Battle of Bing's Creek, August 1863. Mini AAR, 1 Sept 2013
Somewhere in Virginia…. JD and I got together over Labor Day weekend for a 1 on 1 Black Powder ACW game. As usual I built a battlefield and then looked on line for Order of Battles (OB). I looked in the Regimental F&F book and found a the 1862 battle of Iuka but then looked on the web and a found a RF&F scenario for the Gettysburg fight over the "Peach Orchard" with McLaws' Rebel Div of Longstreet's Corps attacking the Yankees and Birney's Div from III Corps. This worked out real as my 15mm Union Army is III Corps while the Rebels had to use troops from Heth's and Cleburne's two Div's to make up McLaws boys. And to my amazement the battlefield I set up was similar to the Peach Orchard map…except the creek was where Emmitsburg Pike was and a road was located in the same area as Plum Creek.
MG JD checks out the terrain near "Bing's Creek, VA";
The scenario is 12 turns with the victory condition sis if the Rebels break past "Bing's creek a minor victor and if one BDE breaks past the far road a major victory. If the Yankees holds the line along "Bings creek a major Union victory.
The Battle started with MG JD (McLaws) sending a note back to Longstreet telling him the terrain was too harsh and he will have trouble making his objective… The Corps commander wrote back telling him to "suck it up!"
MG JD deploys his troops
But in truth the terrain did hold up his attack and the only rebel troops to advance quickly was the "Veteran" SC Bde. After 2 turns they were so far ahead they halted in the copse of trees in front of a Yankee NY Bde. Artillery on both sides soon opened up with the devastating fire. But soon the Rebels were able to use the terrain to mask their moves and advanced forward.
The Yankee reinforcement were slow to advance too as the Reserve artillery BDE failed their first two command rolls and De Trobriand BDE only managed to advance one move a turn for the first 7 turns!
By turn 3 the action became hot as BG Graham Yankees (lead by a poured into the woods hitting Wofford's Bde in the center of the battlefield. This HtoH struggle went 2 turns before the 68th PA broke after their supporting Artillery failed to fire a "close" fire with out a hit (rolled 3 twos!) Despite the 68th PA and its support artillery breaking, BG Woffard ordered hi s rebel BDE to fall back due to massive casualties.
Yanks charge into woods
Over on the far right Barksdale Veteran SC attacked out to the woods and across Bing's Creek and it Brewster's NY Bde. Again the Rebels met a "green" Regt, the 120th NY. Both sides threw in supporting units and the BDE Commanders. Lucky for the Yanks the attacking South Carolinians went "disordered" as the charged across the creek. (House rule…any movement in or across terrain is ½ movement and the unit rolls 1d6. On a 6 it goes disordered) This Hand to hand (HtoH) is now in its 4 turn (we ended the game on turn 7 due to time) with the 120th NY still holding steady vs the Veteran southerners despite the rest of the NY BDE being "broken and falling back to safety! BG Barksdale was also killed in the continuing melee.
Veteran Rebels vs green Yanks!
Over on the far flank Kershaw and Semmes rebel BDE's despite terrible command rolls and after 6 turns of maneuver finally order a charge in attack column at the 4 batteries of Artillery and the 99th PA holding a fence line. The rebels took the brunt of canister fire but were able to make it to the fence line but then rolled terrible in the HtoH phase! The not only lost the HtoH fight but the attacking Regt and one of it's supporting units broke sending Semmes BDE running away licking their wounds. Seeing this Kershaw ordered his BDE to fall back to the wood line.
Kershaw's BDE falls back to safety
We called the fight at the end of turn 7….with one Union BE on the far right broken in retreat and Grahams beaten up Yanks holding the center. And the 3rd Union BDE "slowly" advances to the sound of the guns. Rebels despite taking heavy causalities vow to continue the fight WED night (our regular club game night)If the Crack veteran SC boys can get past that one "green": Yankee Regt they have a clear shot to the far road a Major Victory! We have 5 turns to go in the Battle for Bing's Creek!
