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Tag Archives: George Washington
A trader's map of the Ohio country before 1753 (Library of Congress)
The Braddock Expedition in the summer of 1755 was one of the greatest military campaigns (and follies) in 18th-century North America up to that point in history. After diplomatic attempts to oust the French from Fort Duquesne by a young British officer named George Washington were rebuffed a year prior, British General Edward Braddock sought to move an army of some 2,000 through the wilderness and lay siege to the fort. The Battle of the Monongahela on July 9th ended the expedition and Braddock's life.
Three years later, Washington and 6,000 soldiers returned to the region as part of an army led by General John Forbes. Once again, Fort Duquesne was the target as the Forbes Campaign which set out from Carlisle, PA in September 1758 and cut a new road to the west, just north of Braddock's doomed route. Along the way, the expedition constructed a string of forts across the wilderness as safe havens for the British. As 1758 drew near to a close, Forbes would succeed where Braddock had failed in removing the French from the Forks of the Ohio forever.
British Generals Edward Braddock and John Forbes
The failures and successes of these men and their soldiers defined the story of the French and Indian War and the decades after in this corner of the 18th-century British Empire. In the aftermath, Pontiac's Rebellion would rage through the same region, eventually leading to the decimation and removal of the native people who occupied the land well before the French or British came. In these two wars, the British emerged as the dominant power in the region. Unbeknownst to the Crown and Parliament safely at a distance in London, the seeds had also been sown for the eventual colonial rebellion against British rule less than two decades later.
My preparations for my expedition in September 2018 (photo by author)
In late September 2018 I set out to retrace these campaigns and stories by train, car and on foot. Over the course of a week, I made my way from my home in Brooklyn, NY to Alexandria, VA and then zig-zagged my way to Pittsburgh, PA and back again. Along the way I sought to get a sense of these historic, out-of-the-way places where armies once moved and pivotal battles were fought over 250 years ago. I also captured a number of videos and photos of the sites, allowing others to visit these places from a digital distance. For me, breathing the air, hiking the trails and camping amid the trees and mountains of what was then known as the Ohio Country was my opportunity to engage with history first-hand.
George Washington in the Ohio Country
George Washington's 1754 map to the Ohio River (Library of Congress)
Much of the story of the Ohio Country in the mid-18th-century is also the story of one person: George Washington. As an ambitious, twenty-something Virginia Provincial officer, he was eager to prove his worth and earn a place as a full British officer in service of the Crown and Empire.
Observations from Ohiopyle State Park
To that end, in 1753 Washington was appointed as an envoy tasked with delivering a message to the French at Fort Duquesne. The order unceremoniously commanded the French to vacate the region, one the British felt they rightly claimed. The arduous winter journey through mountains, rivers and thick forests had challenged Washington's physical fortitude. The French commander's refusal of Washington's carried message challenged his spirits and ambitions of taking a place among elite society. On his first assignment as a designated representative of the British colonial government, Washington had failed.
A view of Jumonville Glen
The following spring, Washington returned to the region for a second try at forcing the French from their further-developed positions. This time, Washington was at the head of his first command of some 300 Virginians. Camping in a meadow some distance from Fort Duquesne, Washington was tipped off by an Mingo ally, Tanacharison ("Half King"), to the presence of a French advance guard camped in a nearby wood.
Early in the morning on May 28, 1754, Washington approached the French camp with some 40 colonials and a dozen allied Mingo warriors. Surprising the French (actually French Canadians led by Joseph Coulon de Villiers de Jumonville) in their morning camp, a quick firefight erupted. In the subsequent surrender negotiation between Jumonville and Washington, Tanacharison killed the French officer. By all accounts, Washington had blundered into a brief firefight and further lost control of the situation after the smoke had cleared. The encounter at what became known as Jumonville Glen had the potential to be yet another bad mark on the young officer's record.
Me at Jumonville Glen near the site of the French camp (photo by author)
When I visited Jumonville Glen in September 2018, I had not been to the site in over two decades. On the morning I was there, I had the site to myself and its still, secluded quiet in a cool morning rain is eerie. Standing at the rocky prospect above at the British position and then at the base of the glen where the French camped, you get a true sense of the intimacy of the place where a major event occurred.
Observations from British positions at the stockade at Fort Necessity National Battlefield
The event at Jumonville Glen didn't immediately reveal its long term significance, but Washington sensed a French reprisal would be imminent. With that, he returned to the meadows and had a small "fort of necessity" constructed. Some 50′ in diameter, the split-log stockade was surrounded by earth ditches dug into the damp ground near an adjacent trace of a stream.
Observations from the French position at the treeline at Fort Necessity National Battlefield
On July 3, 1754, around 600 French Regulars and Canadians accompanied by perhaps 100 or more Indian allies appeared at the treeline surrounding Washington's hasty defense. With may only 400 men, many of whom were sick, drunk or otherwise unfit to fight, Washington was vastly outnumbered as Indian and French musket volleys rang out from the trees throughout the day. When rain fell in the afternoon, Washington's shattered force eventually surrendered. In the negotiation of terms relying on questionable translations, Washington signed his name to a document in which he inadvertently admitted responsibility for the assassination of Jumonville.
As Washington retreated his force from the field, he had delivered a third failure on his third assignment as a want-to-be British officer. With these personal failures, the 22-year-old Virginian had also set in motion events which would erupt in the French and Indian War.
The recreated stockade at Fort Necessity National Battlefield (photo by author)
The Braddock Campaign
The Braddock Expedition of 1755 (Library of Congress)
Following on the failures of Washington in 1753 and 1754, an escalated show of British force was determined to be the solution to finally oust the French from the region. The person tapped for the job was British General Edward Braddock, a veteran in the ways of European warfare and campaigns. The disconnect between Braddock's military experience and the fighting in the forests of the Ohio Country would prove to be disastrous.
The Carlyle House
Observations from the Carlyle House in Alexandria, VA
In the spring of 1755, Braddock had arrived in Alexandria, VA with 1,200 troops and set up his headquarters at the Carlyle House. There on April 15th, he convened a "congress" of colonial governors from Pennsylvania, New York, Virginia, Maryland and Massachusetts to seek shared funding of the campaign against the French ensconced in the Ohio Country. The governors pushed back on funding Braddock's expedition but did agree a multi-front campaign against France was the key to their removal from the contintent.
The parlor of the Carlyle House, site of the 1755 Congress of Alexandria (photo by author)
A visit to the Carlyle House today in downtown Alexandria is largely a tour of a grand 18th-century home, not unlike many historic house museums. For someone like me, imagining the heated conversation and planning for what was to become the Braddock campaign and the French and Indian War at large makes it an important part of the era's story.
Braddock's Road
Observations from Braddock's Road near Fort Necessity
By late May 1755, Braddock and his force now numbering over 2,000 set off from Fort Cumberland, MD with the destination of Fort Duquesne over 100 miles to the west and north. Among the troops and working wagon teams recruited by Benjamin Franklin, Braddock's army contained a who's who of people who would play a large part in the events over the coming decades. These included the back woodsmen Daniel Boone and Daniel Morgan as well as Thomas Gage; Charles Lee, Horatio Gates and Washington as Braddock's personal aide.
A 3 1/2 minute hike along Braddock's Road
Braddock's route was challenging from the beginning. The landscape ahead presented dense forests, rushing streams and steep, rocky hills and mountains. His long column consisted of advance work parties cutting and building a road at the head of the slow-moving army. In some areas rock needed to be blasted and cleared and at other points wagons and cannon were broken down to be hauled over inclines or cross waterways.
The route of the campaign today (much along what would be come the National Road and later US Route 40) is traced with dozens of roadside historical markers. Getting off the road, there are opportunities to hike short remnant portions of the road. The experience of walking some of Braddock's route shows the closeness and seclusion experienced by a massive European army moving through wilderness for which they were completely unprepared.
The Battle of the Monongehela
A 1755 sketch of the Battle of Monongahela (Library of Congress)
After some five weeks of slow advance at a pace of what could be less than five miles a day, Braddock's column arrived near the banks of the Monongahela River. On July 9, 1755, the head of the British force was attacked by over 200 French and Canadian militia along perhaps 600 or more Indian allies. In the bloody confusion and surrounding crossfire, the British were thrown into disarray as multiple officers fell and troops were engaged at close range attacks. Braddock himself fell to a musket wound, and Washington managed to organize a hasty retreat, saving what he could of British line that had been wrecked with nearly 900 dead and wounded.
General Edward Braddock monument at Fort Necessity National Battlefield (photo by author)
Thus, just ten miles from Fort Duquense, yet another British force was thrown back by the French. Again, Washington had been a participant and this time he buried his commanding officer and mentor near the ruins of Fort Necessity.
Braddock's Battlefield History Center in (photo by author)
The site of the Battle of the Monongahela at present day Braddock, PA is largely lost to history. The Braddock's Battlefield History Center has done an outstanding job of documenting the event, and I was lucky enough to be the only the visitor on the day of my trip. There I was able to have the museum's founder, local retired attorney Robert T. Messner, to myself as we discussed the battle and took a tour of the exhibits. A couple weeks after my visit, a merger between the center and Fort Ligonier was announced, guaranteeing further interpretation of the battle for years to come.
The Forbes Campaign and Pontiac's Rebellion
The Forbes Expedition of 1758 (Library of Congress)
Leaving the Braddock story at its natural and tragic end, I had the opportunity to also visit a number of other mid-18th-century sites of historical significance in the region. With these I followed other travelers, settlers and campaigns of the era from the French and Indian War to the follow-up conflict of Pontiac's Rebellion.
Fort Frederick
Observations from Fort Frederick State Park
The entire region is dotted with sites of former stops along major routes of 18th-century travel and trade. In Washington County, MD, I spent the evening at Fort Frederick State Park. After an evening camping in a downpour in an otherwise empty campground along a rising Potomac River, I awoke to an overcast day and a visit to the recreated Fort Frederick. Originally built in 1756-1758, the large stone Vauban-style fortress is today represented as rebuilt by the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) in the 1930s. Initially used for defense and a trading hub for local settlers during the period of the French and Indian War and Pontiac's Rebellion, the fortress was later used as a prison during the American Revolution and then garrisoned again by Union troops during the US Civil War.
Fort Bedford
Travelling about 100 miles northwest from Fort Fredrick, is the site of Fort Bedford. Built in 1758 by British troops under Colonel Henry Bouquet, the log star-shaped fort served as one of the string of supply points during the campaign led by General Forbes to take Fort Duquesne. The original fort is long gone but the site today is marked by the Fort Bedford Museum which is home to the fort's original 1758 flag and a nice scale model of the fort as it once looked.
Fort Ligonier
Observations from Fort Ligonier
Following the route of Forbes and his army fifty more miles to the northwest, I arrived at Fort Ligonier. Some fifty miles southeast of present-day Pittsburgh, the fort was the final jumping-off point for eventual siege and taking of Fort Duquesne in late November 1758. During Pontiac's Rebellion in 1763, the fort continued as an important British outpost and was attacked twice by united Indian forces during that conflict. Today's fort is a fine reproduction of the 18th-century log fort and the museum houses the absolute best collection of exhibits on the period I've visited.
Plan of Fort Duquesne after its capture by the British in 1758 (Historical Society of Pennsylvania)
All roads lead to the the Forks of the Ohio at present day Pittsburgh, PA where the Ohio, Allegheny and Monongahela rivers come together. After years of attempts by the British through diplomacy and a failed militia campaign with a young Washington followed by Braddock's fateful end, the Forbes expedition succeeded in taking the site. Ultimately, British seizure of the point was anticlimactic with the French burning the fort before retreating to the north in late November 1758.
The British set to work redeveloping the site with Fort Pitt between 1759 and 1761 where it served as the anchor of the British Empire's western edge for the remainder of the war. The fort was besieged by Indians during Pontiac's Rebellion in 1763 and then used by Virginian's during the brief Lord Dunmore's War in 1774 which many know view as a precursor to the Revolutionary war.
Observations from the site of Fort Duquesne and Fort Pitt
Jutting out from the the modern city of Pittsburgh, a visit to the site easily reveals the important strategic location of the point at the intersection of three mighty rivers. While the Indian villages, trading posts and forts which once crowded to the river banks are long gone, the park and Fort Pitt Museum there offer a marvelous experience and transport back in time.
Battle of Bushy Run
A 1765 map of the Battle of Bushy Run (John Carter Brown Library)
Squeezed between the little known French and Indian War and the mythic American War of Independence is the almost completely forgotten Pontiac's Rebellion. From 1763 to 1766 a confederation of Indian nations from the Great Lakes and Ohio Country united to push back the tide of European settlers encroaching westward following the French and Indian War. By the spring and early summer of 1763 dozens of settlements, forts and outposts fell to Indian forces across the entire region, and once-inconceivable Indian sieges of Fort Detroit and Fort Pitt were underway.
In the hopes of relieving the siege at Fort Pitt, British veteran of the region Henry Bouquet led about 600 men over the route once used by Forbes and his army just a few years prior. On August 5, 1763 Bouquet's force was about 25 miles from the fort when attacked by hundreds of Indians from the thick woods. After a first bloody and disastrous day of defeat, Bouquet's men rallied the second day in a surprise flanking attack through the woods. The narrow defeat by the British threw back the native rebellion, effectively ending the brief war and assuring British supremacy in the region.
.Observations from Bushy Run Battlefield
A visit to Bushy Run Battlefield today is a long, winding, out of the way trip to beautifully preserved grounds over rolling hills and wooded trails. The small museum does an out sized job in defining the battle and overall period in context, and its annual reenactments are some of the most picturesque recreations of the period.
While the empires of the British, French and Indian people of the region clashed over the grounds I visited for decades of the 18th-century and involved tens off thousands of participants, my trip allowed me to quietly consider the region from a singular observer's point of view. Over a week of travel and contemplation, I sought and found a journey back in time to the 18th-century found no so far off my usual 21st-century trail.
Posted in French and Indian War
Tagged Alexandria, American Civil War, American Revolution, American War of Independence, Battle of Bushy Run, Battle of Fort Necessity, Battle of the Monongahela, Benjamin Franklin, Braddock Expedition, Braddock's Defeat, Braddock's Road, British Empire, Carlyle House, CCC, Charles Lee, Civilian Conservation Corps, Congress of Alexandria, Daniel Boone, Daniel Morgan, Edward Braddock, Forbes Campaign, Forbes Road, Fort Bedford, Fort Cumberland, Fort Duquesne, Fort Frederick, Fort Fredrick State Park, Fort Ligonier, Fort Necessity, Fort Pitt, Fort Pitt Museum, French and Indian War, George Washington, Heinz History Center, Henry Bouquet, Hiking, Horatio Gates, John Forbes, Joseph Coulon de Villiers de Jumonville, Jumonville Glen, Maryland, Monongahela River, Mount Vernon, National Road, Ohio Country, Ohio Territory, Ohipoyple State Park, Pennsylvania, Pittsburgh, Tanacharison, The Half King, Thomas Gage, Tourism, US Route 40, Virginia
French and Indian War: Pennsylvania Provincials and British Command from Sash and Saber Castings
One of the joys of painting figures for the French and Indian War is in the diversity of uniforms among British colonial forces. Previously I've painted up units to reflect Virginia Provincials and the British Royal American Regiment which allow for uniforms that deviate from the usual red-coated British Regulars of 18th-century England.
I took advantage of having a few four-packs of unpainted British Provincial models from the relatively new and extensive line of FIW models from Sash and Saber Castings to add a Pennsylvania Provincial Regiment to my collection. My force consists of Provincials Firing (FWB28), Loading (FWB29) and Advancing (FWB30), plus Provincial Officers and NCOs (FWB213). With green coats, red vests and tan leather breeches, the color scheme provides a great break from the more typical mix of red and blue clothing on most British soldiers. Together, the sixteen figures allows me to field two units of Pennsylvania Provincials.
Sash and Saber sculpts hew toward the smaller side of 28mm figures (like those from Conquest and Perry Miniatures) with thinner, naturalistic scaling still filled with decent variations in pose and personality. While details fade a bit in faces, sculpted equipment, uniforms and poses all offer the kind of variety I seek in the models I like to paint.
I also purchased the British Personalities pack (FWB402) which includes Lt. Col. George Washington and Jeffrey Amherst, Commander-In-Chief of British Forces in North America during the FIW. The Washington figure is one of three I own of him (along with those from Eureka and Warlord), and he is dressed in his blue British Virginia Provincial officer uniform he wore during the war. Amherst stands with orders in his hand by his side, a nice detail that makes Sash and Saber sculpts unique within such an extensive line.
Tagged 28mm, British, British Colonialism, George Washington, Jeffery Amherst, miniature wargaming, miniatures, painting, Pennsylvania, Sash and Saber Castings, scale modelling
French and Indian War: Mounted Officers and Characters from Sash and Saber Castings and Warlord Games
In the close forests on 18th-century North America during the French and Indian War, the vast majority of the skirmishes and battles among French, Briitsh and Indian forces took place on foot among individual warriors. That said, especially among Europeans, mounted officers still held a place on many battlefields.
Of the hundreds of figures in my collection, few are mounted for this very reason. Aside from that, I'm not a big fan of painting horses although I've developed some quick techniques to get tabletop quality mounted models on the table. With this in mind, I recently set to fiishing up some horses and riders for the period.
First up, I bought the excellent three-figure set of British Characters from Warlord Games. This trio includes the young Virginia Colonial Militia officer Lt. Col. George Washington, a mounted figure of British Lt. Col. George Munro and General James Wolfe on foot. These metal figures each come packed with some real animated personality, and I'm a particular fan of the young Washington brazenlt cocking his pistoal as he charges forward.
One other Warlord figure is a plastic officer on a rearing horse. I pulled this figure from the Field Artillery and Army Commanders box made for the American War of Independence. This is one of the few plastic figures in my entire collection, but its sprue provided some options for choices in heads and poses. I've modelled mine as a British officer, and atop his bucking horse he is serviceable as a command figure for the earlier period.
To these Warlord figures, I also added four figures — two more British and two French — from Sash and Saber Castings. These sculpts are from the huge line of FIW figures launched via Kickstarter that makes it one of the broadest lines currently available for the period. Like the Warlord models, the Sash and Saber figures tend more toward a leaner, smaller 28mm scale. The horses reveal a lot of detail and varied poses while riders can be a bit flat in their facial expressions.
Together, this half-dozen mounted officers made for a bit of a break in my usual rotation of purely foot figures. Set at the lead of dozens of other soldiers in the American wilderness, they'll be a great fit with any number of units of my tabletop.
Posted in French and Indian War, General Gaming
Tagged 28mm, British, British Colonialism, French, French and Indian War, French Colonialism, George Munro, George Washington, James Wolfe, miniatures, painting, Sash and Saber Castings, Warlord Games
Touring the Battle of Brooklyn at Green-Wood Cemetery
This past Sunday a fellow member of Metropolitan Wargamers and I climbed aboard a trolley tour at historic Green-Wood Cemetery. The occasion was the cemetery's annual Battle of Brooklyn Commemoration, fortuitously held this year on the exact date — 241 years later — of the battle on August 27, 1776.
Leading the two-hour tour were the cemetery's resident historian, Jeff Richman, and Barnet Schecter, historian and author of The Battle for New York. Schecter's book is the long-held standard text on the battle, variously known as the Battle of Long Island or the Battle of Brooklyn. I've had a copy of his book for years and I've heard him lecture previously, but the tour offered a great chance to get up close with both Schecter and Richman as they spun a narrative of the battle's events more than two centuries previous.
Barnet Schecter presents the view toward eastern Long Island where British troops were observed landing in August 1776
One of the first stops on the tour was along a ridge affording an southeast-facing view from the cemetery out into Long Island. From this position, the historians presented with some certainty, General George Washington and his staff were able to make their first accounting of the landing of General William Howe's British forces at Gravesend Bay August 22nd-24th. The prospect sits atop a terminal moraine known as the Heights of Guan, the furthest point of a glacier's advance millennia ago, and opens into a wide view across the flatlands of Brooklyn where only farms, fields and open ground stood between British and Continental forces. On the beautiful, clear morning of the tour, our view stretched to the horizon, making it easy to imagine how important the high ground had been in an era when first-hand observation was often the only information a commander had to go on in the field. From this view, Washington's observations came to the (incorrect) conclusion the bulk of the British force would march here to his west flank and attack. The British command had other plans.
The mausoleum of Robert Troup, lieutenant colonel of the Continental Army
Green-Wood being the final resting place of many prominent New Yorkers of the past couple hundred years, there were several stops along the tour at notable graves. One example was at the mausoleum of Robert Troup. A college roommate of Alexander Hamilton and junior officer in the Continental Army at the time of the battle, Troup was one of just five men sent to stand watch at the far east flank of Washington's position at the Jamaica Pass on the eve of the battle. Unfortunately for the Colonials, the British secretly divided their force on the evening of August 26th and silently marched some 10,000 men, 40 guns and a long baggage train through the darkness to Jamaica Pass. In this audacious flanking maneuver, the British would capture Troup and his comrades and begin closing on an unsuspecting Washington from the east.
The Delaware Regiment monument at Green-Wood Cemetery
Washington had thrown the bulk of his force on the west flank, led by William Alexander (aka "Lord Stirling"). Just as the British were moving in from the east, a British decoy force led by James Grant had made its way toward Stirling's lines. Our tour traced Grant's advance and made our next stop near the approximate site of the first clash of Stirling and Grant late on August 26th. The skirmish, now remembered in a typical mixture of fact and folklore, was recounted as being fought through near a watermelon patch at the now-vanished Red Lion Inn. This far edge of the cemetery property now houses a parking lot and maintenance sheds, so it really takes a stretch of the imagination to transport oneself to those opening shots of the battle. The one nod to the historic events there is in a relatively recent monument to the the Delaware Regiment which would play a part near this spot the following day as the Battle of Brooklyn commenced.
Our guides for the morning, Jeff Richman (left) and Barnet Schecter (right)
It was here, Richman and Schecter both pointed out, that American troops for the first time in the war formed European-styled firing lines and exchanged volleys with British soldiers, then the most powerful military force in the world. Our tour then followed the action of the Colonial's right flank as Stirling's men -including the Delaware regiment and Pennsylvanians — repositioned at an angled rise, firing into Grant's advancing troops. It was there that two distant cannon blasts, far to east, signaled the surprise advance of the main British lines that had snuck through the Jamaica Pass overnight. In one echoing report, the British had announced themselves and the Americans found themselves enveloped by a force more than twice its size.
The statue of Minerva, placed atop Battle Hill by Charles Higgins in 1920
Following the retreat of Stirling's troops, we made our way to our final tour stop at what became known as Battle Hill in the 20th-century. Standing before the statue of the goddess Minerva, Richman recounted the story of the monument's placement by Charles Higgins, an Irish immigrant who made his fortune in India ink. Archival research unveiled Higgins's original intent to have the statue face the Woolworth Building although we can be thankful today for its dramatic placement facing of the Statue of Liberty across the harbor.
And it was on the hill 241 years ago this past weekend where a couple hundred Americans seized the 200-foot hill and held off 2000 British troops over several attacks. Out of ammunition, the Colonials eventually surrendered but they allowed for the majority of Stirling's men to slip toward the Gowanus Creek. There, outgunned and outnumbered, the Americans (led by the 1st Maryland Regiment) made head-on attacks British dug in at the Vechte–Cortelyou House, known today as the Old Stone House. Once again, the sacrifices and delaying actions of Stirling's force against the British allowed the vast majority of the Americans to flee toward the East River. Two evenings later, on August 29, 1776, Washington led a nighttime evacuation to Manhattan. Not only had the young Continental Army and most of its leadership been saved, but most probably the Revolution was saved, too.
I've lived in Brooklyn for more than twenty years and I'm an avid history fan, but sharing a morning with two passionate guides walking historic ground really brought long-ago events alive anew. New York and Brooklyn are not places that evoke the Revolution for most Americans. Boston, Lexington-Concord, Bunker Hill, Saratoga and Yorktown — those are sites of the War of Independence we all learn as children, not Brooklyn. But both Richman and Schecter hit on the importance of the Battle of Brooklyn over and over again on the tour — the first battle after the Declaration of Independence as Americans; the largest battle of the American Revolution; the first time Americans faced British in traditional open field battle; and, the event where Washington managed to snatch a victory (of sorts) out of a defeat. The war continued another seven years, but had the events in Brooklyn gone differently it may very well have ended less than two months after tAmericans had taken the radical first steps toward independence. One thing we Brooklynites are good at is promoting our local brand, but when it comes to the Battle of Brooklyn, it most certainly warrants repeated commemoration every August.
Posted in American Revolution, General Gaming
Tagged 1st Maryland Regiment, Alexander Hamilton, American Declaration of Independence, American Revolution, American War of Independence, Barnet Schecter, Battle Hill, Battle of Brooklyn, Battle of Bunker Hill, Battle of Lexington and Concord, Battle of Long Island, Battle of Yorktown, Battle Saratoga, British, British Colonialism, brooklyn, George Washington, Gravesend Bay, Green-Wood Cemetery, Heights of Guan, Jeff Richman, John Grant, Metropolitan Wargamers, Minerva, Old Stone House, Robert Troup, Siege of Boston, Statue of Liberty, William Howe, Woolworth building
French and Indian War: Conestoga and Supply Wagons from Perry Miniatures
When British General Edward Braddock launched his campaign through the Ohio Country to Fort Duquesne in the spring of 1755, the call went out for wagons. With some 2,000 soldiers at his command, Braddock was a typical commander of the French and Indian War era whose plans rested heavily on the support of local civilians willing to port the tons of supplied needed for a planned siege some 110 miles away.
After initial appeals were largely ignored by a population not particularly pleased with existing British colonial governance, appeals by Benjamin Franklin to his Pennsylvania countrymen finally yielded the needed transports for the campaign. An excellent 1959 publication from the Smithsonian Institution by Don H. Berkebile, Conestoga Wagons In Braddock's Campaign, 1755, provides great detail on the supply train in Braddock's campaign. Some 150 locally-provided wagons combined with Braddock's own to form nearly 200 transports carrying powder, ammunition, food and other goods necessary for such an undertaking into the relatively untamed wilderness. Additionally, Braddock also had five six-pound guns, four twelve-pound guns, three coehorns and four howitzers in tow with the design on breaking French control in the region.
Map of Braddock's Road (John Kennedy Lacock, 1912)
Cutting trees, clearing brush, fording streams, blasting rock and transversing the steep hills and mountains of Western Pennsylvania, Braddock's miles-long force moved along a 12 foot wide path at just two miles a day. George Washington, then a young British Colonel, had cautioned his mentor Braddock against reliance on wagons in the rough wilderness and advocated the use of pack animals instead. Braddock's column certainly contained dozens of horses and scores of cattle, but the majority of supplies rode on wagons in a European style uniformed by the roughness of North America's backcountry. When the advance force of Braddock's line was ambushed at the Battle of the Monongahela by the French and French-allied Indians on July 9, 1755, the soldiers and civilian supply train was thrown into chaos. By the end of the day, the disordered column was in hasty retreat, Braddock was dead and Washington was forever changed after having witnessed the death of his role model.
Farmer John Shreiner and his Conestoga Wagon, Lancaster County, PA, circa 1910
As Berkebile's article points out, the exact number and make-up of the types wagons mustered for Braddock's campaign is unknown. There is no doubt conestoga wagons, invented in Pennsylvania in the 1730s, made up some part of the supply column. State of the art for the era, conestoga wagons became icons of the American frontier for their multiple ton capacity, wide wheels and ruggedness. Other transports such as tumbrels and powder wagons supplemented the carrying load for Braddock.
For my FIW transports I've gone with a number of models from Perry Miniatures. Cast in metal and resin, these hefty models are cast with great detail and each are accompanied by civilians who provided the skill needed for the campaign. With five wagons completed, I have plenty of transports ready to represent Braddock's or other FIW era armies heading into the wilds of the North American wilderness.
Conestoga wagon by Perry Miniatures
Two horse lumber with six pound gun by Perry Miniatures
Four wheeled ammunition wagon by Perry Miniatures
Two wheeled tumbrel by Perry Miniatures
Two wheeled powder wagon by Perry Miniatures
Tagged 28mm, Battle of the Monongahela, Benjamin Franklin, Braddock Expedition, British, British Colonialism, coehorn, conestoga wagon, Conestoga Wagons In Braddock's Campaign 1755, Don H. Berkebile, Edward Braddock, Fort Duquesne, French and Indian War, George Washington, howitzer, John Kennedy Lacock, miniatures, Ohio Country, painting, painting guide, Pennsylvania, Perry Miniatures, scale modelling, Smithsonian Institution, tumbrel, wagon
French and Indian War: Colonel George Washington from Eureka Miniatures
One of the remarkable things about history is how individuals taking part in small events can carry weight across generations and around the world. George Washington was one of these people over and over again throughout his life. Washington wanted nothing more than to rise through the ranks of the British military, earning glory and status as part of what had become the most powerful colonial force of the 18th-century. Three formative events occurred for Washington in 1754 and 1755 as a British Colonial officer on the rise, and his fate would become wrapped up in what would become the French and Indian War.
"Death of Jumonville"
Art and Picture Collection, The New York Public Library. (1859).
In the spring of 1754, a newly-promoted 21-year-old Lt. Col. Washington in command of the Virginia Regiment was sent into the Ohio Country of Western Pennsylvania to provide assistance to British fort and road construction. Accompanied by Mingo leader Tanacharison (also known as "The Half King"), a dozen Indians and 40 Virginians, Washington encountered a French-Canadian scouting party on May 28, 1754. Washington's ambush of the French in what would become known as the Battle of Jumonville Glen quickly devolved into The Half King's surprise killing of the French Canadian commander Joseph Coulon de Jumonville. Although a victory for Washington, the affair rattled the young officer. The event also escalated hostilities between the French and British in North America, contributing directly to the beginning of the FIW.
"The Night Council at Fort Necessity"
Anticipating French retribution, Washington and his Virginians fell back to a nearby meadow and began work on a hasty stockade fort. On July 3, some 600 French, French-Canadians and French-allied Indians attacked at the Battle of Fort Necessity. Outnumbered with just 400 men, Washington surrendered at day's end after a rainy, muddy and bloody fight. In signing the terms with the French, Washington may have inadvertently admitted to the murder of Jumonville. Again, Washington's stature in the British military was used as propaganda in France to further stoke the fires of war in the American Colonies.
"The Fall of Braddock"
Painted by C. Schuessele, engraved by J.B. Allen, Virtue, Emmins & Co., New York. (1859)
With the war amping up, British Major General Edward Braddock arrived in the colonies in 1755 and set about a campaign deep into the Ohio Country to attempt again to oust the French. Beginning in May of that year, the ambitious campaign began with Washington at his mentor Braddock's side leading over 2000 soldiers and ten cannon into the wilderness. The troubled and often stalled campaign finally arrived near their destination of Fort Duquesne (at present-day Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania) on July 9, 1755. In the chaotic ambush, hundreds of Indians and French set upon the British advance column. In the ensuing battle Braddock was shot and eventually succumbed. Washington was devastated by the loss of his role model in another emotional loss that would weigh in him for years.
These events in the early career would go on to effect Washington for the rest of his life. His experience in the war and his rise within and eventual rejection by the British military system cannot be understated for how they molded Washington as the leader of the American Revolution and President of the United States.
Needless to say, if you're going to wargame the FIW period, you need a little Colonel Washington on the table. For mine, I turned to Eureka Miniatures. For about $10 they offer a metal cast vignette of Washington dismounted holding the reins of his horse and two of his beloved greyhounds standing faithfully nearby.
Despite the charm of the four-piece set, I really wanted to model Washington with his boots on the ground. I'll save the horse and dogs for some future project, and glued a spare musket to Washington's extended hand.
For a painting guide, I used the iconic portrait painted by Charles Wilson Peale in 1772. Although painted after the FIW, the image depicts Washington as a proud British Colonial officer of the war years dressed in his Virginia Regiment uniform.
With Washington, I have the charismatic leader from his early career ready to command forces on the tabletop.
Tagged 28mm, Battle of Fort Necessity, Battle of the Monongahela, Braddock Expedition, British Colonialism, Edward Braddock, Eureka Miniatures, Fort Necessity, French and Indian War, French Colonialism, French-Canadian, George Washington, Joseph Coulon de Jumonville, Jumonville Glen, Mingo, miniatures, Ohio Country, painting, painting guide, Redcoats, scale modelling, Tanacharison, The Half King, Virginia Militia, Virginia Regiment
French and Indian War: Building Fort Necessity in 28mm
Twenty-three years ago I found myself interning for a summer in southwestern Pennsylvania. While researching and writing National Register of Historic Places historic district nominations for three towns along Route 40 (The National Road) I found myself driving past Fort Necessity National Battlefield countless times. I wound up visiting and revisiting the site numerous times that summer, and I was fortunate to return to the site a couple summers ago (photo from that visit above).
Fort Necessity holds a particular place in my heart as a site marking a military loss and a long-misinterpreted oddball fortification. This is American history at its small and messy best. And so, with a big current interest in modeling and wargaming the French and Indian War at the 28mm scale, I needed to build Fort Necessity.
Mid-20th-century archeology formed the basis for my fort
In building my fort in 28mm, I relied heavily on the historic and archeological work from J.C. Harrington's New Light On Washington's Fort Necessity. The report is available for free and makes for some fairly detailed reading on the campaign leading up to the construction of the stockade and battle. The Battle of Fort Necessity on July 3, 1754 is notable for being a foundational experience for a young George Washington commanding British Colonial forces. The defense in an open field was accomplished with a simple "Fort of Necessity" of split upright logs and a small central storage building. The battle was overly one-sided with the French Canadians and their Indian allies dealing a loss to Washington. The hastily-built stockade, having served its one-time purpose, was burned to the ground at a later date.
Scale drawing of the fort as based on archeology of the 1950s
From there, the site passed through a number of unremarkable ownerships over the centuries until the National Park Service took over the site in 1933. First-hand accounts and contemporaneous documentation of the battle site and fort is minimal. The NPS recreated a fort in a vaguely diamond-shape, erroneously interpreting the remains of earthen ramparts as firing steps inside the stockade. Subsequent investigations of the site in the late 1950s revealed a round shape for the stockade, and the NPS built a new version of the fort in the 1970s. Visitors to the site today see the fort in a much closer approximation to what the original must have been like some 260 years ago.
Timbers were split lengthwise with the flat side pointed outward. This is thought to have been done largely as a time saver as only half the number of trees had to be felled when building the fort. Live musket tests at the site in the video above demonstrate how little protection the logs would have provided with hundreds of French and Indians firing from the surrounding woods. Standing in the stockade under fire would have been a mix of smoke, splinters and metal ripping through the air.
Scaled drawings for the fort construction
I used the scale drawings from the report to create a scaled building plan. With the fort estimated at 53′ in diameter, I converted the size to about 12″ in diameter for the model. Going on my own visits to the site, I estimated the palisade height at about 7 1/2′ which I scaled to about 1 1/2″ for the cut timbers. Finally, the small storage house at the center of the fort of about 14′ square in real life was scaled to a 3″ square model size.
Twigs being cut and split into scale timbers
With all this research and inspiration in my head, I spent a sunny afternoon collecting fallen twigs in a nearby park. I cut selected twigs into 1 1/2″ pieces and split them lengthwise with a sharp knife. Once cut and split, one end of each was clipped to a point using small hobby cutters.
The stockade goes up six inches at a time
The base of the fort consisted of a rigid plastic circle I found discarded on the street. Using a pencil, I traced the outline of a 12″ circle toward the outer edge of the base. Working about six inches at a time, I applied a heavy bead of construction adhesive along the line and stuck my cut timbers side by side in the glue.
Superglue adds strength to the wall
Although the adhesive eventually dries very hard, it does cure a bit slowly. This allowed me to wiggle and straighten the wall pieces as I went along. When a section began to firm up, I spread a small amount of superglue between each timber. Once dry, the whole wall was nice and rigid. I continued this process around the whole fort, leaving a 1 1/2″ gap for the door with a solid round timber on each side.
Woodworker's putty forms the ground around the stockade
As sections of the wall were completed, I filled in the ground. I used woodworkers putty to slope up gently to the wall on either side and cover the bead of adhesive holding the wall in place. I made sure to maintain an irregular texture with the putty to add some realism to the ground surrounding the fort.
The full fort built and ready for some ground cover
When dry, I covered the ground in a thick layer of brown paint and ground cover. I left the gate area muddy, dry-brushing some lighter browns over the dark basecoat. With everything dry, I soaked the whole fort in some heavy coats of sprayed matte finish.
The door comes together using more split timbers
For the stockade door, I split small timbers into boards flat on both sides. Cross pieces on the back held the boards together, and a final bead of superglue between each board firmed the door up. To make the door functional, I cut two small pieces of leathery cloth into thin hinges and glued them to the door and a round post to one side.
Logs are glued up on the cardboard base
For the small interior storage building, I began with thin cardboard cut to 3″ on a side and tapering from 1 1/2″ at the front to 1″ at the back. A small door opening 1″ across was cut at the front.
The log walls are completed
The building's walls were made inside and out with logs glued over one another. I cut alternating lengths to provide joint overlaps at the corners to approximate actual speculated construction of the period.
The roof is laid out and completed
For the removable roof, another piece of cardboard cut about 3 1/2″ square was laid on top. Beams were laid out and then the roof was covered with roughly cut thin pieces of leather to represent skins used to cover the roof. Finally, a few random poles were glued on top to hold everything in place.
Colonel George Washington inspects the completed Fort Necessity
With the build completed over just a couple days, I had a fairly good model of Fort Necessity built at a 28mm tabletop wargaming scale. My plan is to use the new model in a recreation of the battle at the upcoming Fire In The East NJ Con this coming June. I'll have another post on the scenario as I playtest it in the coming month.
Tagged 28mm, Battle of Fort Necessity, Fire In The East, Fort Necessity, French and Indian War, George Washington, J.C. Harrington, National Park Service, New Light On Washington's Fort Necessity, NJCon, scale modelling
French and Indian War: Virginia Provincials from Galloping Major Wargames
With French eyes on the contested Ohio Country and Western Virginia, in 1754 British Colonial Governor Robert Dinwiddie called for the raising of provincial infantry to protect the frontier. Commanded by Colonel Joshua Fry and a young Lieutenant Colonel George Washington, the Virginians would be present at the very start of the French and Indian War at an encounter gone badly at Jumonville Glen in Western Pennsylvania in May 1754. Washington's eventual promotion to Colonel commanding the Virginians in 1755 during disastrous experiences at Fort Necessity and with the Braddock Expedition would shape his future leadership both on and off the battlefield.
I was fortunate to be recently gifted fifteen Provincial figures from Galloping Major Wargamers. These excellent sculpts are on the bigger side of the 28mm miniature spectrum, representing a classic "true 28mm" with stocky, detailed and well-posed figures. The models are equipped so as to represent a variety of the Provincial forces in the British colonies during the era, allowing for a lot of flexibility for painters and gamers.
Charles Willson Peale. George Washington in the Uniform of a British Colonial Colonel. 1772. Oil on canvas. Lee Chapel & Museum, Washington & Lee University.
The challenge in painting models of the FIW period can be in choosing what uniforms to base color schemes on. From my research I was able to tell the Virginia Provincials went through two distinct uniform designs. The first, from about 1754-1755, featured a boldly in red — red coats with red cuffs and turnbacks, red waistcoats and red breeches. The later uniform adopted in 1756 through the end of the conflict featured a dark blue coat with red cuffs and turnbacks, red waistcoats and blue breeches. The 1772 portrait of Washington by Charles Willson Peale captures a heroic depiction of this later uniform style. In reality, both uniforms probably overlapped in use and at times the undersupplied provincial units would have resorted to using whatever equipment and clothing was available.
I chose to paint my provincials in the later blue coats so as to make them stand out from the other allied British redcoats on the gaming table. To my eye, the later uniforms somehow look "more American" as the Virginians exited the war already sowing the seeds of the Revolution against British Crown rule to come over the next two decades.
As stated above, these Galloping Major castings feature some great personality. The command figures, one with a sword drawn behind his back and the other with his pistol at the ready, really carry a lot of presence on the table. The drummer stands resting as is catching his breath before the next command beat through his drum. Even each line figure, either loading or firing, has slight tweaks to their pose or equipment to show each miniature as an individual within the Virginia Provincial Regiment.
Tagged 28mm, Battle of the Monongahela, Braddock Expedition, British Colonialism, Charles Willson Peale, Edward Braddock, Fort Necessity, French and Indian War, Galloping Major Wargames, George Washington, Jumonville Glen, painting, Provincials, Robert Dinwiddie, scale mode, Virginia, Virginia Regiment
Boardgames of the French and Indian War
To understand the founding of the United States, you have to understand the American Revolution, and to understand the American Revolution, you need to understand the French and Indian War. As I've learned more about these wars in my adult life, I'm increasingly surprised the FIW gets such short shrift in American education and the general cultural conversations of the country's history.
Major campaigns and battles of the French and Indian War, 1754-1763
As I've written about previously, I've spent a lot of time touring many sites where the French and British vied for control of the continent in the mid-18th-century. In that era the French held much of the country west and north of the Alleghenies while the British possessed the eastern regions of the coast. As an extension of the Seven Years War in Europe and around the globe, the French and British empires fought over territory in America during the FIW and pulled numerous native Indian tribes into complicated alliances along the way. The clash of cultures and motives among Europeans and native peoples carried ripple effects for years to come and old grudges from the period led directly to the American Revolution some two decades later.
Some of my recent reading on the French and Indian War
My time spent touring various sites around the company has been supplemented by a stack of books. Fred Anderson's Crucible of War (2001) weighs in at over 900 pages and provides a super comprehensive treatment of the war in depth. The French and Indian War (2006) by Walter Borneman provides a similar overview with detail stripped way back into a more historical narrative. For a focus on how Indian peoples shaped the 18th-century European settlement and wars for the continent, Peter Silver's Our Savage Neighbors (2007) gives some fantastic insights which are usually breezed over in most histories. Finally, I've recently picked up a copy of Braddock's Defeat (2015) by David Preston. This book provides a great bridge story on how a key campaign on the western frontier of Pennsylvania in 1755 echoed through the events of the FIW into the American Revolution and history beyond.
With many miles traveled and pages read, getting to play boardgames of the FIW — both tactically and strategically — has provided me the opportunity to roll up my sleeves and experience the wilderness roads, forts, settlements and battlefields of this fascinating period.
Wilderness War (GMT Games)
My longtime favorite of FIW games is GMT's Wilderness War from 2001. Designed by Volko Ruhnke, WW is not only the standout game of the period but also ranks among the best of modern wargames depicting any period. The game's gorgeous hardbound game board defines the game as the war was fought amid the geography of the Northeast with point-to-point connections between major landmarks, cities, settlements and forts.
Sample strategy cards from GMT's Wilderness War
Strategy cards featuring both abstracted military actions like recruiting troops and militia, building siege works or conducting campaigns and period-specific events and personalities drive the game. Alternatively cards are played for points to activate leaders, forces stacked with a leader or individual units. Points may also be spent to construct stockades and forts to defend against attack a provide a safe haven during wintering periods.
Wilderness War by GMT Games
For me, the three key strategies to WW are in defending the important interior frontier, remaining exceedingly mindful of troop positions as winter seasons approach and playing a long game of carefully-planned campaigns. All of these factors are incredibly well factored into a game which balances abstraction with historic events, all of which can be experienced with a solid few hours of play.
The French and Indian War (Decision Games)
For another grand strategic experience of the FIW, Strategy & Tactics magazine issue #231 from Nov/Dec 2005 by Decision Games offers up a full campaign level game with The French and Indian War. Traditional wargamers will feel right at home with this hefty game although it does offer some unique elements.
S&T's FIW map and counters organized in tray
Right off the bat, experienced gamers will notice a departure with the game map laid out on a square grid instead of the more typical hex style. Past the square grid, the map itself is gorgeous with well-delineated terrain, clear colonial control boundaries and abstracted French and British home country holding areas across the Atlantic in Europe. Charts and tables for terrain effects, supply points, balance of power and colonial control displayed right around the board. The tiny cardboard playing chits likewise feature some simple and colorful art clearly differentiating units types and nationalities. In all, there's a lot to love visually in this magazine game.
Gameplay goes a long way toward representing the build up of tensions and eventual outbreak of war between the French and British in North America. Yearly turns between 1758 and 1762 are split into four seasons each, and the results of battles occupation of cities and towns shifts the Balance of Power track which drives income, initiative, random events and negotiating strength. The relatively weak and poor British at the start of the game quickly gain strength as the Seven Years War breaks out and men, money and ships begin to arrive from Europe. For the French, they have to take some early victories and then hold key cities like Quebec through the late game. Victory in one of the three included scenarios is determined by a straight points system accumulated during the game largely by capturing cities and settlements.
Aside from the game rules themselves, the magazine holds over 20 pages of background on the FIW, major battles and quick bios on some of the conflict's major personalities. This plus some nice maps and a short bibliography makes for a great package for those wanting a relatively comprehensive experience of the war. Being a magazine game, there are a couple discrepancies in the rules here and there, but the design and heft of the game is entirely satisfying.
Hold The Line: French and Indian War (Worthington Publishing)
The 2008 French and Indian War Expansion Set for the popular Hold The Line series by Worthington Publishing downshifts into a more tactical presentation of the war without sacrificing the flavor of the era.
Scenario set-up for the Battle of Snowshoes for the HTL FIW expansion
Adding to the HTL base game components, the FIW expansion comes with Indian, Ranger and French unit tiles to be played with using the British and Militia pieces in the original. Additional terrain hex tiles are included to represent lakes, boats forts and Indian villages, all of which played important roles in the wilderness battleground of the FIW. Five historic scenarios round out gameplay which will be any lover of the original HTL.
The 2016 remastered HTL French and Indian War game
The HTL series has been remastered in 2016 with a successfully funded recent Kickstarter campaign. The new version has some serious upgrades with plastic miniatures from the Plastic Soldier Company and redesigned board and tile artwork. For both the American Revolution and FIW sets there were a bunch of extra scenarios and options to buy add-on miniatures. The new game looks fantastic and breathes new life into an already immensely enjoyable game on the era of 18th-century American colonial conflict.
A Few Acres of Snow (Treefrog Games)
A Few Acres of Snow, designed by Martin Wallace and published in 2011 by Treefrog Games, is my other go-to game on the period. While not strictly a game confined to the FIW, AFAOS takes two players through the broader French-British colonial period in North America.
Playable in just over an hour, AFAOS is an area control deck-building game where British and French players draft cards into and out of their hands in order to move, settle, construct, skirmish and conduct sieges. Managing cards gives the game a campaign feel as several turns may be taken up getting all the right cards in place before executing a plan. The British player generally has more financial and naval strength while the French are much more agile and open to trade opportunities in the wilderness interior. Essentially, the game captures the overall character of the opposing forces and provides for a ton of strategic play within a simple, gorgeous design.
A recent game of A Few Acres of Snow by Treefrog Games
The major downside to AFAOS that many critics will bring up is a broken mechanic within the game where one side can all but sew up a victory through a specific series of opening moves. I'm not going to provide any details since players agreeing to play fairly and ignoring this one issue with an otherwise perfect and wildly popular game is how I choose to play the game. The look and flow of AFAOS makes it what I consider to be the best at introducing even inexperienced gamers to the period.
Struggle For New France (Schutze Games)
I picked up a copy of 2013's Struggle For New France designed by Bill Molyneaux and published by Schutze Games in a charity auction at HMGS Fall In! 2015. It's a super simple beginner's game playable in about 90 minutes with event cards and point to point movement. With just a few pages of rules, including a solo game option, SFNF is a lean game designed for swift play while still reflecting the basic character of the war.
Set-up for a play through Struggle For New France by Schutze Games
The relatively inexpensive game has a compact yet beautiful 11″ x 17″ color map, over 60 cards and over 175 small printed wooden tiles. Play is quick with a hand of five cards for each player, of which one can be played per season. In a season, both sides move and battle using standardized movement for regulars and Indians plus bonuses for having a leader stacked with a force. Forts, fortresses and Indian villages give defensive modifiers in battle along with leaders present and any cards added to the battle modifiers. Areas won or lost provide victory points, all tracked on either side of the map. After four seasons of play, cards are refreshed and the next turn year begins. Playing from the entire course of the war, British win at 50 points and taking Quebec, Montreal and Louisburg, and the French win with 45 points. While by no means as rich an experience as the offerings from GMT and Decision Games, SFNF achieves a remarkable amount in strategic experience of the FIW.
French & Indian War Battle Collection (Two Buck Games)
Another charity auction win at Fall In last year was 2014's French & Indian War Battle Collection by Two Buck Games. The game makes a nice companion to SFNF and is also designed by Molyneaux. Like SFNF, this is an easy game but with a pack of twelve major battles and engagements of the war instead of a grand campaign style of play. Each scenario is playable in anywhere from well under an hour to maybe two hours maximum. While not big on design, the game does allow a player to get down to the tactical level in some very small engagements including some personal favorites like Jumonville Glen, Fort Necessity and the Mary Jeminson Raid.
The Fort Necessity scenario from The French & Indian War Battle Collection
A brief set of rules is supplemented with specific scenario outlines for set-up and play. Maps for each scenario are printed front and back on card stock, and 88 counters come with generic information to make for flexible use representing a variety of regular and irregular French, British and Indian units at each battle or skirmish. As this is a tactical game, units move just one hex and may only by stacked alone or with an officer. Leaders die easily in combat, Indians are dangerously flexible on the attack and terrain can play a big role in a game's outcome. All these factors make planning an attack or defense finicky down at the ground level and FIBWBC goes a long way toward mimicking the feel of up-close engagements during the period.
Empires In America (Victory Point Games)
My latest addition to my FIW games is the recent second edition reprint of Empires In America from the States of Siege series by Victory Point Games. This one stands apart from the others here as a purely solo game with the player's French and Indian allies pitted against the game's British and their allied Indian forces.
My first try at the re-issue of Empires In America by Victory Point Games
It took me a few times to get a handle on the single player flow of the game and I was beaten by the non-player AI in my first two games. Having played through it about a half dozen times now, I've finally got the hang of it with quick play and a fairly rich experience. Leaders wind up being key in winning the game much as leadership could make the difference during battles during the war.
Photo from my visit to Fort Necessity in the summer of 2014
So where to start with the French and Indian War?
The 21st-century has already given us a bunch of fantastic games to take us back to the forest, rivers and battles of the French and Indian War of some 260 years ago. Despite having a half-dozen of the recent FIW games under my belt, there area always more games to play. Wilderness Empires, also by Worthington Publishing, puts the war in a block game format with beautifully-illustrated event cards and game board. Columbia Games re-released its 1972 classic block game of Quebec 1759 in 2009, and the game still stands as probably the best way to experience this pivotal siege of the war.
For me, Wilderness War sits at the top of the list for its design and depth, not only for the FIW but among all the games I play. A Few Acres of Snow, Empires In America and Hold The Line likewise win big design points for me, and their speed of play sacrifices nothing in telling the story of the period. A gamer wishing to get into the FIW with a couple very different yet always rewarding gaming sessions could hardly do better by starting with these games.
Posted in French and Indian War, General Gaming, New Game Weekend
Tagged A Few Acres of Snow, Bill Molyneaux, board games, Braddock's Defeat, British Colonialism, Columbia Games, Crucible of War, David Preston, Decision Games, Edward Braddock, Empires In America, Fort Necessity, Fort Niagara, Fred Anderson, French & Indian War Battle Collection, French and Indian War, French Colonialism, George Washington, GMT Games, Hold The Line, Iroquois, Jumonville Glenn, Kickstarter, Mary Jeminson, Our Savage Neighbors, Peter Silver, Plastic Soldier Company, Quebec 1759, Schutze Games, Seven Years War, States of Siege, Struggle For New France, Treefrog Games, Two Buck Games, Victory Point Games, Volko Ruhnke, Walter Borneman, Wilderness Empires, Wilderness War, Worthington Games, Worthington Publishing
Boardgames of the American Revolution, Part II
I've been continuing to scratch a serious American War of Independence itch for months now. Last summer I took a first pass at some of my favorite games of the period in Boardgames of the American Revolution, Part I. Since then, gamers have also been blessed with the release of Liberty Or Death: The American Insurrection, and it has fast become one of my all-time favorites among all the games I've played.
Away from the tabletop, I've been swept up in the fervor of Hamilton: The Musical and have been fortunate to catch the show twice on its record-setting Broadway run here in NYC. I've also recently revisited 1776 from 1969 and it's 1972 movie adaptation. As luck would have it a new production will run for one weekend in early April at City Center here in the city, and yes, I've already got my tickets. A side note of Broadway trivia is that 1776's Tony Award-winning Broadway debut was in the same theater where Hamilton is currently running, and it too seems destined to sweep the awards in June.
But, back to games.
In this Part II, I take a look at more games of the Revolution I've managed to acquire and/or play in the past six months. Like the last time, this is not meant to be a comprehensive list. Despite my best efforts there are a lot more games I have yet to touch. What this round presents is again a variety in scope, mechanics and time commitment for gaming the Revolution.
We The People (Avalon Hill)
Avalon Hill's We The People from 1994 is a landmark in the history of modern wargaming. In taking on the well-worn American Revolution, designer Mark Herman created a number of innovations which have provided the basis for some of the most successful games of the past two decades.
Breaking from the standard hex maps of most prior wargames, WTP's playing board of the British colonies of North America is abstracted into a series of connected key politically important locations like Long Island, Boston, Fort Niagara and Charleston. While battles play a part in controlling these areas, it is the shifts in political control that are tracked and lead to victory.
Combat in WTP was also stripped down in a few ways. Basic troop units mark the size of forces, but their quality is modified through the presence of leaders. When forces choose to clash in the game, battle cards are used to resolve various battlefield actions steeped in the terminology and effects of 18th-century warfare.
Lastly, the newly-introduced card driven game (CDG) mechanic propel the game's action through the play of cards, rather than the more traditional roll of dice. With each hand of cards, players have the option of using them to play historically significant events which have varying results for each side of the conflict. Long term planning and success within the game often comes down to having the right cards at the right time.
An old copy of WTP sits on a shelf of club games at Metropolitan Wargamers in Brooklyn, NY, and I recently blew the dust off it for a play. Despite its status at the time of release, I honestly don't find myself getting this one on the table very often. That said, I feel this game's presence in so many games I play on a regular basis, and so its true game-changing effects on the hobby reverberate to this day.
Washington's War (GMT Games)
Building on the success of WTP, Herman revisited his game of the Revolution in 2010 with Washington's War from GMT Games. Players familiar with WTP found much similarity with Herman's original depiction of the period but with a few significant changes.
A recent game of Washington's War by GMT Games
The CDG mechanic was tweaked to allow for more flexible use of cards and the ability to 'buy back' discarded cards. WW also abandoned the battle cards for a dice-off combat resolution, making combat a quicker and more elegant part of the game. I feel the biggest change was in the more asymmetric representation of how the British and Colonial sides each play. The experienced troops of the King are strong on the coasts with their dominant naval power, and the Americans fair better inland but vie with keeping their militia in the action. Generals remain important to both sides, and the French entry to the war plays out in a way that truly captures the historical impact it had.
All the evolutions from WTP make the more recent game a quicker affair, with WW games running at about 90 minutes as opposed to the two hours or so to play WTP. The upgrades to the design and quality of the board, cards and playing pieces all brought the War of Independence into the 21st-century.
Hold The Line (Worthington Publishing)
In 2008 Worthington Publishing released Hold The Line, a flexible game of the Revolution with a wide appeal from beginners to experienced gamers. Building on the success of their Clash For A Continent: Battles Of the American Revolution and French & Indian War game from three years before, HTL presents a blank hexagonal hardback game board which can be laid out with dozens of included double-sided terrain tiles representing streams, bridges, hills, forests, towns, fences and entrenchments. Terrain has varying effects on line of sight and movement within the game.
Playing pieces from Hold The Line
Rectangular and square cardboard tiles represent British and Colonial elite, militia, regular and light infantry, dragoons, artillery and generic commanders. The chunky tiles are double-sided to mark losses as game battles unfold. Each turn players roll for random action points which may be spent to move, rally or fire, allowing for each commander to make choices in utilizing their troops. Additionally, the quality of troops and commander presence modify movement and fire ranges. For a simple series of rules, there's a lot of game in HTL as even the most careful planning by one side over a series of turns can result in a foiled plan if subsequent action point rolls don't provide enough actions to carry out a planned move or attack.
Hold The Line Battle of Monmouth morning scenario
HTL comes with thirteen scenarios for historic battles, each with their own page of historic background, rules and guide to set up. Additional optional rules allow for specific historic leaders, rally rules and morale modifications.Once you've played through the included scenarios, numerous additional battle scenarios can be found online from fans of the game. Within a simple design, flexible scenarios and a short set of rules, it's easy to see why this currently out of print game is a favorite.
Battles of the American Revolution (GMT Games)
Between 1998 and 2013, GMT Games released a series of standalone games of the Battles of The American Revolution. Designed by Mark Miklos, each is a more traditional hex and counter game running three to six hours to play. For those looking to dig into eight key engagements of the War of Independence, the games offer nuances to reflect the historic events and personalities which shaped each battle wrapped in a beautiful modern design.
In late 2015 GMT announced the re-release of the first three games in the series — Saratoga, Brandywine and Guilford — as a tri-pack available through their P500 pre-order program. Since I have never played any of the games from the series, I jumped at the chance to get in on the deal of $45 for three games. The games will get upgrades to mounted maps and a unified rulebook, and additional expansions and tweaks to components a offered in reprints over the years will also be included.
The Revolution Continues…
Having spent the better part of 12 months playing through new and old games of the American Revolution, I find myself definitely leaning toward the more modern games. In order of personal preference, here's my Top 10:
Liberty Or Death: The American Insurrection (GMT Games)
1775: Rebellion (Academy Games)
Liberty: The American Revolution 1775-83 (Columbia Games)
New York 1776 (Worthington Publishing)
Trenton 1776 (Worthington Publishing)
The American Revolution 1775-1783 (SPI)
1776 (Avalon Hill)
The main factors in consideration of the above for me are look, mechanic and importantly, time commitment. Some of the older games from SPI and Avalon Hill just require too much time for me at this stage in my life, and getting a quick game in with my fellow club members or my kids is a big determinant on what gets to the table these days.
What this two-part exercise has done for me is expose how such a diverse gaming experience can be pulled out of one signature conflict with a mix of maps, cardboard and cards. Playing through a span of forty years of American Revolution games, I can only wonder where some designer takes things next. Having gamed my way through the War of Independence, I've been spurred on to take a step backward in time to the French and Indian War and see what is revealed on the table next.
Posted in American Revolution, New Game Weekend
Tagged 1775: Rebellion, 1776, American Revolution, American War of Independence, Avalon Hill, Battles of the American Revolution, board games, Brandywine, card driven game, CDG, Clash For a Continent, George Washington, GMT Games, Guilford, Hamilton, Hold The Line, Liberty, Liberty Or Death, Mark Herman, Mark Miklos, Metropolitan Wargamers, New York 1776, P500, Saratoga, Trenton 1776, wargaming, Washington's War, We The People, Worthington Publishing
Retro Gaming The 70s & 80s: Crossbows and Catapults


Get your farm questions answered! Get a glimpse into the role that we all play in the production of food and the integration of people, animals and the land. Learn about land stewardship practices and the role of agriculture in education, cultural enrichment, and scientific inquiry.
Public tours are given by appointment and are approximately 50 minutes long. Reservations are required with at least one week's notice. Group tours can be arranged — cost varies, please inquire.
There is no charge for farm tours, though donations to support place-based education programs are gladly accepted.
Please email us to schedule a tour.


text:
Carlyle to pay $20 million for role in pension fund scandal
Arleen Jacobius and Christine Williamson
The Carlyle Group will pay $20 million for its part in the pay-to-play scandal involving the $122 billion New York State Common Retirement Fund, Albany, New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo said today in a conference call.
The private equity firm also agreed to limit employee campaign contributions and stop hiring politically connected marketers and placement agents for its investment funds.
Carlyle was one of a number of firms that paid fees to Henry "Hank" Morris, a political consultant and fundraiser for Alan Hevesi, the former New York state comptroller, Mr. Cuomo said. Carlyle employees contributed about $78,000 to Mr. Hevesi's campaign for comptroller in 2005 and 2006, Mr. Cuomo revealed.
Mr. Morris was indicted in New York state Supreme Court and named in a securities fraud civil lawsuit brought by the SEC. Mr. Morris has pleaded not guilty to the criminal charges. Neither Carlyle nor Mr. Hevesi has been charged in either case.
Mr. Cuomo also said Carlyle agreed to be the first investment manager to sign a code of conduct limiting employee campaign contributions and also placing restrictions on the firm's use of placement agents. "The ultimate goal" is to get the code enacted as a federal or state regulation or law, Mr. Cuomo said.
The code is designed to set a standard for the industry, Mr. Cuomo said. "The SEC can make it a regulation," he said.
Even if the code is not enacted, Mr. Cuomo said he is "creating a race to the top" for investment managers eager to do the right thing, as his office did when it got 30 to 40 student loan providers to sign a code of conduct that bars money mangers from hiring third-party marketers to negotiate commitments from public pension funds. The code also bans investment firms from investing assets for a public pension fund for two years after the firm makes a campaign contribution to a public official who has influence over investment decisions.
"For the past two years, Carlyle has cooperated extensively and voluntarily with the New York attorney general's inquiry into the use of placement agents in regards to the New York Common Retirement Fund," Carlyle said in a statement today. "We are pleased to announce today that we have reached a successful resolution with the attorney general and strongly support his efforts to implement reforms that usher in a new era of transparency and accountability into the pension fund investment process."
In response to the announced resolution with Carlyle and the release of the code of conduct, Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli, sole trustee of the NYSCRF, praised Mr. Cuomo's settlement with Carlyle Group. "The reform process is ongoing. The attorney general's investigation continues to peel away layer upon layer of Hevesi-era abuse and misconduct," Mr. DiNapoli said today in a news release.
Separately, Mr. DiNapoli said in the release that he wrote to SEC Chairwoman Mary L. Schapiro and asked the SEC to return to the fund any settlements it wins in the agency's fraud litigation relating to the NYSCRF alleged pay-to-play scheme

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


AIDA64 (Premium) - Hardware and software utility for devices based on Android. Based on the extensive knowledge of hardware AIDA64 application windows, AIDA64 for Android is capable of displaying a variety of diagnostic information for the phone.
On our site you can easily download AIDA64 (Premium) .apk! All without registration and send SMS!


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Quark Engine
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The best power IR engine in the universe!

List of all members

qe::KPipeline Class Reference

Inheritance diagram for qe::KPipeline:

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 Public Member Functions inherited from qe::KObject

 	KObject ()

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void 	set_name (const std::string &name)

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void 	set_name (const char *name)

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qe

KPipeline

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text:
Chicago special prosecutor's career nearly…
Chicago special prosecutor's career nearly came to a premature end
By Erin Gordon
December 1, 2017, 12:25 am CST
Photo of Patricia Brown Holmes by Wayne Slezak
Patricia Brown Holmes was on top of the world. It was 1999, and she was living a dream that most attorneys never come close to experiencing. Less than two years prior, Holmes, at the age of 36, had become the youngest African-American woman to serve as an associate judge on the Circuit Court of Cook County. "Being a judge is considered the top of the profession," she says. "I wanted to be at the top of the profession. I wanted that ring."
Then she was told she might have only six months to live.
Diagnosed with lymphoma, her prognosis was grave. She could have drawn on her training as a lawyer to use what was left of her time to get her affairs in order. Instead, she drew on her other lawyerly skills and decided to fight.
"I tend to be tenacious and determined," Holmes explains when recalling her death-defying recovery. "I'm the person you want to have around in an emergency because I'm not paralyzed. I tend to assess the circumstances quickly and accurately and then take appropriate action. But I'm constantly reassessing, listening and looking for new clues that may require a change in direction. I think those skills helped me survive cancer. I didn't accept the prognosis. I assessed the situation and found ways to fight."
Holmes credits her Type A personality and an experimental white blood-cell enhancer with saving her life. Since that challenge, she has served as president of the Chicago Bar Association and helped found the law firm of Riley Safer Holmes & Cancila.
Then, in July 2016, Holmes was appointed special prosecutor to investigate whether Chicago police officers involved with the highly charged 2014 fatal shooting of Laquan McDonald lied about another officer's misconduct.
Colleagues say it's no surprise that she got such an important and high-profile job. "She has unfailing judgment," says Ronald Safer, who worked with Holmes at the U.S. attorney's office and has been her law partner since 2005, first at Schiff Hardin and then at Riley Safer. Holmes is "brilliant," adds Robert Riley, another partner, "but she also has tremendous common sense. ... Her voice is measured and insightful."
Some of those directly involved in the McDonald case concur. Locke Bowman, a civil rights lawyer and professor at Northwestern Pritzker School of Law who petitioned for a special prosecutor in the case, says he was pleased with Holmes' appointment. "She gets the issues and she's unafraid to do the right thing. Her performance in office [so far] has confirmed our confidence in her."
Although Holmes herself cannot comment on the McDonald matter, she says her team is moving the investigation forward "as expeditiously as possible, giving it the time, attention and care it deserves."
"I can say I am approaching this case not as an issue of public policy but as a set of specific facts that need to be discovered, examined and carefully weighed," she says.
This past summer, Holmes secured indictments for conspiracy, official misconduct and obstruction of justice against three police officers and successfully moved to remove the judge initially assigned to the case, whom some considered pro-police in similar excessive-force cases.
"The indictment makes clear that it is unacceptable to obey an unofficial code of silence," Holmes said at the time. In late August, she added that the grand jury was looking at more individuals and weighing further indictments.
It's not surprising, but her latest job has some serious detractors. "These charges are, in our minds, baseless. Our officers are being made the scapegoats," said Kevin Graham, president of the Fraternal Order of Police, in a statement after the indictment. "How the special prosecutor can construe a 'code of silence' theory defies belief. How can officers be indicted based upon which witnesses they spoke to and which ones they didn't?"
SENSITIVE SCRUTINY
Holmes was one of four candidates recommended for the special prosecutor position after a request by community groups and a member of McDonald's family. That Holmes is getting paid comparatively little for her work on the case is consistent with her values, colleagues say. When asked how much she's getting, Holmes declines to comment, except to say it is less than what she usually charges.
"There's no upside for her," explains Zaldwaynaka "Z" Scott, a Foley & Lardner partner who worked with Holmes at the U.S. attorney's office in Chicago. "She's working at the lowest rate. But this case needed someone who could look at the evidence and work to be fair and honest and not just driven by emotion."
It's not the first time Holmes has been charged with leading a sensitive investigation. In 2011, she was appointed trustee of Burr Oak Cemetery, a historic African-American graveyard in the Chicago suburb of Alsip that declared bankruptcy after a scandal involving a grave desecration and reselling scheme.
It was a grim Halloween story: In 2009, the cemetery, the last resting place of jazz great Dinah Washington and civil rights martyr Emmett Till, was found to be reselling burial plots and either interring caskets above those already buried or removing remains to put new bodies in the plots. Prosecutors described a grisly scene where 1,500 bones of 29 people were strewn on cemetery grounds. A cemetery manager and three employees were convicted in the scandal.
But it was more than a job for Holmes. Her father's grave marker and remains were likely among those removed, Holmes told the Daily Southtown, a suburban Chicago newspaper, when reinterment ceremonies were held in May 2016.
She told the newspaper she went to visit her father's final resting place in Burr Oak, but was unable to find it.
"You figure, well, it has been a couple years—maybe things change. Maybe it looks different," Holmes said then. She ultimately convinced herself that she had forgotten where her father, Andrew Brown, was buried. Then she heard about the grave-reselling scandal.
"I was like 'Oh, my God, I didn't just forget. I was right!"
Because of a reporting error, "You Only Live Once," December, misstated that Patricia Brown Holmes and Zaldwaynaka "Z" Scott worked together on the case of U.S. v. Mohammad. They instead worked together on U.S. v. Emenogha, a multidefendant drug and money-structuring case.
Erin Gordon, a former lawyer, is a legal journalist based in San Francisco.
This article was published in the December 2017 issue of the ABA Journal with the title "You Only Live Once: Chicago attorney and special prosecutor Patricia Holmes has done it all in her career—one that nearly came to a premature end."
Criminal Justice | Prosecutors | Civil Rights | Practice Management | Lawyer Wellness | Careers | Features | Diversity | Career & Practice
Judge accused of using role as charity trustee to donate money to courts, juvenile justice center
BigLaw firm cuts 21 staff members, citing 'excess capacity' and 'misalignment'


text:
El Movimiento Nacionalista Revolucionario de Izquierda-1 (MNRI-1) fue un partido político de Bolivia, que surgió como una escisión del Movimiento Nacionalista Revolucionario de Izquierda (MNRI) para las elecciones generales de 1980.

El MNRI-1 fue formado por un sector campesino, y su candidato presidencial fue Francisco Figueroa y su candidato a vicepresidente fue Marcos Chuquimia. La dupla Figueroa-Chuquimia obtuvo 11696 votes (0,78% de los votos a nivel nacional).

El MNRI-1 desapareció poco después de las elecciones. En diciembre de 1984 había cambiado su nombre a Movimiento de la Alianza Revolucionaria (MAR). MAR se proclamaba a sí mismo como el único partido auténticamente de izquierda en el país, denunciando a la Unidad Democrática y Popular (UDP) como "burguesa".

Referencias

Enlaces externos

Partidos políticos desaparecidos de Bolivia

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


The Arlington Regional Master Naturalists proudly announce that on April 21, 2015, ARMN member Mary McLean was named a recipient of the Bill Thomas Outstanding Park Service Volunteer Award for her work in 2014.
McLean is a steward at Tuckahoe Park in Arlington and her specialty is invasive plants. Since the early 2000s, she has enlisted the help of neighbors, volunteer and school groups, and many others to transform the park and educate them on how to spot a non-native plant species. As a result, Tuckahoe has benefitted from a significant decline in non-native, invasive species, restored health of the native trees, and the return of native shrubs and ground cover.
In addition, McLean has also conducted focused tours and presentations on Tuckahoe Park's underground stream and other ecological wonders to help educate and motivate others to join in the beautification effort. She also has volunteered at and served professionally as the Outdoor Learning Coordinator at Tuckahoe Elementary School. In those roles, she has worked with teachers, volunteers, and students in Tuckahoe Park on restoring habitat, planting natives, controlling erosion, and learning the natural history of the park.
McLean has been an active member of ARMN since its formation in 2008. She helped organize the ARMN advanced education program, served on the ARMN Board shortly after its formation, and also supported the ARMN Working Group on Environmental Education. She has been a long-time volunteer with stream water monitoring. Additionally, McLean currently serves on the board of the Audubon Society of Northern Virginia.
(http://environment.arlingtonva.us/trees/support-trees/bill-thomas-outstanding-park-service-volunteer-award/) was established by Arlington County to pay tribute to lifelong parks volunteer Bill Thomas, and to honor and encourage those residents who demonstrate a passionate dedication and support for Arlington's dynamic programs, natural resources, and public open spaces.
This entry was posted in Education, English Ivy Removal, Events, Focus Service Projects, News, Outreach by howellch. Bookmark the permalink.


Often times we miss out on relationships in life that mean the most to us because we're holding a grudge for other people.
Something happened to us, we vent to the ones close to us, and they tell us how we should feel or what action we should take before we can actually sit down and analyze how much emotional damage it really did. For example, one of my best friends and I recently started speaking again after a 15 month hiatus.
Long story short, not so kind words were exchanged during a not so friendly text discussion about race and colorism. Looking back, the issue was extremely petty, however, we let other friends and family dictate how we should feel or what they would do if they were in the situation so we stopped speaking to each other and created this faux beef that really wasn't there.
When we finally decided to have a conversation all we both ever wanted was an apology and picked up where left off. It could be the opposite, people could for example, want you to reach out to an ex that hurt you. They may think that the problem is not that serious and he/she is the right person for you so you should make up.
Don't you dare! Whether you're being melodramatic or not, it's your decision whether or not you want to speak with someone again. Do not let people close to you push you back into a relationship that seemed amazing on the outside and extremely toxic inside.
He cheated, she lied, your brother took the last of the fruit loops, your best friend is now dating your ex, somebody didn't pay you back, whatever the issue is, do not allow other people (even sometimes parents) to dictate your feelings towards your own issues!
Life is too short to hold grudges, true, but life is also too short to create reactions that aren't genuine to your heart and following the opinions of others. Hold that grudge, secure your block list, and make decisions that are right for you and your heart.


This entry was posted in Mexico, Picture This and tagged Blue Bear, Taxco, Word of the Day by The Adventures of Blue Bear. Bookmark the permalink.
Yeah, so would I. And to think she was parked in one of the scruffier neighborhoods too.


We, at the ALL PROGRESSIVES GRAND ALLIANCE (APGA) NIGERIA, hereby stress that we will not be quiet about our stolen Senate and Federal House of Representative seats across Nigeria by the PDP, and particularly in Anambra state, until they are all returned to their rightful winning candidates at the ALL PROGRESSIVES GRAND ALLIANCE (APGA), Nigeria.
We reiterate, that while we seek to pursue legal resolution to the full extent of the law, and according to the laws of Nigeria, we will however use all known available legal and non-violent methods to stress our case to our discerning electorate and the World-at large, whose mandate to our great party – the APGA, was unjustly stolen.
We, at the ALL PROGRESSIVES GRAND ALLIANCE (APGA) NIGERIA, reiterate that, THIS GROSS ELECTORAL INJUSTICE WILL NOT STAND.
In our neck of the woods, thieves are not tolerated, and are not allowed rest. Stealing is not business as usual. The PDP representa-thieves must also return what they have stolen. They are never allowed and may not have domain. Thieves cannot represent us. That is a desecration of the land. Thieves do not carry any ethos, or understand our ethos. Their unsavory effort will not stand.
We, at the ALL PROGRESSIVES GRAND ALLIANCE (APGA) NIGERIA, pointedly stress again that the PDP thieves must return what they stole. They stole heirloom from the kindred and have committed alu. The land will not rest until firm restitution, according to the laws of the land and kindred, have been made. They cannot be allowed rest with the stolen commodity. THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY SEATS ARE NOT THEIRS, AND CANNOT BECOME THEIRS.
We, at the APGA worked too hard, and cannot allow others to reap the fruits of our labor. Not Ever.
Our Electorate values truth, hardwork and adequate compensation. The PDP thieves value nothing except greed, and have respect for none. We thoroughly loathe their presentation.
Due to their marauding act, the PDP thieves cannot show their face in daylight, but continue to be hiding in darkness due to the sickness of their exercise. They cannot bear the revulsion of the electorate that while they were stealing at home, they lost the big prize outside. Such lily-livered thieves!
This disgrace will not stand. The APGA will continue to use all available resources to make our case and issues known of the impostors purported to have won our Senate and Federal House of Representatives seats across Nigeria. They cannot mount this saddle, or sit pretty. No way! THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY SEATS ARE NOT THEIRS, and must be returned. They can scuttle back to then den of PDP thieves they come from.
We, at the APGA will not rest, until all the seats are returned to their rightful winners at the ALL PROGRESSIVES GRAND ALLIANCE (APGA) NIGERIA.
WE WILL RECLAIM WHAT IS RIGHTFULLY OURS!
ALL PROGRESSIVES GRAND ALLIANCE (APGA).