"A good stout log to fend off the lead fly's" Well here's a piece that no good solider would go without if they have the time to construct it, yes that's right breastworks or log palisades take your pick either works for me. According to Scott's Military Dictionary of 1861: Here's a sample of types of fixtures I've constructed for various battlefields. As to the historical uses we can look at Cold Harbor for a good example of what you get from attacking an entrenched position with a log palisade. Now breastworks are really not just the fixed type seen here but the hasty thrown together types as well. When it was possible and time allowed the hasty construction of a breastwork you upped your potential for effective cover by 40% - 60% depending on the type of stuff used. Now with the lovely habit of the East and the far West's habit to grow rocks all over the place you could have a fast some wall up for you to be behind and makes a good mix with local blow downs or chopped down wood or the handy rail fence makes for a great hasty field improvised breastwork. And yes they afford a good defense against infantry and cavalry assault in game format's well as a defensive addition for the units behind them. Again the same decisions are there for your assault. You can try to flank them or bypass them but again the use of these types of works usually funnel you into a gun position or a cavalry force on the flank. To build them yourself: Work off a base of 6" long by 2" wide you can again avail yourself of the products of nature for most of your needs and the use of superglue or hot glue guns makes for a fast application. I use felt before you add the works or natural ground products for the base after the works are attached with white glue applied to the area around the construction and shaking on dirt and cut grass for the weed and ground look. The application of stiff broom straw makes for the tall weeds and you can stain them with color if you don't like the straw color. To prepare the base use a thin was of green or brown to paint the base if your going to use natural ground cover. If you use green or brown felt leave un-painted. Then you can wait for this to dry and again use the silk needles as a attaching anchor pushed through the base and pre-drill your logs, stumps and rails. For the rock walls I use white glue to attach the rocks and make a layer for the base of the wall , letting that dry then build layer by layer with drying time between. This leaves a clear mortar look and if you take the time to fit them it looks like a natural rock wall. I use small gravel of mixed colored rock unless I'm working on a particular battle that has a certain type of rock in the area then I'll choose close matching colors to look correct. You can adjust sizes to your scale and do the basic idea of what can a man that size pick up and adjust to fit. Let dry and seal it with a nice basecoat of matte lacquer to seal in the wood, rock and ground cover so it will last longer. I use numerous coats. And there you have it your own fieldworks. Like Arkansas you have various areas that produce a certain rock type NW Arkansas is mainly gray and black mixed field rock with a few red sandstone thrown in. SW Arkansas is mainly creek rock of various colors so you don't have to be picky. If you wish to see some examples of my constructions go to my website at: http:\acesdugout.tripod.com and look in the terrain pages. Play well and enjoy the thrill of your own terrain. Editor's Note: The images can be seen in the file for this article in the files section of the Yahoo Group. Back to Table of Contents -- ACW Newsletter # 12 Back to ACW Newsletter List of Issues Back to MagWeb Magazine List © Copyright 2004 by Marc Shefelton. This article appears in MagWeb.com (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other articles from military history and related magazines are available at http://www.magweb.com