The Leister House (Meade's HQ) Part 1

The Leister House, or Meade's HQ as it is now often called was the home of the widow Lydia Leister, located a mile from the centre of Gettysburg down the Taneytown Rd.

The photo above, now in the Library of Congress collection, was taken only days after the battle, as the horse carcasses that litter the field bear witness. This image will be invaluable in an accurate representation to scale. Note the dark window frames and door.

This second image shows the house in better detail. According to the photographer it was taken during the battle itself, although the density of foliage on the trees doesn't seem to compare with the first image. Note the faded clap board on the near side, and again the darker window frames. I assume the outbuilding is the smokehouse mentioned in period descriptions.

On my last trip, I took a number of photos, which I could compare with these period images and the scale drawings from the LOC website.


The house today, which has been restored to its original appearance. Note the window frames are now painted white, and I am not sure as to whether the porch window (left of photo) is present in the earlier wetplate images.

This view from the rear of the house (taken between 1874 and 1888) shows another larger extension, added in the 1870's. Strangely when Leister sold the property to the Battlefield Memorial Association, she removed the extension and attached it to her new house.

These changes over time show the difficulty in returning the property to it's original state. However, by using these sources, it is possible to form pretty complete picture of how the place looked in 1863.

Roman Auxiliary Cornicen & CS Firing Line WIP

Back to the painting table, with a day off! Unfortunately most of the time was spent undercoating and putting on base layers, which is not terrifically exciting. I did however, start to paint my first Perry plastic infantryman. In comparison to their Foundry output, the new figures are more slender & truer in terms of proportion. I will suspend judgement until I've painted a few, but I am a little concerned about some of the detailing, for example around the hands. I haven't started on the metal sculpts, but they look as good as their AWI output.

This miniature (from the Foundry Roman Auxilia command pack) has been in a semi painted state for a while, and I finally finished him off. Strangely the face was the last part I painted, usually it's the other way around. Black enamel undercoat, with the usual mix of Vallejo, Foundry, Citadel and Plaka paints. Note that in the photo, the wolf pelt looks slightly 'flat', but I have a feeling this is a side effect of the Dullcote being applied before the paint had actually dried.

The Cornu (horn) was interesting to paint, starting with old style Citadel 'tin bitz' and 'brazen brass', then Vallejo copper and Liquitex gold highlights. This didn't look quite right, so I used some brown ink to blend the metallics and give it more 'weight'. The ink was then wiped from the body of the horn to reveal the gold highlights. Having managed to finish this example off in a fairly short time, I'm tempted to paint up an entire unit of Romans to see how quickly this can be achieved. I certainly have enough unpainted legionnaires that need to exit the leadpile.

This CS veteran was also finished off today, and is one of my favourites from the Foundry range. The brown leather cartridge box and brogans help to break up the grey tones. This will be added to a firing line stand - with the remaining miniatures hopefully being finished over the weekend.

Battlefield visit

Recently, I was lucky enough to spend a couple of days wandering around the battlefield at Gettysburg. Starting at the new museum, which is a lot larger than the old one, I sat through their new film (not recommended for anyone with any basic knowledge of the war) then went off to the Lutheran Seminary, walking down to McPherson's ridge looking at the position of Buford's defense on the first day. Unfortunately we didn't get to go into the Adams County Historical Society which is based at the Seminary.We then followed the path of the collapsed Union line as it retreated through the town towards Evergreen Cemetery, and ending the day at Culp's Hill observation tower.

Day two started from the museum again, moving towards the Leister House (Meade's HQ), where I snapped some photos in order to reconstruct it for the wargames table.

This is the rear view of the barn. Wow. I bet you wish your holidays were as exciting as mine :)

Amazingly, the Library of Congress http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/index.html
has architectural drawings of many of the most important historical buildings on the battlefield including the Leister house and barn (part of the Historic American Buildings Survey) so there's no excuse for inaccuracy.

We then went towards the Pennsylvania monument where some re-enactors were doing a demonstration. These well fed federals, seen doing rifle drills above, were accompanied by their Rebel counterparts stationed by the Longstreet monument. Strangely, someone was actually getting married on the site, with a Confederate honour guard! It is always good to talk to these enthusiasts, as they always have interesting tales to tell, even if one felt compelled to apologise for one of their 'pards' who had brought along an 'authentic' 1860s deckchair for the Reb camp...

Onwards to Little Round Top through the Peach Orchard and Wheatfield, back up to the Virginia Monument and across to the Angle in the footsteps of the Pickett Pettigrew charge. A lot of ground covered, and some very sore feet, but I could have done another month without covering the same ground twice. This all too brief trip has given me a taste for a longer holiday later in the year.

As well as the new Perry miniatures that need to be glued together, the Leister House will be a first terrain piece. I'll leave the Seminary until later - that's going to be a project in itself! I should probably then do the McPherson barn. So many plans. so little time...