The Battle of Fleetwood Hill:- Chapter 2.
McClellan's courier located JEB Stuart and his cavalry division at St James church where the General had a hell of a fight on his hands repelling John Buford's Union cavalry squadrons.
The breathless courier saluted and delivered his message "Sir, the Yankee cavalry are at Brandy Station and are advancing toward Fleetwood Hill".
An incredulous Stuart angrily dismissed the informant with his reply "That's impossible, the whole of the Yankee cavalry are to my front".
The now nervous courier insisted that Major McClellan's message was accurate and that he had personally seen Union horse artillery and cavalry preparing to fire on the Confederate position
Stuart called for an aide, his voice was curt, harsh and imperious as he gave his orders
"Tell Brigadier General Jones to dispatch one of his regiments to ride to Fleetwood and see what all this foolishness is about".
B.G. William E. "Grumble" Jones-true to his nickname- cursed Stuart and angrily ordered the 35th Virginia cavalry out of line to ride to Fleetwood. This Confederate regiment was proudly known as the "Gray Comanches" under the command of Lt Col. Elijah "Lige" White who now ordered his men to "Mount Up".
Meanwhile back at Fleetwood after 20 minutes of shelling the Confederate position atop the hill the Union horse artillery were ordered to stop firing
McClellan's sparse force had expended its ammunition apart from a few defective rounds. During this unexpected lull in the Union artillery fire he ordered the defective shells to be loaded into the guns. Suddenly Lt John "Tucker" Carter shouted out from the front gabions.
"Yankee cavalry preparing to advance"
Indeed at the base of the hill Union troopers had dismounted and were forming up into attack lines.
At the vanguard were the veterans of the 1st New Jersey cavalry
Their commander Lt Col. Virgil Broderick positioned himself within the front rank with Major John Shellmire bringing up the second line. Broderick called out "The regiment will advance-Forward"
To Be Continued
Reb
Bob, I hate to admit it, but you're really getting pretty good at this stuff. As Simon might say when he finally gets around to it, nice dio! :wink2:^&grin
B. :salute::
I agree with you to a point B, he's definately showing some signs of improvement, but the law of averages would dictate if you put enough photos on a thread, one or two will at least meet a mediocre standard. His tanks still look a bit funny though.....:wink2:
Bob, another great series. What is so effective is how realistic you made the horse charge with what I know are the limited resources/figs available. Flawless. Chris
Bob, a remarkable job with this chapter. I really love the swirling fight of a full-fledged cavalry charge. By pure coincidence, I just finished reading the Osprey book on Brandy Station and loved the particular section concerning the Gray Comanches and the overrunning of Martin's battery. I owned, at one point, Troiani's spectacular print of that particular action, and your pictures were like deja vu in regards to that print. Excellent job. -- Al
Hardly guilty, Bob. Better let us say inspired by a great painting and artist. Your work is impeccable. :salute:: -- Al