Tuesday, June 1, 2010

Battlefield Building

As noted previously, I will be bouncing back and forth between the northern and southern theaters of the war for the time being. At the moment, the northern theater side of things is concerned with the campaign to take Fort Ticonderoga. I haven't written about the southern theater lately, but work is occurring behind the scenes on the next battle. The battle will be one of those that was of a decent size, is frequently ignored by military histories of the Revolution, and has yet to be written about at great length. In other words, it's perfect for this blog.

To make the battlefield, I have so far 1) made an image of the area using ACME Mapper, 2) modified the image to include 18th-Century terrain features and to exclude modern ones, 3) divided a piece of poster board into 1000 (scale) foot squares, and 4) sketched the terrain features onto the poster board. The image below shows this work in progress, with trees and a building added to help give a sense of what the final product will look like. There is a large pond at left and a ridge at center. The various curving lines show either roads or streams. The whole thing will of course look a lot better once the poster board has been painted and flocked.

Do you think you know which battlefield this is? Impress me by leaving your answer in comments.

13 comments:

  1. Sorry - no idea as to what battlefield, but on a recent visit to Cheltenham, UK. I saw a huge book that included illustrations of AWI battlefields. The book was illustrated with old maps - very similar to those you have on your Blog (sorry, but I am not sure what the title of the book was).

    I was looking for illustrations of AWI battlefield buildings as I was at the time building '28mm masters' to be cast in resin by Grand Manner.

    If you know of any good illustrations that I could use to base new building on, I would be grateful.

    Tony
    http://dampfpanzerwagon.blogspot.com/

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  2. I have no idea either, but I'm looking forward to finding out!

    Best wishes

    Giles

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  3. how about a hint, the state would help greatly

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  4. At this point my best guess would be Guilford Court House with the elevations you have drawn.

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  5. @ Tony:

    Battles of the American Revolution were fought in lots of different environments -- everywhere from the streets of good-sized towns to uninhabited wilderness. Some battlefields have iconic buildings associated with them, but that is the exception, rather than the rule. "Generic" log or wooden clapboard houses of the kind in use throughout the 18th and 19th centuries in the U.S. would be useful in many cases. I'm sorry to say that I can't point you to a specific book or online resource. If you are specifically interested in the more famous buildings, below is a listing of some specific ones that you should be able to find online by doing a Google Image search or viewing photos at Flickr.com:

    "Chew House" or "Cliveden" (same building) -- Battle of Germantown

    Merriam house, Wright's Tavern, Buckman Tavern, The Old Belfry -- Battle of Lexington and Concord

    Nassau Hall, Clarke Farm -- Battle of Princeton

    Cortelyou House -- Battle of Long Island

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  6. @ General Staff:

    "At this point my best guess would be Guilford Court House with the elevations you have drawn."

    Guilford Courthouse is close. Today there is a pond and a ridge by the site of the "third line" at Guilford. However, the battle of Guilford Courthouse is better known than the one I have in mind. Here's a hint: The battle I'm referring to is in the same state (North Carolina) as Guilford CH.

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  7. The only other battle I know fought in NC that might fit your map is Moore's Creek. What did you use to modify the image you got from ACME mapper?

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  8. I am at the same point as Paul. Also nice new look at the blog

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  9. @ Paul:

    The sequence of steps is roughly this: find the battlefield using ACME mapper, copy a screen shot (CTRL + PRTSC), paste the image into MS Paint, trace the terrain feature I want to keep with either the line or paintbrush feature, use the eraser feature to get rid of the rest.

    @ Paul & General Staff:

    Moore's Creek Bridge is a good guess. It's probably the second best known battle of the American Revolution fought in North Carolina, yet all-in-all, it's not a battle that gets a lot of attention. Unfortunately, it's not the correct choice. The battle I have in mind was like Moore's Creek Bridge in that it pitted North Carolinian against North Carolinian, but it was a good deal bloodier, and the outcome was long in doubt.

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  10. Thank you for the list.

    Tony
    http://dampfpanzerwagon.blogspot.com/

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  11. Was the battle in question Ramsour's Mill.

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  12. "Was the battle in question Ramsour's Mill."

    Winner!

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  13. Great Job Chris

    http://swampfoxbrigade.blogspot.com/

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