The Corlears Hook Fencibles test played the Bloody Big Battles Wilderness scenario again Thursday evening. I played R.E. Lee, Ken played Sedgwick and Warren, and Rick played Hancock, Burnside and the cavalry. The summer doldrums kept us down to 3 players. I look forward to doing this with 4 players in the fall.
I moved forward aggressively and was rewarded when Sedgwick had a traffic jam in front of me. Early got a full move and hit limbered guns, wiped them out and exploited into the flank of VI Corps infantry in road column. The Union troops fell back in disorder.
Early rallied but did not fall back. Then Burnside's IX Corps started coming down the road from the north. I figured this had to change Burnside's plans. The rest of Ewell's Corps came up to support Early. Warren deployed and faced woods rumored to conceal Hill's Corps.
In time Early managed to fall back some but I had a line bulging into the Union right. Burnside and Sedgwick began to put pressure on this bulge. Further south AP Hill faced Hancock's Corps. The Union launched a bunch of charges near dusk. Withering rifle fire (hot dice) saw many of these charges stopped in their tracks. A couple that closed were beaten soundly, with Rickett's VI Corps division routed.
We played the night turn. Both sides broke contact and all of the Confederates rallied. All but one Union unit did.
The second day started with Hill's last division arriving on the Orange Plank Road followed by Longstreet's corps.
Fitzhugh Lee's cavalry arrived behind Union lines on the
east end of the same road. They rode straight to Ely's Ford and sacked the supply trains there.
We broke for dinner here. My dice had cooled off when we returned.
Lee's cavalry rode across the fields to Culpepper Mine Ford and attacked Torbert's cavalry, who had arrived to protect the trains. Torbert was driven back in disorder. Lee's cavalry reorganized and fell on the trains. It is said some rum had been looted from the first trains (a low roll) and the teamsters fought hard. The fight was still raging when the Union cavalry rallied and returned to the fray. A tie saw each lose a stand and the remaining stand in each unit called it a day. In the excitement, I neglected to get a picture of this.
On my left, Rodes was unopposed, the Union division facing having been routed at dusk. But the division to each flank was under severe pressure, Burnside on the left and Sedgwick on the right. Rodes was jumped by a small Union force. Over several turns the Union force was beaten and routed, Rodes advancing close to the remaining Union trains as the battle wound down. There was a big gap between Ewell and Hill.
Warren now advanced into the gap, threatening Ewell's right and Hill's left.
Hill's artillery was flanked and overrun by some of Warren's troops, who were then thrown back with heavy losses by reinforcements. I had been planning to hit Hancoks with the kitchen sink, but one of Longstreet's divisions had to be sent to deal with Warren. During the scrum Longstreet's artillery was caught limbered and overrun. Longstreet sent a force to turn Hancock's left, which they did just as the battle wound down on the second day. Hancock was saved by the bell. But then so was Ewell.
The battle was a tie, with Union losses over 14,000 and one artillery base lost. The Confederates lost 10,000 and two bases of artillery. We played 8 turns in 2 hours 45 minutes. It turns out I goofed – there was one more turn in the game. But the way things were going, no objectives were going to change hands. We would just have added to the casualty lists.
The game was fun, a contest between a smaller, agile and tough army and a larger, slower force. We'll play it again but will give it a rest for now.
Other ACW battles that whisper to me are Champion's Hill and Stone's River. One possible future candidate would be Chickamauga. Not soon.
