Gettysburg 1978 using Stars and Bars

This morning I woke up to realize it has been 40years since the group played Gettysburg. The group at that time consisted of John Thull, Bob Krause, Bob Webb, Bill Parrish, Len Jellnick and myself.  At that time frame Scotty Bowden "Stars and Bars" was the rule set for miniature Civil War.

 The idea of the playing the game was Bob Webb's idea.   Bob wanted to do an epic battle. It was agreed that each of us would provide the require Army Corp for the battle.  The only person who had room for the table was Len as his basement didn't have any stuff in it.  We built the table in at his house.  At took up the whole basement.  The sad part we never took a picture. Unlike today with your cell phone it is just a quick snap.   We had cameras with film, OMG...lol  

It was decided to play on the weekend of real battle.  4th of Jul 1978.   The group figure we could play the game in a weekend.  Little did we know it would be sometime in November of 1978 we would finish the battle.  Let me explain, Stars and Bars is very slow and accurate to the style of fighting.   The game table took two weekends to build.   Next came place the figures on it.  Well to our surprise we did not figure in the weight of the miniatures..  The table started to collapse. This put a quick stop on the play.  We had to have several thousand miniatures spread across the game table. 

When the epic battle began it became apparent this was going to be a very long game.  We sweated through part of the first day of the battle in 3 days that hot July in Len's basement.  This was the opening stages of the battle.  Once we got into the heavy fighting it would take several hours just to move, fight and resolve the results.   But it was fun. A great time with good friends at that time period.  The only person I still see is my Buddy John.  The rest of the group faded away.

When the battle end it was a victory for the Union.  The turning point was Pickett's charge.  Bob Webb came within  a dice roll of breaking the Union line.   I'm going to be 70 this year.  The summer of 1978 was one of my best years in my life.   Happy 4th of July folks.