USS Cairo (Vicksburg)

On my way back from Colonial Barracks I finally got the opportunity to stop in and see the USS Cairo.  It has always been one of my favorite designs of Civil War Ironclads.  I was amazed at the size of it!  There was a nice little museum but the best part was being able to follow the paths through parts of the boat.  Here are some pictures I took and some comments about them.  I do have to say one thing, I couldn't imagine being inside the casemate when even one of those large guns was fired.  The sound I am sure was deafening!

I hope you enjoy the pictures!

This has to be on your list of battlefields (Vicksburg) to visit that I highly suggest you make.

Last Stand Dan

Battle of McPherson's Ridge - July 1, 1863 (Regimental Fire and Fury/15mm)

McPherson's Ridge

It has been a while since my last blog.  I still have one more to post of the Chickamauga battle we played almost a month ago.  We welcome a couple of new players, Gary and Trent.  This is their first miniature battle...ever!  Well they both caught on fast and they seem to be ready for the next battle.

So I set this up based on the Regimental Fire and Fury scenario book for McPherson's Ridge (afternoon).  Bob, Kurt and myself took the Confederate's who as you know were on a major offensive on the first day at Gettysburg.  The Union were commanded by Matt, John, Trent and Gary who took on the defense of McPherson's Farm.  The battle went from 2:45 and scheduled to go through 5:30pm.  We were able in 4 hours of play to get to 4pm and decided to call it at that point knowing that the weight of the rebels at that point were just going to push the Unions back to Gettysburg.

The battle was well fought with the Rebels slowly getting the offensive moving forward (not fast enough).  With half our players playing Regimental Fire and Fury either once or not at all we did pretty good.  And as usual I annotated many of the pictures you see here.  I hope you enjoy the After Action Report.

A special thanks to Matt for allowing us to use his massive Civil War collection!

Last Stand Dan

P.S.  At the end of this blog are some pictures of the terrain setup in case your interested.

Here are some pictures of the setup