We're getting ready to try the Guns of Liberty rules distributed by Musket Miniatures. I finally finished painting my Southern Campaign Revolutionary, War armies. so I can do Camden, Guilford Courthouse, Eutaw Springs, Hobkirk's Hill, etc. Painting the regulars wasn't bad. but it took forever to do the bunches of militia I needed. I don't know if you've heard of the Mel Gibson Revolutionary War epic, The Patriot that's being filmed over near Rock Hill. SC. They are using some Revolutionary War reenactors as extras, and since I've been one for many years, I've talked to some of them. The consensus is it will be something like Braveheart. with its good and bad points. On the plus side there will big battles, and lots of action. On the minus side any relationship to history will be strictly co-incidental. A few historical boo-boos: 1. Gibson's character takes up arms when his family is killed by green coated loyalist dragoons. He is supposed to be based on Francis Marion. ignoring the fact that Marion had no wife or children, and had joined the Continental Army when the war started. Marion was also handy legged, about 5 feet tall, and ugly as sin. 2. The bad guy is named "Colonel Taverton" (wonder who he's based on!) and the actor playing him thinks red is his color rather than green, so he wears a red coat. Also, when he surrenders at Yorktown, the enraged Gibson character kills him. (Apparently no one asked how a South Carolina partisan ends up in Virginia.) 3. Finally, a bit of uniform error. One of the guys who signed up to be a British extra was told that they wanted the British to wear gaiters. Now, gaiters probably weren't worn after about 1776, and certainly not in the deep south in summer. However, the producers are trying to avoid the "Flabby Federals" and "Obese Confederates" that plagued Gettysburg. They only wanted reasonably fit extras. Oh well.... Yours, ERNIE STEWART Back to Dispatch Dec. 99 Table of Contents Back to Dispatch List of Issues Back to MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 1999 by HMGS Mid-South This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com