US Marines for Longstreet

 Hi All
Sorry for the long break between posts, but 'real life' stuff keeps getting in the way.
Anyway, continuing on with the 'LONGSTEET' theme I thought I thoughts I'd share my latest completed unit. An eight based US MARINES battalion.
I'm quite taken with the Battle of Bull Run (Manassas) and having served on several occasions with the US Marines I was very interested in producing the unit for my LONGSTREET collection.
The Marines sometimes look upon First Bull Run as a blemish on a particularly impressive war record but I'm of the opinion they have been judged harshly in regards to this particular engagement.
You can find an interesting article of the Marines performance at First Bull Run HERE
 As for this particular unit I used PERRY MINIATURES codes ACW 30 and 31 which are actually Confederates in Frock Coats but these were the closest I could get to what the US Marine Battalion would have been wearing at the battle.
The Flag ( a single National Colour) is from THE FLAG DUDE whom I can't recommend highly enough. These flags are outstanding and well worth the money.

ABOVE AND BELOW: My US MARINES using Perry Miniatures. Behind them you will notices another Federal unit. They are the 1st Maine Heavy Artillery deployed as infantry. I'll post more about them later.

I've based them 3 or 4 to a 40mm square base.
Here is an excerpt from the link I've provided covering the Marines efforts at First Bull Run.

"When several of the Federal units that had been driven from the hill finally regained composure, an attack was launched to recover the captured artillery. The 14th Brooklyn took the lead, followed, as Col Porter later said, "in fine style" by the Marine battalion. Other regiments fell in behind. Gaining the crest of the hill near the wreckage of Ricketts' battery, the rejuvenated Union troops took the Confederates under fire, driving them back across the plateau and into the pinewoods beyond.

The attack swept toward the position held by the Virginia brigade commanded by BGen Thomas J. Jackson. As the swell of the assault neared the thicket of pines, the 4th and 27th Virginia Infantry Regiments opened fire. An instant before the Virginians fired, the 14th dropped to the ground, and the Marines took the full effect of the volley. They wavered for a moment, but quickly recovered.

Pressing forward with the Brooklyn troops, now on their feet, the Marines plunged into the pines. Rebel fire intensified, and the attack began to falter. Reynolds was quickly in their midst, raining expletives on all within earshot. Lieutenant Colonel Edward W. Fowler of the 14th recalled Reynolds using "language more forcible than pious," but his efforts to hold the Marines went in vain. The entire line collapsed, and the broken remnants of the second assault force ran back across the plateau and down the hill to safety.

As the Confederates took up the pursuit, Daniel M. Conrad, surgeon of the 2d Virginia Infantry, surveyed the bloody aftermath of the fight. His account, published in the Southern Historical Society Papers in 1891, proved the determination of the Marines to break the Confederate line. "The green pines were filled with the 79th Highlanders and the red-- breeched Brooklyn Zouaves, but the only men that were killed and wounded twenty or thirty yards behind and in the rear of our lines were the United States Marines."

The Marines again rallied at the crossroads and, after reforming, charged back up Henry Hill in support of an assault led by the 69th New York Infantry. After making some headway, the Marines and the New York Irishmen were driven back by the counterattack of the 8th and 18th Virginia".

Please feel free to leave any comments.

Cheers

Scott