Worm fences

Two companies installed. One more to go for the 2 year regiment heading home.

"The column was compact, and the glittering muskets looked like a solid mass of steel, moving with the regularity of a pendulum."

W.T. Sherman, "Memoirs of General Sherman"

It might not be as spectacular as the Grand Review of the Army of the Potomac that Sherman was describing in the quote above, but this scene does look cool. I have installed about two thirds of the planned number of marching soldiers for this regiment. The final total will be 175 men, well under strength for a full regiment, but not unheard of for a regiment after several bloody battles and two years of service  The figures along the route are watching the parade and perhaps vicariously sharing in the soon-to-be-mustered-out-soldiers' joy.

I also started to install the trees along the far wall. Before going final on the trees I painted some distant camps and extended the background trees the backdrop.



Worm fence

 I made some new trees by taking using the tops of my wife's miniature crepe myrtles. I was careful selecting the ones to use, as some just don't have the right limb structure. But others look very good placed against the backdrop with more detailed trees in the foreground.


Final install on some trees, more coming



Nothing says "civil war" quite like a worm fence. I thought long and hard about adding one, as chances are the fence would have been confiscated for firewood by scrounging soldiers. But I did find several prototype photos showing fences that survived near some camps, so I decided to add one to this scene. I cut a bunch of twigs to 3 inches long and then split them with my knife. In about 15 minutes I had enough rails to make this fence.

The trees in the background look good from this low, distant angle.