The American Civil War Diaries (3 Viewers)

Absolutely correct Mark he is listed in their catalogue as SO16 US Cavalry Sergeant 1867. I first came across him and a Duke Wayne figure when I bid for them on Ebay and got them for literally pennies. They were somewhat broken & battered with no bases attached I photographed them and squirted them on the forum asking anyone to identify these guys as they were very similar to the King's X set one got free if you spent 400 plus bucks. No one could but New Jersey John confirmed they were not the Kings X set.

Doing a bit of a Sherlock Holmes and being a member of Historex I forwarded the pictures on and they identified them as metal kits from Soldiers SGF at around $25 each with discount. I immediately ordered him, the Captain of Cavalry and two Union officers from the series and used them as character figures in the Mule Shoe episode.(pictures attached)

They are really nice chunky detailed figures easily assembled that paint up well in ACW duds with a little artistic licence of course ;)

Bob

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They can be bought at Red Lancers and Military Miniatures Warehouse.
Mark
 
Bob,

These pages will make another fine chapter in the forthcoming book! :rolleyes::cool:

Jeff
 
Absolutely correct Mark he is listed in their catalogue as SO16 US Cavalry Sergeant 1867. I first came across him and a Duke Wayne figure when I bid for them on Ebay and got them for literally pennies. They were somewhat broken & battered with no bases attached I photographed them and squirted them on the forum asking anyone to identify these guys as they were very similar to the King's X set one got free if you spent 400 plus bucks. No one could but New Jersey John confirmed they were not the Kings X set.

Doing a bit of a Sherlock Holmes and being a member of Historex I forwarded the pictures on and they identified them as metal kits from Soldiers SGF at around $25 each with discount. I immediately ordered him, the Captain of Cavalry and two Union officers from the series and used them as character figures in the Mule Shoe episode.(pictures attached)

They are really nice chunky detailed figures easily assembled that paint up well in ACW duds with a little artistic licence of course ;)

Bob

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DSC00064.jpg


Excellent Reb as always, these photos are good for the eyes. I do also collect Soldiers SGF figures, the Romans series.

Best regards
 
Bob,

I can only echo the praising comments already made by my peers. Noticed some detail work though, bayonet cooking tripod and covering the bases of your charging horses. Very nice touches. I am sure there are plenty more but those stuck out. Have to go to a job so could not see all there is. More later.
 
Great shots, I love the guys with the shotgun and the one with the two pistols. Good action and as usual an outstanding narration.
 
Incidentally, is the guy with the shotgun a conversion or is he a stock figure? If stock who makes him?
 
I really like the Mosby raid pictures. The composition and narration are top notch and the CS figures are particularly nice. Great job. -- Al
 
I really like the Mosby raid pictures. The composition and narration are top notch and the CS figures are particularly nice. Great job. -- Al
They sure look good, now if only I collected metal. Of course I may jump at one anyway because they look good.
 
Bob, I think this series is the best I've ever seen. From every standpoint, absolutely outstanding!

Joe

Wow!:eek::eek::eek: Joe coming from you that is considered a real honor as I was drooling over your Conte ACW dios years ago when my personal collection consisted of no more than 3 Rebs and a handful of Yanks. Thank you- very much appreciated

And thanks guys for all of your very kind comments attached to the Mosby chapter I am most humbled-truly

Bob
 
Let me add my late comment that I am always impressed by your directing because you are a director and have a job no less than a movie director.
 
Request of Civil War diaries.

I really like the Civil War diaries entry but my computer or my viewing expertise can't seem the follow all the 100s of posts. Any suggestions on viewing or can there be a Civil War diaries two?
 
Re: Request of Civil War diaries.

I agree with Scott. There are so many pictures that my computer takes forever to load them up for viewing. Uk Reb can you start a new thread with the title of your Civil War battles, as I always enjoy your expertise on history and diorama. The same for LT's Zulu Wars in the WB catagory.
 
Spotsylvania-The Mule Shoe Salient-May 12 1864-5.00am

Hancock's II Corps charged the Rebel entrenchments in an attempt to repeat Upton's successful breach of two days before. Everything was thrown into the fray, men fought hand to hand with musket and bayonet, sword and pistol. Charge followed counter-charge. The fight for this one position lasted a whole day-It was sheer madness and would forever become known as the "Bloody Angle". And when it was over all the Union had to show for it was a half square mile of torn ground and 5000 dead and wounded men.

The Confederate defenders fared worse because during the day long fight the Stonewall Brigade ceased to exist. All but 200 men of the brigade were either dead, wounded or captured. The 4th Virginia regiment at the end of Friday May 13th could only muster one single captain and three privates.



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Confederate Field Hospital-Location: A pasture east of the Old Court House Road

Surgeon Major John Brinton and his three assistants were practically overwhelmed with the Confederate wounded arriving from the salient fight. Brinton swiftly organised a triage allocating one of his assistants to assess the wounded as they were brought in to determine who would likely benefit from medical treatment. They would fall into three categories

(1) Minor injuries (treated last)
(2) Injuries to legs; feet, arms and hands (these received immediate attention and treatment-primarily amputations)
(3) Severe injuries to the head or torso (these were considered mortal and those such injured were moved to an area away from the rest)



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Brinton noticed an infantrymen looking at the wounded Confederate soldier lying on the surgeon's makeshift table
"Yes! Can I help you soldier"
"Sir I'm looking for my son-some officer of the 23rd NC told me he had been wounded and brought here- name of Millard Bowden- has it scratched on a lead tag hanging from a lanyard around his neck"
"Soldier" grunted Brinton "Have you any idea how many dead, dying and wounded I have lying in this field?"
"Yes sir I do I was in the thick of that fight myself-I only ask cos I lost my eldest at Chickamauga and this'n is my young'un-got conscripted back in February-he's just seventeen"

Brinton studied the Reb soldier and could plainly read that this man was not only a veteran but also a concerned father struggling to remain calm and polite. Finally he shouted out to one of his assistants
"Mr Potts, assist this man to locate his son amongst the wounded"
"Thank you sir I'm right obliged"



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A search began amongst the hundreds of wounded scattered across the field until finally Potts found young Millard and shouted across to the father

"Over here, I've found him, no bullet or shell wound but he is severely concussed-I think"



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Rufus Bowden muttering a prayer to his maker now made a desperate but paternal decision. Casting aside his musket and battle kit he gently lifted young Millard across his shoulders treading carefully through the wounded soldiers-as he did his son stuttered
".....P........P.....Pa?..."

"Quiet now boy your job is done here. We're goin home"



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Following the bloody non-stop battles at Spotsylvania desertions in Lee's Army of Northern Virginia increased rapidly. It was not the case that the Army of the Potomac had out-fought the Confederate soldier but more that the Rebs were fought-out. Some of Lee's men did believe the war was lost whilst others firmly believed the war would go on forever but there was another more serious reason for an increase in AWOL's.

Devotion to home and families is one of the most cited motives for the Confederate soldier's committment that drove the Confederate desertion rate up late in the war



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The Yankee invasion of Virginia, Tennessee and Georgia not only wrecked the South's economy and devastated it's agricultural regions but it also drew off the best soldiers, men who had stood by the Southern cause for three long years, by threatening the things they held dearest-Home-Hearth and Kin


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It wasn't the shirkers and the weak willed who were leaving the South's ranks, it was the veteran soldiers- as Grant stated in his letters

"Soldiers, faced with the choice of serving the Confederacy or their families, when famine was stalking the land, obeyed the stronger of the two obligations"



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It would be a long and arduous journey for Rufus and Millard Bowden all the way back to Garysburg North Carolina but after many weeks of travelling he delivered his son safely back to the family home.

But Rufus Bowden was not yet finished with the war for he returned to Virginia and rejoined his regiment in July 1864 who were by then under seige in Petersburg and he would finally surrender with the rest of the ANV at Appomattox some nine months later



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On the 20th May 1864 Grant withdrew from the entrenchments of Spotsylvania once again moving his army in an arcing shift to the left progressing to the southeast and ever closer to Richmond.

And so the killing went on across a series of small rivers that never quite offered Lee enough of a line to firmly hold on to, not at the North Anna, nor the Pamulkey or the Chickahominey.

Grant's next move would edge Lee closer still to Richmond close enough to clearly hear the Confederate capital's church bells. And as Grant was now calling all the shots the distance in which maneuver would be possible was rapidly diminishing for Lee and his army



As the Army of the Potomac wearily continued their march South they were unaware that there would be one final battle of Grant's Overland Campaign. A battle that would deliver such horrendous and catastrophic numbers of Union casualties that Lincoln refused to release the casualty lists to the Washington press.

And a battle that would forever link the descriptive "Butcher" to Grant's name

The battle location would be a quiet country crossroads in central Virginia with the rather odd name of.......



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Reb
 
Once again an outstanding chapter in history entertainment. Bob, your story reminds me of my wife's Great Great Uncle John Ayres Entsminger, private, Company E, 52nd VA Infantry. I have copies of letters he sent to his older brother, my wife's GG Grandfather. After Gettysburg (John was at Culp's Hill), he was assigned to picket duty along the Rapidan River at a crossing called Somersville Ford. By the Fall of 1863 he was owed 5-6 months back pay but indicated that the money was worthless because there was nothing to buy - most of the soldiers were using the worthless paper to make fires and to use for their toiletry. A pound of butter cost over $3.00 - that's even outrageously high by today's standard (one must also consider that the Confederate Pvt was paid, when he got paid, $11.00 a month). John even wrote that the soldiers were foraging acorns before the squirrels could get to them so they would have something to eat in the coming cold months. John wrote to his brother that " . . . me geting killed by a Yankee, or me killing another Yankee will not change the course of the war . . . . " He knew it was over. In the Spring of 1864, when Grant crossed the river and Lee once again started manuevering his army, Pvt John Ayres Entsminger ducked out of the line of march and went back home to Clifton Forge, VA - he never returned to the ANV. By deserting when he did he missed the Wilderness campaign.

Once again, another great story - looking forward to the "butchery" that was Cold Harbor.

Mike
 
This is absolutely a fantastic diodrama making one feel the utter hopelessness of the southern cause.
Mark
 
Reb have you bought all those casulities over the years or are a lot of them conversions?
Mark
 
Reb, just when I think your dioramas have hit there apex and can,t get any better you prove me wrong!
:cool::cool::cool::cool::cool:
I love this one, it really tells a story without words needed,these really should be gathered together and made into a table top book.:cool:
 

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