Generally, I prefer to avoid fantasy and science fiction in my wargaming. This is just a matter of personal taste; I'm more interested in historical venues. Every once in awhile, an exception appears. In this case, Lord Kalvan of Otherwhen, by H. Beam Piper, provided the excuse for me.

The pike and musket period is one of those transitional times in the military arts and sciences that is of interest to me, but the history surrounding it is not (go figure!). Kalvan provides the setting for gaming the technology, while avoiding the historical research our hobby usually calls for.

It's also of note that the novel is set in central Pennsylvania, though in an alternative time line (hence, the science fiction element). Living on the periphery of the action in the book adds to the attraction. Recently, I've taken advantage of my location to visit most of the locations identifiable from the author's descriptions. As a native of the region, his eye for terrain was excellent, and most of the places in the novel can be found with reasonable hope that you're on the right track or in the right place.

Why Walk Battlefields?

I first realized the value of battlefield tours some years ago at Guilford Courthouse, in North Carolina. Standing on the site where Cornwallis' artillery fired into the melee, and seeing the scale of the area ("It's just over there!"), impressed me more than any written description could have done. Later, at Antietam, I was again reminded of how easy it is to misread the terrain of a battlefield from maps and descriptions. Standing in Bloody Lane, or on Burnside's Bridge, is very different than reading about them. Perhaps I'm just more visually oriented, but the opportunity to see the site of an event is especially satisfying for me.

So, I've been to Centre County, PA, and its environs three times this year, examining the lay of the land. For those of you unfamiliar with the geography of Pennsylvania, I suggest taking out a road atlas. The first thing you may notice is that most of the roads in the center of the Commonwealth go from the southwest to the northeast, with a noticeable curvature. There really isn't a lot of choice in the matter, as the Appalachian Mountains provide range after range of obstacles to travel in a perpendicular direction. The mountains also tend to funnel the flow of water, so that there are water barriers as well. However, the mountains are the salient feature of the topography. This is crucially important to the activity in the novel as the military campaign it describes unfolds.

Mountain Walls

When you arrive from the north in Hostigos -- the princedom which is the focus of the novel (centered on Bellefonte, PA) -- you are met by a mountain wall, generally 250 meters tall, and steep enough that trying to take cavalry and artillery over it would be laughable. This focuses attention on the gaps in the range, which are uniformly narrow and steep-sided -- and very defensible. Castles located at the most important of these gaps make the mountain wall nearly impenetrable to early 16th century military technology, at least in the novel.

Even beyond the mountain gaps, it isn't easy going. You are soon in the next range, if headed southeast. There's plenty of terrain that would be considered rough going, if it weren't for the mountains next door. The eastern edge of the princedom is guarded by the Athan River (western branch of the Susquehanna River), cross able at a few fords along its length. So far, I haven't been able to determine if the fords exist in our time line, or if Piper introduced them for the purposes of the book. It will take a canoe trip in August to find the answer to that question!

Changes in Time

Touring the countryside 35 years after the book was written has many of the same disadvantages of touring other historical sites. Just as with those other spots, big changes can occur with the passing of time. When I visited Burnside's Bridge, two things struck me. First, was the steep and narrow valley it is at the bottom of. That didn't change in the intervening 135 years, but the size of the tree next to the bridge did. Pictures made at the time show a small tree growing next to the bridge. It isn't small any more! Thirty-five years later, the forests of Center County are bigger, too. This played a role in making it difficult to spot the features which identify the Seven Hills Valley of the novel.

I was encouraged on my first trip to the valley that I was indeed in the area Piper described. However, there were a lot more than seven hills surrounding the valley, at least as I counted them. On the next trip, I entered the valley from a different direction, and my fellow traveler (also a Piper fan and wargamer), noted a distinctive series of hills -- seven of them. It became clear that someone coming into the valley from the direction of the princedom's capital would be struck by this formation -- especially if the trees were 35 years younger and not obscuring the view. Well, at least that's our interpretation, and we're sticking to it! This simply points out how changes in terrain over time can add to the difficulty of identifying and understanding historical locations and events -- even relatively short periods of time.

Of course, the reason for the tour was to get a feel for the ground for wargaming purposes, as well as identifying the main topographical features. We wanted to know where the novel's battles were fought. After all, I didn't buy those hundreds of figures for nothing! I was painting them in "Kalvan colors," and I wanted to know where they should be fighting, too.

Storming Seven Hills

The first battle involved the taking of the castle guarding Seven Hills Valley by ruse and storm. We learn the dangers of believing you're in an invincible position, though when viewing the point where the castle might have stood it becomes easier to understand the garrison's complacency. They neglected to keep a fire zone clear and made a second security error in allowing the disguised forces of their enemy to block the portcullis open. A science fiction element enters on the side of the attackers, as well, as they are the beneficiaries of improved gunpowder and the rifling in their muskets, both of which were introduced by Pennsylvania State Trooper Calvin "Kalvan" Morrison. When you've been shown how to shoot straighter and farther by a visitor from another, more technologically advanced, time line, you've got a big "one up" on the opposition!

I'm confident about the location of both this event and the second battle in the novel. Both were largely identifiable from the text and a good map, as were many other features. However, the on-site tour provided a fine opportunity to confirm the map work and to narrow the options to a more precise point. A map, especially one with a relatively large scale, will often not provide all the data you need. Seeing the rise the cavalry came over -- just there on the other side of that small stream -- a rise which is invisible in the scale of the map, is the final piece one needs to fill in the puzzle of where Piper was standing when he envisioned the scene of battle. Just as at Guilford Courthouse and Antietam, the vision of the battlefield comes to life when you're right there, imagining the approaching cavalry and their surprise at the lines of pike and musket and the roar of the cannon, wholly unexpected.

Links to History

An added bonus to this sort of battlefield tour, is the linkage to the history of our own time line. On our return trip from Cold Wars, which takes us right through the novel's setting, we noticed a Fort Roberdeau on the map. We couldn't figure out why there would be a fort there, away from all the gaps, kind of nestled at the far end of Sinking Valley (just across the ridge from Altoona, PA). There was no time for a visit, but on a subsequent trip while retrieving my wife from summer school in Virginia, we discovered that the fort was there to protect the lead mines during the Revolutionary War -- exactly the same reason Piper used for the valley's value in his novel. In any time line, you need lead to make bullets! Now, am I going to have to add the American Revolution to my list of figures?

I'll recommend the novel, rather than describing it farther, to any with an interest in the period, or to anyone who just wants a good evening's entertainment. I also invite you to look at my Lord Kalvan web site at: http://users.penn.com/~djfrank/Lord_Kalvan/Lord_Kalvan_page.html. Be forewarned, it is very much "under construction." Most of all, I recommend finding a way to visit the ground of military actions you're interested in, real or fantastic, to walk in the steps of the soldiers you study.