Originally Posted by
A. P. Hill
To: All Artillery Batteries
From: A.P. Hill
Once again, I find myself having to apologize to the community for my sins.
To begin with, I am responsible for the changes in all the Orders of Battle for the Company Tool, not just the Artillery. I was handed the original database for the C.T. edited it and also appended to it. I worked with what I was given and thought I did the best I could do with it within those confines.
I agree with all of you, it’s not perfect, not yet. But units that were missing have been now officially incorporated into the C.T., and some that were not fully fleshed out were. And others that were errantly placed were removed.
This program, previously nonexistent in other avenues before WoR, (as far as I know,) was a “first of” composition. FancySweetroll, the original coder of the C.T. did a great job for a first time effort of writing something this complicated, and not having any previous efforts of other’s work before him to model from. In my mind he's a genius.
However, after I got working on the rosters and we discussed in great detail some of the things that I considered to be missing information and needed information, we both agreed that when he first set out on this task, he may have been unaware of the enormity of the various ways organizations could and should be presented, and therefore was somewhat handicapped by that lack of knowledge beforehand when coding.
Some of the errant names of commanders could well be a fault of the limitation that was put into the various branches programming due to the handicapped lack of full understanding before. I again apologize for this mix up.
As you may know, most Federal Batteries are arranged in Regimental formations with each battery being an independent company of that regiment, much like the infantry and the cavalry. The Confederacy wasn’t as fortunate to have such an organization except in one or two cases, due to lack of material and personnel, so many times we find Confederate artillery to be a conglomeration of several individual batteries, and no one official military way to define them.
So the mix we have at the moment is going to have to be asked to be acceptable for the time being, please.
So as you can see, programming for both Union and Confederate artillery may have to differ from each other as well, and not only be different than the infantry setup. It may be multiple databases may need to be created if we can’t work all the data into one.
It’s just that space was not provided to display all the information as you the players would prefer on the public pages. I am also aware of some misplacements of battery commander’s names that need shuffled around. This too will be addressed in time, again I ask that you please work with what you have for now, knowing it'll get better in time.
I get the idea that many would like to see, (as examples,) “1st New York Light Artillery, Battery A,” or “1st Battery, Richmond Howitzers” designations on your public documents. And I also understand that when on the field, commanders referred to the various batteries via the current commander’s Surname before the battery, in which case the two examples above become: Wever’s Battery, or McCarthy’s Battery. So when attempting to combine these methods, I was presented with the lack of enough space in the programming to provide all the combinations. But the information is there.
A reading of much history, first person, quoted diaries, and the like, as well as various battle maps, provide the adequate defense for the Surname of the battery commander preceding the Battery designation, and not the official military designation.
Very rarely do you read a history where a commander, when asking for the nearest battery, was presented with the full military designation “1st Pennsylvania Light Artillery, Battery F.” It was more often, and quite literally, provided in terms of “Matthew’s Battery.” The reason being, the commander already knew that Matthew commanded the 1st Pennsylvania Artillery, Battery F, from the relationship they would have by being brigaded together by higher command and formation of the armies.
Again, I ask that you not rely entirely upon unit histories. Unit histories, while informative and beyond doubt true of the organizations actions, are considered somewhat biased in its military descriptive designation or presentation, of the organizational name.
As has been suggested already, the C.T. will be revisited for editing and modifying. Yeah it’s going to be a while before the C. T. gets a re-visitation due to work out the foibles, or to even get FancySweetroll to release his original programming so it can be modified outside of his personal attention and then re-presented for approval before releasing to the community.
But I assure you as things move on and time becomes available or permission is granted, the C.T. will see a visitation and a restructuring. The C.T. is a living document, it’s not cut and dried. I will also assure you that your equipment when it is in that state where it can be player controlled, will be labeled, and lettered properly. But that time is not now.
So I ask for patience and understanding. Thank you.
Respectfully
Powell
) But other examples would be battery L. AKA Rochester Union Greys
Reply With Quote
)
