LSU Press announces new book on the Louisiana Tigers

The ONE Gettysburg book you need for your library!

There are more than 1,000 books that have been written on the Battle of Gettysburg, the majority (including my three) in the past 20-30 years. Yet, there remains a strong market for new material on the battle and campaign, or for fresh, creative approaches to present and interpret well known, time honored material. Pennsylvania Civil War authors J. David Petruzzi and Steven Stanley have succeeded on both counts with their excellent new book, The Complete Gettysburg Guide.

Blending some of the best maps and color graphics ever seen in a Gettysburg battlefield guidebook with crisp, concise and enjoyable text, Stanley and Petruzzi have generated what will surely come to be regarded as the ultimate Gettysburg overview and guide. Already scores of battlefield trampers have used this book to help them interpret what happened on the hallowed grounds of the Gettysburg National Military Park, as well as some obscure sites outside the park limits that the authors include in their well crafted series of automobile tours of the area.

Gettysburg resident Steve Stanley’s excellent maps have graced several books and publications in the past decade, and he has become regarding as one of the finest graphic artists / cartographers in the Civil War industry today. This book may be his finest achievement, as the scores of color maps that dot this book bring the troop movements, terrain, linear obstacles such as fences and stone walls, and road network to life in a fashion that is both highly readable and very accurate, as accurate as can be interpreted nearly 150 years after the guns fell silent. Primary text writer J. D. Petruzzi has co-written two previous books on the Gettysburg Campaign, one on the movements of Stuart’s cavalry and one on the retreat to Virginia following Gettysburg. Now, in perhaps his finest effort to date, he fills in what happened during the battle and its immediate prelude and postlude.

HISTORICON 2009 Announces Educational Programs & Special Events Celebrates 25 Years of Historical Miniatures

Bel Air, MD (June 22, 2009) – The games begin on July 16 and continue through July 19 at HISTORICON 2009 (www.HISTORICON.org), the largest gathering of historical miniatures hobbyists and gamers in North America. The convention offers extensive seminars and discussions, plus exciting military history games, tournaments, and contests attracting thousands of historical gaming enthusiasts.

The Historical Miniatures Gaming Society East (www.HMGS.org) commemorates the silver (25th) anniversary of HISTORICON, “the mother of all war gaming conventions” at the Lancaster Host Resort & Conference Center in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.

Cory Ring’s 25mm ACW wargaming

Tennessee wargamer Cory Ring is a long-time member of the Johnny Reb Gaming Society. Among his primary hobby interests is American Civil War miniature wargaming using the popular Johnny Reb 3 rules system. He was kind enough to send me some photographs of one of his 25mm games in progress.

Rebel artillery prepares to fire at a distant Union line.  The officer’s cool judgement will assist in the accuracy of the fire (a +1 modifier to the die roll on the combat results table in Johnny Reb 3).

Siam Painting Service

Walter Hufschmid, the general manager of Siam Painting Service in Thailand, sent me a small packet of 15mm wargaming figures as examples of the standard wargame quality painting the company does as a professional painting service to the gaming community.

SPS Thailand Ltd. was formed in December 2003 and has expanded to serve customers around the world.  They paint any size figure from 6mm to 54mm, and can base, flock, and detail the bases if desired. The sample figures sent to me had very attractive and attention getting bases with small rocks, bushes / scrub, and static grass. These look quite nice on the gaming table.

Some shameless free publicity for my friend Larry Reber!

We just got back from a 10-day vacation to Arizona, with stops in Albuquerque and St. Louis on the way home. Here, my younger son Tom wears a Gettysburg Soldiers T-shirt in historic Prescott, Arizona, where many of Teddy Roosevelt’s “Rough Riders” were formed.

Later in the vacation were stopped at Old Town Albuquerque, site of an 1862 skirmish between the blue and the gray.

The skirmish resulted in Albuquerque being the Confederate capitol of the Territory of New Mexico for 36 days.
For more on the Civil War in what later became the states of New Mexico and Arizona, click here.

Larry’s T-shirts are being worn by my family on various trips to Civil War battlefields and other tourist sites, and periodically I will post photos of these sojourns.

2009 Ranger-led Battle Walks at Gettysburg

A Gettysburg National Military Park Ranger leads a walk to Cemetery Ridge as part of the park’s summer programs. Photo courtesy of Gettysburg National Military Park.

Guided Walks with Rangers this summer on the Gettysburg Battlefield

GETTYSBURG, Pa. – Park Rangers from Gettysburg National Military Park are inviting the public to explore the Gettysburg battlefield this summer with guided walks and programs, beginning on June 13. Gettysburg Rangers offer an array of guided walks and programs on the battlefield and in the Soldiers’ National Cemetery. The programs are all free, and include children’s programs about the battle and the Civil War.

“The Diamond” – Gettysburg art print by Bradley Schmehl

Civil War artist Bradley Schmehl of York, PA has produced an excellent depiction of Major General Jubal A. Early’s entry into Gettysburg’s “Diamond” (the town square) on the afternoon of June 26, 1863, following his successful repulse of Pennsylvania militia defenders at Marsh Creek and Witmer Farm. Both firefights, and Early’s occupation of York, are topics I cover in detail in my recently released book, Flames Beyond Gettysburg: The Gordon Expedition, June 1863. The book is available on amazon.com or directly from me at www.scottmingus.com

Veteran wargamer Larry Reber snapped the above photograph of Brad’s art print at a Gettysburg gift shop, and Brad gave me written permission to reproduce Larry’s image of his copyrighted artwork.

Brad tells me “The Diamond can be ordered from us.  The canvas prints are $200 + s/h ($20). Check or money orders, can be sent to 25 S Yale St, York, PA 17403.  In G’burg, the Wax Museum carries them and so does Gburg Frame Shop.”

If you collect Gettysburg art prints, this one is of interest as it is one of the few prints that depicts downtown Gettysburg under the Confederate occupation, and is one of only two I am aware of concerning Early’s entry (the other one is of Early’s cavalrymen under Elijah White entering town shortly before Early’s Georgia infantry under John B. Gordon arrived).

Huge Antietam game at Tin Soldiers of Antwerp – The Set Up

Just a few of the thousands of miniature soldiers in the collection of the members of the Tin Soldiers of Antwerp gaming group in northern Europe.

Patrick Roovers of the Tin Soldiers of Antwerp, Belgium, sent me a link to his club’s website with dozens of photographs of a huge Antietam wargame they ran recently at the clubhouse. TSOA used Johnny Reb 3 as the rules for this massive engagement, which, as you will see from his photos, took thousands of miniature soldiers and dozens of gamers to play on a very large series of terrain tables.

For dozens more photos of the set up, please visit TSOA’s Flicker photo gallery.  In my next post, I will show some photographs of the first night of actual gaming.

HISTORICON Celebrates 25 Years of Historical Miniatures Gaming Pre-Registration Now Open

Bel Air, MD (May 27 2009) — The Historical Miniatures Gaming Society East (www.HMGS.org) commemorates the silver anniversary of HISTORICON, “the mother of all war gaming conventions” from July 16 – 19, 2009 at the Lancaster Host Resort & Conference Center in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.

Attracting thousands of historical gaming hobbyists, HISTORICON 2009 celebrates its 25th year with four days of fun on the convention theme of the 200th Anniversary of 1809 Napoleonic Wars. HMGS is a non-profit educational organization that promotes the study of military history through historical miniatures gaming, seminars, grants, and conventions. HISTORICON 2009 features over 600 events, including elaborate historical miniatures games reflecting Napoleon’s 1809 Austrian Campaign and the Peninsular War (1807-14) and the massive and most extensive tournament program in North America – everything from DBA, DBR, and Warhammer Ancients to Field of Glory (FoG) and Flames of War (FoW).

More than 700 games over the entire four days of the convention attract players from across the United States and Europe. “The Napoleonic era has always been a great period for the wargamer and this theme allows for a broad cross-section of games, from formal massed European armies to the Spanish guerilla actions and games involving Sharpe’s Rifles,” said Pete Panzeri. “Aside from the Napoleonic era, HISTORICON 2009 offers hundreds of games and tournament events from nearly every other period of military history.” HISTORICON also holds the HMGS War College with 40 historical presentations by scholars such as René Chartrand, military historian and author of 30+ books, and Matt Eversmann, veteran of the Battle of Mogadishu (‘Blackhawk Down’), and a Napoleonic Wars Exposition: “The Sharpe Experience.”

The convention’s Painting and Modeling University allows participants to choose from a variety of classes to learn new techniques for miniature painting. Attendees can also register for the “Iron Paintbrush” Competition where teams compete to create the most eye-catching figure mini-diorama. Other special HISTORICON events include a Wild West costume contest with prizes for kids and an adult costume contest related to pirates of 1809 – British, Spanish, French, American Navy or Marines.

As part of the silver anniversary of HISTORICON, all attendees are invited to join in the free celebration. The first 3,000 attendees will receive a free 10-foot long lockable metal tape measure, and exhibitors Old Glory, Wargames Factory and Warlords will provide free figures to attendees (while supplies last). A special 25th Anniversary cake is being made just for HISTORICON by Charm City Cakes (of the Ace of Cakes Food Network show) featuring the original “Hands Bridge” logo created by artist Rich Hasenauer to promote the first HISTORICON in 1984. The cake will be on display Friday and will be served to attendees.

Everyone is invited to HISTORICON’s Silver Celebration Party on Friday at 9:30 p.m. in the Windows Restaurant. Free beer samples and promotional items will be provided by various distributors, including Kirchner (Yuengling/Sam Adams), Lancaster Beverage (Coors Light/Heineken), Sheffer (Miller Lite/Lancaster Brew), and Wilsback (Budweiser).

As the popularity of HISTORICON grows, in 2010 the convention will move to the Baltimore Convention Center in Maryland. Baltimore offers a wide variety of budget, mid-range and luxury accommodations, and access to historical attractions such as Fort Henry, the USS Constellation, and the Baltimore Civil War Museum.

HISTORICON is the largest historical miniatures gaming convention in the United States. Each year, thousands of avid gamers descend on what the New York Times has described as the “mother of all war gaming conventions.” The event features thousands of attendees (adults and children), hundreds and hundreds of games, the world’s biggest war game hobby shop, painting events, and a special awards celebration. Admission to the 4-day convention is $15 for HMGS members and $35 for non-members.

Other HMGS events include the annual “Fall In” convention to be held Nov. 6 – 9, 2009 in Gettysburg, PA, “Cold Wars”, to be held March 11 – 14, 2010 in Lancaster, PA, and “HISTORICON 2010” to be held July 8 -11, 2010 in Baltimore, MD. For more information on HMGS, visit www.hmgs.org. For more information on HISTORICON, visit www.HISTORICON.org.