"Have You Gamed the Battle of Bladensburg?" Topic

Worthington Games did a Bladensburg scenario in their "For Honor and Glory" boardgame (Hold the Line system). Miniatures could certainly be used.

We played it with ….. hold your hats ….. Empire V.
It was great fun.
Seriously.
Really.
No kidding!

It's especially fun if the group has a loose cannon player to be James Madison.

We did.
Units were randomly re-deployed.
But it wasn't just Madison interfering. Oh no…..

Perhaps the lowest moment in US Military History. Some honor due to a unit of US Sailors who were at least willing to mix it up with a very professional, picked British force.

Any US Army battle that is immediately followed by the burning of Washington has got to be considered a "major defeat," but this action is so humiliating it is never mentioned in our school histories.

Also a stinging rebuke to Jeffersonian ideas of "Citizen Soldiers," and the value of National Defense based on Militia. This battle, and the war generally, is proof of the danger of believing one's own myths, specifically of how the US won the Revolutionary War--a myth still firmly grounded in the minds of most Americans (many war gamers to the contrary).

If you're not familiar with this abortion of a "Battle," look at least at Robert Leckie's account in his two volume "The Wars of America," though more recent works must cover it as well.

And for those who don't think Congreve Rockets were militarily effective, or that only ignorant savages could be impressed by them, think again.

Though in this case, "ignorant savages" might simply have a broader application.

Bladensburg: So ridiculous, it has become the "crazy aunt in the attic" of American History.

TVAG

(Yeah, I'm still bitter about it!)

You were there!

I fool with it now and then. Camden, too, and for much the same reason--because there's nothing wrong with the army that giving it a real commander won't cure, as witness Cowpens, Guilford and Godly Wood. I won't say generals aren't sometimes let down by their troops, but a LOT of troops have been let down by their generals.

Use free deployment and a Cowpens/Guilford style defense--or, looked at another way, have the militia rested, in place and knowing what's expected of them--and it's a tough nut for the British to crack.

It's not a screwdriver's fault that it's a lousy hammer.

Pity about the timing, though. The burning of Washington was about a century and a half or so early.