Saturday 5 November 2011

1795 Springfield infantry musket

Copied from the 1766 model French musket, the 1795 Springfield infantry musket was the very first official model musket of the United States.   Initially with the bayonet lug on the bottom of the barrel, this was rotated to the top of the barrel in 1797 and the look remained more or less the same to the end of the War of 1812.  The musket gets its name from the first government armoury of the United States in Springfield, Mass.  

Royal Horse Artillery Rocket Corps. Tunic Circa 1814

CT2048A Royal Horse Artillery Rocket Corps. Tunic Circa 1814CT2048D Royal Horse Artillery Drivers Tunic Circa 1815here is the Royal Horse Artillery Drivers Tunic Circa 1815CT2048 Royal Horse Artillery Royal Horse Artillery 

hornby soldier train


Its the Good Guys versus the Bad Guys in this all action train set. Who is Good and who is Bad - only you can decide! The camouflaged train must travel around the track circuit carrying much needed supplies to the troops. The BattleMat included allows for the track circuit to be extended using the Hornby Track Packs, providing plenty of scope for an all action railway layout.
TrackMat 1600mm x 1280mm, Starter Oval + Track Pack A. 2 X tanks, 2 X 4X4 Jeep, 2 X set of army solders, 4 X sandbag bunkers, 0-4-0 locomotive, 2 X lomac wagons, box van.46 pounds if you go wonderland models 86  pounds in other places

Tuesday 1 November 2011

THE SEARCHERS AS MOVIE AND FACT

I didnt see you at the SurrenderThe Searchers (1956) directed by John Ford, starring John Wayne, Jeffrey Hunter, Natalie Wood, Vera Miles 
 I dont believe in surrenders.


In 1832, members of the Parker family, including Lucy and Silas Parker and their children, moved from Illinois to an area in Texas near the Navasota River. The group built large walls around the settlement as protection from the nearby tribes of Native Americans, and the settlement became known as Fort Parker  about 40 miles east of present-day Waco that came to be called Parker's Fort. The tall wooden stockade was reportedly capable of holding off "a large enemy force" if properly defended. However, when no Indian attacks materialized for many months, the Parker family and the relatives who joined them in the fort became careless. Frequently they left the bulletproof gates to the fort wide open for long periods

On May 19, 1836, members of the Kiowa, Comanche and Caddo tribes attacked Fort Parker. According to historian John Henry Brown, the attack killed or seriously wounded seven of the residents of the fort, including the Elder John Parker and Silas Parker, the father of Cynthia Ann. Five captives were taken during the attack including Cynthia Ann and her brother John.

History.com explains that kidnapping was not uncommon during attacks in this time period, and also not uncommon was the use of ransom for return, her eventual rescue formed the basis of John Ford’s great western film "The Searchers" staring John Wayne and Natalie Wood.After the Fort Parker kidnappings, most of the captives were eventually returned for ransom, but Cynthia Parker, who was 9 at the time, remained with the Comanche. She was given to a Tenowish Comanche couple and was raised as a Comanche who raised her like their own daughter. She became Comanche in every sense; was trained in Native ways and was totally devoted to her adopted parents. The memories of her white life quickly faded, and every attempt to ransom her was refused by the tribal council at her request.

As for John Parker, some accounts say that he was also raised by Native Americans and that he became a warrior. However, when he was stricken with smallpox, his tribe abandoned him in Mexico, where he regained his health and began living with people there. It is thought that he later returned to Texas and fought in the Civil War
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As time passed, Cynthia Parker married a warrior of the Comanche tribe, Peta Nocona (also spelled , below custer figure by charbensSee full size imageNocoma and Nakoni), and together they had three children—two boys named Quanah and Pecos, and one girl named Topsannah, also known as Prairie Flower.  

Accounts differ as to exactly how Cynthia Parker was “rescued.” Most sources say that Texas Ranger CaptLawrence Sullivain  led the attack that captured Parker in 1860, but the reasons for his attack differ. John Henry Brown says Ross’ attack was provoked by attacks from Peta Nocona and the other Comanche warriors on white settlements. 

Cynthia Parker and her daughter Topsannah were captured. The fate of Peta Nocona is disputed; some say he was wounded or killed in the attack, while others say he was not present.the mokarex figure below is a perfect one for converting to the various kinds of texas militia and irregulars in texas around 1835

Cynthia Parker was sent to live on a farm with her uncle, but sheattempted to escape multiple times during the remainder of her life. Her daughter died of influenza a few years after their return to white society, and Cynthia died in 1870 from a combination of self-imposed starvation and the flu.the piece above is easily convertible to comanche indians, its by charbens


Cynthia Parker’s son Quanah was not captured during the 1860 raid and grew up to be a famed warrior and the last chief of the Quahada Comanche. In his early years as a warrior, Quanah Parker was known to attack and raid white buffalo hunters and settlers. 

After a year-long battle with the U.S. military that followed a 700-man-strong attack by Parker on 30 buffalo hunters, Parker surrendered and was made to live on a reservation in Oklahoma. 

opalina

Russian WW" Infantry by Crescent

Sunday 30 October 2011

rabih az zubayr

Rabih az-Zubayr ibn Fadl Allah or Rabih Fadlallahه‎), usually known as Rabah in French, (c. 1842 – April 22, 1900) was a Sudanese warlord and slave trader who established a powerful empire west of Lake Chad, in today's Chad.
Born around 1842 to an Nubian-Arab family in Halfaya Al-Muluk, a suburb of Khartoum, he first served with the irregular Egyptian cavalry in the Ethiopian campaign, during which he was wounded. When Rabih left the army in 1860s, he became the principal lieutenant of the Sudanese slaveholder Sebehr Rahma.
Lieutenant of al-Zubayr (1870–1879)In the 19th century Khartoum had become a very important slave market, supplied through companies of Khartumi established in the region of Bahr el Ghazal, where they resided in zaribas, fortified bases kept by bazingirs (slave soldiers).
 The warlord and slaveholder al-Zubayr assumed control of the region's zaribas, and was nominated in 1872 pasha and governor of Bahr el Ghazal for the khedive Isma'il, ruler of Egypt. Rabih, who was possibly a relative of al-Zubayr, was the chief lieutenant of the pasha.
In 1874, az-Zubayr conquered the sultanate of Darfur. In 1876, he went to Cairo to request the khedive to officially sanction his position in Darfur, but was instead imprisoned.
This caused in 1878 the revolt of az-Zubayr's son Suleyman, and of his lieutenants, like Rabih. In reaction the governor-general of Sudan, Gordon Pasha, made Romolo Gessi governor of Bahr el Ghazal, and sent him to suppress the rebellion; Suleyman surrendered July 15, 1879, and was executed.skirmish wargaming group photo, check them out.
 Rabih instead is said to have left Suleyman the day before he surrendered, but Gessi reports instead that he had retreated already in June, after having suffered heavy losses.
 Warlord (1879–1890)To escape from the Egyptians, Rabih left the Bahr el Ghazal, heading south with 700–800 bazingiris and 400 rifles. Using the tactics of the Khartumi, he in the 1880s he carved out a kingdom between the basins of the Nile and the Ubangi, in the country of Kreich and Dar Benda, south of Ouaddai, a region he utterly devastated.
In 1885, he attempted to return in Sudan following the invitation of the Mahdi Muhammad Ahmad, who had taken Khartoum from the Egyptians. The Mahdi had sent as ambassadors Zin el-Abeddin and Jabar, and Rabih followed them back to Darfur, proposing to meet the Mahdi at Omdurman; but when he learned of a plot to kill him, he changed his mind and returned to Chad.
In 1887, Rabih's forces invaded Darfur, recruited bazingirs, and settled down in Dar Kouti; however, his campaign against the aguid Salamat Cherif ed-Din, commander of the sultan of Ouaddai's troops, failed. In 1890, he attacked the Muslim chief Kobur in the north of Oubangui-Chari, deposed him and established in his place his nephew Mohammed al-Senoussi, on whom he imposed his suzerainty. This alliance was sealed by the marriage of Khadija, daughter of Mohammed al-Senoussi, with Rabih's son Fadlallah. Together Mohammed and Rabih attacked Dar Runga, Kreich, Goula and then Banda Ngao.
 First confrontations with France (1891–1893)Mohammed al-Senoussi's alliance with Rabih worried the colonial powers, especially France that was considering taking control of central Africa. Mohammed al-Senoussi remained faithful to Rabih and in 1891 killed the French Paul Crampel in Dar Banda. Rabih recovered the expedition's weapons.
In the south-east of Lake Chad, he attacked the Baguirmi Kingdom in 1892, blaming the Mbang (king) Abd ar Rahman Gwaranga for having signed a protectorate with the French. Gwaranga was besieged for three to five months in Manjaffa, and was later forced to leave his capital, which was completely destroyed in March 1893.
 Conquest of Bornu (1893)In 1893, Rabih also turned his attentions to the Bornu Empire of shehu (king) Hashim ibn Omar. Bornu was a Sahelian region that traced its origins back to the Middle Ages. That year, the empire consisted of 80,000 soldiers, mostly slaves commanded by slaves, and was in full decline.
On the road to Bornu, Rabih made prisoner the sultan of Karnak Logone, whose capital promptly opened its doors to his host. Shehu Hashim sent 15,000 men to confront Rabih; the latter routed them in May or September 1893 first at Am Hobbio (south of Dikoa) and then at Legaroua with only 2,000 horse. Hashim fled north of the Komadougou Yobe from where he may have tried to negotiate with Rabih; but he was assassinated at the instigation of his nephew Muhammad ibn Abi Bakr al-Amin (called Kiyari), who then became shehu and decided to fight Rabih. Rabih met Kiyari at Gashegar, a two days' walk from Kukawa, the capital of Bornu; Kiyari defeated Rabih and captured his camp.
The following day Rabih gathered his forces, and ordered 100 lashes be given to all his bannermen, including his own favored son Fadlallah. Only Boubakar, who had fought bravely, was spared. Then he ordered a victorious counter-offensive; Kiyari, who had refused to flee, was captured and beheaded. As for the capital city, Kukawa, it was plundered and razed to the ground.
Rabah made Dikoa his capital, and there built a palace which was to won later the admiration of the French governor Émile Gentil.
[edit] Bornu's Lord (1893–1900)Wanting to modernize his army, Rabih and attempted in 1895 to make an accord with British Royal Niger Company in Yola and Ibi so to obtain gunpowder and ammunition, but without success. He started confronting the British in 1896 and the following year even started marching on Kano, while his vassal Muhammad ibn Ali as-Senussi founded a fortified capital, Ndele, between Bahr Aouk and the Ubangi River, which he held until 1911.
For seven years Rabih was shehu of the Bornu Empire, and spent much effort to reinvigorate a decadent empire that had until then maintained the same feudal structures it had in the 16th century. Rabih kept the vassal sultans in place, but subjected them to his lieutenants, mostly Arab Sudanese like him.
He promulgated a legal code based on the sharia, rationalized taxation through the creation of a budget, imposed on Bornu a military dictatorship, which aroused the attention of the colonial powers. Émile Gentil was to speak of Rabih's reforms in Bornu with a certain degree of interest; they would later inspire him in organizing the territory of Chad.
Much is told about his brutality (for example, he once had one of her concubines executed because she kept a talisman designed to obtain Rabih's love, and with her the marabout that had deciphered the talisman); or about the evenings he passed listening to Ali, the poet who sang his exploits.
More importantly, Rabih launched a regular series of razzias to plunder and capture slaves; this was a return to the traditional activity of the sultans of Bornu, which had been described in 1526 by Leo Africanus. It is estimated that 1500–2000 slaves were exported every year by his vassal Mohammed ibn Ali as-Senoussi, excluding the deaths, casualties, and other losses he inflicted. The totals for Rabah must have been much higher.
Battle of Kousséri
In 1899 Rabah had at his disposal 10,000 men among infantry and cavalry, all provided with rifles (mostly obsolete, except for 400 rifles of newer make), plus a great number of auxiliaries equipped with lances or arcs. He kept garrisons at Baggara and Karnak Logone.
In 1899, Rabih received in Dikoa the French explorer Ferdinand de Béhagle. The talks between them degenerated, and Béhagle was arrested. On July 17, Lieutenant Bretonnet, who had been sent by France against Rabih, was killed with most of his men at Togbao, at the edge of the Chari River, in present-day Sarh. Rabih gained three cannons from this victory (which the French recaptured at Kousséri) and ordered his son Fadlallah, who he had left in Dikoa, to hang Béhagle.
In response, a French column proceeding from Gabon and led by Émile Gentil, supported by the steamboat Leon Blot, confronted Rabih at Kouno at the end of the year.
 Even if the French were repulsed with losses, this did not prevent them from continuing and taking Kousséri. Here, they combined with the Lamy column, which had arrived from Algeria, and the Joalland-Meynier column, which had marched from Niger. Lamy assumed command of the combined forces.
The final showdown between Rabih and the French took place on April 22, 1900. The French forces disposed of 700 men, plus the 600 riflemen and 200 cavalry provided by the allied Baguirmians. Leaving Kousséri in three columns, the French attacked Rabih's camp. Although the commander Lamy was killed in the ensuing battle, Rabih's forces were overwhelmed and, while fleeing across the Chari River, Rabih was killed.
With Rabih's defeat, his empire rapidly disintegrated. A year later his son Fadlallah was defeated and killed, while his chief vassal, Mohammed al-Senussi, was murdered in 1911 at French instigation. All Rabih's territories fell into French hands, except for Bornu which went to Britain

atlantic