The Union Center finally breaks and the men of Sickles' Corps flee the field. At a quick meeting with some of his Corps Commanders (Sykes and Sickles are nowhere to be found), General Meade makes the decision to have the Army of the Potomac retreat before it can be surrounded. Darkness and casualties prevent an effective pursuit, but as the Union army retreats toward Hanover, the Army of Northern Virginia, led by Stuart's unbloodied cavalry, takes the inside track toward Washington via Littlestown. The Confederate forces reach Westminster hours before the Army of the Potomac, and prepare a defensive position on Parr's Ridge south of Pipe's Creek.
On the morning of July 4, 1863, a frantic General Meade exhorts his generals to break through the rebel line and save the government. Wave upon wave of Yankees surge up the ridge only to be shot down. The Confederate troops chant 'Fredericksburg, Fredericksburg' as they continue to load and fire into the blue masses. But the apparently bottomless well of Northern bravery changes their jeering to admiration, and even in some cases to silent tears as the men in grey fire into the last approaching soldiers in blue.
2 weeks later, just after signing the armistice that would forever divide America into two nations, Abraham Lincoln noted that "those brave men at Westminster, gave the last full measure of devotion to their country."
Great report! Well written and supported by some awesome looking pictures, although the houses were all a little small!
ReplyDeleteThanks Josiah.
ReplyDeleteMy concept of terrain scale is that I want it to be representational as the figures are. If 8 figures on a 4" x 2" stand represent 2 - 5,000 men, it seems like the forests and houses can't be in the same scale as 1 guy as many miniaturists do. I mean if 1 25mm figure = 500 men, then how goofy is it to have a house scaled to 25mm...or even 15mm?
Therefore, I use 6mm buildings and other terrain features. The trees may be a bit bigger than that, but it just seemed to look better that way.
The effect I'm going for is to create a map-like look where the figure size is, well, over-sized in height, but the stand size feels about right.
Does that make sense? :)