The Months Ahead

This summer I've been blogging chiefly about the 1781 battle of Guilford Courthouse and the 1782 campaign on St. Kitts. These projects are now starting to wind down: I anticipate both will be complete in about another month.

In October I will start on a new project that is concerned with the October 28, 1776 battle of White Plains. Back in May I mentioned that I was working on a detailed topographic map of the battlefield, but since then my interests have taken a different direction. What I intend to do is blog about the wider White Plains "campaign" with the posts appearing online on the anniversary of the historical occurrences. So, for example, on October 8th, I will have a post online that describes the British planning session that occurred on October 8th, 1776. In each of these posts I will describe the events of that day by drawing upon journals, letters, and memoirs of those who were there; for example, the description of the British planning session on October 8th will be based largely on Major Stephen Kemble's journal and Lieutenant-General Henry Clinton's memoir.

There are two features of this series that particularly appeal to me. One is that there is a lot of source material to work with, and much of it makes fascinating reading. Another is that I am looking forward to exploring how a campaign gradually unfolded by taking up the events on the timescale on which they actually occurred.

The first post in the series will appear on October 8th and concern the planning session; the last post will appear on November 1st, and describe how the campaign concluded. In between these dates, there will be many posts that describe various battles and skirmishes and the more mundane aspects of soldiers' lives, including especially the constant struggle with hunger, fatigue, and sickness among the rank and file in the American army.

Once this project is done, I'm going to take a partial break from writing, and focus on painting for awhile. I haven't picked up a brush since working on Regiment von Bose in June, and I miss the nightly routine of listening to the radio while painting some figure set.

I don't know yet what I will do with this blog in 2012, other than I hope to take the blog in some new directions and explore additional battles and campaigns of the Revolutionary War.