Thursday, February 25, 2010

General Greene


I spent some time thinking how I was going to portray General Nathanael Greene the C & C of the American forces at Guilford Courthouse.
A little about General Greene in that he started the war as a militia private and ended the war as possibly General Washington's best General in organization and strategic command decisions!
After serving some time with Washington,General Greene was asked to take command of the forces in the south opposite the very aggressive and capable British General Cornwallis after the humiliating performance of General Gates at Camden .
He quickly began reorganizing the shattered American forces and began a campaign of marches and counter marches and small conflicts to tire the enemy and buy himself some time.He also effectively destroyed Cornwallis light troops by releasing General Daniel Morgan to trap Tarleton and his light trops at the Cowpens.
This prompted a furious pursuit by Cornwallis to recover his troops captured at the Cowpens.Eventually after retreats and pursuits and counter pursuits the two forces clashed at Guilford Courthouse where Greene was defeated by Cornwallis,but inflicted such heavy causalities on the British so as to severely hamper them in the theater for the duration of the war.
Greene had a couple more larger engagements with the British at Hobkirks Hill(small defeat) and at Eutaw Springs where he has largely unlucky and was left with an inconclusive draw.
Although Greene was unable to defeat the British in open field he was however successful in winning the strategic battle by a policy of maneuver,bleeding the enemy in both battle and morale,and keeping his army intact and fighting.Eventually he ground the British forces down that led in a very large part to the surrender of Cornwallis at Yorktown.
After some thought I decided General Greene would have made some excellent use of scouts as this really helped him to stay a step ahead of the British.This gave me an idea to use the mounted riflemen from Perry and General Greene together as if they were advising him as to the location of various British forces.It also gave me the excuse I needed to include these wonderful mini's that normally are difficult to find a place for!Didn't I always say riflemen were my favorite.:-)
Miniature Company-Perry & Wargames Foundry





15 comments :

  1. Incredible! Very impressed by this!

    Basing is the best example of 'muddy/boggy' terrain I've seen.

    Consul.

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  2. Yip, I'm equally impressed.
    Your figures and basing are perfect.

    Makes me want to get ma paints oot and i'm just goin off ta bed!

    Cheers
    Paul

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  3. Very nice indeed, I do like the way you've the muddy ground.

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  4. Excellent choice using mounted militia aides on this base. Well done.

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  5. A really nice job ! Congratulations !

    Cheers
    Jean-Baptiste

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  6. Not only a good paint job but with some impressive background research to give the character some 'colour'. Like it!

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  7. Outstanding! And the basing just gets better and better - I love the moss on the tree stump. Details like that really bring figures to life.

    Best wishes

    Giles

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  8. I agree! Great painting and basing!

    I'm really fond of those figures, too.

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  9. Lovely work there, Christopher! I adore your bases!

    Just realised you'll be at Tactica organising a game. Sadly I won't make it this year, so I wish you all the best with it. Told my mates that are visiting Tactica to keep an eye out for your table.

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  10. Christopher - lovely looking figures and superb basing - makes them come alive!

    Cheers,
    Doc

    http://docsartofwar.blogspot.com/

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  11. What can I add? Good painting, and the base is superb, it really looks the part.

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  12. Just got back from TACTICA and my mouth is still hanging open from all the nice stuff I saw,and so I've been slow to respond.
    Thank you very,very much everyone for the kind words and support as I really appreciate it!:-)

    Cheers
    Christopher

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  13. Only a year late with the comment, but I just had to congratulate you on this command stand, it's a work of art!!!

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  14. Thank you Ray! Labels are indeed useful for viewing what blogger's have done.

    Cheers
    Christopher

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