Cowpens January 17, 1781 – Order of Battle

This is heavily based on “A Devil of a Whipping”, (link https://corlearshookfencibles.blogspot.com/2024/07/the-battle-of-cowpens-and-devil-of.html) which maintains that Morgan had more militia that he is usually credited with and that the militia suffered more losses than listed. The muddy streams covering the Rebel flanks are also based on this book. The Rebel officers are well-documented whereas the British command structure is conjectural.

American Forces

Commanding Officer: Brigadier General Daniel Morgan excellent 1,432  

 

South Carolina Militia Colonel Andrew Pickens average

Unit	Strength	Rating	Class
Roebuck’s battalion	150	Militia	D
Thomas’s battalion	150	Militia	D
Hayes’ battalion	150	Militia	D
Brandon’s battalion	150	Militia	D
Cunningham's SC & GA Riflemen	112	Green	C
McDowall's North Carolina Riflemen	75	Green	C
Total	787

 

Continentals Lt. Colonel John Howard good 525  

Unit	Strength	Rating	Class
1st Maryland Continentals	180	Veteran	A
Kirkwood’s Delaware Light Infantry	80	Veteran	A
Tate’s Virginia Militia	113	Green	C
Triplett’s Virginia Militia	112	Green	C
Total	525	Green	C

 

Cavalry Lt. Col. William Washington average

Unit	Strength	Rating	Class
Washington's Light Dragoons	80	Line	B
McCall’s State Dragoons	40	Green	C
Total	120

 

An argument can be made that the first 4 militia battalions are seasoned and should be C class. As you can see, I don’t buy it. Instead, if your rules have militia check morale when first seeing the enemy, have them pass that test because Morgan asked them to fire a couple rounds each and then fall back. It was a clever ploy to keep them bolting before firing. Then they should head to the rear after firing, needing to be rallied to return to the fight, as Morgan and Pickens did. You might give them a first fire bonus, since permission to leave made them calmer than usual.

 

Tate & Triplett’s troops are former Continentals and a cut above standard militia.

British Forces

Commanding Officer: Lt. Colonel Banastre Tarleton good 1,161

 

Front line Major Newmarsh (7^th) average 698  

Unit	Strength	Rating	Class
7th Foot Regiment "Royal Fusiliers"	177	Green	C
Tarleton's British Legion Infantry	271	Green	C
Light Infantry (4 companies)	150	Veteran	A
17th Light Dragoons, 1 squadron	50	Line	B
British Legion squadron	50	Green	C
Royal Artillery 2 3pdr galloper guns	20	Veteran	A
Total	698

 

Reserves  Lt. Col. Tarleton  

Unit	Strength	Rating	Class
1/71st Foot Regiment "Frasier's Highlanders"	263	Veteran	A
British Legion Dragoons	200	Green	C
Total	463

 

I cannot find an account of any officers serving between Tarleton and the unit commanders. I have put the CO of the senior regiment in the front line (7^th Foot) in charge, just so Tarleton has one brigadier. The 7^th regiment is usually listed as having a large draft of recruits intended for the fort at Ninety-Six while some say it was all seasoned veterans. Based on their performance at the battle I’ve opted for the recruits being present and rated them as green. This regiment had been captured during Montgomery’s invasion of Canada in 1775 and later exchanged. It would be captured again at Yorktown. Major Hanger, second in command of the Legion, was on sick leave.  

This is what I came up with in 2008 and don’t recall exactly how the numbers were arrived at.

Olustee Florida, February 20, 1864 via BBB

Konstantinos Travlos has designed some very small scenarios using Bloody Big Battles. We played his small battle scenario of the largest ACW battle fought in Florida Saturday. Twice. I didn’t have the proper high pine trees but decided to use my palm trees (requiring a major archaeological dig in my closet) for that Florida feeling. No gator for the pond. I resisted the urge to put down a contemporary strip mall. I visit in-laws there once a year.

 

A small battle fought using Bloody Big Battles rules. It works. Previously we played the 1864 Battle of Oeversee from the 2^nd Schleswig-Holstein War. It was also fun, and like this, unbalanced. But it plays in about an hour so you can switch sides and see how you do with the underdog. One thing I might do for future games of Olustee is use two bases for each one called for and treat each pair as one, just to put more figures on the table for looks. But cracking games they are. Confederate units are in italics on the photos.

 

The first game saw Bill commanding my Yankees and I leading his rebels. We were using our house rules for dismounted cavalry since we have horse holders and such painted up. I thought they should start mounted. Keep your eye on them. On the first turn the small Union cavalry brigade rode up to dismount. Before they could, I fired at them with two artillery batteries, to get the favorable column shift while they were still mounted. I rolled 10 on 2D6, a 1 in 6 chance. That knocked out one base and the remaining one fled. If I’d rolled higher, the artillery would have gone low on ammo, so the 10 was perfect. The rebels soon gained all three objectives. A late game attempt by the Union to gain one that the rebels had abandoned failed when the move was curtailed by a hail of lead. The pictures below tell the story.

The first game saw the Union lose a base of cavalry (with the other run off) and a base of infantry against two Confederate infantry bases lost. The CSA victory took all of an hour and 20 minutes.

 

Andrew arrived mid-game and took command of the Yankees for the next game. Bill switched to the Confederate side of the table while I sat out and watched. Andrew’s cavalry started out in a forward position. Bill’s artillery fired and rolled a 10. Adios, cavalry brigade. So much for those Spencer carbines. Again, see below.

Andrew was able to see Montgomery’s brigade (54^th Mass and 1^st NC Colored Infantry) first cause heavy losses to Colquitt’s veteran Georgia brigade with fire and then defeat them with a bayonet charge, chasing them for a ways. It was glorious but moot since it didn’t capture an objective. The game clocked in at one hour, 2 minutes. Union losses were 1 cavalry (the other run off), 1 infantry and 1 artillery base. Confederate losses were 4 infantry bases and Colquitt himself. We have a house rule for officer casualties but since I couldn’t find my wounded officer vignette, we didn’t roll the dice to see his fate. Perhaps a roll for gator attack if he hid in a body of water?

The text and the photo differ on the title of the NC Colored regiment. The text is  correct. Errors on the photo are always found after hitting save.

 

I had a notion previously of using BBB rules and One Hour Wargame scenarios. Never more than 6 units per side and a randomized order of battle makes for some tasty short game possibilities. This sparked my interest again. Perhaps when we return from our coming sojourn in Maine…

Shiloh Revised and Revisited

We tested the in-progress revision of the Bloody Big Battles Shiloh scenario yesterday. Jay and Andrew played the Confederates, while Bill stood in for Sherman and I as Grant. I didn’t roll any dice until after Grant appeared on turn 4.

 

The game started with Hardee’s corps defeating Sherman’s raw division, which fell back spent. On the other flank, Withers soon drove deep into the Union left. Aggressive Andrew and prudent Jay had their usual trash talk. Andrew once asked about friendly fire.

 

Hardee defeated McClernand in a sanguinary brawl, unhinging the Union right. Withers returned to the fray and unhinged the Union left, threatening the Hornet’s Nest position from behind.

 

The Union wins a sudden death victory if 4 of the 6 Confederate infantry units become spent. Breckinridge charged across the open space of Duncan field to flank Tuttle, exposing their right flank to the fire of two artillery battalions in the Hornet’s Nest. Several blasts including one that rolled boxcars saw Breckinridge spent. Ruggles, Clark and Cheatham had earlier become spent so this gave the game to the Union, just as Withers was about to smash the Hornet’s Nest from the rear. Withers needed a movement roll that allowed any movement. Instead, the dice said rally in place. Their first target would have been the rear of an artillery battalion that had been damaged and silenced. They would have exploited into the rear of Prentiss, who was disrupted and low on ammo.

 

We played 7 turns in 2 hours, 35 minutes, a tad over 20 minutes per turn. That’s better than we have done recently.

 

Union losses were 7 infantry bases, 1 run away of the 34 on table at start, and 1 artillery base. Confederate losses were 10 infantry bases of 36.

 

A nail-biter ending and a great game. Thanks to all the Fencibles. It has been a while since we’ve been able to get 4 at a game. We had enough time left to watch the Confederate attack in John Huston’s 1951 “Red Badge of Courage”. If you haven’t seen this, you really should.

Why the Allies Won: a book review in process

I’ve been re-reading this fine book. A second read often reveals new insights passed over the first time around. The author, Richard Overy posits that Allied victory was not inevitable, as production numbers and such by the end of the war seem to indicate.

 

Critical turning points occurred  early, when the advantage and momentum was on the side of the Axis.

 

The awakening of American industry had not yet begun to be felt when the cream of the Japanese Navy air arm was destroyed during the Battle of Midway. Hard work by the cryptographers in Pearl Harbor, precise planning by the US Navy, valiant, sometimes suicidal bravery by the US aircrews and finally astounding luck smashed 4 Japanese fleet carriers. The startling 6-month run of Japanese victories came to an abrupt, bloody halt. They would be on the strategic defensive for the rest of the Pacific naval war.

 

The Battle of the Atlantic reached a turning point by May 1943. The defeat of the U-boats was the result of a number of things happening at the same time. The superior tactics and training instituted by submariner Admiral Horton of the Royal Navy, improved radar, increased air support and a breakthrough reading German radio messages while finally encrypting Allied radio securely all led to a stunning turn-around in May. Not long before, the Germans had been causing enormous losses, in one case meeting a pair of convoys with 36 U-boats, sinking 21 ships for the loss of one boat. Then all the events combined for such a deadly month that all surviving U-boats were called to port and did not venture out again until the German high command analyzed the disaster. They would come out again, but never regained their threat. The Allies could ship troops and supplies across the Atlantic, paving the way for amphibious invasions that would climax in D-Day.

 

The Red Army managed to stop the winter offensive against Moscow despite having lost some 4 million soldiers, 8,000 aircraft and 17,000 tanks (half of them due to breakdown). The population rallied, making good the losses in troops and equipment, leading to the stunning victory of Stalingrad in late 1942-early 1943.

 

Germany produced less armaments than the Allies. Much of this can be laid to poor decisions by the Axis. The Soviets produced way more tanks, planes and guns than the Germans, with a quarter of the steel. It is true that the well-designed and rather poorly fabricated T-34 tanks were not the equal of the later war Panther and Tiger tanks. The Soviet tanks were mass-produced in large numbers while the German tanks were more artisanal products, very nicely produced but in much smaller numbers. Chalk that up to Nazi inefficiency at the highest level, combined with unrealistic requirements of the Wehrmacht high command. Panzer General Guderian told Armaments Minister Speer that what he wanted was T-34 tanks. Instead, after lengthy delays, he got Panthers and Tigers in smaller numbers, with early teething problems that led to breakdowns. By the time they were available in moderate numbers fuel was in short supply. And the Tigers were limited because not many bridges could bear the weight.

 

At the critical mid-war period, the Axis was out-thought, sometimes out-fought and out-produced. And I’m not done reading about Stalingrad yet.