AN INTERLUDE: THE GREAT "WARGAME" PICTURE MYSTERY

A recent run of posts in the blogosphere harkening back to "ye goode olde days" caused me to pull out my venerable copy of Peter Young's The Wargame, one of the foundational texts in my own misguided hobby development. This brings me around to the subject of this post, the stuff of which is not nostalgia. On no, dear reader! Instead, we are seeking to answer a great riddle imbedded in the aforementioned tome.  Unlike Poirot, our little gray cells have not been able to crack this case. Whilst squinting at the book again--and making no further progress (again), it came to me that I might tap the collective genius of the interwebs to crack the enigma, albeit at the cost of admitting my own failure.  Thus, after these many years, I am officially admitting my own inability to resolve the conundrum and offering it to the world. For those who are intrepid enough to delve into this puzzle, I bid you read on.  Fellow sleuths may gain a closer examination of the artifacts in the case by clixing pix for BIG PIX in this dossier.  And now, let us begin our story...

...Upon re-reading this favorite book, I was once again drawn to the chapter on the Battle of Saratoga, written by Aram Bakshian, Jr (coincidentally, he of the Feb 13 Blog Post).  Doing so, I once again thumbed to the above two-page spread on pages 74 and 75, the caption for which is a potted observation about the wooded terrain and the difficulty of British formed troops operating in same, with no specific reference to the scene in the picture.  So far, so good: an interesting and colorful vignette illustrating some general point...

...until, however, one looks closer and notices that there is a figure in the tree. The mystery grows: the figure is partially obscured but seems to be in shirt sleeves and trousers, generally a visual code for Rebel/Yankee--but we can't be sure. Then we notice that this enigma is suspended above a group of British officers: a coincidence?  Furthermore, the fellow's orientation is inverted: head-down (???). As if this isn't enough, the posture seems to indicate that the figure was modified for effect, the positioning of the legs in particular...

...Is he hiding? Hanging on? In the act of falling? Is he a British lookout? A Rebel eavesdropper?  Friend or foe? Has he been shot? Does anyone know he's up there? Although the caption is generic, the depiction seems to be idiosyncratic.  With no hint in the caption, we look further afield, but there is no allusion to an incident like this in the chapter. For those who don't have the book, here is a bit more information on the picture, for what it's worth. For one, the picture on pages 74 and 75 is only the right half a larger vignette, one that was actually used twice...

...Above you can see the left half of the same vignette.  This particular bit is a stand-alone placed on the opening page of the Saratoga chapter--with a different caption. You also get the distinct impression that there is a larger subject extending left and right out of the frames of both pictures.  I can think of two sources for this vignette: 

1) It could be from a museum, a historical site, or a diorama that was brought to one of the National Capital Military Figure Collector's shows or meetings (of which the author was an officer).  In these cases, there would have been an accompanying story--which probably included some context for the fellow in the tree.  That story might not have conveyed with the use of the image in the book, for whatever reason. This would at least give some kind of explanation, if not answer, to the scene. Unfortunately, the photo credit does not support this explanation.  These photos are simply credited to the book's photographer, Philip Stearns. It is worth pointing out that other external photo sources are credited. Thus, we would have to assume that the credit in this particular instance is less accurate than others (perhaps not too much of a leap to make).  Even then, though, we still don't have an answer for the tree-man (Perhaps to AWI enthusiasts this diorama is well known, and perhaps so, too, is the story of the tree-man?).

2) If we take the photo credit at face value, it would suggest that the vignette was not from some external source, but purposely composed and photographed for the book...but that brings us back around to the original puzzle: the missing explanation for the "strange fruit" in the tree.

The Meanderer: stumped by this complex puzzle.

Wise and worldly readers, is there one amongst you who can solve this riddle?

 Excelsior!