Word recently reached Stately Counterpane Manor that our good friend Ron had been rather poorly but was now keen to get back into the social whirl. So knowing his predilection for the American Civil War I volunteered to put on a Sharp Practice game.
The scenario was loosely based on operations by the Union's Mississippi Marine Brigade in 1864. In August of that year a Mississippi Ram Fleet flotilla was operating along its namesake river with orders to intercept civilian river traffic:
During the operation, the quartermaster boat Fairchild, lagging behind the fleet, came under fire from near the riverside village of Austin. The fleet returned and dispatched mounted and infantry elements of the Mississippi Marine Brigade to deal with the enemy forces. The result was a rather poorly handled engagement near Beaver Dam Lake that involved the marines accidentally trapping a Confederate cavalry force between their infantry and mounted elements!
I used the outline of the Austin engagement to create a smaller game more suited to Sharp Practice. Ron had five Groups of Confederate cavalry, three of them mounted and two operating on foot as skirmishers. The skirmishers had been given all of the force's available long arms and so were treated as armed with muskets. The horsemen had pistols and operated using the Sam Colt's Equalisers rule. The Confederate plan was that they could ambush any Union troops sent to capture the (actually recently withdrawn) artillery that had fired on the flotilla.
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| The field of battle from the south - the Duck River is mostly off-table to the left but you can see the hill from which Confederate artillery yesterday bombarded the ram fleet. |
And Union troops there were, mostly entering from the northern end of the field. Mark commanded two groups of MMB infantry with a single group of skirmishers attached. The latter were armed with breech-loading carbines, which yet again proved their worth in this game.
Also available on the Union side were two groups of cavalry but these would arrive at the southern end of the table with their time and place of arrival somewhat randomised.
The Confederates had two usable Deployment Points and a third, dummy one on the riverside hill. At the start of the game Ron chose to deploy two-thirds of his cavalry in the woods to the left of the advancing Union boys.
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| The Union advance - Confederate cavalry start to appear in further clump of trees |
I'm afraid this was a mistake by Ron; there was little room to manoeuvre and the presence of fencing along the road would make a powerful charge difficult.
However, the Union forces were commanded by Mark and he can always be relied upon to get the wrong end of a random event. Major Wilbur Warnefield slipped and fell and would spend an inordinate amount of time getting up and dusting off his uniform!
This did, however, allow time for Captain Falke's Union cavalry to complete their ride around to the southern end of the field
Ron also took advantage of Warnefield's delay by deploying two groups of dismounted cavalry, causing some casualties to the Union line.
On the Union left the dismounted skirmishers advanced up the road to oppose Ron's horsemen...
and then took up a position behind the snake-rail fence.
Meanwhile Falke's cavalry advanced. Mark was keen to keep his options open - should he charge the enemy skirmishers in the open or engage the cavalry in the rather cramped space alongside the road? In the end, the opportunity to put in a proper cavalry charge won out and blue-clad riders began accelerating towards the Confederate skirmish line.
The result was slaughter. Both Confederate groups were routed and out of the battle. Confederate Force Morale dropped from ten to six in an instant!
Another random event saw the cavalry discovering that the ground was rougher than they thought (perhaps slick with Rebel blood?) so I had a chance to deploy one of my specially designed markers.
At this point, as Mark carefully marshalled his dice, we realised that the Union line was firing in an uncontrolled manner.
It would continue to do so for several turns, the men firing mechanically into their own powder smoke despite the presence of their own cavalry to their front. I'm sure some harsh words were exchanged once the cavalry managed to extricate themselves from the position.
On the left, Ron finally managed to manoeuvre his cavalry into position to charge the Union skirmishers but, attacking a defended obstacle and rolling spectacularly poorly, they were forced back with significant losses.
...with just two points of Force Morale left, Ron ordered a general withdrawal and the Union had won the day!
It was great to get the ACW collection on the table for a game other than Running from Bull Run, lovely to catch up with Ron and Mark, and pleasing that a scenario planned in relative haste worked so smoothly. We must do this more often!
