Dear Sir,
I have enjoyed all the issues to date and look forward to another year of The Zouave with great interest. I must take issue however with George Anderson's comment in his letter of last issue implying that Americans and Europeans are the only ones with an ACW wargaming interest. There is a strong ACW following in both Australia and New Zealand, and I'm sure that this is reflected to some extent in your membership. I found the rest of George's comments very interesting and, as a non-American, very true.
As someone who games with OTR rules I have a natural preference for larger scale scenarios and found the Antietam scenario in the Autumn 1989 issue excellent and readily adaptable to 0TR. On a personal level, I read an article in an ACW magazine which indicated that regiments in the Army of Northern Virginia were not permitted by the time of Gettysburg to carry state flags into action. As I have not found any other references to verify this, perhaps one of your readers would clarify the accuracy of that comment. You can appreciate that this would lead to some flag replacement for my 15mm Confederate army to play scenarios of that time period. Best wishes for the new year and keep up the good work.
Editor's Comment : There is more than some truth to what you read. However, many regiments continued to carry their state flags as "company" colors, while other, especially battalions, continued to carry non-regulation flags throughout the war. Based on the fact that your troops are based by the brigade for OTR, I see no reason to take away the state flags for the most part, especially in units where all of the regiments were from one state. Any comments on this from our readers?
Dear Mr. Scherzer,
Please accept my compliments on Volume III of The Zouave. It seems to me that what I regard as a very shaky start, you fellows have found a solid niche and hit your stride. The articles on the flags of the northern states are particularly welcome since this information is largely unpublished, although the state historian of Pennsylvania has published a work detailing Pennsylvania National and State flags. Otherwise, I suspect that such detail can only be obtained by traveling to the respective state capitols or searching out the state historical societies for information.
To me the most pleasing aspect of Volume III is the absence of commentary bashing On To Richmond, OTR players, the venting of frustrations, or grinding axes in the guise of presenting "truth". My opinion is that the hobby has enough other problems without backbiting among ourselves, and a great deal of useful information remains to be published. I am very prepared to live with the notion that there exists a hardcore group of ACW miniature wargamers who game almost exclusively at the tactical regimental level with rule systems similar to Johnny Reb. From my perspective, this is the traditional level of ACW gaming, and some of these individuals confine their gaming almost exclusively to the period. I am certain that these individuals find this quite satisfying and I also recognize that , given the complexity of JR. they have a demand for scenarios which The Zouave can fill.
I have no objections to this provided that the editors maintain perspective based on the recognitions that (1) there are alternate approaches to ACW gaming, and (2) this is not everyone's cup of tea or precise interest. It seems that Volume III has made definite progress in this regard, so I will be re-subscribing
I would like to congratulate you on your fine efforts with The Zouave. I am working on my thesis in Civil War military tactics at the university and wish to state that your magazine has provided me with more research material than most of the books I've been reading. I would appreciate some vignettes on the lesser known generals who fought in your war between the states, as this is particularly of interest to both myself and the group of garners I belong to in a town not far from here. We have your magazine translated into German by the foreign language department, giving us a chance to recreate some of the battles carried in The Zouave. Please continue the fine work!
Dear Editor:
I noticed that your magazine never seems to be mentioned for nomination to win awards in some of the dealer and convention publications. Is there a reason for this? I always read about other magazines winning these awards and feel that yours is far better than most of them. If you need a nomination for GAMA, I would certainly be happy to do this.
Editor's Reply: I stay as far away from wargaming politics as I can. While awards are nice, one must sometimes compromise their principles to get the votes. The best "award" I can imagine came in 1987 when the Library of Congress requested a copy of all issues put out by us to place in their archives. That was gratifying!
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