Stuart Asquith

  Sad to hear Stuart Asquith has passed on.  While I have never met Stuart I have many of his books and followed his magazines for many years.  His Practical Wargamer magazine was a great influence in my gaming life.  In a time were there was a push for ever more complex rules and terrain his was a voice for simpler rules and more fun.  I truly enjoyed his spirt of enjoyment with this hobby of ours.  He will be sadly missed.  Thank you for all you have done and shared with us.

Update:  I have removed the image that appeared.  I did not credit the site where I used the image from.  For this I apology.

Getting away

   We took a mini vacation to get away from it all this week.  Up in the lakes and hills of New Hampshire.  Peaceful and relaxing before returning to work and the upturn in work.

Artillery Bases

  Traditionally artillery are on large rectangular bases.  This is how everyone else I know has always mounted their artillery stands.  It is just the way it was done.  A gun, and three to five figures and that is a artillery stand.  Add a limber and you are done.

But, on the Fife and Drum miniatures blog  I noticed that one player mounted his artillery on a round base.  I cannot tell you why, but it looked great.  Better then great, I really liked it a lot.  So much so that I mounted my War of 1812 artillery on round bases.

  Now I am redoing my American Revolution collection.  Not a really big deal.  Just time consuming.  Stay tuned for more pictures when done.

Hessian Colors Captured at Trenton. Where Are They?

 Rereading Richardson's Standards and Colors of the American Revolution this morning.  What happened to the Hessian colors captured at Trenton?  They were displayed in the halls of Congress for a short time. On 31 December 1776 William Ellery writes the Governor of Rhode Island a description of the flags which are on display in the room where Congress meets in Baltimore.The six colors captured at Trenton are depicted in good detail in Charles Wilson Peale's painting of Washington victorious after Trenton and Princeton. Other colors captured have survived.  There are four Anspach-Beyreuth colors captured at Yorktown still in existence and in good condition. Two are at West Point, one at the Smithsonian and the fourth one at Yorktown. Davis (Regimental colors in the War of the Revolution) said there were no know (to him) Colors in Germany when he did his research during the 1900's.  The colors of the 7th (Royal Fusiliers) Regiment are at West Point.

   Here is some information about what happened to them. Davis describes the existing colors when he examined them in 1907 in the Historical Society of Pennsylvania and photographed the two flags and the remains of a third which had a black field. These were in the Clymer papers. These two colors and the fragments disappeared sometime between when Davis saw them in 1900-1907 and the mid 1970's when they were found to be missing. It is possible, based on a " cryptic" entry on a accession card that they were loaned out and never returned; possibly during the Sesquicentennial of 1926.

   William Buehler wrote Admiral Preble on 18 November 1881 "two flags out of six captured ...At Trenton are in the department on the hill at Harrisburg." This appears to have been the William Penn museum at Harrisburg Pennsylvania. Richardson is quoted as saying staff members " have no knowledge as to the whereabouts of any surviving remnants there. "

   Lastly there are fragments of another Hessian flag captured at Trenton in the First City Troop Museum in Philadelphia. The fragments are about " twenty by seven inches and are black brocade will seamed to a narrow strip of White are are decorated with a small elements of brown and yellow painted designs. "

Richardson, Edward W. Standards and Colors of the American Revolution.
1982.

Davis, Gherardi.  Regimental Colors in the War of The Revolution.
1907.

For a copy of the book online see:
https://archive.org/details/regimentalcolors00davi/page/n12

New Saratoga Book

  A great new book about the Saratoga campaign.  My friend George just loaned me this.  We have a mural fascination with the campaign and have followed the path of Burgoyne's army and walked the battlefields countless times together.   He bought it as soon as it came out and dropped it off for me to read after a recent game.

  This is a big coffee table book.  Don Troiani needs no introduction.  The book is filled with both his individual soldier studies and a number of battle paintings.  in addition numerous pictures of artifacts (many from his collection) grace the book. You can lose yourself flipping the pages and admiring the art work.

 But to me the heart and soul and reason to buy this book is the narrative by Eric Schnitzer.  This is first rate and very well done.  Saratoga NHP has produced a long line of superb historians of the campaign and battle and Eric is the most recent.  His writing reflex an individual who has long studied the campaign;  not just the primary sources but has walked the terrain.  He is extremely knowledgeable about 18th century military culture and  tactics.  In addition he has uncovered and used a number of primary accounts I have not seen other authors use.  This background has produced one of the very best short accounts of the campaign.  My only complaint is I wish for a much longer and more detailed retelling of the campaign and battles.  One can only hope this will arrive someday.

I highly recommend this book!  I know when I was reading it the other night Janine stole a place at it and saus, "I think I know what to get you for Christmas.". One can only hope .