"Cavalry in the Gettysburg Campaign" Topic

Hey you ACW gamers! Break out you cavalry. What? You say you don't have much? Why not? You say there was not much cavalry action in the ACW? Well, let me point out a fabulous book that just might change your mind.
"The Maps of the Cavalry in the Gettysburg Campaign" by Bradley M. Gottfried (Savas Beatie Books, ISBN: 978-1-61121-479-6 $34.95 USD) This book could have been written for wargamers! There are 16 map sets covering the cavalry actions of the campaign from Brandy Station thru Falling Waters. On the left-hand page is a narrative of what you are looking at on the right-hand page. Each pair of pages covers a specific time frame of the engagement and goes into useful details like units involved, how they performed and traces their movements during that time frame. The engagements are broken down into specific time frames and the writing style of Mr. Gottfried keeps you in the action. He also has covered Stuart's "raid/ride" around the Union lines which answered many questions as to his decisions that I have always had.
I bought my copy from the Gettysburg Gift Shop on one of my many trips when I lived in Aberdeen, Md. They do mail order. I have supplied the Title, Author and ISBN for you should you decide to get a copy. If you do, why not help support one of our battlefields by trying them first. All of us ACW gamers can enjoy and appreciate what they have done to preserve and present the battlefield, relics and period. If you have never been there, you must add it to your bucket list! If you are an artillery buff (like me) the guns are in abundance for your detailed inspection all around the park.
Mr. Gottfried's interest in the ACW lies mostly in the Eastern Theatre. As such, he has also written over 10 other titles like "The Maps of Gettysburg", The Maps of Antietam, The Maps of Fredericksburg to name just a few. Need an instant scenario? Just open one of his books, pick a page and start setting up.
So dust off your ACW cav figures, lay out your tables by using the easy to read maps and get into an often neglected (but fun) aspect of the ACW that many of you have yet to experience- discovering cavalry actions.
(Disclaimer: I have no connection with Mr. Gottfried, his publisher or the Gettysburg Museum Gift shop other than being a very happy customer.)

I agree about Gottfried's books. I have beaucoup 15mm ACW cavalry for Regimental Fire and Fury. I have enough to do all the cavalry battles of the Gettysburg campaign with one exception. I cannot do all of Brandy Station. For one thing my 6' x 12' table is not big enough for that field.

I also have Scott Mingus' book, Crossed Sabers, on cavalry scenarios for the Gettysburg campaign which breaks Brandy Station into several separate scenarios. I think it is still available as a pdf download from Wargame Vault:

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The Mingus book also gives you the strength of each regiment and the composition of the artillery batteries. I don't believe that info is in Gottfried.

If you have Regimental Strengths and Losses at Gettysburg, then it will provide that info also.

Tom

Scott's works are very good and useful I have been told. I don't have it yet to really comment beyond what you mentioned! Regimental Strengths and Losses at Gettysburg is vital if you play rules where the mechanics are based upon numbers of castings as a value set.

I agree that Brandy Station would probably be best refought in segments. So here's the reference mix and what each one brings to the game table:

Gottfried: Maps for table layout; reports of unit performance to help determine historical unit ratings for most of the units at the battle. Historical starting points, by unit and orders and direction the battle took.

Mingus: For strengths and artillery compositions.

Bussey's RS&LatG: Also includes Scott's info plus what each infantry, cav and arty was armed with. The losses info will give you an idea of how badly units sustained casualties.

Be aware that Bussey (and Dyers Compendium of the ACW and Fox's Regimental Losses) equate losses to regiments in the thick of the fighting. The Goffried book does a better job of showing what units lost over a set amount of time. Some units became combat in-effective sooner than others and with fewer casualties than some that lasted much longer. That is just one reason why I feel the use of casualties is a poor value set to base an historical game upon.

In any case, the folks I've gamed ACW with over the years shied away from using cavalry (probably because they take longer to paint and you need to show the postures of mounted and dismounted …with more horses needing painting!) But these books listed above have the potential to take our usual ACW meeting engagements between lots of infantry and a couple of batteries into new "ground" by no longer overlooking the cavalry roles in the war. All adding more history into our miniature games.

Here's the whole of Brandy Station as reported by Matt of "Pushing Tin". It's a great game.
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