Most familiar to us for his adventure and horror novels, including "Treasure Island," "Kidnapped," and "The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde," Robert Louis Stevenson was also an enthusiastic wargamer.

Stevenson spent much of 1880-1882 in Davos, Switzerland, convalescing from a bout with tuberculosis. While there, Stevenson, and his stepson Lloyd Osbourne, used the attic of their house to great advantage. The attic floor was the site of long miniature campaigns fought between the two. These campaigns included the publication, on the boy's printing press, of an account by Stevenson of one of the wars as it progressed. Fortunately for us, these records were preserved in an old notebook hidden away in a long disused trunk. Osbourne's discovery of the notebook prompted the publication of part of the war record in "Scribner's Magazine" in December, 1898.

The rules used by the two campaigners were homegrown, increasing in complexity based on Stevenson's reading of military history and his conversations with invalid veteran soldiers also recuperating in Davos. The two strived to make their wargaming as realistic as possible, and included construction and, of course, destruction of bridges, entrenchments, weather, and its effects on transport, and an interesting application of logistics. Drawn on the attic floor, the wargame terrain was represented by different colored chalks and included mountains, rivers, towns, bridges and two road classes. Reading Osbourne's description of their gaming sounds an awful lot like the rule books written a hundred years later, especially the ones constantly in flux.

The "chilly and dismal" attic in Osbourne's account, used as the site for these great wars, gives one a sense of the enthusiasm of the gamers. Crawling about on hands and knees, in darkness broken mostly by candle light, doesn't seem like ideal wargaming conditions, but these battles and campaigns went on for weeks, as the "...battalions marched and counter-marched, changed by measured evolutions from column formation into line, with cavalry screens in front and massed supports behind, in the most approved military fashion of today."

The two opponents were unequally matched, though the inequalities were spread about. Young Osbourne, for example, had a shooter's eye and none of their attempts at balance brought Stevenson closer to parity in a fire fight. Whether miniature artillery, marbles, or other devices were used, Osbourne's fire devastated his older opponent's forces. On the other hand, Stevenson had the edge when it came to psychological warfare. His reports on the action were so colorful, and so disdainful of the actions of the enemy, that Osbourne felt compelled to hang the editor of one of the newspapers reported in Stevenson's digest. As you read the accounts in the "Yallobally Record," you can well appreciate how it might make his "heart ache, for all I pretended to laugh and see the humour of its attacks." Ever a child at heart, Stevenson knew right where to stick the pin in his younger opponent's psyche.

Two elements of the game mechanics caught my eye. Both the logistics system and the method they used for concealing movement are interesting and similar to ones I've seen in the recent past which were noted as "innovative." Supply of ammunition was limited for both opponents and had to be moved by wagon around the battlefield in the form of the lead type used in the printing press. Battles sometimes turned into "strategic retreats" when local supplies were exhausted. Light horse patrols became fearsome when they disrupted supply lines. I found this an ingeniously simple way to put supply into proper perspective.

Concealed movement was achieved by use of paper markers for each force. The forces would be revealed only when observed by the enemy. Even then, the distance involved, the types of troops observing, and being observed, and environmental conditions all played a role in how much could actually be seen. The gamers found, as have many since, that an unseen foe can present a real menace, if only in one's mind. They experimented with other factors as well. Amusingly, they abandoned the use of disease on the battlefield when they found that they couldn't stand to see their best units decimated by it. It's one thing, and hard enough at that, to see them shot down, but quite another to see them fall from the pox!

I can't do justice to Stevenson's account without reproducing it, and that would fill this issue of The Herald and more, so let me just recommend it, and whet your appetite with his description of the aforementioned hanging:

"The 'Record' editor, a man of the name of McGuffog, was subsequently hanged by order of General Osbourne. Public opinion indorsed this act of severity. My great uncle, Mr. Phelim Settle, was present and saw him with the nightcap on and a file of his journals around his neck; when he was turned off, the applause, according to Mr. Settle, was deafening. He was a man, as the extracts prove, not without a kind of vulgar talent."

Take the time to look this up. I think you'll agree that Mr. McGuffog did, indeed, have a gift with the pen. Now where's my copy of Treasure Island?

(Author's Note: This article is the first in a series where I'll be looking at the publication history of wargaming up to 1970. This ranges from the Stevenson item reviewed here to Jack Scruby and Donald Featherstone's efforts in the 1960s. I'm restricting it to materials dealing with miniature wargaming, as opposed to board gaming, military education, or toy soldier collecting. For the most part, I'll be neglecting the period-specific rules that began to be published in some profusion in the late 1960s. Many of the items to be described are readily available in the used book market for reasonable prices, while others can be found in the library network. As you'll see, a few are rare enough that I haven't actually had them in hand -- yet!)

The Dumb Soldier

from "A Child's Garden of Verses"
by Robert Louis Stevenson

When the grass was closely mown,
Walking on the lawn alone,
In the turf a hole I found

And hid a soldier underground.
Spring and daisies came apace;
Grasses hide my hiding place;
Grasses run like a green sea

O'er the lawn up to my knee.
Under grass alone he lies,
Looking up with leaden eyes,
Scarlet coat and pointed gun,

To the stars and to the sun.
When the grass is ripe like grain,
When the scythe is stoned again,
When the lawn is shaven clear,

Then my hole shall reappear.
I shall find him, never fear,
I shall find my grenadier;
But for all that's gone and come,

I shall find my soldier dumb.
He has lived, a little thing,
In the grassy woods of spring;
Done, if he could tell me true,

Just as I should like to do.
He has seen the starry hours
And the springing of the flowers--
and the fairy things that pass

In the forests of the grass.
In the silence he has heard
Talking bee and ladybird,
And the butterfly has flown

O'er him as he lay alone.
Not a word will he disclose,
Not a word of all he knows.
I must lay him on the shelf,
And make up the tale myself.

More Roots of Wargaming

Robert Louis Stevenson
H.G. Wells
Shambattle
Children and Toy Soldiers
Links Between Military Miniature Collecting and Gaming
Jack Scruby
1962
Table Top Talk Magazine
Naval Wargames Part 1
Naval Wargames Part 2
Air Wargames
Horse and Musket I
Napoleon Rides Again
Featherstone Again