54th Massachusetts Regiment, an AWI Battlefield, a virtual game and more walking

Hopefully an end to lockdown is getting closer here in the UK the weather has been good so lots of walking but also making some progress on projects. 

So first up a trick trivia question which I posed to Jonathan, given our ongoing American War of Independence campaign I have been reading/listening to some history. This flagged a fascinating fact, given Jonathan lives in the far NW of the states and I live in Cumbria who lives closest to an AWI battlefield ? The answer is below 🙂

But first up the 54th Massachusetts Regiment. I’m not one for sharing political views on the blog but with nearly 200 000 African American soldiers fighting for the Union I have been meaning to broaden my collection to include some African American Units. Having searched on google it is slightly disappointing that they are so under represented in people’s collections. Anyway I intend to change that with two regiments and probably some skirmishers or artillery. I’m not aware of any Cavalry during the war although they became famous afterwards as the Buffalo Soldiers out west, let me know anybody if you know of an active ACW Black Cavalry Regiment ?

54th Massachusetts , Perry figures with the separate head swops they sell for African American troops, a bit of a labour of love as they are quite fiddly. However it does allow you to have some variation in the head position which is nice. I am also building another command base.

Phil invited me to a virtual game at the weekend , your can see much better photos on his blog of his lovely figures and terrain, suffice to say the Saxons didn’t go home with the bacon ! A fun game and good to catch up even if only virtually.

So to the trivia question....of course the answer is I live much closer to an AWI battlefield than Jonathan I discovered the only raid on Britain during the AWI , which was carried out by the famous John Paul Jones took place at Whitehaven harbour. Much of the harbour has been rebuilt in the 19th Century but one gun emplacement remains.

The remaining 18th Century gun emplacement. The first harbour wall was originally built around 1730 and remains in place

The original watchtower and harbour office, together with a period sundial orientated for ships to be able to see it from the dock. Glad to see the Union Jack still flying

As to the raid by John Paul Jones according to the history he chose Whitehaven as this is where he departed when he sailed to America, originally being a Scot by birth. He landed with a small crew and spiked a number of guns in the defences before jumping back on their boats. This is nicely commemorated by the above statue.

and a small plaque, there is a small museum on the harbour but it is currently closed, I suspect few people make a specific trip to Whitehaven harbour because of its connection to the AWI but it is a nice spot to have a coffee and ice cream on a sunny afternoon. We combined the trip with a walk along the cliffs just south towards St Bees.

A beautiful walk along the cliffs

Protected in places due to bird colonies including these Gullimots

With some time off work and the weather good we have also been walking in the hills

Another fly by 

...and a very unusual sun ‘halo’ effect this is taken with no filter this being the refracted light by the clouds