Diving back into 28mm Civil War

Getting The Details Correct: Early War Specifics of Two Rival Battalions at 1st Manassas

 I’ve been working on a Small scale American Civil War tabletop rules system called “Vortex of Hell” for a while now, and it’s pretty much finished. Before historicon this year, I painted a battalion each of Rebs and federals so my friends could playtest it! I’ll write more about that soon in another post I think, but it was fantastic to get two fully painted battalions (75 or so individual minis each) on the tabletop with striking and well detailed terrain provided by my friend Turhan. 

 All that is to say, that those two forces were painted to portray troops in mid 1864 or so. After realizing the game we played at historicon ‘25 was playable and dare I say even enjoyable, I got back to it, editing and adding clarifications. While thinking about specific book scenarios, I kept going back to a Matthews Hill type scenario. Lately I’ve wanted to get back on the ACW horse to paint some opposing battalions for very early war stuff, probably Manassas themed. So, July of 1861.

Above: Wheat’s Special Battalion arriving at Manassas Junction in late June, 1861. 

 I’ve been fascinated by and have diligently researched “Wheat’s Special Battalion”, raised in New Orleans, for over half my life now. 20 years is a long time for a mega hyper fixation, but then I realize I’ve got minis next to me right now that I’ve had for 27 or so years. So, it’s a theme. Wheat’s Battalion, or the “1st Louisiana Special Battalion” as they were also known were and still are a very misunderstood and often misidentified unit. Folks have a hard time understanding who they were, what they did, and what they wore. I get into that a little in a YouTube video I made while painting two members of the battalion, if you’re interested. 

 On the left, we have a member of Captain Alexander White’s “Tiger Rifles”, who would form Company B of the battalion. On the right is a member of Captain Robert Harris’s “Walker Guard”, which would become Company A of the battalion. 

 I go into some specifics of these uniforms in the YouTube video, but it’s worth noting that of the five companies that made up Major Wheat’s Battalion, each had their own distinct uniform. Each company was roughly 100 men on their enlistment. Wheat’s Battalion was certainly colorful, but proved to be very aggressive fighters when it came to it. Many of the men from Co’s A and B specifically were veterans of  many Filibuster missions to South America prior to the war, where they honed their skills and learned very brutal combat tactics. Now, there’s way too much to get into with all of that, and keep this blog short. For now, I’ll just note that many of them were brutal dudes who most folks wouldn’t likely invite to dinner. 

 Along with these two companies, I’m in the planning stages of starting on the Battalion’s Color Company, the “Delta Rangers” (yes that was their actual name), who were assigned as Co. C in Wheat’s Battalion. They were uniformed very similarly to Company A, but were issued blue or grey caps and havelocks. 

 At Manassas they primarily fought against troops from Rhode Island on Matthews Hill. Specifically, John Slocum’s 2nd RI infantry. So, I think it’s only appropriate as I plan, slowly build, and paint three of Wheat’s companies, I should begin work on some of the Rhode Islanders who valiantly held against the ferocious attack that day. The Rhode Islanders, while not AS wildly dressed as some of Wheat’s soldiers, had a unique look of their own. 

 These men were outfitted with a dark blue indigo dyed flannel pullover shirt that was fairly long, and had a deep placket. It was made of the same material as a Federal army 1858 fatigue blouse, but was fairly simple in construction, and assembly a good way for the state of RI to uniform and outfit her first volunteers. Their trousers were dyed grey that most likely faded to a dead grass/tan color. And the men wore a mix of blue (possibly faded to a deep grey) caps, caps with havelocks (white cotton cap coverings that were intended to keep the sun of their necks), and civilian brimmed hats of various makes. One stark color contrast were the red state issued blankets they carried as bedrolls or rolled in a blanket sling. Their equipment was a mix of oddball state items as well as regular federal government sets of leathers. 

 I got excited to start working on a few Rhode Islanders, while I wait to order some of them from Perry’s Minis. I landed on these two so far. I’m very happy with the first guy. The second might be changed. Initially, his pose looked ok to me, as a guy encouraging his comrades forward. But I’m not sure I dig it. Either way, a bit of minimal sculpting got these two looking pretty close to my ideal 2nd RI look. 

 These two minis started a federals in sack coats, so I converted them into Rhode Island blouses with some (old) green stuff. The caps were an easy fix since I added the skirts of the havelocks. The second guy got a quick blanket roll, and they were finished. if I were to change anything, I could elongate the shirts a bit to closer match most of the original examples, although they did vary in length.

Above: For some context and to see them in color, here are two museum quality uniform reproductions I made for a National Park program at Manassas a few years back. These detail what a member of White’s Tiger Rifles would have looked like there, as well as what a member of the 2nd Rhode Island would have looked like. Modeled by myself and my buddy Tom. 

 Next, I’ll paint up the guy below as a test model for the 2nd RI, to figure out exactly how I want to tackle them. I think for the long term on that battalion, I’ll do two companies advancing at shoulder arms and one more like the guy below in different stages of firing and reloading while advancing, to portray their skirmish company who was out front of their main body of troops and first engaged with Wheat’s Battalion at Manassas. 

Ok, I’ll end the rambling for today. Read more actual history, it can get pretty cool and wild. 

-Tyler