Local ACW events: November 2007 Archives

2007 Remembrance Day parade

My two-year-old grandson and I attended today's annual Remembrance Day parade in Gettysburg, with more than 1,000 reenactors marching in front of thousands of onlookers. This was the fourth time I have attended the parade in the six years we have lived in Pennsylvania, but the first time for my grandson, who loved the music, the pageantry, the brightly colored flags, and the horses, especially the horses!

Dennis Brandt's fascinating new book

This month's regular meeting of the York Civil War Round Table (formerly the White Rose Civil War Round Table) will be at the York County Heritage Trust's headquarters on East Market Street in York at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, November 14. Red Lion author Dennis Brandt will present a PowerPoint show on the 87th Pennsylvania, an infantry regiment with strong ties to York and Adams counties. The talk is based upon his interesting recent book, From Home Guards to Heroes: The 87th Pennsylvania and Its Civil War Community.

ADMISSION IS FREE!! Why not come hear one of York County's finest regimental historians discuss some of the men who helped defend the Union?

Scott Mingus's 15mm wargame of the Attack on Fox's Gap at South Mountain from a previous gaming convention

I took a day of vacation from work and attended the annual Fall In! miniature wargaming convention at the Eisenhower Inn and Conference Center in Gettysburg. I presented a miniature wargame of the hypothetical attack on Cemetery Hill that Ike Trimble proposed late in the afternoon of July 1, 1863 during the Battle of Gettysburg. An after-action report on the game and its outcome can be found here.

The convention features more than 300 miniature wargames over the three day event, with more
than 1,000 wargamers filling the Ike and the adjacent All-Star Sports Complex. It is one of the four largest miniature wargaming conventions in North America and annually pumps tens of thousands of dollars into the Adams County economy.

Have you ever attended a wargaming convention? If so, what are your fondest memories and some of the best games you have played?

One of the author's typical wargaming layouts

Did you ever play with toy soldiers as a child? Even today, do you enjoy looking at dioramas and miniature depictions of Civil War battles? What about looking at model railroad layouts and marveling at the high quality terrain? Do you enjoy strategy and matching wits in a competitive environment with people who also like military history?

Then, this weekend offers an event you should check out in nearby Gettysburg. The annual Fall In! miniature wargaming convention is being held at the Eisenhower Resort and Conference Center and the adjacent All-Star Sports Complex just south of the Gettysburg Battlefield on the Emmitsburg Road (Business 15). November 9-11; 9 a.m until 11 p.m. Friday and Saturday. Sunday is a limited schedule of events from 9 until 1.