"Sir the front is covered by abatis". What's that you say, well let me enlighten you. From the Scott's Military dictionary of 1861 we have the below plate. Well now we know what it is, but how would we react on the field with our troops. You can deal with this obstacle one of 4 ways. Skirt it and hope for the best, but be careful lots of fieldworks are there to channel your forces to someplace else. Use Pioneers to clear it. Artillery works sometimes but dilutes your battery's ammo and use on any other objects. Then there's the Old slog through and hope for the best. Ohhh ! the moral checks and possible rout. The abatis is a nasty piece of defense works to defeat and history tells us that the real thing was just as bad. Here you are slogging through this mess of sharpened tree limbs and just a mess of tangle to get through, no way to keep alignment and keeps the speed of advance down to a crawl, not to mention the fire being directed at you by the defenders. "Ohhh the canister and sharpshooters" There's way's to build this fieldwork for yourself or you can order them depending on size scale and amount needed, Well I start with a cardboard base and glue on the appropriate groundcover (felt or natural). Then I go out in the yard and fine the right sized twigs at least a 1/8" thick at the base and a nice tangle on the end. I cut them to 2" length and lay them in a random X pattern over the surface of the ground cover and weave the ends together. I adjust the height of the total object from base to highest wood surface to be no more than 2" high and normally trim the top mainly flat to provide a decent surface for the troop bases to set flattish on. Using glue (I use superglue) paste the ground cover over the base and let dry. Then drill the twig bases for the pins I use a really small drill bit 1/64" or 1/32" This gives you a nice area to slide the twigs over the pins with out splitting the twigs by trying to force the pins through.  Now that you have your twigs and bases set up you can prepare the layout so it's neat and tidy. Flip over the base and insert the first pin near the end of the base @ 1/8" in from the end and at the rear 1/8" from the back edge. And glue the flat pin head on the back and let dry. After it's set good you can slip the first twig over the pin and slide it to the bottom, glue in place and let dry. snip off the pin flush with the twig (first and last pin only) Over lap the next twig and push the pin through the drilled hole and continue this process till the base is covered in a pattern you like using the pin from the 2nd twig on till the next to last swap which trunk is on top or bottom. Each one will be different just like in real life. Pattern to finish as you go glue the pin slip two twigs over it and snip the pin off flush. When finished you'll have a nice abatis and you can trim to flatten the surface as you see fit. Let dry and seal it with a nice basecoat of matte lacquer to seal in the wood so it will last longer. I use numerous coats. And there you have it your own abatis. 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