Flames Beyond Gettysburg now shipping to customers!

I am now filling orders for personalized autographed copies of the newly released Flames Beyond Gettysburg: The Gordon Expedition, June 1863. These are $23.95 plus $5 shipping, and tell the story of the Confederate invasion of southern Pennsylvania in the week immediately before the Battle of Gettysburg.

You will much better understanding Day 1 at Gettysburg after you read this book!!! It sets up how and why the Confederate troops were in the locations in which they began the Battle of Gettysburg.

PayPal accepted! Priority mail shipping.

Gettysburg Glimpses: True Stories from the Battlefield now for sale!!!

My latest book, Gettysburg Glimpses: True Stories from the Battlefield, is now available for sale from Xlibris Publishing. Printed on demand using the latest digital print technology, orders for this new book are generally printed, filled, and shipped within 2 weeks or so after receipt of the order.  Excerpts from the book may be read on-line on the publisher’s bookstore.

This book offers more than 200 fresh stories from the Battle of Gettysburg and the Gettysburg Campaign, many of which have not appeared in print since the late 19th century. These anecdotes, incidents, and stories range from the humorous to the ironic and unusual, but all are of interest.

Signed first edition copies of Gettysburg Glimpses may be ordered directly from the author at scottmingus@yahoo.com. Send an e-mail for details.

“The character of the country was very rough, uneven, and heavily wooded.”

Hundreds of model trees are needed to recreate the Battle of the Wilderness, parts of the Siege of Atlanta, parts of Chickamauga, Shiloh, and other prominent Civil War battles.

Background post: Creating cheap model trees for your gaming table.

The various battles and engagements of the American Civil War offer a rich diversity of options for the miniature wargamer, from the broad prairies in the Trans-Mississippi Theater to the open, rolling farmland of Maryland and Pennsylvania. Several battlefields were thickly wooded, and for the budget challenged wargamer, present a unique challenge — how to cover a 4’x6′ (or larger) table space with sufficient trees to convey the visual impression of a dense forest.

During the Atlanta Campaign in July 1864, the commander of the 33rd Ohio Volunteer Infantry, Captain T. A. Minshall, bemoaned his regiment’s route to battle. “The character of the country was very rough, uneven, and heavily wooded.” A couple weeks later, on August 5, he described an attack near Utoy Creek, “The enemy was driven about three-quarters of a mile through a thick wood of timber and underbrush, where we came upon him in his works, quietly waiting our attack.” (Quotes taken from the Official Records, Volume XXXVIII, Part 1, Pages 548 and 552.)

Brothers Divided scenario book being printed!

Ivor Janci is busy digitally printing Brothers Divided, our new book with a dozen new original scenarios for Brother Against Brother and similar skirmish-level wargaming rules.  The next step will be to print the covers on a commercial offset printing press and send the text pages and the cover to the bindery. This should all be done in a couple of months! Included in the scenario book is a scenario for the June 27, 1863, Skirmish at Hanover Junction.

I took the above photograph at Hanover Junction, Pennsylvania,  on December 13 at 10:15 a.m., looking south at what in 1863 was the John Scott Hotel, which served as an de facto HQ for the 20th Pennsylvania Militia (well, it was the local tavern / bar, and the Federal officers liked to hang out there in the days before the skirmish). This is one of the buildings needed to play this fun and interesting scenario, in which the Virginia cavalry must chase off Pennsylvania militia and then sack and burn various buildings in the junction area.

The impending Battle of Mingus Mills in 15mm

A few of you who read my recent post on My Wargaming Room asked for more photographs of the layout for my annual Christmas holiday season Johnny Reb 3 Civil War showdown against my two sons. Here are a few more pix from closer toward the miniature tabletop itself.

Civil War diorama: Gettysburg on June 30, 1863, Part 2

A model passenger train sits at the Gettysburg Depot in this photograph by Larry Reber from GettysburgSoldiers.com of the Union Drummer Boy’s HO scale diorama of the town of Gettysburg on June 30, 1863. The actual last train from Gettysburg that afternoon carried several government officials to safety, as well as those citizens who wished to leave the area to avoid having to stay in their homes during the impending combat. Many of Gettysburg’s residents had already fled, although more than a thousand are estimated to have been present during the Battle of Gettysburg on July 1-4.

Background post: Civil War diorama: Gettysburg on June 30, 1863

As mentioned in the previous post, this classic diorama dates from the early 1960s from the Charley Weaver Museum and is still be best 3D rendition of Gettysburg as it may have looked during the Civil War. However, the diorama is rife with factual errors, including the above scene. The train station was not painted a reddish color; see my previous post on the model diorama of the 1863 Gettysburg train station. The model uses a stock locomotive; it is not of the same make and model as what the actual railroad used in 1863, and it is painted in the livery of the Baltimore & Ohio RR instead of the Gettysburg Railroad. Still, for all of its faults, the diorama is well worth a look the next time you are in Gettysburg. Stop by the Union Drummer Boy on Baltimore Street.

Some random photos of my 15mm games

A lonely Confederate supply wagon traverses the back roads of York County, Pennsylvania, during the Gettysburg Campaign. From a 15mm Civil War diorama created by Scott Mingus. This county was criss-crosssed by foragers from three separate Confederate operations in June 1863 — Albert Jenkins’ cavalry in northwestern York on June 26-28, then Jubal Early’s powerful division in central York County on June 27-30, and finally, on June 30-July1, by J.E.B. Stuart’s cavalry en route to Carlisle in the western, central and northwestern parts of the county.

For more random photos and my ramblings, click on the link…

Chantilly scenario

One-armed Phil Kearny was among the most promising generals in the Union Army at the time of the Northern Virginia Campaign in the summer of 1862. He was killed during the Battle of Chantilly, a rain-soaked fight near Jermantown (or Germantown), Virginia. Stonewall Jackson’s men fended off attacks by elements of two Union infantry corps, killing Kearny as well as Maj. Gen. Isaac Stevens, the former Governor of the Washington Territory.

One of my Johnny Reb 3 scenarios that has proven popular over the years is my interpretation of the 1862 battle of Chantilly, which won awards at Origins, at a couple HMGS conventions, and some smaller venues. I originally developed this as a Johnny Reb 2 scenario back in the 1990s when I lived near Cleveland, Ohio. I modified it to JR3 and have played this 5-6 times over the years. Here is a photo of one rendition of this game (I think this was from Origins or Cold Wars a few years back).

Rick Dunn’s 10mm ACW game

The late afternoon shadows creep over the battlefield as the sun dips to the horizon.

Rick Dunn is a friend of Civil War Commander rules set author Jim Kopchak. Rick was kind enough to send the Johnny Reb Gaming Society three photographs of his recent 10mm Civil War game.

These guys are tiny! 10mm ACW gaming

10mm Civil War miniature wargaming figures and terrain from a game held at Rock Con 2008. The rules were A Terrible Discord by Doyle Collins. Photos by Randy Miller of ACME Terrain. For more photos of this scenario, “Richmond or Bust,” please click here.

Have you ever tried 10mm wargaming? It packs more figures, terrain, and excitement into a smaller space, making the scale ideal for kitchen table gaming or smaller venues than 25mm or even 15mm. The scale can readily be used for larger convention games as well.

I gave 10mm a shot a few years ago when I purchased some packs of 10mm Rebellion figures from the good folks at GHQ, who made the Terrain Maker hexes I was finishing and using at the time. I also picked up a bunch of 10mm accessories and houses / buildings and planned to switch from 15mm to 10mm (keep in mind that I had already scaled down from 20mm K+L figures to 15s, so this would have been my second dip into the scale downsizing pool).