New Releases for March 2024 - American Civil War (1 Viewer)

[Julie]

NEW RELEASES FOR MARCH 2024
THE AMERICAN CIVIL WAR
1[SUP]st[/SUP] CHEROKEE MOUNTED RIFLES

The 1[SUP]st[/SUP] Cherokee Mounted Rifles was a Confederate States Army regiment which fought in the Indian Territory during the American Civil War.

It was formed from the merger of two predecessor units, the First Regiment of Cherokee Mounted Rifles and the Second Regiment of Cherokee Mounted Rifles.
The first commander was Col. John Drew, while the commander of the second regiment was Stand Watie.



CHK-04
THE AMERICAN CIVIL WAR 1861 - 1865
THE CONFEDERATE ARMY,
1[SUP]st[/SUP] CHEROKEE MOUNTED RIFLES,
TROOPER.
(2 pcs)

Brigadier-General Stand Watie (December 12[SUP]th[/SUP], 1806 – September 9[SUP]th[/SUP] 1871) was a Cherokee politician who served as the second principal chief of the Cherokee Nation from 1862 to 1866.
The Cherokee Nation allied with the Confederate States during the American Civil War and he was the only Native American Confederate General officer of the war.
Watie commanded the forces in the Trans-Mississippi Theatre, made up mostly of Cherokee, Muskogee and Seminole.
He was the last Confederate Staes Army general to surrender.

During the Civil War, Watie's troops participated in twenty-seven major engagements and numerous smaller skirmishes. Although some of the engagements were set-piece battles, most of their activities utilized guerrilla tactics.

The Battle of Pea Ridge (March 7-8[SUP]th[/SUP], 1862) took place near Leetown, northeast of Fayetteville, Arkansas.
Pea Ridge was the first sizable battle of the Civil War to involve Native American troops, mostly because their current homeland lay only a few miles west of the battlefield. These Tribes, including the Cherokee, had lived in the Indian Territory, now the state of Oklahoma, ever since their removal from ancestral homelands in the southeastern states a quarter-century before the war.
Watie’s Mounted Rifles welcomed the opportunity to participate in the Pea Ridge Campaign, as it was a chance to show they were a worthwhile ally of the Confederacy.
They were to make a colourful and controversial contribution. During the battle the two Cherokee regiments, perhaps 1,000 strong along with 200 Texas cavalry, charged and took a three gun Union artillery battery.
They swept out of the woods, knocking down a fence in front of them, and charged across the field, swarming over a three gun battery before the startled crews could respond. The artillerymen fled with their horses, leaving the guns behind unspiked.
At this point experienced, disciplined troops would have established security, or continued the pursuit of their fleeing enemy. Neither was done. Instead the Cherokee milled around the guns they had taken, examining their prizes and collecting souvenirs. Others exhaulted in having survived, yelling and whooping victoriously.
It was a normal reaction for green troops after a first experience of combat, and one that was often repeated throughout those early years of the war.
The failiure of the officers to take charge of the situation was to cost them the fruits of their victory.
While the celebrations were taking place, Union officers deployed two additional batteries and supporting infantry to retake the guns.

The exploits of Stand Watie and his Confederate Mounted Rifles were brilliant and militarily glorious, but strategically sterile. Two years of raids could not loosen the Union grip on Fort Gibson.

The Cherokees not only were the most numerous of the Five Tribes, but they had assimilated more with white culture than the Choctaw, Creek, Chickasaw, or Seminole. They were the only Native Americans to create a written form of their language and they published a newspaper in that language. Many Cherokees adopted the white man’s dress and most began to utilize American farming methods. Cherokee lawyers brought cases defending their desire to remain in Georgia and North Carolina to the United States Supreme Court. A handful of elite Cherokees operated large plantations with African-American slave labor.

ARTILLERY

ACWART-15
THE AMERICAN CIVIL WAR 1861 - 1865
MODEL 1857 12 pdr. NAPOLEON HOWITZER,
STANDARD UNION TYPE.
(8 pcs)

ACWART-16
THE AMERICAN CIVIL WAR 1861 - 1865
MODEL 1857 12 pdr. NAPOLEON HOWITZER,
FIRST UNION TYPE.
(8 pcs)

THE 3[SUP]rd[/SUP] NEW JERSEY CAVALRY REGIMENT 1864.
“THE BUTTERFLIES”

Towards the war’s end most of the Federal cavalry were equipped and supplied via centralized depots, one of the units which stood out as belonging to another time and place was the 3[SUP]rd[/SUP] New Jersey Cavalry, or the “Butterflies”, a nickname they were given for their flamboyant attire.

Raised initially in January 1864 as the 1[SUP]st[/SUP] U.S. Hussars, they were dressed in such splendour previously unseen in other Federal cavalry regiments, which was deliberate in an attempt to attract new recruits.
Yet their appearance was deceptive, as they were the embodiment of what the Union cavalryman had become by 1865. They were heavily armed with repeating Spencer carbines and .44 Remington revolvers which gave them the edge in skirmishes and melees with rebel cavalry and infantry units.
The state paid for the additions to the regulation cavalry uniform, the cap was the issue forage cap with the peak removed, extra braid was placed on the jacket and the remainder was US army regulation.



US3NJ-02
THE AMERICAN CIVIL WAR 1861 - 1865
UNION ARMY OF THE POTOMAC,
3[SUP]rd[/SUP] NEW JERSEY CAVALRY REGIMENT, 1864,
“THE BUTTERFLIES”,
DISMOUNTED TROOPERS.
(3 pcs)

This unit was typical of the new horse soldier which served under General Sheridan, they no longer merely served as a screen for advancing infantry. They possessed tremendous fire power and had the ability to hit the enemy hard and fast. They had eveloved into a powerful force capable of independent action.
The 3[SUP]rd[/SUP] New Jersey would serve with distinction until the war’s end routing southern cavalry at Tom’s Brook, Virginia, and seeing action at the Battle of Five Forks, which helped force Lee’s battered army out of its fortifications around Petersburg.

US3NJ-02A
THE AMERICAN CIVIL WAR 1861 - 1865
UNION ARMY OF THE POTOMAC,
3[SUP]rd[/SUP] NEW JERSEY CAVALRY REGIMENT, 1864,
“THE BUTTERFLIES”,
DISMOUNTED TROOPER.
(1 pc)

US3NJ-02B
THE AMERICAN CIVIL WAR 1861 - 1865
UNION ARMY OF THE POTOMAC,
3[SUP]rd[/SUP] NEW JERSEY CAVALRY REGIMENT, 1864,
“THE BUTTERFLIES”,
DISMOUNTED TROOPER.
(1 pc)

US3NJ-02C
THE AMERICAN CIVIL WAR 1861 - 1865
UNION ARMY OF THE POTOMAC,
3[SUP]rd[/SUP] NEW JERSEY CAVALRY REGIMENT, 1864,
“THE BUTTERFLIES”,
DISMOUNTED TROOPER.
(1 pc)

 

[Julie]

THE FIRST BATTLE OF MANASSAS, 1861,
THE ARMY OF THE SHENANDOAH
THE FIRST BRIGADE
THE 33[SUP]rd[/SUP] VIRGINIA INFANTRY REGIMENT.
COMPANY E, THE EMERALD GUARD.

The 33[SUP]rd[/SUP] Virginia Infantry Regiment was raised in the commonwealth of Virginia for service in the Confederate States Army and was part of the famed “Stonewall Brigade”.

When the Union and Confederate armies engaged near Manassas Junction, Virginia, on July 21[SUP]st[/SUP] 1861, General Jackson and his brigade earned the nickname “Stonewall”.
Eight of the ten companies in the 33[SUP]rd[/SUP] were present.

By late May 1861, the regiment was placed under the command of Col. Arthur C. Cummings, who was a graduate of the Virginia Military Institute who practiced law in Abington, Virginia at the far southernmost end of the valley and would twice represent Washington County, Virginia in the Virginia House of Delegates (first beginning in 1863 and again in 1871)



CS33V-05
THE AMERICAN CIVIL WAR 1861 - 1865
THE FIRST BATTLE OF MANASSAS, 1861
THE ARMY OF THE SHENANDOAH, FIRST BRIGADE,
THE 33rd VIRGINIA INFANTRY REGIMENT,
STANDARD BEARER.
(1 pc)

At the height of the battle, it was Jackson's first brigade, and more specifically, the undersized regiment of Colonel Cummings that turned the tide of battle with a well-timed charge against an exposed artillery battery.

The successful capture of the guns is thought to be largely because, due to the lack of formality in early war uniforms, Jackson's men were dressed in blue, just like their Federal counterparts. Though the 33rd Virginia succeeded in capturing the guns, the number of men that made the charge (only about 250) were unable to maintain possession and were forced to retreat. The charge had halted the steady advance of the Union Army up to that point, and precipitated further charges by Jackson's other regiments. By day's end, the actions of the 33rd led to the complete rout of the Union Army, and played a major role in immortalizing the brigade.
The cost of immortality for Cummings' regiment was high. Of the 450 men who were present at the battle, the 33rd would suffer 43 killed and 140 wounded.

Company E, The Emerald Guard, having participated in the battle, suffered 15 casualties including most of the company officers and NCO's. Captain Sibert was shot through both legs; Lt. Thomas C. Fitzgerald and 2d Lt. John Ireland were also wounded; in addition, Sgt. Michael Gavagan was wounded and Corp. John O. Sullivan was killed.
Captain Marion Sibert was born January 23, 1826 near the town of New Market, Shenandoah County. When the war began, he was thirty-four years old, stood 5'11" and was described as "handsome" having a "fair complexion, light hair and hazel eyes." Wyland's History of Shenandoah County suggest that Sibert and his family were in the hotel business prior to the war.
Following John Brown's raid on Harper's Ferry in 1859, Marion Sibert organized a volunteer artillery company in the New Market area known as the Tenth Legion Artillery. Despite their lack of cannon, they were called upon by the State Governor to perform guard duty at Shepherdstown on December 9, 1859 during Brown's trial.
Having returned to New Market after the trial, Sibert would not have long to wait until another opportunity presented itself. On April 18, 1861 war had erupted and Virginia, having voted in favor of secession, placed itself in danger of being invaded. When the Governor, John Letcher extended a call for certain counties to begin organizing companies for State defence in early May, Sibert once again put his business and homelife on hold and began recruiting a new company of men. This time, he targeted a distinct class of men that would form the nucleus of the company. Recruiting amongst the Irish laborers that had made their way to the Lower Valley through working on the Manassas Gap Railroad prior to the war.
As the company formed and began to drill in earnest, a contemporary newspaper account provided a glimpse to its readers of this new company.
“Through the energy and zeal of Maj. M.M. Sibert, a company of Irishmen, numbering about 60, has been raised and are in barracks at this place (New Market). These men, impelled by devotion to their adopted country, patriotically and promptly responded to the call of their State, and are now hourly preparing themselves to resist the encroachments of the mercenary hordes, who are let loose upon us by our oppressors.”
As this quote and archival records suggest, the company never reached the regulation size of 100.

The Emerald Guard was formed in and around the town of New Market during May and early June of 1861. It was organized by a thirty-four year old Shenandoah County native named Marion Marye Sibert. and as it's name implied was formed from the Irish laborers that worked in the Valley when the War began. The company would become among the most colorful and volatile companies of the famed "Stonewall Brigade". "In their adopted sector," one historian would write, "the Sons of Erin did not mesh easily with their conservative neighbors, most of whom were of German and Scotch-Irish descent. The Celts' predilection for hard liquor and their affinity for world-class brawling at the least provocation engendered a definite air of notoriety.

Many of the Irishmen who joined the unit in May and June of 1861 were thought to be laborers who had been engaged on the construction of the Manassas Gap Railroad.

By the middle of May, the company elected its officers and non-commissioned officers (NCOs). Sibert naturally assumed the role of Captain of the Company. To compliment Sibert's militia experience, Thomas C. Fitzgerald proved to be a "most valuable acquisition" and was elected 1[SUP]st[/SUP] Lieutenant of the company. Prior to his immigration to the United States, Fitzgerald boasted prior military experience with the British Army during the Crimean War. For this reason, he was thought "well qualified for drilling the company.
The 33[SUP]rd[/SUP] Virginia remained in the Stonewall Brigade in Thomas J. Jackson’s Second Corps until the restructuring of the Army of Northern Virginia after his death in the spring of 1863.
It was placed under Richard Ewell’s command until the spring of 1864, when it dissolved following heavy losses at the Battle of Spotsylvania Court House.

** PLEASE CONTACT YOUR LOCAL DEALER FOR FURTHER INFORMATION **

 

[NZGary]

Another major release for ACW collectors. I will give the Union cavalry a go and at least they add variety to an era when things can look a little too bland.

 

[egonzinc]

I’m a bit confused with these union canon releases.
Are these new releases or re-releases?

 

[Francis]

These Cherokees are truly superb...
I really want to buy them too...

 

[mestell]

I’m a bit confused with these union canon releases.
Are these new releases or re-releases?

These are both new releases.
Mike

 

[jason foote]

ACW collectors are so spoilt this month

 

[Dragoon]

Will need to get a few of those New Jersey Hussars for a little stand-alone scene. Their just too colorful to pass up.