"Has anyone ever gamed John Brown's raid on Harper's Ferry?" Topic

What rules would you use?

What figures would you use?

What objectives would JB have?
Would it be to hit the arsenal, snatch some weapons and run?
Would it be to stay and make "a statement"?
Was his demise a "moral victory", and within the scope of a game's victory conditions?

Haven't yet…but I will use the 1/32nd set from Replicants (British toy soldier company).

See link

They have a complete playset with cardboard buildings, too, which I got…

See link

I know that's no help on rules, but there IS a playset!

Do they have a Flashman mini?

A Flashman mini in this scale, for any era , would be a must have for me.

I would use TSATF. For marines since they were in the 1839 forage cap and overcoats you could use redoubt ACW in overcoats with seperate heads. They make heads with the 1839 cap. For civilians various western ranges would be useful plus "Gangs of NY" figures.You could get some Dixon ACW militia types in shako.You could just do the assault on the station house or maybe do some role playing as Howard Whitehouse does for his games. It would be a great game for Historicon next year.You would need lots of buildings but there are cardboard ones available .

A few years ago I saw a gentleman run a game of the raid at Little Wars in Chicago several times. He used Dixon miniatures militia for most of the troops and used Band of Brothers for the rules.

Those Replicant figures are way cool. John Brown and Lee (in Federal service!) are great. I'll have to pick those up, along with the Marines. Just to have them.

I haven't gamed the raid on Harper's Ferry, but I've read about it and given the matter of gaming it some thought.
To the best of my recollection, it worked out as two games. In the first, Brown and company attack Harper's Ferry. This was actually fairly successful initially, with them taking over most of the town. Of course, it helped that contrary to Hollywood and all our most cherished American legends, practically nobody in town had any guns. Brown needs to capture the arsenal (which he did), get his wagons up and fill them with weapons (which didn't happen), and head for the hills. He had teams deployed to block communication between the town and the rest of the country. These had various degrees of success, and eventually the militia was called out, and Brown was trapped in the arsenal area.
The second game would be Lee, Stuart and the marines attacking the building where Brown and company had holed up.
I can see using TSATF for the second battle, but I think the first needs something more truly skirmish in nature, and prehaps some role playing.
Brown claimed that he didn't actually fight, though he did capture a sword which had belonged to George Washington (or perhaps some other prominent early Virginian)from a local civilian and carried it for the rest of the battle.
John Brown by W. E. B. Du Bois has a good description of Brown's plans, including names for many of the characters. It also provides quite a bit of detail on the initial part of the operation.
Cheap weasel that I am, I'd be inclined to try buying a box of the Perry plastic ACW infantry and see if I couldn't make something for most of Brown's party using the heads with hats.
Grelber

Oh, and once you get the historical version of the raid down, you can move on to the movie version, which features a cavalry charge!
Actually, I think this would be fun at a convention, allowing you to use your scenery several times.
Grelber

A few years ago I saw a gentleman run a game of the raid at Little Wars in Chicago several times. He used Dixon miniatures militia for most of the troops and used Band of Brothers for the rules

The rule set was "Brother Against Brother" and John Brown's forces were strengthened a little more than in reality with several units of abolishionists and freed slaves to balence the forces.

The idea was to run around the table storming buildings to collect crates and confront local militia. The scenario was timed to allow John Brown maximum success until he needed to leave the table with the goods. That was when the federal cavalry arrived to put and end to this nonsense.

So if John Brown and friends got bogged down confronting the militia or couldn't storm a building in a timely manner, he was going to be in a load of trouble towards the end.

I did this game a couple of times at Historicon. H.G. Walls did the buildings. We used Bro against Bro. Now I would use Song of Drums and Shakos.

I did this as four segments. First JB arrives and fights townies. Next B & O Railroad militia arrives. Third Maryland and Virginia militias attack. Lastly the Marines take over.

JB, townies, B&O are civilians. Back when I did this not so many available, but now a glut, as noted above. GONY And western figs work. For militias I used Foundry Franco Prussian French and Dixon Acw militia.

What are JB objectives? Historically he expected to capture weapons, start a slave uprising, and move into the hills to wage guerilla war. As a side light he wanted to get the sword given to Geo Washington by Fed great, now owned by GW grand nephew. I never have gotten the overall objectives right. Military- political – social/financial???

no up rising was really possible but adding a what if of slaves joining, and more euro-Americans arriving makes game less of an Alamo-like scenario- foregone conclusion.

Get National Parks Service booklet and disk. Also book, Purge the Land With Blood

My game – Burn the Town and have Blood

To make game more interesting to HF side I give command in turn to each player for each segment. One player commands townies, another the railroad militia when it arrives, etc. The other players take some figs in that segment

sent from my iPad

John--I recently finished reading "Patriotic Treason: John Brown and the Soul of America." It is a very interesting bio. Or, if you want, you can skip straight to the Harper's Ferry chapters for gaming information.

Regiment Games--Thanks for the Replicant info. I didn't know they made anything for the raid. I'd go 1/32 as well.

I would stay with 28mm, since that is my favorite scale.
However, I was fascinated to see that there is a 54mm "playset".

There are some photos located at Terragenesis of the game put on by Bob and Herb. Great looking stuff!
link

Bob, out of curiosity what changes would you make to Song of Drums and Shakos?

Barry, thanks for posting that, I have no pictures of the event. That was a fantastic layout. Lots of good figures too.

I have only read SoDaS and not yet gotten to the table. The Raid scenario is not so good for BAB because of the small number of figures. Raiders start with 21 vs 15 towns people. Then the B & O Militia arrive with 20 more, then the State Militias. Even adding the "what-if" abolitionists and up-rising slaves, the numbers are small. By the time REL arrives with the Marines, there are usually 5- 10 raiders left. Just as in history, that part is anti-climatic. Historically, Brown just holed up in the Engine house and tried to negotiate himself out, seems to have wanted to protect the hostages. Anytime any raider came into the open, they were shot out of hand.

I have read a number of books, maybe all, on the subject and cannot understand what happened to Brown in the midst of the raid to take the "fight" out of him. He went from "Burn the Town and Have Blood" to cowering in the engine house and asking JEB Stuart (who came along with Lee) to be allowed to leave with his men and hostages.

The game is interesting only when the "what-if" conditions are used.

A local friend knows the SoDaS rules and I am hoping he will help with this.