spot for Rev War gaming.  Well, up to now I have had neither so I guess I have finally reached that spot!

   Figures are from Fife and Drum miniatures and represents the British Light Infantry campaign uniform for 1776-77.  Slouched hats, short jackets and overalls, and black equipment.  Uniform is based on both orderly books and the famous DelDe Garta paintings of the fighting at the Chew House at Germantown in October 1777.  These are really beautiful figures and a joy to paint.

  Stands within the battalion represent the following light companies from these regiments:  4th (blue) , 5th (green), 10th (yellow),  17th (white), 22d(buff),  23d (blue), 27th (buff), 35th ( orange  ) and  38th (yellow).  This is one of the organizations of the 1st Light Infantry battalion in late 1776.  I mention this as one organization as companies appear to have been switched out and moved around when the 3rd battalion was disbanded.

26th Continental Regiment 1776

  One of my favorite regiments from the  Rev War.  The regiments history is intertwined with that of  its commander, Colonel Laomi Baldwin.  He was one of those New England  men from who did an amazing variety of things in his lifetime; and did them all well.

Statue of Baldwin in Woburn Massachusetts

   I first encounter Baldwin while working at Minute Man National Historic Park through his accout of the fighting at the  Lincoln Woods, later called the Bloody Angle.  His letters and account books in Houghton library at Harvard continued his observations during the campaign around New York city in 1776 and the fighting at Pell's Point New York.

  The 26th Continental Regiment started as Colonel Gerrish's Massachusetts regiment in 1775 during the siege of Boston.  Following Gerrish's dismissal from the army on August 19 Baldwin was promoted to Colonel commanding the regiment.

   Following the disbanding of the 1775 army, Baldwin was appointed Colonel of the new 26th Continental Regiment in January 1776.  The regiment joined  Washington's army around New York city in April 1775.  They saw fighting at Throgs Neck and Pell's Point New York.  After retreating across the Jerseys they fought at the victory at Trenton before their enlistment expired.  In 1777 they were consolidated with the 21st Continental Regiment to form the new 9th Massachusetts regiment.

  Baldwin retired from the army due to ill health in 1777.  He continued to be active in his community.  In addition to developing the Baldwin Apple he was the chief engineer  for the construction of the Middlesex canal.

  The 26th was unusual in having a Grenadier company.  They wore a Seven Years War style cap but with GW instead of GR.  A copy of the cap is in the Smithsonian museum.  I hope to add Grenadier figures to the regiment in the future.

  Regimental uniform was a London brown coat with buff facings.   In addition there are some interpretation with a light blue waistcoat or vest.  In painting my figures I went with a dark brown coat and buff facings and linings.  My waistcoat blue is darker then most pictures I have seen but it looks very nice against the brown so I kept it.

  Regimental colors are one of the Gostelow flags in yellow with a mailed fist;  an early symbol of Massachusetts.  The blue pine tree flag or "Bunker Hill" flag is also approved for New Englanders. Conjecture but possible combinations.

 Sharp eyed readers have noticed in previous regiments I have included black American soldiers.  While New England did have a small slave population in 1775 there were a larger population of free men.  This was commented on about the 1775 Cambridge army.  Where I have discovered these men in regiments historically I have included them in my miniature regiments.