Poor Old Project 1777!

The operational maneuver leading to the battle.

It's been said (usually by me myself) that my hobby projects lack focus and persistence. In my own defence, I would point out only that it is not only my hobby projects, but most of my life that lacks these things. One example would be that I'm currently blogging instead of doing the certification work that I had meant to do this weekend. Another example would be that it took me something like six years to complete my master's degree. Focus is not something I'm always great at.

So, back I come to my poor, neglected 1777 project. As I said about this time last year, I'm several hundred stands of figures away from a complete British and American order of battle for the 1777 campaign. But that just means I've still got lots to do.

I was reminded today of this lingering project partly because I've been thinking about how I haven't done any miniature hobby stuff at all lately and how I would like to do more. Then I looked at the calendar and noticed that tomorrow is the anniversary of the battle of Short Hills, early in the 1777 campaign.

As I first wrote seven years ago (oh, good lord), the battle was an attempt by the British to trap and destroy an isolated American division. It was the significant last battle of an abortive mini-campaign, in which the British commander in chief, General Sir William Lord Howe, had hoped to lure the American main army into a field engagement where the British superiority in training, equipment, and discipline would force a definite defeat on its commander, Lt. Gen. George Washington, hastening the end of the war. Washington, unwilling to accede to this plan, had sent a division under Maj. Gen. William Alexander to dog the British, observe them, and harass their line of march. Howe turned and tried to trap Alexander's division, so as to get some satisfaction form the campaign. Alexander delayed and fell back, fought a brief engagement, and withdrew further. Howe did not pursue, moving instead back to his main bases at the Amboys and Staten Island.

It will be a while before I can try out this scenario. While the forces engaged are small (6,000 to 7,500 of the 30,000 to 35,000 engaged in the larger 1777 campaign), they feature a great number of distinctively uniformed troops that I have not yet prepared-- Hessian jaegers and grenadiers, British light dragoons and guardsmen, Loyalist Queens Rangers, Virginia riflemen). 

Anyway...it's quiet on this front for now. But hopefully progress will be made later in the year!