Battle of Charles City - Conclusion

 

Following orders, Kemper (Longstreet) carries out a passage of lines with Field (A P Hill) but it doesn't go well - Kemper's men break and Field goes to Low Morale!

As Ewell's divison steamroller forward, Trimble's veterans find themselves right on the flank of Taylor's brigade.

But at the same time R Anderson's men (Longstreet) break and join something of an exodus of Rebs from Charles City.

Back with Trimble though things are going to plan for the Confederates.

Meanwhile Hooker's division is finally in motion and deploying to check Jackson's attack.

Jackson is in position at the Quaker Meeting House, his artillery are pouring a galling fire on the Union line.

To the north of the town Smith is finally receiving orders to pull his exhausted division back to be relieved by Morrell.

Turn 7 and Jackson's men launch a devastating charge against Hooker's line simultaneously breaking Sickles and Grover.

While Trimble takes out a second brigade that of Berry (Kearney). The Union DEM level now stands at 5.

D H Hill, seeing the stampede from Charles City has ordered up the brigades of Colquitt and Rodes to plug the gap in the Confederate line.

View of the table from the Confederate side at the end of turn 7.

And from the Union side.

Plucky Trimble tries his luck for a third time but his brigade melts away under the withering fire of the Union rifles.

However, Fulker assaults Carr and it's all over - Union DEM of 6 is reached so the Rebs win 6-2.

Jackson's bold surprise attack has been completely successful.

The scene at the end of play - turn 8.

Battle of Charles City - turns 1-4

 

Slocum's division press forward against A P Hill's line and a firefight quickly develops. Crucially though, Slocum does not seem to be supported.

To the north of the town Smith's division square off against Longstreet's men lining the road. Smith's attack seems to have a lot more weight behind it than Slocum's.

The view from the Union side of the table behind Slocum.

Turn 3 and Davidson's brigade becomes the first Union unit to break. Longstreet's men are taking casualties even with the protection provided by the stome wall.

The northerners have moved two gun batteries forward along the Charles City Road to provide close support for Smith's attack. 

The fighting on Church Hill grinds on with both sides taking heavy casualties including to the Confederate artillery. Fortunately for Slocum's boys the Reb artillery dice rolling has so far been below par.

Jackson's corps emerge from MacAlpine Woods with a Rebel Yell!

Looking from behind Slocum's left flank as Jackson's men advance.

You can see here that Slocum's division is taking punishment.

Turn 4 and a flurry of messages arrive at Lee's HQ.

The fighting in the town. The Rebs are taking casualties but have also just seen off one of the Union batteries.

Jackson's men are moving forward rapidly intent on smashing McClellan's flank!

Ewell's division are almost on the end of Slocum's line.

Meanwhile Hooker stands by idly without orders to intervene.

One bright spot, Kearney's division arrives bringing the Union DEM level to 6.

The view from behind the Union right flank at the end of turn 4.

Battle of Charles City

After 18 campaign turns spent manoeuvring across the Virginia Peninsula, Lee and McClellan have finally come face to face at Charles City.

The initial deployments of both sides.

The view from behind the Union front line.

The view from behind the Confederate front line.

Jackson's corps hiding in the woods!

Lee's HQ with D H Hill's division in reserve.

A P Hill's men defending Charles City.

Longstreet's men man the stone wall.

Huger's division on the Confederate left flank.

Slocum's division line Quaker Lane with Hooker's division behind them in support.

McClellan's HQ in the Union centre with the divisions of Smith and Morrell deployed in front.

The Union right flank anchored on River Hill and River Knoll - the divisions of  McCall and Couch.

The troops are deployed and the action will begin shortly.

Base Instincts

If anyone has been missing the epic 6mm ACW games that have featured regularly on this blog, allow me to deliver a quick apology. Flocking all the bases of both armies (400 bases ? 500 ? God knows ...), plus basing a couple of new divisions from scratch doesn't seem like quite such a brilliant idea in hindsight. I have to admit that Ian did raise an eyebrow when I said, " Yeah, no trouble ... I'll do that ..."  My own eyebrows will never raise again, being thickly matted with glue and flock and permanently arranged to give me a hunted, despairing expression.

In my defence I can only say that these figures turned out to be a bit er, .... small and fiddly to work with.  Normal service will be resumed as soon as possible, but that could be a while yet.

Randolph’s Ferry - Conclusion

As the sun came up on day three, November 12th 1862, my Union army was exhausted having taken nearly twice the number of casualties as the Rebels over the previous two days of fighting. Overnight we had both made some small adjustments to our lines with Dave conceding half of West Ridge to Thomas’ men and allowing Sheridan’s division to keep a precarious foothold on the extreme west end of Black Elk Mountain.

Sunrise - General Thomas readies his corps for a third day of fighting (looking due west from behind West Ridge).

Crucially though, although all units recovered to good morale overnight, Dave had more units permanently removed from play than I had. At the start of every game each of our armies are given a ‘Army Demoralisation Level’ (DM) in this case it was 6 for the Union and 7 for the Confederates. If at any point during play the number of simultaneously broken units of one side equals or exceeds their DM the game ends immediately in a victory for the other player.

Dave allowed me to move my HQ and wagon park forward overnight to reduce the three mile hike my wagons had been making to re-supply McCook - very sporting of him!

We allowed some very limited SP recovery during the night turn but this card still came in very handy when Dave played it to help reinforce Cleburne's veterans on Black Elk Mountain.

The fighting resumed at first light but with many of my brigades seriously depleted I had cancelled all ASSAULT orders and replaced them with HOLD or ENGAGE. Brigades with ASSAULT orders are committed to closing with the enemy and attacking with the bayonet but my troops simply did not have the strength points left to succeed at this. I decided therefore to hang on and let Dave take the initiative in the hope I could break his army with rifle and artillery fire.

 The fighting resumes - Thomas and McCown square up for round two on top of West Ridge.

Dave however had decided that his best chance of victory was to order assaults with Cleburne’s division on Black Elk Mountain and McCown’s on West Ridge. The Rebs came forward and soon both sides were hotly engaged once again.

 This card helped Cleburne's veterans to clear Sheridan's division from its foothold on Black Elk Mountain.

The Rebs are now firmly back in control of Black Elk Mountain having pushed Sheridan's men back towards Stone Creek.

Cleburne’s veterans succeeded in ejecting Sheridan’s men from the mountain and soon Thomas too was under pressure, his men just managing to cling on to the eastern edge of West Ridge. At this point I was seriously considering throwing in the towel as a win now seemed out of my grasp but the troops kept at it and suddenly I realised that Dave was only one DM point away from breaking!

The Union front line on West Ridge is broken once more in the continuing 'see-saw' battle.

The boys in blue break but there are plenty of supporting brigades coming up and those running down the hill quickly reform once out of range of the Rebel guns.

Davis' brigade plugged away all morning at Breckinridge's Confederates and were eventually rewarded with the sight of a broken enemy brigade fleeing their entrenchments.

The end came at 9.30am (turn 46) when Wood’s brigade of Cleburne’s division were broken by fire on the slopes of Black Elk Mountain taking the Confederate DM to 7. Incredibly, and against the odds, Rosecrans had achieved a victory – Bragg’s army was defeated and Franklin was in Union hands…

Game over - Wood's brigade break and tip the Confederates over their army DM level. By co-incidence Wood's brigade also broke on day one during the fighting at Mt. Zion Church - I guess they don't make veterans like the used to!

 Thomas' men stream over West Ridge to liberate the town of Franklin from the Rebel yoke.

 The situation at the end of play (click on the map to zoom in).

The armies will now retire to winter quarters where a major re-fit is planned ready to resume campaigning in the spring. In the meantime keep an eye on the blog as we hope to play another AWI game and maybe try something new as well!