The Battle of the Crater

The Battle of the Crater is another detailed battle of the American Cival War, now in its last bloody year, mentioned in Bruce Catton's A Stillness at Appomattox.

“Five forty-five: and at last it happened. To the men who were waiting in the front line it seemed to occur in slow motion: first a long, deep rumble, like summer thunder rolling along a faraway location, then, a swaying and swelling of the ground up ahead, with the solid earth rising to form a rounded hill, everything seeming very gradual and leisurely. Then the rounded hill broke apart, and a prodigious spout of flame and black smoke went up toward the sky, and the air was full of enormousness clods of earth as big as houses, of brass cannons and detached artillery wheels, of wrecked caissons and fluttering tents and weirdly tumbling human bodies; and there was a crash “like the noise of great thunders”, followed by other lesser explosions, and all of the firing line had turned into dust and smoke and flying debris, chocking and blinding men and threatening to engulf Burnside’s whole army corps.”

White Iron on the Anvil, A Still at Appomattox, Bruce Catton

One More River to Cross

“Right now the Confederates were dug in behind the headwaters of Totopotomoy Creek, an insignificant watercourse whose turns and swampy banks offered good defensive ground. The chance of breaking with line looked no better than in the Wilderness or at Spotsylvania. It was better to go around the line then try to go through it, and to go around it would be harder here than it had been before.”

“Down below the Federal left, within a mile or so of the Chickahominy, there was another of those seedy taverns that dotted the Virginia landscape-a quiet place at sleepy crossroads, the name of it Cold Harbor, perched unobtrusively on a highway that wandered up from the Federal supply base, back at White House on the Pamunkey, and went on to cross the Chickahominyan and go to Richmond.”

One More River to Cross, A Stillness at Appomattox, Bruce Cotton

Another Old Book Ad - Frank Yerdy

From the back pages of my yellowing 1961 copy of Bruce Catton's A Stillness at Appomattox, an old ad for Frank Yerby's books. I haven't had time to research Frank's work yet, but his book entitled The Vixens is intriguing.

My Civil War Collection: Another View

Some time ago I made a post that featured a set of 1/87 scale American Civil War miniatures in various stages of being painted. Recently I found an image that included the whole extent of my HO gauge American Civil War collection. Granted, it is not a very good image, but it is the only one I have that depicts most of what I purchased when these miniatures were still available. I don’t believe K & L is still in business. Whether their molds were sold and some other company is now producing their line of products seems doubtful.

Cannon Pictured Here:
AP 1	12 pd Napoleon
AP 2	10 pd Parrott Rifle
AP 3	3" Ordiness Rifle
AP 4	12 pd Howitzer
APH 1	20 pd Parrott Rifle

Civil War 1/87 Figures Collection

This collection is almost complete. These figures are from Thomas miniatures, now defunct, and are part of their Civil War collection and represent remnants of a couple artillery crews. In order to field these figures I need to complete two cannon. I believe I have between six and eight cannon, of different types.

At the time I had thought of adding a Civil War reenactment scene to my layout, but I wasn’t able to purchase enough of these miniatures to create a convincing scene. Although Preiser does manufacture American Civil War figures, to create the scene I had in mine would be too costly.

The Battle of Greenbier River-Battle Report

The Battle of Greenbrier River, also known as the Battle of Camp Bartow, took place on October 3, 1861 in Pocahontas County, Virginia between the Confederate and Union troops. The Battle of Greenbrier River is a game for two players. Each player sets-up their markers on the board in their historic positions.

It took us a considerable amount of time to set all the markers on their respective places on the game board. Most of the confederate forces are behind earth works which adds a 1 to their defense values and are on the opposite side of the river than the Union forces.

There are no dice being used in this game, but there is a Battle of Greenbier River points system. Unless you were able to mass your units it made making attacks for the confederate army impractical. In addition, if the confederate troops decide to stay behind their defensive positions the Union forces must cross the only bridge to attack the entrenched confederate forces. Union forces would be bottled necked on the bridge and open to artillery and infantry fire.

Combat Results Chart
Difference	Result
4>	The unit you are attacking disintegrates, remove it from the board.
3	The unit you are attacking runs at full speed behind them.
2	The unit you are attacking runs at full speed behind them.
1	The unit moves back one.
0	No Effect
-1	The attacking unit moves back one.
-2	The attacking unit runs at full speed back towards their HQ.
-3	The attacking unit runs at full speed back towards their HQ.
-4>	The unit attacking you disintegrates, remove it from the board.

We just did not care for the point system. We played two rounds and decided that we should come up with a better points system.

The Battle of Greenbrier River a Print and Play Game

The Battle of Greenbrier River took place on October 3rd, 1861 near Bartow, West Virginia. The battle between Confederate and Union forces was a limited engagement.

The Battle of Greenbrier River zip download contains the games print and play components for this historic battle. The game hex board is about the size of an 8.5 by 11 sheet of paper. There are twenty-nine counters representing sixteen and thirteen Union and Confederate units respectively. There are Infantry, Cavalry and Artillery units for each side.

The markers are placed in numbered hex boxes that represent beginning positions for each side. Each counter includes the size of the unit. III being regimental strength, II means it is a battalion, while an I represents a company, or battery. There are also movement, firing, and the strength of the unit factors.

Fran and I have played this game and I will be posting the battle report of our first attempt of this battle shortly.

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Other Resources

Library of Congress Map of the Battle Ground of Greenbrier River

Battle of Greenbrier River Wiki

Four Historical Print and Play Games I am Looking Forward to Playing

These games represent three periods in history, the American Civil War, The Spanish and American War, and the Second World War. These games include all the necessary components, such as game board, unit tokens and instructions.  All four games are turned based and with one or one and a half pages of rules are easy to learn and play.

• The Battle of Greenbrier River (American Civil War)
• The Battle of Manila Bay (Spanish-American War)
• Malaya (Second World War)
• Unternehmung 25 (Second World War-Europe)