Port Gibson, May 1863

On Saturday Andy and John came over to play the Port Gibson scenario I designed as a reserve game for last year's Steel Lard. 

The scenario covers the initial contact between the pickets of Union and Confederate armies on 1st May 1863. The Union army has just crossed the Mississippi and is about to begin the march that will see it besiege and eventually take Vicksburg. The following text is from a historical marker at the site:

Confederate Gen. Martin E. Green on the afternoon of April 30, 1863, posted his brigade near Magnolia Church, with an outpost here.

Shortly after midnight, Green rode forward to check on his pickets. Reaching this point, the general found Mrs. A.K. Shaifer and the ladies of the house frantically pilling their household effects on a wagon. Green assured the women that there was no need to hurry, since the Yankees couldn't possibly arrive before daybreak. Hardly had Green spoken before there was a crash of musketry -- the pickets had exchanged shots with the Union vanguard, soldiers of the 21st Iowa. The women leaped into the wagon and headed for Port Gibson, while Gen. Green returned to Magnolia Church to alert his troops. The Confederate pickets fell back before the Federal advance.

Our game begins with General Green reassuring Mrs Shaifer just as the first shots ring out.

I briefed John, as the Confederate player, that Green would not step on the toes of the officer commanding the pickets but that he would be available to help if needed. The following scenario rules applied:

• Green could be activated by spending one Flag card,
• If attached to a unit he could rally off 1D6 points of Shock,
• If he rolled a six he would immediately be removed from the game, his staff advising him to withdraw and take command of his brigade,
• He could be voluntarily removed from the game by spending four Command Flags, and
• If wounded or killed he would count as a Level IV Leader for the purposes of the Bad Things Happen roll.

The game began with Andy choosing to place the Union's Deployment Point as close as possible to the Shaifer house. 

John countered this by deploying Sergeant Jeb Bush with one Group of Confederate infantry between the farm and the Union DP.

Andy aggressively deployed two Groups of dismounted Union cavalry under Lt William J Gore and John countered with his own two Groups of skirmishers led by Sgt George W Reagan.

Gore's cavalry were equipped with breech-loading carbines. Their firepower would prove key to the result of the battle. They rapidly started to inflict a fair amount of Shock and casualties on the Confederate skirmishers.

Until a wall of dense smoke grew in front of them (as a result of Tiffin card being drawn immediately after they had fired twice).

Andy had the cavalry step forwards so as to be clear of the smoke but in the process Lt Gore was knocked to the ground.

At this point a small patrol of "Union cavalry" appeared in the sunken lane. 

They would ride through the defile and head off to the east with their true identity not revealed to the players until after the battle. 

John, not having acquired the command flags needed to evacuate General Green, decided to use him to rally off some of the Shock accumulated by Sgt Bush's men in front of the farm. The resulting die roll removed but a single point of shock. Almost immediately after that the Union cavalry inflicted a single kill on Bush's men. The following exchange then occurred:

Umpire:    Roll a D6 to see if a Leader is hit.

John:        One!

Umpire:    OK, one of them is. Roll again; on an odd number it's the General, on an even number it's the sergeant.

John:        Five!

Umpire:    OK, roll again to see if he's knocked out, lightly wounded or killed.

John:        One!

Umpire:    OK, he's dead. Roll for a Bad Thing Happening.

John:        Six!

Umpire:    Hmm, so that's three off your Force Morale bringing it down to... six.

Despite these reverses, John had managed to get the Shaifer family away with their waggon-load of personal belongings and a formation of Confederate infantry under Lt Tim Trump was advancing the threaten the flank of the Union troops in front of the farm.

Trump's men were ideally placed to fire into the flank of Bush's single group of Confederate infantry but yet more unfortunate die rolling by John meant that they didn't spot them through the gloom (I was using my night fighting rules) and instead they wheeled to face the muzzle flashes from the main Union line under Lt Harris Biden. 

Again, though, things didn't go John's way. Shot at by Union infantry and those devastating dismounted cavalry, Trump's men broke and ran carrying the Confederate Force Morale down to zero and handing victory to the Union.

In the end it was a pretty one-sided action over in a little over two hours. John's bad luck hamstrung his efforts at delaying the enemy's advance. His consolations were two. He'd avoided the bear trap of firing on the "Union cavalry"; they were actually a party of senior Confederate officers (prefiguring events at Chancellorsville the following day where Stonewall Jackson would be fatally wounded by his own men). 

He'd also got Mrs Shaifer away safely with her load of household goods. The Union troops had been tasked with securing any wagons or carts they could. The army, recently landed from boats, was sorely short of transport on land.

I was initially of the impression that the scenario was badly unbalanced because of the Union cavalry's ability to fire twice a turn. On further reflection, though, Andy did handle his force very well, aggressively getting to a range where the carbines were murderously effective and concentrating his force where it mattered. John, a less experienced player, was behind the curve as soon General Green stopped that unfortunate Minié ball without a meaningful contribution to keeping the Rebs in the fight.

I think things might easily have gone very differently. I'll probably give the scenario another run out at some point but with some tweaks to the unit stats and briefings.