Sigur goes South - The American Civil War

[Battle Brush Sigur]

Hullo, here's yet another historical plog.

Codex: Confederaceh

So what's this all about then? In early 2014 I had an amazing game of 28mm scale American Civil War stuffs. Hundreds of figures per side, huge, beautiful table. A real shame I didn't have my camera with me. Anyways, this was the first time I got into touch with wargaming the ACW. I have to admit that it did look really good. To be honest it's a period that never really grasped my attention and I'm still trying to work up a real enthusiastic interest in the conflict. No all that dashing uniforms, no all that exotic formations, hardly any proper cavalry, one side seemingly overwhelmingly superior in morality, manpower, equipment and infrastructure. Have I mentioned that I collect a Confederate army? All that being said, as I started reading stuff, researching stuff and so on things slowly started to get more interesting.

Throwing Rocks

Why did I start the whole project then? Well, a bunch of the local historical wargaming guys are getting something ACW set up in 28mm. There is an overabundance of Union troops around already so the rebels needed some support which is where I came into play. And it's not like I'd turn down an opportunity to buy new toys.

The rules sets are manifold: Foundry's Bull Run to Gettysburg, Generale de Brigade based Guns at Gettysburg, Black Powder and the then recently released Longstreet by Sam Mustafa. The first one we used with the one ACW game I had and it works rather well. Since then we tried many more.




The arrival of the first slew of models also helped the enthusiasm for the whole project a fair amount:



Of course I'm going with the Perry plastics because if you get the option you got with Perrys. Unless it's Napoleonics, in that case Victrix are worth a look of course. Anyway, I got two boxes of their generic ACW infantry and two boxes of their ACW cavalry, starting out small for starters. I got those rather cheaply second-hand which is nice. That's also the reason why I went for the generic ACW infantry rather than the Confederate infantry box. For dismounted cavalry I got the Perry metals and snuck in some converted plastic figures. The big argument in favour of 28mm ACW of course is that you can get almost everything you need in plastic. I'm by no means someone who will automatically go for plastics over metals or think that plastics are generally superior minis to metals, beause we all know that this is just bullhockey. That being said, Perrys plastics usually are really nice.

So right after the arrival of the first bunch of models I put together two units and started painting them (because I know no restraint what so ever):



The general plan for units was thus: infantry on 40x40mm bases (4 models to a base) and 6 bases to a regiment, cavalry on 50x50mm bases with 2 models to a base and also 6 bases to a unit. Artillery bases as seen fit, one gun plus crew to a base.

The painting on the first two units proceeded quickly....









...and a few days later they were done proper! After a bunch of reading I had somehow developed an interest in Louisiana particularly. Of course this has a bit to do with the famous Louisiana Tiger Zouaves, but in large parts with the fact that Louisiana had one of the big urban centres of the South with an important harbor and all those French and Spanish influences. Also: they got a pelican for their coat of arms. So I ended up with these:

14th Louisiana Regiment (a.k.a. "1st Polish Brigade". In fact it was a wild mix of all kinds of foreign types from around the New Orleans area. There were Polish, Italians, Germans, Russians and so on, many of them having been seamen or dock workers prior. They were an unruly bunch and Col. Victor Sulakowski kept morale somewhat intact with a heavy hand. I read episodes of some guys from his camp who, after drunken rioting, were on their way to a nearby jail, overpowered their guards, came after them to some hotel in which they were barricaded up. The men proceeded to pile up furniture and lumber in front of the locked door to set the hotel on fire. Just in time Sulakowski turned up, pistol in each of his hands, threatening to shoot every single one of them if they proceeded. Another situation had him hacking at drunk rioters [again] from his regiment with a sabre from horseback. Following such incidents an ad-hoc disciplinary commission was set up, including "the great woman spy, Miss Belle Boyd", looking into the number and circumstances of all those cases of executions and unruly behavior of the men. Sulakowski and some of his officers who were also on trial were found to have acted correctly and honourably and things went on from there):





3rd Louisiana Regiment (Col. Hebert's. Certainly less colourful than the above, which also is reflected in their outfits and pose. As I plan to base my bunch loosely on Hay's Brigade these don't quite fit in but oh well. They got the right state flag and fight northern aggression so they'll be fine. I'm also planning to have a fictional brigade commander too for campaigns and suchso things get a bit fantasy-ish anyhow):




So yeah, that's the start of it all and I'll post some more updates soon! Hope you enjoy it so far and stay tuned.

[Andym]

That is a great start!

[Jeff965]

Outstanding work

[Lowtardog]

Fantastic work

[Mason]

Outstanding work

Indeed it is.
 

[Battle Brush Sigur]

Thanks very much, guys!

I'll proceed swiftly, so we get up to date with this.

Here's the mounted cavalry:







Until further notice those are the 2nd Louisiana cavalry, depicted by company K, the "Alligator Rangers". Because I liked the name. Problem with ACW cavalry of course is that you need to paint each unit mounted and dismounted because in that war cavalry basically was all dragoons in their traditional role or maybe a hybrid of light cavalry and dragoons: Travel on horse, fight dismounted, scout, secure flanks, raid. These guys certainly were not shock or battle cavalry and cavalry charges against infantry in battles were extremely rare (and usually resulted in the cavalry unit being reduced to bits.).

Apart from that of course mixed brigades were also pretty much nonexistent after the initial time of the war. Still - gotta have cavalry. :p

Speaking of things which don't necessarily should be high up on the to-do list, but hey...



Yar, gotta have Zouaves, all in proper uniform! These of course are the famous Louisiana Tiger Zouaves, one of the South's few Zouave formations. The Union had more of those (but they didn't look as fancy :p ).


Major Wheat's 1st Special Battalion, Louisiana Volunteer Infantry 'Louisiana Tiger Rifles':






One of the if not the most famous and oft-depicted unitsof the Confederate army. Similar to the 14th Louisiana which I painted earlier, the men of the 1st Special Battalion (Wheat was always on the lookout for more volunteers to turn his formation into a full regiment but never quite made it so settled for the 'Special Battalion' designation) were mostly recruited around New Orleans' docks. More than half of the men were of Irish decent, Germans being the second largest group amongst the ranks. In total there were men from 17 nations to be found in Wheat's Battalion. The famous Tiger Rifles uniforms were only worn by one of the companies and were phased out in favour of Confederate regulation dress (if available) as the war progressed but they make for a great looker on the table and you can't really play a Confederate army without those guys. The Zouave style (after the French light infantry troops) uniforms were very fashionable and especially so in and around New Orleans (due to the great French influence on the city and the whole state of Louisiana) where several Zouave units were raised. The red fezzes were part of the uniform and probably were worn in camp while in the field straw hats (probably because they used to be seamen's usual headgear at the time) were worn. The miniatures (Perrys ACW Zouaves plastics, the officer's a Perrys metal mini) only come with a variety of fezzes and at that point I had run out of hats so only about a third of the models are converted to wear the hats. It also would have been a shame not to have them wear fezzes of course.


Major Roberdeau Chatham Wheat (looking a little like Paul Bearer)

Wheat's Special Battlaion were commended for their performance at the first battle of Bull Run and got a reputation for fearless shock troops. The name Louisiana Tigers was later applied to the whole Battalion and subsequently to all troops from Louisiana serving in the army of Northern Virginia.



Hope that you like them!. Next on the list: some artillery!

[shandy]

Great work mate! Looking forward to having a game with them (or against them) 

[Gangleri]

Really sharp-looking units.  Keep 'em coming.

I believe Wheat's Tigers bleached their uniforms to differentiate themselves from the Yankees, so for a time their jackets were brown with pink trim.

[Elk101]

Great work on these. Your painting style is very impressive.

[Khmorg]

I really liked your skill as an artist. Tell me please how did you make herbs and flowers on the bases ?

[flags_of_war]

Outstanding works on these 

[Battle Brush Sigur]

@shandy: Seeing as how things are actually proceeding and how ACW talking is getting more prevalent each day I'm sure it's just a matter of time.

@Gangleri: Cheers! Yeah, I've seen paintjobs like that on the guys. Never knew how that came to be. Interesting.

@Elk101: Thanks very much. It's boggling the mind, but a few months ago my style was described as "old-school" by some juve. 

@Khmorg: Thanks, Sir. That's very kind. It's all bought really. Army Painter, MiniNatur (same stuff as Army Painter's, but more to each pack) and Tajima1. You can make flower tufts from grass tufts yourself too though. I recently saw a tutorial in which people used regular flock, drenched it in paint, once it's dry apply some glue to grass tufts and then dunk them in the coloured flock.

@flags_of_war: Oh, thanks mucho!


Right, let's proceed swiftly to the artillery!

Those were hot off the moulds when I got them - the much anticipated plastic ACW artillery.

Here's my review:

http://www.battlebrushstudios.com/2014/08/review-perry-miniatures-american-civil.html




...and here's the Washington Artillery of New Orleans:











The gun barrels are all magnetized, so I can switch them between games (or during the games if the opponent doesn't pay attention. :p ).



And here's the 2nd Louisiana cavalry dismounted:







Those are mostly Perrys metals. I smuggled in three plastic infantrymen (one of them converted to hold a shotgun), trying to hide the fact that most of the cavalrymen brought twin brothers to the unit because there are just six different sculpts in the Confederates cavalry on foot set. I also like the serene smile on the face of the horse holder. In case things go badly he knows he'll just take off with the horses and sell them on the way home.


Last but not least here's my as of yet unnamed brigade commander:




Hope you like them!

[Battle Brush Sigur]

Here's a shot of my colourful little brigade from back then:














...and that was the state of things for quite a while.

[Andym]

Wow! 2014 was a busy year for you! Do you manage to complete an army a year?

[Battle Brush Sigur]

@Andym: Especially those older Perrys plastic ACW infantrymen paint up really nicely and fast. The new ones take much longer to assemble and also to paint I think.

Hey, just because it was just published today - here's my review of the new-ish Perrys Union infantry in sack coats (skirmishing):



http://www.battlebrushstudios.com/2017/04/review-perry-miniatures-union-infantry.html








As I was done with at least the minimal requirements for gaming my boys' baptism of fire in a test game of Bull Run to Gettysburg was in order.




Both me and the Unionist players didn't know the rules too well, so the host offered to not only serve drinks and provide the location, table and most of the terrain but also to umpire the whole affair.




It was basically just setting up our armies in a somewhat linear fashion and give it a go to learn if the rules are any good and to get a game going.



Early on the Union troops on their side of the table of course took the opportunity and got into an abandoned farm, I tried with my guys to charge it frontally, got shot up rather badly.



My Louisiana guys ...