This week’s figure comes to us from customer, Herm Hoops of Jensen Utah and in his words: The pontoon is a historex kit, the enlisted man on the ground holding the team is from New Hope, the mules and outrider are figures that i made or modified heavily. The horse collars are made from insulated electrical wire as a base. The harness is from bread ties, blinders and other modifications from sheets of dental x-ray lead.
Historical Notes:
In August 1861 Charles B. Stuart, formerly the New York State Engineer and Surveyor, was authorized to raise and command a regiment of infantry from communities in central New York State, which became part of the 50th N.Y. Volunteer Regiment. In September the regiment traveled to Virginia, where it underwent drastic change.
In July, 1862 General McClellan noted the “unusual number of sailors and mechanics” in the regiment, and in desperate need of engineers detailed them to act as sappers, miners and pontooniers.
Destruction of bridges was a primary defensive tactic in a country veined with numerous streams and rivers. In such conditions a bridging train was as vital as food and ammunition to the success of a campaign. The 50th participated in every major campaign of the Army of the Potomac from the Peninsula to Appomattox. They constructed the fortifications at Yorktown and Petersburg; pontoon bridges on the Peninsula and at the Fredericksburg, Antietam, and Gettysburg Campaigns; and built corduroy roads in Maryland and Virginia
Outstanding job Herm!
