Civil War Trip Day 2
We visited all the sites around Richmond. Starting at Cold Harbor and Gainesville and working our way south to the Tredegar Iron Works in Downtown Richmond the place where almost half of the confederate cannon were produced. The interesting thing about these sites around Richmond is that they normally overlap two different campaigns; McClellan’s Peninsula campaign in 1862 and Grant’s last campaign in 1864 and 1865. Another interesting aspect to these sites is that they filled with defensive works similar to what we would see in World War One. Most of the works are still visible by their earthen mounds. One cool little thing was that we figured out that Jeb Stuart was mortally wounded just a mile from the hotel and so we found that historic site. Tomorrow we hope to go down the Peninsula and visit some sites there.
Civil War Trip Day 1
My father and I decided to take a whirlwind civil war trip through Virginia mostly centering around Richmond. Since I lived in DC for a couple of years we have seen most the big battles up there. We wanted to hit all the out of the way places that we have heard about but never really seen. We left Sunday afternoon after masses and couple other events and then drove half way and stop in Beckley, West Virginia. Today we woke up and got on the road finishing the drive through the mountains and hitting Appomattox Courthouse, the place of General Lee’s surrender. It was really out of the way and there was not much there beside the Mclean house and basically the whole village that the National Park system acquired over the last hundred years. Kind of cool but really more interesting to have just made it to the place where the war all but came to an end. The road that we then followed into Richmond was basically the route that Lee’s army took on its retreat from Richmond. We stopped for a few other sites. Saylor’s Creek was another small battlefield that was the place of General Ewell’s men surrender. They served as a rear guard for Lee’s army and the loose of 7,000 men was a devastating blow to the Army of Northern Virginia. The other site near Saylor’s Creek is a placed called High Bridge. A Very aptly named bridge that spans about 2,500 feet […]
Zombies
I’ve been working on a zombie game. Zombies are all the rage lately and they are simple and fun to play. Which makes them great games to play with kids who have never seen let alone played a miniature game. So after gathering up some toy cars and making a little terrain and painting up a few DELTA style figures I set up a game last night at youth group. The background had their group of survivors running out of gas on highway. Their way is blocked by an old accident on the road and so they have to run to the other end of the table and pick up the gas and run back while trying not to be killed by the zombie horde. I put a couple of tokens out to “pop” zombies when they come in line of sight and also smattered a few around the board to make things interesting. The other way that zombies “popped” was whenever they fired their weapons. I used an eight sided die for the number of zombies and the top point of the die pointed to the area of the table edge they came in on. The rules were simple, sided die for all rolls and simple to hit number and then a servility roll to see if they took out the target. Characters moved 6” normally but could run. Zombies moved a normal 5” but could not run. Like I said simple. It had to be played in […]