Thursday evening the Corlears Hook Fencibles played my retooled scenario of the 1863 battle of Champion Hill, using Bloody Big Battles (BBB) rules. A lot changed from the first game, based on my reading of Timothy Smith's "Champion Hill, Decisive Battle for Vicksburg". My original map was wrong, as was the reinforcement schedule along with other errors. I increased the troop scale from 500/12 guns per stand to 666/16 and amalgamated units. This gave us less units and as a result we finished the game in one evening. Infantry units were divisions, pairs of brigades and in a few cases single brigades. Artillery were battalions.
Bill commanded the Confederates, playing Stevenson's division while Rick took Loring and Bowen's divisions. I commanded the Union, running McPherson's corps while Ken ran McClernand's corps, which had initial restraints that were relxed on the 2:30 turn when Grant's order to attack reached him.
We began with the Confederates deployed along their route of march, after the ammunition trains for Stevenson's and Bowen's infantry had been sent off the field. Infantry from those two divisions could not replenish their cartridges when they went low on ammo.
Two of Logan's brigades (JE Smith and Leggett) stormed up Champion Hill and dislodged Cumming's green troops. Hovey's division didn't move quickly enough to join the attack.
Cumming rallied and tried to recapture the hill.
To his left, SD Lee and Barton advanced through the woods at the double and tried to capture the Union trains. Logan's remaining brigade (Stevenson) was thrown into disorder but settled down and held the Confederates at bay. Union artillery were masked and unable to fire on the Champion Hill fight, but SD Lee's boys gave them a target.
Cumming was repulsed with losses. Then Hovey and Logan combined to attack. They came on with a will and a high die roll. Cumming collapsed and ran to the rear with heavy losses. Logan's boys exploited through the woods cautiously (a low die roll) and the limbered Confederate artillery on the road managed to escape. They fell back and unlimbered near the bridge over Baker Creek. For the rest of the game they fired into the flank of Union units trying to advance across the Vicksburg-Clinton road. Too bad we didn't get them on the breakthrough.
Bowen's division wheeled smartly and poured punishing volleys into Hovey's bluecoats.
I was asked to take at least one long shot of each table, so here it is.
On the 2:30 turn McClernand went over to the attack with his Middle road divisions. He didn't move down to the Raymond road to get those two divisions moving. This was the same policy he followed in the actual battle. Heavy fire blistered Bowen's flank.
Meanwhile SD Lee, pinned in combat with Stevenson, discovered much of Crocker's division on his flank. Losses were heavy.
Bowen fell back to escape being flanked.
Some of Logan's troops fell back in panic (a low movement roll) after taking quite a bit of flanking artillery fire.
A major attack against Bowen came apart but Osterhaus' troops went forward and drove them from their rifle pits. Bowen was wounded.
As the Union boys celebrated and kicked apart the works, Bowen's troops rallied and knocked the bluecoats back.
Meanwhile SD Lee was being driven slowly back towards Baker Creek.
Union troops closed up on Osterhaus. There were repeated charges and countercharges, sometimes the Confederates going back, sometimes the Union.
On the last turn SD Lee failed his movement roll badly. Trapped against un-fordable Baker Creek and within the zone of control of Crocker's troops, they laid down their arms. With the current victory conditions, the Confederates had 5 point for the Baker Creek bridge while the Union had 5 points for Champion Hill. No Union troops had made it off the west side of the table and the Confederates had not sacked Grant's supply train. The 2 points for SD Lee's unit being destroyed/captured gave us 2 points and a marginal victory. The Confederates had done better than Pemberton though that's a low bar. Our game took about 3 and a half hours, not counting the dinner break. Union losses were over 2,600, slightly higher than actual. Confederate losses were 4,000 plus over 2,600 prisoners, about 50% more than the actual battle. But they hadn't been routed and Loring's division had not been cut off and separated from the army. Here are some pictures taken after the game ended.
Dice determined that Bowen's wound healed and he reported back to duty in 3 weeks, perhaps to meet that sniper's bullet in the trenches around Vicksburg. Bill decided that his attempt to sack the Union trains had been a mistake, though I think I diverted too many troops against SD Lee (including McPherson). The escape of his artillery when Cummings broke and ran was a thorn in my side for the rest of the game. And we were all impressed by how tough Bowen's veteran, aggressive division was. I need to finish writing up the scenario and put in a what-if option, where Pemberton brings up most of the troops he left at Vicksburg. The option will also stretch reality by assuming that Grant was on better terms with McClernand, removing movement restrictions. I can't see Pemberton and Loring being on better terms under any circumstances.
prepares to do some regimental-level ACW gaming.
