"Widow Moore's Creek Bridge" Topic

Did anyone ever game this?
It looks like fun.
Allegedly half of the Loyalists present were Highland refugees from the '45, half of them without muskets but with broadswords. I think that is probably legendary. Still, it will give me an excuse to finish the boatload of Jacobites I have. Yes, I do realize they would have no tartan , but this is my game in my house and you are drinking my beer.
To counter the fantasy element , I ordered a dozen Over the Mountain Men from King's Mountain, with bonnet heads.

Does anyone have a good order of battle and map?

Good ? IDK what 'good' is. The NC History Museum
says about 1,000 Patriots and about 800 Loyalists
in the 'battle' which was really kind of a big
skirmish. The Loyalist group had originally had
about 1500 men, but many had fallen by the wayside
during their march to the site.

The Loyalists supposedly charged over the bridge, from
which some of the planks had been removed. The charge
was by a group of picked men armed ONLY WITH SWORDS.

The Patriots had fortified their end of the bridge with
earthworks and in addition had 2 small cannon.

They suffered somewhere between 30 and 50 KIA/WIA
and over 800 POW immediately in the aftermath of the
battle and during the 2-day pursuit.

NPS has developed the site (small) which is about
25-30 miles from Wilmington NC. I've been to it and
wasn't overly impressed with NPS' efforts.

The link below has some references which you may find
to be of interest, if not of utility:

link

Forgot to put 'the Loyalists' when making comment on
KIA/WIA, POW, etc. Patriot losses were less than 5.

It was like shooting fish in a barrel. The Scots never had a chance. It's an amazing sight to visit if you get out to NC.

The rebels pulled a neat little trick on the King's Friends. They originally constructed their earthworks on the loyalist side of the bridge. More experienced officers pointed out the folly of that approach and they built new earthworks on the rebel side of the bridge. They received a Loyalist emissary under a flag of truce the night before the battle. The rebels knew full well that the real task of the emissary was to spy out their position so the rebels manned the original works, which the emissary was artfully allowed to spy out, and prevented the emissary from seeing the new ones. Thus the loyalists developed and executed an admirable early-morning attack upon the original works – only to find them empty. This threw an already ill-trained and ill-disciplined band into complete disarray, causing their two principle leaders, desperate to maintain forward motion, to lead a charge across the bridge that they expected to be unopposed. The shock of encountering a heavy, well-directed fire delivered from a heretofore-hidden entrenched position was more than the loyalists could stomach.

The Scot fighters were very loyal to the Crown in NC. Most had pledged loyalty to the Governor after theRegulator war of a short time before. (There a very nice battlefield from that war in NC).
The lack of muskets was not an exaggeration. They were marching to a muster point to get more muskets.

In a way, it's almost like the last dying wheeze of the Jacobite rebellions, only all scrambled up.

Now I'm committed.
Two weeks.
SATURDAY! SATURDAY! SATURDAY!
Moore's Creek Bridge!
Highlanders, Hillbilly Highlanders, Highlanders with no muskets but broadswords, and 2 craft stick bridges with rails in place and taken up.

The usual Flames of Liberty Amendments to TSATF

My word, that was a 'slow burn.'

Although I have not been (3000-odd miles of ocean to consider) I think Ed back in 2015 was possibly being a little unfair on the set-up at Moore's Creek NBP- or out of date. From their Fb page they seem to be very active and enthusiastic, and a couple of years ago, I found the ranger Jason Howell to be very helpful in correspondence, particularly in relation to the type and number of artillery pieces fielded by the Patriot contingent (being perhaps more numerous and heavier than tradition suggests; and with no evidence as to the type of carriage, despite later references).

link

To finish:
2x12 Highlanders with muskets
2x12 Highlanders with broadswords
Not that big a deal. They're 85% finished, including tartan. Where I've not painted the diced hose, they're wearing green socks.
Note that I'm fully aware that the likelihood of tartan at Moore's Creek is vanishingly small. But…. heck. I need an excuse to finish them.
They will be joined by 30 King's Mountain backwoods type with bonnets, and some Butler's Rangers with bonnets.

The original battle was a massacre. Half the Loyalists didn't show up. And I can always make the Creek fordable at certain points, if the players ask nicely and roll 1-3.

Some of the better wargame scenarios can be built around some actions that turned out to be one sided in reality. I've thought that Monck's Corner would make an interesting scenario if we assumed Huger learned of the British advancing on him, and was better prepared. Camden could make for a good battle if Gates deployed his troops more wisely, or if the militia didn't panic. How would Moore's Creek have turned out if the British commander tried to lure the Americans into crossing the bridge by launching a fake attack.

One thing about the Battle that you need to account for is that Rebels also took up the planks on the bridge, so the Loyalists had to cross the Moore's Creek on the stringers only. The rebels lost one killed and one wounded.

The creek was fordable above the bridge, but the loyalists didn't know that; as they were flanked as they retreated by rebels who had forded the creek upstream from the bridge.

As for the park; normally I agree with Ed Mohrmann on most things but on his perception of the park, I will disagree. It is a nice small little battlefield that the park service maintains well. It has a lot of activities throughout the year, especially in the fall, and is a pleasant outing. I walk the park at least once every other month if not more. I was there this past Saturday in fact. It's not extravagant but rather quaint.

The 242nd anniversary of the battle is coming up in February: link

BillN; I think a good scenario for Moore's Creek would be as Winston implies; the Loyalist send some men upstream to ford and attempt to flank the rebels. (I like your idea for Monck's Corner)

Here's a couple more links for the battle:
link

link

The second link is to one of my favorite websites for researching the AWI in the Carolinas.

Winston Smith: email me at grimegt at hotmail dot com and I'll send you some picture of a very rough sketch of the layout of the battlefield taken from the front of the book "Roster of the Loyalists in the Battle of Moores Creek Bridge" by Bobby Gilmer Moss. It's not a great sketch but it may work for wargaming purposes.

John, Try to pry Roger out.
And I want good pix!!