Crimean range.

[FierceKitty]

Mmmm. Like the piccies.

Curious about why everyone's calling for Kenshin. He's always shewn as a monk, and so one of the easiest to produce.

[Shedman]

I don't think parade uniforms lasted that long in the Crimea

Exactly

When I was looking for uniforms for Algeria 1837 there was a marked difference in uniforms between the paintings of battles and the sketches of troops

Gibb's The Thin Red Line depicts the 93rd (Sutherland Highlanders) Regiment in immaculate uniforms but I can't imagine for a minute that they all looked like that at Balaclava

However in the world of wargaming it's more common to see figures in parade uniform rather the outfits the real troops fought in.

Ideally the range would have summer and winter dress but for non-mainstream range that a lot of investment

[Westmarcher]

I have no interest in the Crimean War, per se, but it was, IIRC the first war in which telegraph, railways, steamships and photography were a feature.* I am, however fascinated by old photographs ... so here are a few to get your Crimean juices flowing - mostly by Roger Fenton.

*I am prepared to be wrong on that, but sorry ACW, the Crimea beat you to it by a decade.

Railways? I've got a book on the Crimean War somewhere but can't be bothered digging it out. I know there was one 'railway' track built from the port of Balaklava but thought that was pulled by horses. Turns out (after searching on Wikipedia), the wagons were actually pulled by a stationary engine and only after the siege of Sevastopol ended, did they introduce some small locomotives which were too weak to pull anything but light loads up the gradient from the port. Were there any other railway lines in the Crimea? By the way, trains were also used to transport French troops in the 1859 Risorgimento campaign in Northern Italy (2 years before the ACW) and French martial prowess in that campaign and the Crimea helped promote the subsequent popularity of the Zouave uniform in the U.S. Thinking also that the use of photography in a war is a first for the Crimea(?)(though not the first time bodies were photographed - that was Gardiner at Antietam, who came from my childhood home town of Paisley). Plus, would the use of breach-loading artillery and/or rifled artillery also be a first for the Crimea? 

[fsn]

I did say "a feature". 

I was also thinking about the use of trains on the home front to get men and materiel to the Crimea, as a strategic resource.

http://siege-of-sebastopol.blogspot.com/2014/07/1854-railways-go-to-war.html

[Westmarcher]

I was also thinking about the use of trains on the home front to get men and materiel to the Crimea, as a strategic resource.

Good shout.  .... and interesting link. Liked the proposal to send the entire British cavalry force (the 'Heavy' and 'Light' Brigades, totalling around 2,000 horses) all the way across France using the newly opened PLM (Paris à Lyon et à la Méditerranée) railway. but which was cancelled at the last minute due to protests from communes in the South of France (who, with memories stretching back 40 years), did not want to see British troops marching through their villages.

Makes me wonder if "Don't mention the war" was a 'catchphrase' for our ancestors back then, also. 

[ossy]

Thanks for the update Leon.

[Leon]

Thanks for the update Leon.

No worries!

[Chris Pringle]

Railways?

As I recall from visiting the military museum in Santiago, it claims Chile was first to use railways in war, to transport troops during the revolution of 1851.

(I also cherish another Chilean military first, the first sinking of an armoured warship by a powered torpedo, in 1891. The ship that launched the torpedo was Chilean, while the target was ... Chilean.)

However, the Chilean railway claim neglects the fact that railways also played an important part in the Hungarian War of Independence a couple of years earlier in 1848-1849. Apart from shifting troops, guns, ammunition and other supplies, at one point an Austrian officer raised the alarm about an approaching Hungarian army by racing back to Pest in a loco that had been held ready for that purpose.

Chris

Bloody Big BATTLES!
https://uk.groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/BBB_wargames/info
bloodybigbattles.blogspot.com/

[fsn]

There you go.

This forum is a mine of useless and not so useless information.

[jimduncanuk]

There you go.

This forum is a mine of useless and not so useless information.

Not much has changed then.