All of these field defences and gun emplacements covered in my last post needed men to construct them. In the 18th Century the British Royal Engineers were all officers and they relied on infantry or civilians for their labour force.
I had already made two Infantry Sappers when I made my Siege Works, but now I thought I would make some more. These were originally on mud coloured bases, but I decided to change them to green.
In my last post I described how the Jacobites captured Fort George at Inverness in February 1746. They then moved south to besiege Fort Augustus, which was at the southern end of Loch Ness. This was a “modern” Vauban style fortress, with four bastions, but it suffered from a couple of fundamental flaws in its design. Here is an old print of it.
The “modern” Fort George is a Vauban style fortification to the north of Inverness, but this was built after the Jacobite Rebellion. In 1746, Fort George was the name given to the old medieval castle guarding the bridge to the south of Inverness. I decided I needed a Medieval castle to represent this, and explained how I created it in my last post.
The castle reverted to its original name of Inverness Castle after the Jacobite Rebellion and was considerably expanded in the 19th Century. However I found an old print of it in 1746 and realised that at that time it was mainly a keep plus curtain walls extending out along the banks of the River Ness towards the town.
All of the 19th Century extensions were built on the ground in front of the castle from this view.
I like having Logistic units for my Wargames Armies. They may not get a lot of use but come in handy for some scenarios. The British Army used a half battalion of Highlanders to guard their baggage train at both Prestonpans and Culloden. The Battle of Clifton was fought as a delaying action to give the Jacobites time to withdraw their artillery and logistic train over the hills.
In most 18th and 19th Century Armies, logistics were organised by commissaries. The post of Commissary-General was normally a civilian or semi-civilian one. However the Jacobite Commissary-General, Colonel Lachlan MacLachlan, was very much a soldier, and died at the end of Culloden, leading his clan in a charge. Here is my model of him. He is a highly converted Strelets Napoleonic British Light Dragoon.
I have nearly finished my modular siege works, although I have fallen slightly behind my original schedule due to other distractions (setting up a website for a Veterans’ Association). My siege works should now be finished by late November.
Once it is completed, I plan to show a whole siege. My only 18th Century figures are British and Jacobite, and there were no sieges involving major trench works during that campaign. 
I have therefore decided to base my siege demonstration on the Napoleonic era. However I had no suitable siege engineers, so I have now made some British Napoleonic ones. This is Lieutenant Colonel Sir Richard Fletcher, who commanded Wellington’s Engineers at most of the Peninsular War sieges. He has a map, as do all of my engineer officers, and is pointing out work to be done.
Rod's Wargaming 