War Resumes on Belmont Island

After another British victory which allowed supplies and reinforcements to make it through, (see Ambush) the fighting on Belmont Isle was limited to small raids and skirmishes when patrols collided. As another New Year's came and went, the French Governor ordered an attack on the British possessions. After a series of meetings with a leader of ex-slaves, and a supply of muskets and powder, a joint operation was arranged.

The British had fortified a road block but had not considered a flank attack from the wooded hills to the east of the British outpost. Patrols spotted the French column and a messenger was quickly dispatched requesting reinforcements.

The forces gather.

Soon the fighting was wide spread while reinforcements on both sides marched on. On the hills behind the British flank, the freed slaves hesitated for a while but then decided to engage. 

Supported by skirmishers and the artillery, the 1st battalion charged the redoubt but was repulsed. With the English preoccupied, the freed slaves came storming down from the hills and a long firefight began.

After a brief pointblank musketry duel, the first battalion broke and ran. The 2nd battalion formed a storming column and assaulted the gate across the road while the 3rd battalion deployed and began a prolonged  short range firefight with the French having 2:1 numbers but the British soldiers being in cover.

A prolonged fight but eventually, numbers counted.

An attack on the main gate was repulsed  but the French skirmishers manage to silence the British gun and they took the wooden barricade for themselves until the gun could be brought up.

At last the British casualties in the redoubt weakened the post and General St. Lambert ordered another assault on the redoubt and one on the gates. On the other flank, two companies of Marines (not yet royal), made an attempt to drive the French from the gun position but the French skirmishers were determined to hold their position and poured such a deadly hail of bullets that the Marines broke and headed back for safety.

The situation was hopeless and the order was given to retreat with the Hussars and the first two companies of marines were ordered to form a rearguard to hold the enemy at bay. 
Behind them, they could hear the cheers and the sound of  La Marseillaise being sung.

At Last

 The battle has finally been fought!

If all goes well, the battle report should appear sometime on Friday. 

At last!

 At last a move or two have been made and dice have been rolled!

Maybe this afternoon I may get at it again once I get back from a visit to the dentist. 

STAND TO!!!!

It had been quiet day on Belmont Isle until the long roll called the small garrison to form up. Amid the noise and bustle, officers, ncos, and the other ranks speculated on why they had been called to fall in. Was it a drill or a real alarm? Then, as the garrison was formed up and quiet, they could hear the approaching sound of drums and voices singing:

"Aux armes, citoyens, formez vos bataillons, marchons, marchons...."

To be continued....

It's Winter, Time To Go To The Caribbean

 Well, not me! Just the little lads.

Base behaviour.

To my surprise, the last West Indies game was posted on 31 December 2024. So, I've decided that the West Indies are due to reappear. However, the 3rd party (ex-slaves) were still waiting to be put on regulation 18C bases. 

So, I'm doing that now, and then will come up with a scenario, probably with French and ex-slaves vs British, and set the table. I might even get to play it today if I'm fast!  

Blast From The Past

 I just stumbled upon this clipping from a July 1977 issue of the Montreal Gazette.

Hard to believe but some of these Heritage pikemen still march on my table under the banners of the Midlands on the Gathering of Hosts blog.

One of my first (and possibly the last) appearance in a major newspaper. I had graduated from the College Militaire Royale de Saint Jean in May and been assigned to the HMCS Ottawa in Halifax for on job training before heading to the West Coast to finish my training. However, I also had leave and came home to visit my parents in St. Lambert, across the river from Montreal. While I was there, the Montreal Wargames club, of which I had been a a member, (The club itself and some of its original members are still active.)  was taking part in an exhibition of hobbies etc over the summer. Since I was there, I volunteered to do a shift and thus had my first interview with a professional reporter from the Montreal Gazette. 

 

Ever since I read the distorted, inaccurate, supposed quotations, (not to mention the misspelled name,,,)
I have given less weight to newspapers! 

Now The Battle's Lost and Won (Incomplete Post Now completed..... Ooops!)

It was a cold January day in Acadia, the festivities were over when word came of an English column marching towards Belmont. The church bells began ringing and the women, children and old folks headed for the woods, carrying supplies and driving what livestock they could manage and a messenger sent to the local Mi’kmaq camp to ask for their support. Before long the beat of the British drums could be heard.

At last the British columns came into view along the snow covered road while rangers could be seen flitting through the woods and on the hills. 

    

The Acadians watched the British battalions deploy and advance towards the village and listened to the sporadic fire from the woods. Soon the Acadians, supported by some Compagnie franches from Canada, joined the battle as the Royal Americans and a battalion of provincials advanced. 

The 60th suffered heavy casualties and was forced to fallback having done little harm to the Compagnie franches in the stone church, but the provincials halted and kept up a heavy fire.

As the Acadians began to suffer casualties, they turned and retreated despite the Priest's admonishments.

The Provincials pursued but the Acadians rallied behind another stone wall and the Provincials stopped to pour another volley into them before crossing the wall and preparing to charge. 

As the Provincials advanced across the open field, a deadly stream of fire came from the Acadians in front of them, but another hail of bullets also poured into them from the flank.  Compagnies franches and Mi'kmaq warriors had moved into position to support the Acadian militia.

Their Colonel ordered a charge, but he was shot down and seeing that the 60th foot had broken, they voted to carry their commander to safety. 

Day By Day

 Despite several hours of cracking and removing 1"+thick hunks of ice today, I managed 1 turn.

Hopefully tomorrow will include an hour of downtime to allow me to finish the game.

Neither Ice Nor Snow

 The game has begun! 

Only two turns since there were lots of winter outdoor chores as well as packing up Christmas but its a start!  

Winter In Acadia

It's a cold wind when it blows across the ice but when the wind stops howling, everything is quiet and if the sun is out it can be a good day to put on snow shoes and go hunting in the woods.. 

But whether snow and wind, or sunshine, it doesn't do to assume the enemy is far away and the war is paused due to the weather.

"Then This Happened!!"

 (Arrghhhh I hate that pervasive phrase that is so popular with AI and many people these days.)

Anyway, the assault on the town has been interrupted by a 'fierce blizzard' making further fighting impossible. (Mind you, some propose that the real reason the assault failed was that there were too many family interruptions over several days for the historian to keep track of what was, or had been, happening and the blizzard was just imagined as an excuse to reset the table with different figures and a better set of rules.) 

The 1st assault came from the North and failed to break into that end of the town.

 

To the South, the attack was slow to develop due to some snow drifts but some riflemen did surprising damage to the gun crews, whose powder seems to have been wet, and a vigorous bayonet charge forced the gunners to retreat.

The triumphant attackers streamed into the town to find that there was a solid line of redcoats across the road and muskets raining down bullets from the buildings along the road.

To the North, the attackers casualties were severe and the first regiment fell back to let the 2nd wave to attack but they stalled in a firefight.

Both sides prepared to continue the fight but a whirling snowstorm put an end to the fight.

*********

So ended 2025, but apparently there was a similar incident on similar terrain in Acadia in the previous century................ but with different hats......or maybe even an assault by American Rebels against British troops...... we'll see....

A Slow Start To The New Year

So much for 3 games posted at the end of the old year and the start of the new year. But that's life and the games will go on.

Stay tuned!