Steampunk Soldiers: Uniforms & Weapons from the Age of Steam
4.5/5
()
About this ebook
Philip Smith
Philip Smith is associate chair of liberal arts and professor of English at Savannah College of Art and Design. He is author of Reading Art Spiegelman and Shakespeare in Singapore: Performance, Education, and Culture. He is coeditor of The Struggle for Understanding: Elie Wiesel’s Literary Works and Gender and the Superhero Narrative, published by University Press of Mississippi.
Read more from Philip Smith
Walking Through Walls: A Memoir Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Beautiful Landscapes AI Image Prompts: 600+ Stable Diffusion Dalle-3 Midjourney AI Art Generation Examples Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsIs it Revival? or Apostasy?: A Biblical Evaluation of Today’s Evangelical Christianity Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWhy War?: The Cultural Logic of Iraq, the Gulf War, and Suez Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Billion Bootstraps: Microcredit, Barefoot Banking, and The Business Solution for Ending Poverty Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Making Computerized Provider Order Entry Work Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSteampunk Soldiers: The American Frontier Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Jesse Washington Ellison Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPrinting terror: American horror comics as Cold War commentary and critique Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Ladybird and the Centipede Down Under Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsFire in the Forest: Dedicated to Those Who Have Fallen in the Fight Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Related to Steampunk Soldiers
Related ebooks
Steampunk Soldiers: The American Frontier Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Reality's Edge: Cyberpunk Skirmish Rules Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsKonflikt ’47: Weird World War II Wargames Rules Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5On the Seven Seas: Wargames Rules for the Age of Piracy and Adventure c.1500–1730 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsRagnarok: Heavy Metal Combat in the Viking Age Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSeaforth Lades:Revised Edition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Konflikt '47: Defiance Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Scrappers: Post-Apocalyptic Skirmish Wargames Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Xenos Rampant: Science Fiction Wargame Battles Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsCastles in the Sky: A Wargame of Flying Battleships Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsElf Warfare Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Of Gods and Mortals: Mythological Wargame Rules Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Oathmark: Oathbreakers Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Fistful of Kung Fu: Hong Kong Movie Wargame Rules Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Burrows & Badgers: A Skirmish Game of Anthropomorphic Animals Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5King Arthur Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Pikeman’s Lament: Pike and Shot Wargaming Rules Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Victory's Knife Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsOne-Hour Wargames: Practical Tabletop Battles for those with Limited Time and Space Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Mad Dogs With Guns: Wargaming in the Gangster Era Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5War of the Worlds: The Anglo-Martian War of 1895 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Stargrave: Science Fiction Wargames in the Ravaged Galaxy Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Pulp!: Skirmish Adventure Wargaming Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWargaming on a Budget: Gaming Constrained by Money or Space Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5En Garde!: Swashbuckling Skirmish Wargames Rules Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Zombies: A Hunter’s Guide Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Gaslands: Post-Apocalyptic Vehicular Combat Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Dracula's America: Shadows of the West: A Wargame Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Fighting Sail: Fleet Actions 1775–1815 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Dwarf Warfare Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5
Science Fiction For You
This Is How You Lose the Time War Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Flowers for Algernon Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Camp Zero: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I Am Legend Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Wool: Book One of the Silo Series Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Kindred: A Graphic Novel Adaptation Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Cryptonomicon Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I Who Have Never Known Men Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Dust: Book Three of the Silo Series Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Shift: Book Two of the Silo Series Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Psalm for the Wild-Built Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Silo Series Collection: Wool, Shift, Dust, and Silo Stories Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Stories of Ray Bradbury Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Ocean at the End of the Lane: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Sarah J. Maas: Series Reading Order - with Summaries & Checklist Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Annihilation: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Institute: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Troop Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5How High We Go in the Dark: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Alchemist: A Graphic Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Warrior of the Light: A Manual Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Rendezvous with Rama Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Brandon Sanderson: Best Reading Order - with Summaries & Checklist Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Frankenstein: Original 1818 Uncensored Version Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Bradbury Stories: 100 of His Most Celebrated Tales Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Prophet Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Perelandra: (Space Trilogy, Book Two) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for Steampunk Soldiers
6 ratings0 reviews
Book preview
Steampunk Soldiers - Philip Smith
INTRODUCTION
In this modern world of personal computers, cybernetic prosthetics, and supersonic train travel, where wars are as often fought in cyberspace as in the real world, it can often be hard to imagine a past where machines were loud, clunky, and inefficient. And yet, that was exactly the case in the first four decades after the great meteor shower of 1862, which gave the world the miracle of hephaestium. This new element, which burned hotter, longer, and brighter than anything previously found, launched a new age of invention. The Great Powers of the northern hemisphere, who bore the brunt of the meteor shower and thus reaped the rewards of vast hephaestium deposits in its aftermath, embraced the new sciences and technologies made possible by this strange and wonderful element. Many of these advances proved to be impractical or hopelessly flawed, but others, quite literally, changed the world. Of course, such a valuable new resource also gave the nations of the world, the Great Powers and the smaller states seeking to survive alongside them, a new reason to take up arms. In this ‘early steam era’ numerous conflicts, from small skirmishes to full-scale wars, flared up all over the globe, and this fighting only pushed development further.
It was a wondrous age, not only for military invention, but also for military pageantry. Soldiers marched in bright and colourful uniforms, enhanced by the gleaming steel and brass of their weaponry and equipment. They were supported by new evolutions of war machines: landships, walkers, submarines, and dirigibles. The European press glorified these new wars and their combatants, publishing lurid accounts of dashing heroics and far-flung adventures. Although the reality of war as a brutal, violent affair had not changed, since most of it happened in faraway places with strange names, the man on the street delighted in reading all about it. One such man was Miles Vandercroft, a name that, until the spring of 2012, was consigned to history.
In the time that we have worked for Osprey Publishing, we have been contacted by hundreds, if not thousands, of people purporting to have discovered unpublished manuscripts that could turn our understanding of history on its head. Most are simply over-enthusiastic, though some are outright charlatans, claiming to have found Rommel’s secret diary or the plans for the British invasion of Iceland. A few, however, really have unearthed something special.
Such was the case with Samantha Callaghan, who sent Osprey a message regarding a collection of military paintings by her great-great-uncle, Miles Vandercroft. She did not seem to really know what the collection was, describing it as ‘pretty’ and ‘beautiful’ – words that are not often heard in the world of military history publishing. Intrigued, but not expecting anything of great value, we agreed to meet her. As it turned out, Samantha presented us with something truly unique. The collection consisted of a chaotic mass of papers, canvasses, and notebooks. Almost immediately, we realized that it was a true treasure trove, page after page of gloriously detailed illustrations of soldiers from the late 19th century and hand-written notes indicating that these studies had been made from first-hand experience.
Further research and consultation with experts in early steam era warfare confirmed that nothing else quite like this collection was known to exist. Alongside depictions of some of the famous regiments of the period, some of the technology and uniforms that Miles Vandercroft had illustrated were previously unknown, or only associated with vague historical references or broken artefacts. For the next year and a half, we devoted ourselves to researching Miles Vandercroft and the soldiers he had painted. Of the artist himself, we discovered disappointingly little. We know that he was born in Sheffield in 1866, the son of a civil engineer. In 1885, he attended the Portsmouth and Gosport School of Science and Arts but, although he studied there for several years, he does not seem to have completed his course. Instead, in 1887, he boarded a boat bound for France. For the next eight years of his life we know nothing about Miles, save what can be gleaned from the notes accompanying his illustrations. In 1895, he returned to England and apparently lived a quiet life as a landscape painter (though we have been unable to locate any of these paintings), before dying in a train crash near Crewe in 1903. He never married, and what few possessions he owned passed to his younger brother and, through him, down to Samantha.
In the century since his death, history has almost completely forgotten Miles Vandercroft – until today. Now, we are proud to present this collection of his works. Aside from placing the images into a logical order, and providing a brief introduction to each section, the work remains entirely that of the artist, including the notes that accompany each figure. We encourage readers to remember that these paintings seem to have