"How late can troops fight" Topic

Summer battle

Sunset approx 8:30, twilight ends at 9pm

Troops have been fighting much of the day. Fresh troops being committed in a separate fight at about 5pm.

When should we break and do the overnight book keeping?

When should we break and do the overnight book keeping?

When the enemy stop shooting at you.

Until the street lights come on-then it's dinner time.

It used to be fairly light until about 9:30 PM, where I lived, in Northern VA, years ago, in the Summer.

MajorB hits on a point; both sides need to agree that it is time to take a head count and reorganize lines.

Mako, was that during the summer during modern daylight savings time? If yes, then back in the 1860s it would have been "until about 8:30 PM."

Night fighting, while not common in the ACW, was not unheard of either.

At the battle of Franklin, November 30, 1864, the Confederate attack kicked off about 4:00 pm. The sun set between 5:30 and 6:00. Nautical twilight, when you need additional illumination to continue outdoor activities, came about 6:30, and astronomical twilight, when it is about as dark as it's going to get, was 7:00 pm. Serious fighting continued until 9:00pm and skirmishing and bursts of firing until midnight. Nobody in Battles & Leaders mentions the moon, so I assume that wasn't providing any helpful light.

At Missionary Ridge, the year before, Union troops reached the top of the ridge about sunset, 6:00 pm, and fighting continued until they couldn't distinguish targets. Phil Sheridan and his division kept on until midnight.

In both cases, the actual attack was launched in full daylight, and the troops were already up close and personal when the sun set. Nobody is going to launch anything like Pickett's charge in the dark when they can't see what they are doing. But, if the troops are already in contact . . .

In your example, you would have had twilight from about 8:30 until 9:00, and gotten to astronomical twilight about 10:00. After 10:00, you may kill people, maybe lots of people, but you can't see to follow up any opportunities that may occur.

Grelber

Yea, modern times.

Didn't think about that.

As noted above, if the troops are actually in contact, then they an go on fighting quite a while after dark. The problem comes in manouvering large blocks of troops in the pitch black, whcih takes a fair deal of preparation and planning.

So for game purpoises, just rule that units in contact can go on blatting away after dark, but heavily penalise (or ban) any sort of operational manouvre. In the Horse & Musket era anyway, before they invented searchlights, star shells, mine tape, radios, gps, night vision devices etc.

Even then, moving cross country over unfamiliar terrain at night is a great way to break an ankle, fall into a big ditch or find yourself suddenly knee deep in mud

A good example of why night fighting was rare is what happened to Jackson at Chancellorsville. He considered continuing to push after dark and went out to recon himself. And we know how that turned out.

Lundy Lane 1814 is a classic brawl into the night. Historical accounts state the night point blank brawl continued past midnight.

At Chickamauga on 19 Sep 63, Cleburne's Division launched an attack just after dark which was temporarily successful, but soon was called off because of confusion among his units, running into each other and even firing into each other. Ironically, the Federal units he attacked were about to withdraw anyway.