American Civil War Game Club (ACWGC)

Dispatches & Messages to the Front

Last Update: December 16, 2019

Messages from 2019

"Key to Corinth" by Keith Rocco

December 16, 2019

Early Winter Greetings from the Chief of the Armies of the CSA

Officers of the Confederate States of America (CSA) Armies,

It has been over a year since a message was sent to the CSA at large from me, but I wanted to bring everyone up to speed on what we've been up to. There's been a few command changes & additions in the last year. The big one was General Al Hovey retired as the Commander of the Army of Tennessee (AoT) back to brigade command after serving as the Army Commander since 2013. Al had overseen the transition of the various armies in the Western Theater of the Confederate States of America (CSA) from his command of the Army of Alabama (AoA) and the consolidation with the Army of the Mississippi (AotM) to the the Army of the West (AotW) and finally to the present force of the Army of Tennessee (AoT). Al had also served as the Army of Alabama (AoA) Chief of Staff & the Western Theater Adjutant General. In total Al dilligently served the CSA & in particular the Western Theater for nine years and has earned a much deserved retirement!

General Cameron McOmish has become the new Commander of the Army of Tennessee (AoT) and General David W. 'Dee Dubya' Mallory, who returned to the Club & the CSA this year has been appointed as the Chief of Staff (CoS) of the Army of Tennessee (AoT). General Mallory comes with a load of previous CSA & Club leadership from year prior including serving as the Chief of the Armies (CoA) of the Confederate States of America (CSA) from 2005-2006 but also as the President of the ACWGC from 2006 - 2010, so he's no stranger to the duties and is also well known by the Club membership at large. He & Cam have been working on several organizational tasks related to the Army of Tennessee (AoT). It's great to have Dee Dubya back and it was good timing to help make the transition of leadership of the Army of Tennessee (AoT) successful & smooth.

Another officer returning to the colors this year was Brigadier General Larry Mills. He rejoined in January and has made significant & positive contributions to the CSA & the Club since his return. Commandant of the Vicksburg Military Institute (VMI) General Nick Kunz worked with Colonel Mills when he returned and noted Larry's interest in helping however he could in the Club, in particular to generate more activity. Since then Larry & Nick have successfully run the Brother On Brother (BOB) Tournament for the CSA and with it's recent conclusion are getting ready to launch the Clash of Titans Tournament next, which will be a Club wide tournament. Larry's skills have also been very helpful on the administrative side of the CSA. He's helped me get a number of tasks completed and provided updates to awards for Army of Northern Virginia (ANV) officers. He also serves as a Trainer at VMI and also as the Division Commander of 1st (Mahone's) Division, III (Swamp Legion) Corps in the ANV. For all of his service he's been appointed as the Chief Signal Officer of the Signals Bureau on the CSA Command Staff with the duties of continued Tournament development & design as well as making sure new officers are settled into the Club and have games after they graduated from VMI. Larry's been a huge help in giving the members a great year of fun!

I'm personally glad to have the help of General Mallory & Brigadier General Mills in helping out with the administrative side of the CSA! We're all benefitting from their work.

A number of CSA officers recieved with promotions and honored with awards from the CSA National Medals & Awards. The Promotions & Awards Register lists these:

February 2019
March 2019
April 2019
November 2019

As well as several forum posts have been made for these as well:

April 2019 (ANV Line Officer)
April 2019 (General Officer)
November 2019 (AoT Line Officer)
November 2019 (General Officer) I
November 2019 (General Officer) II
Honors for Brigadier General Larry Mills

The Vicksburg Military Institute (VMI) graduated 4 officers in 2019 under the excellent tutelage of Commandant General Nick Kunz, Dean of Cadets Lieutenant General Tom Phillips and Brigadier General Larry Mills as well as the other training staff.

In the next month or two I hope to issue another round of Chief of the Armies (CoA) Discretionary Points, which I realized hasn't happened in a little while. I also hope to do another round of CSA National Medals & Awards similar to the way it was done in 2018, grouping the individual awards in forum posts by divisions.

I hope this finds everyone doing well! As always, I am open to all comments & suggestions from the membership at large. You can email me anytime at eric2900@aol.com or my other email address: acwgc.csa.coa@gmail.com

Have a great Holiday Season & New Years!

General Scott Ludwig
Commanding Officer & Chief of the Armies (CoA) of the Confederate States of America (CSA)

Scott Ludwig