Saturday 31 July 2010

Jean Adolphe Beaucé


I think this French artist may have been in Mexico - here's one of the French expeditionary force. Wiki on the artist

La guerre du Mexique de 1862 à 1866 - journal de marche du 3e Chasseurs d'Afrique


If you are interested in cavalry in Mexico then this famous memoir is up in full on Google books. If you need an English translation then go to the plain text option and then load into your translator.

CAVALERIE FRANÇAISE AU MEXIQUE: Les turcos à cheval (1864-1867)

Interesting article about cavalry in Mexico and how the French mounted the Turcos as a way of compensating for their lack of horse soldiers. And no lancers so 'Major Dundee' lied to us.
Thanks to Charles for sending this image of mounted Turcos by Lelieprve which accompanied the original Carnet de la Sabretache article back in 74.

Jennerwein (2003)

So here's another movie partly about the Franco-Prussian war. I think it tells the tale of a Bavarian poacher (see a photo of the real man here) who was once in the war. Imdb says
This is the true story of Girgl Jennerwein, a rebel in the German alps from 1848 - 1877. Supplied with a deeper sense of justice, he confront's the harsh suppression of the mountain farmer being used as slave laborers for the gentry. Poor people are sometimes left close to starvation, Girgl's poached meat helps them to cope. This does not get un-noticed by the Authorities, who set an experienced wild-ranger on his trail. A Ranger that has killed Girgl's father for the reason of poaching. Girgl, a former soldier of the imperial German army will prove more than a challenge. It is a beautiful Woman however that will drive a wedge between Girgl and his supporters. The acting is superb, the photography just beautiful, the story has some of the grittiness of Clint Eastwood's "UNFORGIVEN". Not made after any Hollywood formula, the viewer is left with a taste of historical realism.

Mitrailleuse

I was hoping to find some footage of someone firing an old or repro mitrailleuse but I can't find any. I don't suppose there's any working ones about anymore.

Le Moblot (1870)

Song about the Garde Mobile. From the Franco-Prussian war.

The Guns at Springfield (1971)

Defense department documentary on the arsenal and its weapons. Features some reenactor footage. It's a fine piece of old fashioned public information filming - a little wooden but nevertheless charming.

Friday 30 July 2010

Battle of the Crater 1864


Image; Alfred Rudolph Waud (1828–91)
The advance to the "crater" after the explosion of the mine. In the middle distance are the mounds of earth thrown up by the explosion: beyond upon the high ground cemetery hill the Confederates inner line of works, which if they had carried, would have given the Union Army Petersburg and Richmond. In the foreground troops are seen advancing to and beyond Burnsides outer intrenched line and moving upon the Confederate defences. These were—on the left Bartletts Massachusetts brigade, and on the right, the Negro troops—this sketch was made about 8 AM July 30th 1864. / A point in the Rebel works known as Elliots Salient over this part was held by the 18th and 23rd S. Carolina infantry and a battery of artillery blown up in the explosion.
Today is the anniversary of this event that took place during the siege of St Petersburg involving Pennsylvanian miners making a huge crater in the CSA fortfications. This is the opening scene of the movie Cold Mountain. There is an interesting original painting at the American Museum Bath that shows a kind of log tunnel that sat above ground reaching up to the Confederate siege lines.

Kalafat 1853

Here are the shots of modeller Hank's 1/72 diorama in progress on the battle of Kalafat between the Russians and Turks. There's some great work here including scratchbuilt gunboats and so forth.
Kalafat 1853 - Part 1
Preparing Camp for the Turkish Danube Army
Kalafat 1853 -Part 2a
Kalafat 1853 -Part 2b
Kalafat 1853 -Part 3
Kalafat 1853 -Part 4
Kalafat 1853 -Part 5
Kalafat 1853 -Part 6

Wednesday 28 July 2010

Giovanni Fattori

I think these both depict Montebello (1859) .
Fattori was an Italian painter of initially historical and military subjects. Specialising in camp scenes or scenes of marching and so forth rather than heroic action. Wiki here
See more of his work here

Interesting 1866 photo

My Italian ain't up to much but I think this an Austrian soldier fighting in the South Tyrol.
From here.
Where all is explained in Italian

Fredericksburg 'Gods and Generals'

A big project that is involving a lot of the 1/72 modellers is this winter battle fought in 1862. Already looking forward to seeing all the special castings they are going to produce to be able to depict troops in their winter kit. I thought this scene was well recreated in the movie but I am far short of being an expert on the battle.

Clockwork WW1 tank by Whiteandco (UK)

This little beauty comes from the Vectis toy auction site.

Clockwork WW1 tank

Thought I'd see if such a thing as a clockwork Great War tank exists and lo and behold there's one on ebay. Made by Marx and about 22cm long so I am not what sort of scale that is. A bit expensive for me but I thought maybe some of you might like a look.
Checking it out further there's quite a few of these from different manufacturers but obviously they're very collectable. I suppose what we should wish for is that someone does a modern repro.

The Lighthorsemen (1987) attack on Gaza

This is a great clip which depicts WW1 tanks against Turkish artillery. Be great if someone made a remote control WW1 tank, but maybe for 'Little Wars' a simple clockwork thing would work best. Wiki on the movie

WW1 toy cannon project

Great scratchbuilt cannon on Mannie Gentile's brilliant blog 'Toy Soldiers forever'.

Tuesday 27 July 2010

More Pontifical Zouaves

Thanks to Uwe of History in 1/72 for sending these - he's working on a small diorama of the battle of Mentana which is the subject of the top painting from 1907.

Charge of the Papal Zouaves at Loigny in 1870

By Charles Castellani (1838 - 1913)
Wiki on the battle

Zouaves Pontificaux

















Here is my Zouave pontifical uniform for you to enjoy.

The regiment of Zouaves Pontificaux was raised from 1860 amongst catholic foreign volunteers from Europe and America to strengthen the Pope’s army against attacks by the Piedmontese army as well as Garibaldi’s partisans, bent on unifying Italy and absorbing the papal states into it. They served until 1870, when the Franco-Prussian war caused France to withdraw the troops it had committed to prevent that (Napoleon III liked to show himself as the champion of the French catholics).The regiment was created by the French General de Lamoricière, who had also been instrumental in creating the French zouave regiments, and most of the early volunteers were French and Belgian ( the original name was bataillon des tirailleurs franco-belges), and the first uniform was also based on that of the French chasseurs à pied. Then Lamoricière designed this uniform, which, although based on the French zouave uniform, (originally) banned the chechia as there was some contradiction to have Christ’s soldiers dressed as muslims. So they wore a French-style kepi instead. The rest of the equipment is exactly the same as that of the chasseurs à pied, including the model 1853 T chasseur carabine and its yataghan, although the straps connecting the pack to the waist belt should actually not be there. The front of the kepi’s band is also missing a small brass horn.

André

Monday 26 July 2010

Hat Industrie 1/32 Napoleonics


I really like the look of these new figures Hat are putting out and so I have been looking at what potential conversions are possible. What I like about them is they are differentiating between marching and action poses. At last! The bane of 1/32 has been the flying crazy action poses and this enables one to do a decent unit. So what can be done for this era? Well I think the French elites in greatcoats might with a headswop make a decentish French infantryman of the 1840s. A kepid head could have it made into a casquette d'Afrique and then it's off to fight in Algeria.
Paco Fait Le Zouave
Talking of fighting in Algeria a blog I discovered today is Paco Fait le Zouave it's all about making an 1830s Algerian wargame. Great stuff.

The Making of the Charge of the Light Brigade

Article by John Mollo on the behind-the-scenes work on Tony Richardson's 1968 movie. Apologies for the condition of the cuttings. Click on them to enlarge.






How the West Was Won (1962)

Someone was saying on Youtube that Horse Soldiers was the only time John Ford actually dealt with the Civil War but that's of course forgetting this sequence which he directed in this 60s widescreen 'cinerama' epic. John Wayne plays Sherman in the hours after the battle of Shiloh. It is a dark and downbeat sequence, but still worth remembering. If you watch the trailer there seems to be an epic battle scene which I don't remember being in the movie - maybe I'm wrong searching on the web I can't find anything about it. Deleted scenes page
Wiki on the movie.

Bomarsund at Anne S K Brown

Interesting selection of images on this page of the campaign including Russian prisoners at Sheerness and images of the storming.

Morgan's Raid

As today in 1863 (according to the wiki) saw the end of Confederate John Hunt Morgan's raid into the Ohio I thought I'd post these brilliant images of a 2003 recreation of that event. The caption says
Photos from a 55 mile reenactment ride of part of Confederate General J.H. Morgan's original route through southeastern Ohio. Several hundred mounted Civil War reenactors took part in the week long ride, where along the way they were ambushed by Ohio home guards, and pursuing Union Cavalry. With the horse drawn artillery and the supply wagons in tow, the column of horsemen made an impressive sight, and thousands of Ohio residents lined the roads to witness the column's passing. It was the largest contingent of horsemen to ride through the area since John Morgan's cavalry passed through in 1863.
If this whets your appetite for more there's an 1867 History of Morgans cavalry on Google books.

Sunday 25 July 2010

The Turkish army lands


Paris: E. Morier, 1855
Deroy (artist)

James Robertson photos

Here's a gallery of this Crimean photographer.

William Simpson online

Been looking for images of British sailors of the Crimean War and thought I'd try Simpson first. Here's a gallery of a lot of his 'Seat of War in the East'. This image is of the bombardment of Bomarsund I think.

Two summer cruises with the Baltic fleet in 1854-5: being the log of the 'Pet' ... By Robert Edgar Hughes

This book is online. Basically it is a first hand account of the Bomarsund campaign written from the perspective of a civilian observer - this case being a yachting reverend. Just to give you a taste here's his account of a British camp
The camp was singularly pretty and picturesque. The sappers had built themselves the neatest little huts of small fir branches with the stump upwards, so that they formed a snug roof almost as waterproof as thatch, and very pretty to look at. Jack, more ambitious, had hewn off large branches with his cutlass, and placed them as they grow. This arrangement produced fine roomy huts, but a large supply of accidental doors and unintentional windows made a pleasing variety, and afforded the inmates an opportunity of contemplating the motions of the heavenly bodies. The officers of the " Acre" had a splendid bell tent, as big as a bullock-shed; but the most striking thing in the tent way was the Colonel's;—this consisted of a single blanket stretched over a pole and strained tightly down to the ground; into this the gallant officer crawled all fours whenever sleep assailed his weary eyes. A number of military accoutrements, and, if I remember right, a little strip of a flag, gave splendour and dignity to the domicile; and I think on the whole the Colonel used to turn out in the morning about the smartest and best shaved man in the camp. I must confess that the French camp gave the impression that they were professional performers, and ours that we were amateurs ; and yet here were our fellows with their handful of men in the advanced position, well within gunshot, and perfectly in the humour to receive anything in the way of shot and shell, bayonet or cutlass, that the enemy might feel inclined to offer. After a time, we amateurs began to stroll about and endeavour to understand the topography of the place; the sentries, however, had orders to allow no one to pass to the front, and our walk was rather circumscribed. Presently, however, a sentry seeing that one of us had a glass, beckoned to us to approach, and swore that he had seen half a dozen fellows in long dark cloaks crouching among the bushes before him. We watched for some time, but the sentry's eyes were sharper than ours, and we could make nothing of it.

The English Fleet at Cherbourg, 5 August 5 1858, by Gustave le Gray

Photo from the new Royal Family Archive on Flickr one set of images from Queen Victoria's collection.