Baggage

Bit of a buy one, get two more free post today, kickstarting a new year.

Regular readers (hello all twenty of you) familiar with my Cannons for The Catholic Confederacy post will know a little about the state of Ireland's C17th roads. (TL;DR they were a bit pants). As a result of the rubbish roads, it is sort of inevitable that the Irish baggage train would be light carts and pack horses. But, as we know that they did haul demi-culverin around they would have been able to move heavier carts around too.

So here's my fledgling Irish baggage train: a heavy cart from Museum Minatures. Additional drum from Peter Pig, a Peter Pig dragoon horseholder (with a headswap) as a drover, a SteelFist drummer rounding the base off. I will be adding some light carts to my two Scottish armies and my Irish army at some point. With Magister Militum shutting up shop, I have managed to pick up the last three packs of pack horses in stock, and some Scots horseholders; hopefully, a buyer will be found soon. 

As I was placing an order at Museum, I also took the opportunity to replace the horse team of my gentleman's carriage with a Museum horse team. (I wasn't really happy with the original horse team from Essex.)

Coincidentally a new volume from Helion has dropped through my letter box. "Soldiers and Civilians, Transport and Provisions. Early Modern Military Logistics and Supply Systems during the British Civil Warts, 1638-1653" by Glenn W. Price. The title being so impressive and weighty that Helion had to upgrade the volume to a hardback.*

Dr Price looks at land and water transport, recruitment, and provisioning. I was more interested in looking at transport systems and logistical supply, rather than troop recruitment (which is covered in numerous other publications). Having a good working knowledge of the 'Mungeam Contracts' I was keen to learn how quickly the supplies from London could be transported to the NMA depot at Reading.

Complementing "Soldiers and Civilians..." is "Exceeding Toylsome. the Accounts of Waggonmaster General Thomas Richardson and the practice of logistics and supply in the earl of Essex's army 1642-1645" by Simon Marsh (Pike and Shot Society). Clearly C17th logistics demand exceedingly long titles.

A hardback version is also available from the P&S Society

If "Soldiers and Civilians..." provides the commentary, "Exceeding Toylsome" provides the transcribed references (and also a Parliamentarian heavy substantial commentary). Both are worthy contenders for a place on the bookshelf, but if you only have space for one I think I'd probably plump for "Exceeding Toylsome". "Soldiers and Civilians..." is the much nicer looking volume, having a clearly higher production budget.

Those of you building the army of the Earl of Essex now have a complete substantial library from which to research your army ("Old Robin's Foot", "Hey For Old Robin", "Chief Strength of the Army", the two volume "Train of Artillery of the Earl of Essex", and now "Exceeding Toylsome"). If only all field armies of the Wars were this well documented...

For transparency purposes, I purchased both books.

*As some authors have taken umbrage, I feel that I must point out that this is a purely facetious comment. It would be interesting to learn why some volumes are published in hardback, but the majority of Helion's Century of the Soldier series are softback. All I know is that it is messing up the aesthetic of my bookshelf. As is the recent variation in book size. But I digress...

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