ACW battle for Martin's Farm, Tennessee, Aug 1862
We finished up the two day battle for Martin's Farm last night in M'ville. It was a tough fight as the Union forces commanded by BG Bing and BG Malcolm aggressively attacked the Rebels commanded by MG JD.
We played using Black Powder and our new "House Rules" for woods (6" movement in woods and 1d6 roll to check disorder. On a roll of 6 after moving in woods the unit goes disordered) and the ACW OB found on the BP files page. I did make few changes to the OB mostly to the Artillery. Made both Union and Confederate Art equal stats as I do not believe the Rebels Art was "that" much better than the yanks?
On the first day of battle the Rebels were able to move in quickly get one BDE in defensive position in the woods (only 1Regt out of 4 went disordered while moving in the woods) while his 2nd BDE advanced down the church road sending the DIV Art battery down the road in the woods to tie the two BDE flanks to each other. It was clear the Rebels were going to fight a defensive battle!
The Union despite having rolled for a "Military Genius" (CMD roll of 10)the 1st Union BDE had trouble moving onto the battlefield while the 2nd BDE with 1 green unit quickly advanced toward the Rebs dug-in in the woods. After 5 turns and 4 bad command rolls with much of the 1st BDE out of command BG Bing finally had his battle line ready for the assault to start.
The next turn the Rebels struck first blood when it forced the 1st BDE Art Battery to route. BG Bing ordered both BDE to assault and the battle became a sea saw as nether side gave much ground and the day ended with both sides in
battle line with about 2/3 of the units shaken, disordered or both. Both sides lost 1 Regt and the Union 1 Art battery. The Yanks 1st BDE Commander was also killed leading a charge. (Another house rule was adapted where we roll 2d6 for replacement CMD Rating (2=5, 3=6, 4=7, 5-10=8, 11=9, 12=10) The replacement BDE was an 8)
The next morning (last night) both commands rec'd a fresh BDE and again the Rebels arrived quickly and marched down the "wheat field" road behind the 2nd BDE. The Rebels took advantage of the lull in battle to rally many of the shaken units.
The union BG Malcolm arrived on the first turn but failed a BDE order and was only able to move two units on in column. Seeing that my reinforcement were slow in coming I stayed in position an rallied a few shaken unit too.
The next turn the Rebels unleashed devastating artillery barrage with two batteries and sent another Regt form the 1st BDE running off the board. Again BG Malcolm failed a command roll and his BDE continued to limp into the fight so BG Bing (Military Genius) ordered and all out assault with his two BDEs. BG Bing lead one of the 1st BDE Regt into the fight supported by two other Regt's . The rebel poured in tremendous closing fire and after agreat HtoH roll sent the 1st BDE back. The 2nd BDE with a green unit did much better and fought to a draw with the rebels in the woods. The next turn the Confederate fired canister with
two batteries butchering the 82st NY and killing the Divisional Commander BG Bing (His replacement was rolled for a arrived the next turn with CMD roll 6! He was a Military Idiot!)
The next 4-5 turns the Union kept rallying the shaken units and ordering multiple assaults while BG Malcolm kept failing CMD rolls. It took his BDE at least 6 turns to finally set up a defensive position behind the 1st BDE! After multiple charge attempts the 1st BDE was ready to break and MG JD ordered his rebels to advance and charge.breaking over 1//2 of the Union 1st BDE and forcing
them to become a "Broken BDE." The 1st BDE remaining two Regt's and BDE battery started to slowly withdrawal behind the 3rd BDE. Losing their 2nd BDE commander to musket fire.
Over in the woods the Union 2nd BDE continued to charge, fall back and charge again. The BDE's "green" Regt made 4 separate into the woods, eventually forcing the Rebels to fall back. But the heroic efforts of the Yanks was too little to late as the New DIV CMD ordered a withdrawal from the field of battle.
The 2nd days fight ended in a complete Confederate victory. The Union lost 6 Regt, 1 Art Batt , 2 BDE Co's and one DIV Co. The Confederates lost 3 Regt and a Art Battery.
Congratulations goes to Maj Gen JD for leadership and superior tactics. GEN Bragg mention him in dispatch to Jeff Davis.
The Rebels did give "kudos" to the Green 5th NH as they stayed in the whole fight. They lead and survived 6 assaults and supported 3 more into the woods. The Confederate General, MG JD officially lifted their "Green" status and made them into regulars.
The house rules for woods worked great. Only 6 Regt's went into disorder while moving through woods.unfortunately one was my sole "Veteran" unit who went disorder twice while moving through the woods and one of my 2nd BDE Regt's went
disordered while charging into the woods. The Rebels had two Regt's and one Art Batt go disorder due to woods movement. The Replacement leader rule also worked well.I do not agree with the BP rule that the new Cmdr be one less rating than the leader that was killed. This gives some spice and allows for those "military geniuses" to be promoted?
We all agreed that BP works well for ACW.we do miss some of the historical parts of games like Fire & Fury or Johnny Reb but with a few house rules like "Rebel Yell" (on a HtoH draw Rebels get a 4+ roll do win due to rebel yell)the system works.
Ron
